Sunday, June 28, 2009

Today I packed

Today, after 17 months in the house, we packed up nearly 90% of are stuff. As much fun as this was, it served to remind me just how much I hate moving, packing or anything associated with moving. It has become apparent though, that after 11 house moves in 10 years I have become really good at it. I started packing at 12, by 4:30 all we had left was kitchen, bathroom and Ann's bench. Not bad for 4 hours work!

I then managed to get all of this in to the back of the little Polo and drove to Howth, I thought I was being clever and left it until half 5 to drive out there. I didn't reckon on the Dublin match kicking out so it took me nearly an hour and a half to get out there. What a nightmare the traffic was and what pricks the drivers turn in to. I was on the North Circular crossing over Drumcondra road with the green light and a guy almost drives into me as he is treating the junction as a 'when you think its clear go area!' Then there is the jamming up of yellow box junctions as if it doesn't matter if you cram up the junction if you don't turn your head and see the cars that now can't go anywhere because you have been impatient and got all of six foot further! I can't wait until I'm back on the bike.

Where was I? Oh yes, moving to Ireland originally it took a rented white transit van to move all the stuff over. Then moving back to my folks 2 years later I was down to 10 big boxes or 2 car loads. 5 Months after that after being seduced by some Irish bird I moved back with 6 boxes, when I returned to my folks to get the rest WE went through them and it was decided some of my taste in goods was lacking and only brought back a further 2 boxes. So today proved that barring clothes, Ann and I have got nearly all our belongings into 1 car load! When all is sorted I think it will be 2 at most.

All of this has meant my best intentions haven't panned out and I didn't go climbing again today and won't get much chance this week . I am hoping to climb at least 3 times a week and be going strong for the start of the bouldering season, I managed only twice last week. I'm out with Pierre tomorrow so hopefully the weather will be good - at the moment its raining so who knows.

We are all off to the yamamori on Wednesday so maybe a session on Tuesday then its all hands to the grindstone until its all packed and dropped off to Howth. It all needs to be done by Sunday for the clean up and hand over, screw it I hate moving!

I'm looking forward to moving to Howth I can get some nice summer runs around the head and some lovely cycles to work. Hopefully after 2 months I should be fitter and climbing more regularly, must get stronger.

On a wedding note I was looking at rings the other day and think I have found one I like although it does make me giggle when Ann asks about my ring size!!!!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Time and Tim wait for no Ann

This title probably means more to me than you guys but I thought it was funny! The thing is, as most of you who have ever received a text or email from me know, my grammar and spelling is terrible. Luckily for me the IPhone in all it's apple glory corrects my spelling as we go, its the punctuation that I lack but I'm hoping to improve.





Anyhow in my new blogger excitedness I wrote up a new post the other night, however my spell checker/proof reader Ann has been too busy to reread it for me. I know, I have said it to her, she is always too busy for me. Whether it is making my sister's wedding ring, making some earrings for a customer in work or working 9 until 8 on a Thursday, I just feel that she isn't making the effort for my new found hobbie! (Ill be damn lucky if this post makes it out). I would like to make it clear that she doesn't censor, just correct. So back to the title, Tim Hasn't waited for Ann and has written another post before she has corrected the first one.





I have today witnessed or tasted the glory of the Burger king Texan whopper! I don't want to over think what it was made of but it was lovely. It wouldn't be something I'd eat everyday as I now feel tired and sluggish but it has been 3 months since I last indulged in fast ish food. It was quite spicy and had Burger king's usual love of onions, I just had to wait 10 minuets to get it.





With the bike still out of action I decided to run home from work again last night. I felt a lot better this time and have been fine today which shows some improvement. When I say fine I mean I can stand and bend my knees where as last week they just kept locking off so my muscles didn't have to work. A little stiff but miles better. As for the time I called in on Ann so I think it took me about the same or maybe less, so an hour 13 for 13.7 km. One thing I thought as I pushed myself up Oxmantown rd was why no matter what distance I run the last 10 minuets feels like hell. As I ran past the 4 courts I was thinking 'I don't think I'll make this running it all', my little devil is saying 'go on, walk a little you have run at least 10 k no one will think any less of you'. 'NO!!' says my competitive side 'you will look a prick walking along in your running gear, keep moving we are nearly home'. 'Exactly' says the devil, 'you have done the hard bit, it will be fine'. So the drama goes on until I realise I'm coming past smithfield and my head has been having an internal debate for nearly 5 minutes.





Then the last bit until I hit Oxmantown rd is a real, just keep moving, nearly there, one more step, UNTIL ,that is, I hit Oxmantown rd. Then suddenly there is a spring in my step, I swear I stop sweating and I suddenly feel the need to greet everyone I pass with a knowing nod or a cheery hiya. I would give hi fives if I could. This isn't just on the bigger runs it's all of them even if I trot around Phoenix park the bit from the zoo until the top of the road kills me, Oxmantown though, and I'm almost breaking the sound barrier by the time I hit the front door. Maybe its harnessing this feeling that makes the top runners great. I'll tell you when I am one.





