Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

I have been running more recently with the anticipation of completing the Abbey Dash in November. I had drawn up a training programme, in my head, in which I would add half a kilometre each month so that by October I was running the full 10km.

Then, a few weeks ago, I felt pretty good on my run, so I just kept going and suddenly I had done 10km. This has entirely ruined my schedule. Not really sure what to do now.

Parkrun is a network of UK (and now international) 5km weekly runs open to the general public. There are now three in Leeds – Woodhouse Moor, Temple Newsam and Roundhay Park.

Each one takes place at 9am each Saturday. You register (for free) and print out a barcode. You then turn up and run 5km with everyone else and get your barcode scanned when you are finished. They then upload all the data and email everyone to let them know their times. They are popular events. Woodhouse Moor had around 400 people there this week.

Overall, I am not sure I prefer it to running on my own. For a number of reasons:

• I like running because it is accessible. I live next to the canal, so I can leave my front door and start running. No overheads. With Parkrun I have to make my way up to Woodhouse Moor, wait around for it to start, do my run, then come home. The whole experience takes around 75 minutes for less than 30 minutes of running.
• I am not very fast, so it is not that motivating to be at the back of the field.
• It is hard to pace yourself when running in a large crowd.

However, cleverly they give you a t-shirt when you have completed 50, 100 and 250 runs. And I want my t-shirt!

Last week we ventured into The Packhorse for a few beverages. I have traditionally given it a birth as it seems unlikely that you would get a seat given it is a lovely traditional pub right in the centre of town. However, it turns out we were able to accommodate our large party (eventually) even on a Friday night.

The food is alright too, as I describe in the Leeds Restaurant Guide.

Happy Darwin Day!

Today I am Toastmaster at White Rose Speakers and will be discussing Darwin in my introduction. Not just because he was an awesome guy that did a huge amount of advancing our understanding of science. But also because he was a cautious man, possibly a man who needed confidence – alas, Toastmasters was not around to give it to him.

Luckily, the same is not true today however.

In a recent article in The Guardian, it could be easily to interpret that councillor David Silvester was suspended for his anti-gay comments that suggested gay marriage caused the recent flooding.

He wasn’t.

As BBC News reports, Nigel Farage said he was suspended for refusing to shut up…

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he was entitled to his “strong Baptist view of the world”, but had defied a request not to do further media interviews.

Mr Farage said: “So we suspended him, quite rightly.”

I think there is a critical difference. He was suspended because he refused to stop talking about it. UKIP have not spoken out against the statement. They have just said he should not be talking about. This fits with the original statement that UKIP gave to The Telegraph.

If the media are expecting Ukip to either condemn or condone someone’s personal religious views they will get absolutely no response.

So UKIP are fine with people being a bigot, as long as it is religious bigotry.

It is worth noting however that UKIP does not share Silvester’s views on gay marriage. Their, very different hatred of gay marriage, is outlined explicitly on their website.

Last night I got an email stating that the takeaway order I had placed in June had now been completed.

An order you recently placed on our website has had its status changed.

The status of order #153 is now Completed

Order Details

Date Placed: 11th Jun 2013

I knew it felt like a massive wait at the time…

We made too much food. But not quite as much as we normally over-make…

At the start of 2013, which as usual begin with a January I was busy eating as I put together my book while taking some doctor-ordered time off killing things. We found time for a New Year’s Eve part of course. I attended my first Bettakultcha and we held the first Worfolk Limited Christmas party. Gijsbert moved to Glasgow and I became Vice President of Education at White Rose Speakers.

In February a failure of referees to call what was clearly pass interference cost the 49ers the Super Bowl while Bill Gates delivered an excellent Dimbleby Lecture. We celebrated Darwin Day, Galileo Day and Copernicus Day. I got my area trophy for humorous speaking and Hiltler’s other pope resigned.

