A few weeks ago, I was chatting to my friend Lucy who mentioned she was closing in on running 1,000 miles in 2020. Just out of interest I checked my stats and I found I was around 90 kilometres short of the 1,609 kilometres that represents the 1,000-mile mark!
Thanks to an early morning run on Chrismas Day, I crossed the virtual finish line. 50% of the work was done during May and June while I was completing in the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee, but it was nice to finish the year strong too.
Last year, I joined local cycling club Alba Rosa. I didn’t ride with them during the winter as I can’t put mudguards on my aero bike and I don’t have a winter bike. And I mainly joined for the TT races. But by the time summer arrived, we were belly deep in COVID and everything we cancelled.
So, I haven’t actually done anything with the club. But I did want a Pactimo jersey, so when the club shop opened, I decided I should at least enjoy the membership benefit of being able to buy club gear.
It’s winter so I haven’t had a chance to try it yet (it’s Gabba temperatures at the moment). But when summer comes, it will be rice to swap out my poorly-designed HPH jersey with my this one.
Move over all other TV shows, The Good Place is better. I think I’m on my 6th run-through at the moment. I took a quick break after the 4th run-through to re-watch some BoJack. But then it was back to The Good Place. Why settle for anything less?
Not only is it a good way to learn about ethics in a fun way, it’s also fun and heart-warming, and provides a level of closure that possibly no other sitcom ever has. It’s 104% nerfect.
I have published a lot of courses on web development and programming but I don’t think I have ever done a back-to-basics beginners’ course before. That changes today the launch of my Front-End Web Development course that teaches you how to write HTML and CSS from scratch.
Yesterday, the UK became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine. There are still a lot of challenges ahead: how much of it can we get? How do you vaccinate 58 million people? Will it be faster if we sacrifice anti-vaxxers to a range of deities? And how long will the vaccine (or the sacrifices) provide protection? But there certainly is hope!
As some of you know, my film interests are predominantly films about rats than can cook. So, I watch Ratatouille. And not really anything else. But I also watch TV, and when I watch TV, I watch The Good Place. Anyone who has seen A Good Place will understand why: once you have seen the best TV show, why would you settle for watching something less good?
In one of the episodes, John makes a quick reference to a film about Sarah Michelle Gellar as a chef. I hadn’t heard of that so I went investigating whether it was a real thing and it turns out that it is: Simply Irresistible is a 1999 film about Buffy working in a struggling restaurant while falling in love with the manager of a fancy department store. There are no vampires but there is something much better: a magic crab that gives her the power to pour her emotions into the food.
Finding this film has opened my eyes. Maybe I am not solely interested in films about rats than can cook, but open to any films about non-human animals with magic cooking abilities!
When the first lockdown happened, I was a little slow to get started. In between starting a new business and having Venla home 24 hours a day, I didn’t do a great deal of socialising while everyone else seemed to be jumping on Zoom. When lockdown 2 rolled around, I had enough time to be a bit more proactive and we started organising some Zoom sessions.
These have proved really nice. It’s been great to a) see other people but also b) connect with people I wouldn’t talk to as much as I liked because they are far away (in many different parts of Not Leeds, from Sheffield to Mexico). Whether they wil continue after the apocalypse ends I’m sure, but I would like to think so for this reason.
The Endura FS260 is a rain cape designed for cycling. Capes are lightweight and stuff into your jersey pocket when you are not wearing them, so you can set off with it in your pocket knowing that if it starts raining you will be able to pull another layer on.
In my opinion, the FS260 is a great option. It’s far below the super-expensive Gortex £300 options, and if you pick the correct colour (some are cheaper than others) you can get it for less than £50.
It does a good job of protecting me from the rain, although will not keep me dry in heavy showers. It also does a good job at keeping my warm and I often take it as an alternative to arm warmers.
The back covers my jersey pockets to keep everything dry.
The sleeves are a little long and it is not skin-tight, so if you are in a race situation, you are going to cause a fair bit of drag compared to something like a Gabba jersey.
Overall, highly recommended for cyclists, and it works well when running, too.
THe A.B.C Murders is a murder mystery novel by Agatha Christie. It features Hercule Poirot trying to solve a series of alphabetically-organised murders.
As I have commented in previous reviews, once you have read And Then There Were None, All other novels are inferior. But I did enjoy this one. The ending is okay but the story is entertaining throughout. Maybe ranks third behind And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express.