If the spelling and that goes off in the next bit it's because Ann says she wont check anything about poo!!! I just have 2 things I wish to say today. 1. Does poo inflate when it comes into contact with air? As there is no way my intestines could hold that amount of, for lack of a better word, shit! 2. Yesterday I had a poo of such brilliance that I felt truly relaxed after it almost like I had communed with nature or god. They say the mail g'spot is up the arse maybe it just hit the spot so to speak!!!





This week I went to the co-op twice, back to back, on my days off a little bit sheepishly as the weather was so nice but I thought no one else will be there. Day one this was true. I had a potter, did Pierre's monkey problem which is my 'how am i climbing challenge', then Juan's red problem then had a play on one of Barry's - I got the starting move which really pleased me as I have been missing it for ages ( I wanted to use a bad word instead of missing but trying to use a better class of vocabulary). Then I did some curls press ups and loads of stretching to help my elbows. I left with only a slight twinge and great satisfaction. The next day was also as good, it took me longer to warm up and I was a little stiff but the results were the same so I figure the press ups, curls and stretching could see off the sore elbows. Then Mr Duffy arrived to drop off a Pad and I felt chastened, he never said it but I could see it in his eyes. What is this Muppet doing in side on such a glorious day? Well I'll tell ya, I only likes bouldering and its just no fun getting spat off easy problems as the friction is crap. This is why I thought about the sport climbing trip to give me something to work towards. Anyway 2 days on and know sore elbows, sweet! I'm hoping after nearly a year of this I'm near the end.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Thoughts for the day

This is a post of things that popped into my head during the course of the day. Now don't panic, its not the crazy stuff! I have to warm you into that. So today I wandered from the house up to the co-op and around town to do a few jobs and back again. I presumed this would be a better use of my time than driving to the co-op, driving back then going for a walk around The Phoenix park. It was, I did more walking but I have to say the walking around the park is a lot more pleasant.



Yesterday I drove to and from the co-op then had a lovely walk around the park for 2 hours. When I'm in the park I go top off so to speak, I don't as I walk around town. It's not that I'm shy it's just Ann says only knackers walk around town with their t-shirts off. So yesterday as I crossed over the roundabout by the zoo for my final push home I got beeped at and wolf whistled by 2 young lady's in a car (we will get to that bit in a second).



So without looking, I'm like 'sweet! Who's the man!' Then there is the quick flash of doubt but a quick scan around revealed I was the only person there. It was at this point I clocked the aforementioned young ladies. Now young they were, 18-20 maybe, ladies they clearly were not! Those awful tight tops that reveal that roll of fat around the waist then it tucks in (the top not the fat) to let there saggy fat tits hang out. Pulling just tight enough around the top to reveal back AND shoulder fat hanging out over the sleeves. They also had the stupid fringe things that puff up.



Its amazing how quickly your brain can work, I got all that in under 3 seconds. Imagine the character assassination I could give with proper research. Anyway, this stole the thunder of the original whistle beep etc. It also lead me to think women don't object to being treated like meat and whistled at, it comes down to who's doing the whistling - traditionally over weight hairy arsed builders!!!!!! Now if it was by someone as faultless and handsome as myself they would be overwhelmed.







I was chatting via the medium of comments and emails with Pierre last night and he mentioned that there where more people looking at blogs in these current recessionary times as there were more unemployed folk. He then found stats that said



Technorati is now tracking over 70 million weblogs, and we're seeing about 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day. That's about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day.



source:http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.htmlNight now



That is a massive amount of people with a lot of time on their hands. Could we or should we use are time more productively? Just think of the massive amounts of energy used to power 120,000 laptops blogging. How much does that equate to if you include all the updates? Staggering! I'd love to say I have something more interesting to do and save the planet but truth is I would be watching telly if I wasn't doing this. Baby steps, at least this works my brain!







I also feel compelled to mention 2 books, one I have just finished reading and one that is due out soon.



The first, Born to run, by Chris McDougall http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780307266309.html

This was one of the best books I have ever read. I would strongly recommend it to a friend and did, I lent it to Dec! Its all about tracking down a tribe in Mexico who run 50 to 100 miles, have very little food but also don't suffer from cancer, obesity or any of the other diseases brought about by affluent living! It also shows how they don't have the Modern day running shoe but also never suffer from knee, ankle or foot problems. It was fascinating and compelled me to go out running. Well actually run home from work! I have since thought about this and it had been a month since I had run so it took my legs nearly a week to recover.



It has made me consider an ultra marathon! I was thinking of a triathlon but i just cant be arsed to swim. It holds very little appeal to me when the weather is nice. Don't get me wrong I enjoy the odd relaxing swim, but training for it, I don't think so. So why not an ultra? I worked with a geezer who did the north face chamonix ultra and he said you don't try an ultra as you will inevitably fail. You run to finish as its not fitness that sets people apart on a 150 km run, its pure determination. Or as my father would call it bloody mindedness. For the distance I am scared but as a mental challenge I love the idea. Time will tell.