I took Elina to the Dales for her birthday in March. There were ponies. Also steak. Michelle paid a visit and I competed in the International Speech Contest for the first time. Trinity opened and found out that really needed a proper roof. I read The Grapes of Wrath – not that I don’t often read, but it is such an amazing book. Sarann and Moz becamse the first A-Soc couple to get married and the Foundation published its report on on how much you can earn begging. The answer is, not much.

There was much sorrow and joy depending on your position in April when Margaret Thatcher passed away. Meanwhile I was busy campaigning for the return of Thai curry steak Yorkshires. The NFL held its 2013 draft and I started reading Discworld. I won the area contest in the International speech contest with “The Easy; and the Worthwhile” that I videoed at White Rose Speakers. I placed third at the division level.

In May Leeds Skeptics set a new record attendance with Dr Brooke Magnanti who also spoke at QED while she was down here. James ran the Leeds Half Marathon and we went to Chester Zoo. I attended the Riviera Renaissance conference in Torquay, at which there was another zoo. I donated my thousandth dollar on Kiva, we partied for Eurovision and I spoke out against the tyranny of clothing.

I was elected president of Leeds City Toastmasters in June while Bob stepped down after 34 years serving as secretary for the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire. The BHA brought its annual conference to Leeds and we had a magic show at Leeds Skeptics.

It was a busy summer in July with trips to Flamborough (from which I posted lots of photos), Finland (again, lots of photos) and relatives visiting from Canada. John Sweeney spoke at Leeds Skeptics, we celebrated Higgs Day and CWF announced Anxiety Leeds. Perhaps a bigger achivement than all of that was that I finished Ulysses.

Yorkshire Day kicked off August and in honour I made some Yorkshire puddings. We visited Yorkshire Wildlife Park and Alan Partridge returned, this time to the big screen. We also held Toastmasters in the Park and visited Hull. The biggest achievement of the month however was without a doubt the founding of Worfolk Media and launch of the Leeds Restaurant Guide.

In September I was a little saddened to see John Oliver’s spot guest-hosting the Daily Show come to an end. We visited Michelle in Jersey and Anxiety Leeds held their first meeting after some great build-up publicity including interviews on Radio Aire and BBC Radio Leeds.

It was a month of travelling in October with PNPNW13, the North West Humanist Conference and going down to London to see the NFL at Wemberly. Toastmasters held an event for Leeds Business Week and I won the area speech contest and for the first time ever, the division level one as well. Leeds Skeptics set another new attendance record when Simon Singh came up to give a talk and we launched Sunday Assembly Leeds.

Pretty much nothing happened in November. Or maybe so much happened that I didn’t have time to blog about it. Probably the latter given we moved house. I travelled down to Colchester to compete in the UK & Ireland speech contest finals and visited Temple Works which a isn’t particularly significant event but it is an amazing building. I paid my first visit to Leeds Arena to see Nickelback and we attended our second year of Finnish Christmas carols. Meanwhile Sunday Assembly Leeds held an event that was actually on a Sunday.

Finally in December the comedian Kate Smurfwaite delivered her show at Leeds Skeptics, I walked out of my first ever gig at an incredibly disappointing Tenacious D concert. Nelson Mandela passed away and we all spent a few days scoring points off each other – it is what he would have wanted. There was some kind of holiday season and the Humanist Action Group’s annual Holiday Food Drive for local homeless shelters raised over three thousand pounds worth of donations.

At the end of November we headed up to the Lutherin church in Headingley for Finnish Christmas carols. We went last year as well, which was arguably better as they had an organist, but it was enjoyable none-the-less and the performance pieces were good too. As ever, the best bit was the food afterward.

I also love how organised they are – at that event they gave out the date for the 2014 event!

When we were looking for venues for the Sunday Assembly I visited Temple Works. It is located just down at the bottom of town and was once the biggest room in the world. It really is massive. When I was shown it it was like a moment out of Star Trek when you see a huge space station for the first time – it just went on and on! A mega-cool venue that I hope we can work with some day.

For more details, see their website.