Thank You All

Well that is almost it. Another year gone. What a year it has been for many reasons. All in all I have enjoyed 2011 on a personal basis and I am looking forward to 2012.

I have enjoyed putting together this blog although I have not posted as many articles as I would have liked to have done. Some may say that is a good thing!! I do intend to be more productive in the coming year, so be warned!

I would like to say thank you to those of you that have taken the time to read my scribblings and I hope that you have gained some enjoyment and some interest from them. I would be posting my thoughts etc. whether or not anybody was reading them but the thousands of hits that this has produced is very, very gratifying indeed.

I wish all of you, whether a regular reader or not, the very best for 2012 and I will, hopefully, see you in the New Year.

Done With Running - Well Running Has Done With Me!

After 8 months or so of trying to get back to running I reckon that it is a no-go! Right knee just does not seem to want to know anymore. Doesn't appear to be too much wrong with it, well not more than normal anyway, no swelling, just had enough I guess. Very painful if I try to run on it for any length of time. Looks like the end of an era. Not going down the surgery route as I have had enough of that for sure!

In the past I have run as much as 90 miles a week when in full flight and now I can't run 2 miles at a time. Running has always been my preferred fitness regime, as I find nearly all other exercise very boring. So what now? I can't go on as I am as my weight has reached over 15 and a half stone. Hate the thought of actually going on a diet as I have never had to do that before, other than a see-food diet, being able to see food and eat it!

Got to so something; but what?

Looks like it is going to be a whole load of gym work. Don't like the thought but that looks like the only option to me. Don't mind swimming but that doesn't appear to do my knee a whole lot of good either. That may be down to swimming when I have already tried the running, so I will give that another go as well.

What about the cricket? Will I manage that next season? Reckon the batting will be okay but as for the bowling, who knows? Is that enough to allow me to be selected? Only time will tell I guess.

As I say, I have to do something to get some fitness back if only for the good of my health. Not looking forward to the options left to me though!!! Cest La Vie.

Natural Justice?

Is there such a thing do you think? I really hope there is. I am sure that many of us know of people who have got away with acts that should have been punished by the authorities, the sort of person where we just shrug our shoulders and say "They always get away with it", and we know deep down that they probably will!

Whilst walking up on the sea-front the other day, I met a guy, bit of a strange old cove if I am to be honest. Got talking about this and many other subjects with him and although he was a bit strange, as I have already said, he was adamant that when it came to natural justice it did exist. He said it just needed activating by the will-power of those people who had suffered due to the actions of others. All we need to do is to will those people to be brought to justice by nature and it would happen. We might never know that it has but it will have done.

Not sure I believe it myself and I don't feel that I am vindictive by nature but, having said that, I am going to give it a try. I will be very keen to see what happens!!!

Know someone you want to see brought to natural justice? Give it a go eh, what have you got to lose?

This Is Mine - What's Yours

Presenting on local community radio station Lindsey Coast Radio at this time of the year, brings one into contact with numerous examples of Christmas music. Now as a rule I am no fan of most of it but there are one or two tracks that I do like. Now that I think about it, perhaps my choices would be a little off-beat. Of all the Christmas music that there is my favourite two would have to be Jona Lewie Stop The Cavalry and David Bowie with Bing Crosby singing Peace On Earth/The Little Drummer Boy.

Of those two, if I had to choose, I would have to go for the latter. Something wonderful about those two musical icons, so very different in their styles and their music, singing together, that it just works wonderfully well.

So that is my choice. As I say a bit strange and not to everyones taste. What's yours?

13 Hour Day!!

Set off yesterday at 9 a.m. Got back home just before 10 p.m. Drove approximately 450 miles during the day. Hold-ups on the motorway, other drivers doing their best to kill us. What was that all about? Simply football.

My team Lincoln City were playing Forest Green Rovers in the non-league Blue Square Premier yesterday. FGR are located in Nailsworth in south Gloucestershire. Several pick-ups of fellow nutcases in Lincoln and then off we go.

Am I mad? Am I barking? Is there nothing better I could do with my time? The answer to those questions is probably yes to all 3.

Did I enjoy it? Yes.
Was it worth it? Oh so definitely!

3 points and a 2 goals to nil win. What better way could there be to spend a Saturday?
Okay don't answer that!!!

Rotten And Despicable

They are just two of the words I have heard used about two crimes that have occurred very recently in our area.

Firstly a charity shop raising money for injured soldiers had money stolen from it and then a car was broken into and a large amount of stock used for raising money for the People's Dispensary For Sick Animals (PDSA) was stolen.

It is bad enough when people resort to thieving in the first place but when that thieving is done against charities then the words above are only two that should be used to describe both the acts and those that carry them out.

If you are offered any cheap Christmas Cards or other merchandise that have the PDSA logo on them, please do contact the police. They are well aware of this crime.

Tidings and Murder On The Beach

Well just been up to the beach for my daily constitutional. What a difference to the last few days. After all that lovely bright sunshine, today it was blowing a gale fit to bust and the best description of it was beautiful but bleak.

I decided to head south today towards the nature reserve at Gibraltar Point. I have to say that I saw the most amazing spectacle, which I do not understand, and if anybody can shed any light on what I saw I would be most grateful.

There are several large grassy areas, almost like lawns on the way and on one of them I saw a murder of crows about 30 strong and a tidings of magpies about a dozen strong. They were just standing around in two significant and different groups. (A murder and a tidings are the correct names for groups of these birds).

Aha I thought, as these birds are predominantly scavengers there must be some sort of carcass about just there. I sallied forth to go and check it out, expecting these birds to take fright and flight but they didn't. I walked into the space between the two groups and they just sat there watching me. It was like something out of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, a film that if you have not seen I would highly recommend. It was a bit unnerving to be honest.

Well I can confirm that there was no carcass anywhere near them and for the life of me I cannot work out either what can have attracted them there or why both types of birds were sitting there next to each other. Perhaps it was the prelude to a bit of gang warfare.

Who knows? I don't. Do you?

Just Forgot Me Sunnies!

We have had a magnificent spell of weather here on the east coast lately and, luckily, I have been able to make the most of it with some good walks up the coast. Cold but bright and cheerful could sum it all up. Today was exceptional though. The air was so crisp and clean and the cold in the air actually added to rather than detracted from the experience. Fantastically lucky to live here. Like most places Skegness has its problems but on a day like today there is nowhere better in the world.

Only problem I had was that I forgot my sunglasses. The sun glinting of the sea and the inlets and creeks left behind by the recent, magnificent, high-tide made it difficult to see anything when heading south. Oh the problems I have to put up with!!