The second book i heard about on the radio Global warming and other bollocks by Vincent Marks


http://www.borders.co.uk/book/global-warming-and-other-bollocks-the-truth-about-all-those-science-scare-stories/1185555/


This sounds great, hugely open to debate about his views but it makes a change from reading the standard lines about global warming and fat intake. As you are aware I always like to be a little argumentative so it could make dinner conversations fun. Ill let you know what I think once its released.





Lastly, I'm kinda thinking about a sport climbing trip to Malham cove in July/August time. I know its not the sunny destinations of Spain, France etc but I can get 2 days in without too much hassle. I have also been told that chapel head is lovely and its all within the same kinda area. I don't plan on sending any big numbers but motivation is sorely lacking at the moment with all this horrible sunny weather ruining the good conditions!!!!!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

A Picture doesn't always tell a....

This comes from spending an unusual amount of time picking a picture to go at the top of the blog. I couldn't have one that was too great or I'd look gay, or too crap or it would be pointless yet still something that looked OK. So the one I led with was taken by Michael O'Dwyer at the boulder meet (see http://www.theshortspan.com/ for more details).



They say "a picture says a thousand words" I wonder if it could also be "a picture tells a thousand lies". The picture looks very dramatic and quite good, however I didn't stick it (this time). I did eventually do it but alas the problem is well up in the scree and will probably never get done or seen again. There was a lovely static line but Tom the fatty broke a crucial hold!!!!



On another note the hits just keep on coming. Yesterday I was unceremoniously dismounted from my bike when a passenger decided to get out of their car with out checking their wing mirror. They stopped at the lights and just opened the car door right in to my path! So now my bike has a broken front wheel, bent forks and a snapped chain, not bad for 20 seconds thoughtlessness. I'm grand (I know that's what you were all thinking) just annoyed as I had to got to the Gardai to get hold of the driver who said "are you OK ?" then drove off! Also now I have to get a new bike.



I'm trying, in these pessimistic times to work on an every cloud has a silver lining kinda vibe, so far so good. What was the reason for getting knocked off my bike/ where is the silver lining? I was muesing over whether or not to get a new one? I really wanted one, but couldn't justify it as in my mind there was nothing wrong with the old one however the chain kept slipping and was ruining my pleasant cycles. Now I have my answer!



We will also be moving back to Howth for a month or 2 until we find somewhere new to live, the idea originally was to move southside so how we have ended up moving to the furthest possible place on the northside I don't know! I'm reliably informed Howth still counts as the southside so its all good. Bitch of a cycle to Dun Laoghaire especially without a bike.



I have just read Pierre's blog
http://pierreboulderingblog.blogspot.com/ he has felt the need to post a warning to tell people that English is not his first language and it wasn't meant to show case his wares. English is my only and native language, my mastery of the spelling of it and the punctuation is appalling. I'm hoping this blog will help me with that, on occasion Ann will read through and check for spelling and grammatical errors, but some times like now she will be asleep and I get bored so will just wing it.


For my next post I might even learn how to embed a link more neatly but at the moment I just can't be arsed!!


Here endith today's lesson/rant.

Monday, June 22, 2009

First come, first served.

So, Tim online, what a scary thought! The history of the line judge spans back nearly 30 years, I'm sure from the moment I could talk I was offending people. Its not an intentional thing by any means, I don't go out to shock and appall, it just kinda happens.

My first line judge all though she wasn't called that then was my Mother, quite often she could be heard saying 'OOOOHHHHH TTTIIIIIMMM!!! that's disgusting'. Due to the over used nature of this phrase it became TIIIIIMMMMMAAA! My sisters as they grew up also took on some of the responsibility as verbal diarrhea kicked in and maybe the joke about the lesbian and the priest wasn't best kept for bible study!

As I grew older other line judges have come and gone - some keep up the good fight and linger on Peter G, Baz and Michael to name but a few. Skip forward some years and we arrive in Kilkenny where the line judge phrase came into being with me in particular. I worked with a hairy young chap named JJ and while we were out hooning around and something distasteful or inappropriate was about to fall from my drunken lips 'LINE' would be uttered from a dark corner. This was followed by a vodka and red bull and a sweeping movement to distract my brain.

Then to Ann whose own sense of line has been blurred slightly my by incessant ramblings and mutterings. Luckily she has a good group off friends who help her out when we go for meals or hit the town. Often she gets asked how do you put up with him? To which she almost always replies 'white noise, i block him out!' Charming says I, knew no one listened to me, one day I'll have a great idea or a profound thought and you will all miss it!

To this end I thought I would try and put as much here as possible as much as online venting and a break for Ann as much as anything else. Now you all get to Line judge did I or will I go to far? Dermo its over to you........ Did you here about the paedophile in the nursar............