All quiet

Nowt much happening at the moment. Not much at all this week as Liz has taken the kids on holiday (to Blackpool) . Due to having to fork out on car tax, MOT and servicing I am a bit broke this month until pay day so am having a real quiet week stopping in. Actually, it's quite disturbing that I can just disappear for a week and no one really notices. Ho hum - the joys of being single. At least I know that if I did make the effort there are things I could arrange quite easily, so it's not a doom and gloom week. In fact it's rather pleasant.

Me old mate Scottie is due up for a visit this weekend. I briefly saw him at the Tragically Hip show in London the other month. We had a quick "hello" before disappearing into the thick of the crowd, and promised to do a weekend together soon.

Also on the near horizon is a trip to the Coed y Brenin mountain bike centre at lovely Dolgellau- somewhere I've not been to for ages and somewhere I have great memories of from previous visits. Recently upgraded this place is the original (and arguably best?) "made" set of bike trails in the UK. It was amazing before the recent overhaul so we are hoping it will be just as good now. I have arranged to meet Rich from Reading and his crowd there at the beginning of next month. The northerners were invited but so far none have taken up the gauntlet - and I thought it was the southerners who were meant to be the softies...

Exercise -wise I'm still commuting on the bike each day (about 70 miles a week), runnning (three to four approx 10ks a week) and swimming (two or three times a week). So, you know - I'm just keeping me hand in... The swimming is going particularly well as the stroke improvement program seems to be getting me progress, but the leg work is really knackering, and it's tempting to just revert back to the 'old' stroke and bang out easy lengths for the whole session. The aim is to get the all important stroke count (per length) down and therefore in theory use less energy. (Or to just go faster and use more!) My stroke count was originally around 30 in a 25m pool and I got it to 28 before the Triathlon with the stretching out thing. Kicking from the hips I can do 25 - for about two lengths so far. It's amazing when it works as I feel literally turbo charged and it really would be incredible to be able to swim at that speed for a distance. It's hard work but a good challenge and I live in hope of making this serious leg power swimming thing a permanent arrangement.

With this here broadband I have discovered bit torrenting too. What a joy to get whole series of West Wing and 24 that I missed on the TV. When I'll watch them I don't actually know but it's good to know that I can get hold of this stuff, and for free. TheTragically Hip also have an unbelievably brilliant fan run live show download site - the Hip Tracker. From here I've taken a load of great old live shows, and have been able to seed them back as well so I can get more in the future. Marvellous.

The footy season has started again - it's amazng how quickly it comes round. Oh, the 'joy' of supporting Liverpool ... ho hum. And it's 9 pm and dark outside. Winter's coming!