Archive for the ‘Distractions’ Category

Sean Conway is an ultra-endurance athlete. But he is also a pretty normal guy. Until 30 he was a photographer before deciding his life as boring and quitting to do cool stuff. He cycled around the world, completed a triathlon along the entire British coastline and last year set the world record when he completed 105 full distance triathlons in 105 days.

The talk was him telling his life story which was highly entertaining. Plus I got a signed book.

If you like following this kind of thing, Sean said Jonas Deichmann is going for 120 triathlons this year. Sean and Jonas have been friends since Sean took the self-supported cycling across Europe record off Jonas: some friendly competition going on at the moment!

It’s less than 100 days until Paris! TCD put on a small exhibition last week and had some cool stuff: Olympic torches, kit, medals and display boards on famous athletes.

At the end of January, Dire Staits guitarist and front man Mark Knopfler auctioned off over 100 of his guitars.

It was announced months in advance and took place at the famous auction house Christie’s. The offer bidding in person, on the phones and via their online system in a hybrid style, as well as live streaming the event on YouTube. The sale proved to be much more popular than they had expected and was delayed by two hours as their online auction system was overwhelmed.

Everything in it went for big money. The Les Paul he used for Money For Nothing was expected to go for a large amount and predictably did: £470,000. But even the guitars he received as gifts and barely played went for £20,000-£30,000 and upwards. And thing like the Fender Strats he used on stage were around £100,000. Here are some of the “budget” lots:

Predictably then, I didn’t buy anything. But it was an exciting event to watch: all six hours of it, not including the two hour delay!

Ever since I first watched the IRONMAN World Championship, I wanted a Felt IA. And now I have one. On Zwift.

For years I worked hard to get to level 37 to buy a digital Felt IA from the in-game shop. I made it to level 33. Then in December, they redid all of the levels and dropped the minimum level requirement for that bike down to 16.

Last night was Patrick Kielty’s first Late Late Toy Show. He can clearly interact well with children. That’s not how it is supposed to be.

Elina laughed when I said Sam Ryder was up to second in the bookie’s odds. Possibly because every year the UK surges in the odds only for our hopes to be cruelly smashed. But not this year!

It really makes you think what could have happened if we had sent good songs this whole time. Instead, we sent James Newman, Electro Velvet and Engelbert Humperdinck.

Let’s enjoy the song one more time:

After 11 years at the Detriot Lions, Matthew Stafford moves to Los Angeles and wins a Super Bowl. Here’s a meme about it:

In another step towards normality, we were able to hold our Eurovision party this year, albeit with only a couple of friends and far more COVID testing. This is good because Eurovision is really a thing you need to do with other people. We also did our own voting and our top six came out as:

Russia, 19
Malta, 16
France, 15
Finland, 14
Ukraine, 13
Iceland, 11

France came 2nd, Iceland came 4th, Ukraine came 5th, Finland came 6th, Malta in 7th and Russia in 8th. So, we were on the mark with most of it. But Switzerland took us by surprise. It was a joke entry, right? And, Italy one, which also did not make it onto our scoreboard.

I didn’t like the songs when I listened through before the contest but the night itself won me over. A few of them will make it onto my Eurovision Spotify playlist: Italy (Zitti e Buoni), Sweden (Voices), Finland (Dark Side), Serbia (Loco Loco), Cyprus (El Diablo), and maybe Iceland (10 Years). I’ve also added Romania (Amnesia) which did not make the final.

One of the things they don’t walk about much in NFL is playing through the pain. You get beat up but you just keep playing. Thi is how my Super Bowl went. Despite a painful stomach ache from about half time, I managed to consume 2,300 kcals of the buffet I prepared. Including a slice of the 4,500 kcal cheesecake I made.

Oh, and Tom Brady really id the greatest. Not that anyone doubted.

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.