More Than Yorkshire Puddings: Food, Stories and Over 100 Recipes from God’s Own Country is a cookbook by Elaine Lemm.
Lots of nice stuff in here. Again, I didn’t make too many of the recipes, but probably more than Coast, and I did make a few of them several times. If you’re unfamiliar with Yorkshire food, this is a good guide.
Coast is a cookbook by Rachel Allen and subtitled recipes inspird by Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Coast”. Its organised in narrative form as she takes us on a journey from Cork all the way to Donegal.
It’s a fun read. I didn’t make many of the recipes because they tend to be quite involved in terms of sourcing ingredients as well as the cooking itself. But it has some lovely photography and stories in, too, so it is a nice book to have.
Bliss on Toast is a cookbook by Prue Leith.
The idea of a toast cookbook might raise eyebrows but the book is excellent. I tried almost every recipe. It makes such good lunches. They’re often quick to make and still delicious. If you are bored of your usual lunches, this is a great way to mix things up for little effort and big results. This is instantly one of my favourite cookbooks.
I watched loads of ultra-endurance documentaries over lockdown and beyond and compiled a big list of them. This has been sat in my drafts for years so I am just going to hit publish. If you are looking for some running and cycling documentaries, here are the ones I’ve watched.
One of my favourite documentaries. James Lawrence tries to complete the 50-50-50: 50 Ironmans, in 50 days, in all 50 US states. If you are ever going to do an Ironman, watch this first as you cannot help but coming out of it thinking “if James Lawrence can do that, I can do one Ironman”.
This is a comedy drama and it’s a lot of fun.
This documentary follows runners on around the 3100, a 5,000 kilometre race that takes place in New York named the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race. They use a 883-metre loop that runners loop for 18 hours a day for nearly two months.
The Iditarod Trail Invitational is a 1,000-mile race that follows the Iditarod dog sledge course on either foot or fat bike.
Possibly the best Barkley Marathons documentary out there, following the 2012 race where Brett Maune set the course record and the only year ever to have three finishers.
Follows Gary Robbins in his attempt to complete the Barkley Marathons.
Yorkshire’s own Nicky Spinks attempts to be the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons.
Kimberley Chambers attempts to become the third person ever, and the first woman, to swim from Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge.
This is a feel-good running story as Paul Tierney attempts to set a new FKT for running the 214 summits of the Lake District as described by Alfred Wainwright. It’s a little over 510 km of fell running in less than seven days.
Bryan Fogel attempts to make a documentary about doping in cycling and finds himself in the middle of Grigory Rodchenkov, head of the Russian anti-doping lab and mastermind behind the Russian state-sponsored doping of Olympic athletes, exposing the Russian scheme.
This documentary looks at Lance Armstrong and how the widespread doping in the US Postal Service cycling team came out.
It follows the Movistar team through their 2019 cycling season, where Richard Carapaz took a surprise win at the Giro d’Italia. It is in Spanish with English subtitles.
Jeffrey James Binney presents his experience going from non-runner to 100-mile ultra runner in a film that is half documentary and half live comedy show talking about what happened.
A group of overweight individuals who found running come together to complete a Ragnar relay race.
Follows Fiona Oakes as she attempts to complete the Marathon des Sables to raise money for her animal sanctuary.
Follows the Trans America bike race, an unsupported race across America (not to be confused with RAM).
Follows the London-Edinburgh-London audax, and features A-Soc’s Chris Tedd!
Follows the second-ever running of the Dragon’s Back race. Originally run in 1992.
Follows Gerald Tabios, a Filipino runner, as he attempts to complete his 5th Badwater 135 ultra.
Follows a running club started by a judge.
Follows several first-time Ironman athletes.
Nikki Kimball attempts to complete the Long Trail.
Documents the 1,000 km unsupported race around Rwanda. Lots of beautiful scenery but difficult to follow at times as everything is explained by brief title cards.
RAM, also Race Across America and 3089 Miles Across America. I don’t even know what I wrote here. Are these separate documentary names?
Follows Luke Tyburski as he attempts to complete a 2,000-kilometre triathlon from Morocco to Monaco. it has an irritating voiceover that you find on Channel 5 documentaries.
This documentary follows Gary Robbins’s attempt to be the first to link up multiple trials around his home in Chilliwack.
This documentary follows Mat Pritchard doing a ultra-distance triathlon around the entire border of Wales.
Ruins is the second novel in Orson Scott Card’s Pathfinder series. I went straight from the first book to this one and it is probably even better.
Card gives an introduction in which he says trilogies are often rubbish because the middle book/film is just filler. I think he is spot on: most trilogies would do better as two books. This one is more like an Asimov book. Stuff happens. Interesting stuff. And we get even more into the science fiction that was promised in book one.
Pathfinder is the first novel in Orson Scott Card’s series by the same name.
I loved the Ender’s Game books so I thought I would give this a try. I wasn’t sure at first as I was looking for science fiction and this started out more as a fantasy book. And it is, although it got more science fiction-y as time went on.
I’m glad I stuck with it. It turned out to be a great fusion of fantasy and science fiction involving time trial but with some good twists on the way time travel is usually presented. Rather than getting caught up in ensuring causality loops, Card just tells a great story.
On Sunday, Iveagh Sports Ground launched their junior parkrun. I was quietly hoping there would be cake. There wasn’t, but there was lots of very friendly and encouraging volunteers. The course is two laps on grass. It’s flat but still has a few lumps to make it interesting.
Another weekend trip. This time, our first one to County Wexford. Gorey is three laps of a the local park. It’s flat, a nice park and a cafe with toilets in the centre for post-parkrun snacks. Ticked off another G for Staying Alive and my 59th for Cowell Club. Lovely to be there for their 8th birthday and thank you to all of the volunteers.
We hiked up a hill. Classic Snowdon style: drive most of the way up to th highest car park and then walk the last little bit. And I didn’t even summit it as I wasn’t feeling great. Beautiful scenery none the less, though.
Last weekend we visited Galway for the first time.
We arrived Friday and drove over the nearby town of Barna as a friend had recommended eating a Donnelly’s pub. Would recommend the cheesecake if you find yourself there. It was dark so we didn’t see much but did get a good meal and make it out in time before the rugby kicked off.
I completed University of Galway parkrun and then we headed over to Salthill to visit the aquarium. It specialises in local sealife which was great because as much as I enjoy a sealife centre, they get very similar once you have seen one. We also had tapas at Black Cat in Salthill which is very much recommended.
