Your own personal Robert Powell

Image of 70’s icon Robert Powell discovered in Marmite.

An image of the 1970’s acting icon, Robert Powell has been discovered by a Welsh housewife in the lid of a marmite jar. Claire Allen said, ‘I don’t care if people think I’m a mentalist, if you squint you can definitely see it’s him.’

Despite being a blue eyed, white Anglo-Saxon, Powell carved out a successful career for himself playing the part of a Palestinian Jew.

A leading Powellian theologian added: ‘No matter how much Richard Dawkins and his ilk may scoff, there is irrefutable evidence that Robert Powell actually existed, and many of us believe that he died on stage for all of our sins.’

Richard Dawkins was unavailable to comment.

Compare and contrast

What Curly said back then:

"…I have a lot of things to consider, not least of which have to be the lifestyle changes that I’d started but failed to finish almost two years ago. The exercise regime eventually went by the wayside, as did the dieting and healthy eating, so I need to address those urgently and earnestly.

“I was a fool, I was living under an illusion that I was feeling OK, I didn’t put the work in, neither was it sustained. If I make a pledge now, will you all help me keep it for the sake of my children?

“I pledge to lose a stone, take five a day (fruit and veg), exercise thirty minutes per day…”

What Curly says now:

“I am fed up to the back teeth of people telling me what I should or should not eat…  I’m fed up of being told what is and what is not good for us, I’m big enough to choose for myself thank you!”

Outlawed all of the vice

Things certainly sound pretty grim in Korea at the moment. But every cloud has a silver lining, and I’m using the present crisis as a tenuous excuse to post this old Stranglers song.  Performed here by everyone’s favourite chemistry graduate.

This is the BBC calling the world...

‘It’s serious stuff, Evan’

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8062000/8062852.stm

Shirley Ford

http://shirleyford.wordpress.com/

Beaten to a pulp

Wide screen TV’s, DVD players, SIXTEEN sets of bed sheets!  It doesn’t take much of a fertile imagination to work out what Houghton & Washington MP Fraser Kemp gets up to in his spare time.  No wonder the bloke looks so gaunt, he must be bloody knackered.  Not that I’m judgmental about these things; Fraser’s peccadilloes are his own business.  But it’s a bit much expecting the tax-payer to subsidise his nocturnal activities.

Such a perfect day

Conditions for the pier to pier race couldn’t have been much better.  Ok, the wind could have been blowing in the opposite direction, but apart from that…  

My pre-race preparation involved having a hot bath and listening to the Clash.  A healthy field of a thousand or so gathered behind the line in the sand that the organisers had drawn across Shields beach.  Those of us on the shoreline warmed up by (unsuccessfully) trying to dodge the surf.  Even at a slow pace the first mile along the sand can be energy sapping.  The race is a point to point course with competitors allowed to pick out their own route for the most part; it was impressive to see three distinct human snakes making their way down the Leas.  

The temptation in any race is to tear off, eyeballs out, at full speed.  But July’s triathlon is my priority this year, so I was pacing the pier to pier as I would any other training run.  The last 100 metres of the race in soft sand on Roker beach made any sprint finish just about impossible.  It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a run so much.  The organisers deserve the highest praise for putting on an event far superior to the Great North Run.  

And that Mars bar I was handed at the end of the race was sublime.

Not easy-week

Easy week came to an abrupt end with a 1.7 km swim on Saturday morning. 

Joe Friel has published an excellent blog article on ageing and athletic performance.  Well worth a read.

VC

It’s no secret that I don’t support Labour’s foreign policy misadventures and illegal invasion of Iraq.  But that doesn’t stop me from recognising that some soldiers have committed tremendous acts of courage in terrifying circumstances.  

Johnson Beharry’s actions saved the lives of his colleagues on two separate occasions.  On one of those occasions his head was ripped open by RPG shrapnel.  The white supremacists in the Nazi BNP don’t think he deserves his medal for bravery.

Norman Fay memorial ride

http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/Memorial-rides-planned-for-Norman.5264144.jp

Easy week

Training volume reduces by around 50% during easy week.  Easy week started yesterday with press ups, pull ups, a 50 minute cycle ride immediately followed by 10 minute run.  

It didn’t feel very easy to me.

Saturday, 9:27 am, Tyne Dock

The dawn had started bright enough but several cups of coffee later it had now clouded over.  I look out of the kitchen window; a man is walking past with about 11 cans of ‘1664’ larger in a bulging white polythene bag. He’s lightening his load by drinking the 12^th.  I move into the living room, an ambulance pulling up at one of the houses down the street catches my attention. It starts to rain…

Triathlon training

Today’s training consisted of a 30 kilometre bike ride via the Tyne pedestrian/cycle tunnel and the Gateshead millennium bridge.  Then it was off to Jesmond for pizza and pasta.

Photo from the bigpawbooks web site.

Nice one Steve 2

In the light of recent developments within the Indy Alliance Party I decided to revisit some old posts, here and here, to see what I was saying last year about Steve Harrison and his odd choice of political bed fellows.  

All credit to Steve for now making a wise decision and leaving the Indy Alliance.

‘Best way to beat the BNP is to vote Green.’

‘Respect, the left-wing party headed by the Bethnal Green and Bow MP George Galloway, has stood aside in the region and is urging its supporters to vote Green to stop the BNP.’

Restless Natives

Would you buy a plastic Loch Ness monster souvenir from this man?

The burgers of Carrbridge in Scotland aren’t happy. Apparently they are a bit miffed that when the BBC broadcasts its weather forecast to our cluster of islands, with a population of over 60 million, the forecaster fails to mention that it doesn’t rain every day of the year in the village of Carrbridge. Apparently on some days it’s just a little bit cloudy.
You’ve got to give the tourism entrepreneurs of Carrbridge ten out of ten for getting their village of 250 houses on the front page of the BBC news web site though, I’m sure it won’t do business any harm at all.
As a regular visitor to Scotland I can confirm that it doesn’t always rain there, but I wouldn’t risk not taking a coat.
This year I will be neglecting Scotland and travelling south to the balmy climes of Yorkshire and Wales for my hols. I’d better buy a sun hat!

Where did you get that cat?

Gormless Tommy gets the boot

I know this has already been covered by the newspapers and other bloggers but its still worth having a laugh at hapless Tommy being forced out.