hypocritical behaviour

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Aliveandrunning April 27 2014

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Ickworth House, Suffolk, owned by the National Trust, and can be visited by any undistinguished plebeian during opening hours in exchange for a small fee. And you can belong to any social class. They don’t turn away even the lowest. Anyway, I digress. The Ickworth House Estate provided the course for today’s 10K race and very enjoyable it proved to be. We ran along country paths, through woods, estate roads and by the sides of fields. The weather was much better than expected. The rain held off and the temperature was fine for running (albeit a little cold when you finished). The course included a couple of long steepish hills which took the stuffing out of me. I didn’t feel like an immortal god at this point and genuine Greek gods don’t get colds. I got in around in 52 minutes 42 secs on an undulating course and not feeling 100 % so I shouldn’t complain. I was thrashed by my arch rivals but only by a few minutes so there’s still room for a cunning plan.

I ran with a Cambridge and Coleridge vest and Lorna has joined a very sociable and friendly new club, Fen Edge Runners. 10 K is too far for her at present but she’s making plans for a 10 K in the near future. We know most of the Fen Edge Runners and tend to socialise with them which always adds enjoyment to any race.

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This is a pic of some of my C & C chums. I am the uncoordinated one in yellow. The runner in pink is a Fen Edge Runner who is lurking around hoping to pick up running tips and inside information from loose C & C tongues.

I’ve just seen a news item concerning today’s canonisation of John Paul 11 and John xx111   The ritual involved a container with a vial of John Paul’s blood and a container with a sliver of John’s skin. As my son Nick said “they were thinking ahead.” So these body parts were preserved in the expectation that one day in the future, possibly decades away, they would be central to a saint making ritual. Nice forward planning, Vatican!

The ceremony seemed entirely populated by elderly men with sufficient wealth to clothe themselves in very expensive fancy dress and some great hats. Didn’t see many women participating either. I’m sure that nice new Pope Francis will reform the millennia long habit of the Papacy to cross dress and add further layers of spurious gravitas to their ridiculous theatre which greatly helps to pull the wool over so many eyes.

To end on an even more depressing note, I think the English growing season for Brussels sprouts has ended!

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Aliveandrunning April 26 2014

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We finally tracked down a photo of my son Nick, (who did his first Cambridge parkrun last week)  on Flickr, courtesy of Bruce Grimley. Nick’s the one on the right of the picture, of course. The chap leading is my chum Maurice who has  a happy disposition when running unlike my own photo which catches me with an expression between extreme constipation and utter desolation. I have tried to smile for the camera occasionally but usually look like I’m deranged. In my head I’m more akin to the young  Clint Eastwood or Paul Newman or even Brad Pitt, gliding along with a cool detachment and causing less stylish runners to jump into ditches lest they impede my progress.

Today’s Cambridge parkrun was slow but I ran with a cold so I wasn’t displeased. Tomorrow, I’ll be doing the Ickworth 10k just outside of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk with loads of friends and acquaintances and Lorna will be taking pictures. My arch rivals will lord it over me because I’m not fully fit but no matter. I will arise like the phoenix from the ashes next weekend when I’m doing four races ( 2 x 5k, 1 x4.5 miles and 1 x 10k).

Very well done to son Dan who came third out of nearly 200 at Valentines parkrun in East London. I came 165th out of  405. How the mighty have fallen. Once I was a young running god and drank ambrosia from Waitrose. Now it’s tap water (although I sometimes indulge in a little tea ritual but that’s another story).

Just time for a couple of rants. I’m feeling increasingly sorry for the check out staff in my local Tesco who obviously have to follow a tight script with each customer. They are now obliged to thank customers for waiting if there is more than one in the line irrespective of how long the wait is, even if it’s only a few minutes. The other day the security guard caught my eye as I left and said “Thank you”. For what? Not shoplifting? Not starting a brawl? I’ve managed to stop myself screaming hysterically when a (usually young) checkout person implores me to “have a nice day” but it’s only a matter of time before I succumb. I’ve begun to long for the days when staff avoided eye contact and said nothing or were even surly. I tend to chose the oldest check out people because they frequently go off script and sometimes moan. How refreshing!

Pope Francis is due to canonise John Paul 11 tomorrow in St. Mark’s Square, Rome. Is this one of the Popes who successfully ignored the growing sex abuse issues concerning it’s own priests, took no remedial action, allowed them to carry on abusing children in other dioceses and effectively put the interests of the Catholic Church before the interests of the victims. I listened to an apologist speak on BBC Radio 4 (Saturday PM). He spoke about John Paul’s piety and holiness and instanced his assistance in overthrowing Communism and inspiration of young people to be Christians. How credulous people are! He was CEO of a ruthless, self serving organisation devoted to it’s own ends and wealth but obliged  to maintain the fiction of having the ultimate moral compass. Just like the pharmaceuticals and armaments industries but with added divine pretentions.

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Aliveandrunning March 17 2014

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Following last weekend’s Cambridge half marathon when I ran a good time and then made it memorable by becoming dehydrated and requiring medical assistance (see blog dated March 10), I am now back to form. I ran with the club during the week and parkrun on the weekend. The Cambridge parkrun run director and her partner, who have bright red hair and a Mohican respectively, were stepping aside after four years. Dozens of regulars wore convincing wigs in celebration (see pic above). I think I should have spent more time finessing my coiffure. My lush Mohican came rather low and I had difficulty seeing my way around the course. I was also carrying a placard so my time was slow. Still, we had a lot of cake afterwards and everyone was very appreciative of the hard work they have put in since parkrun began in Cambridge.

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Here I am modelling my tattoo sleeves after the race. Generally I am anti tattoo but these sleeves are hardly distinguishable from the real thing (as long as they are viewed 20 metres away with sun glasses). I am now scouring the internet to acquire a whole body lycra  tattoo stocking! How cool would that be in Cambridge Central Library or a Tesco super store.

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It’s curious how many runners revere cake! Very few of them seem to worry about the sugar or fat or calorie content. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable, OTT morning.

I attended a funeral last week and had yet further proof that, all to frequently, there’s nothing less Christian than a practicing Christian. I’ve heard examples from family before and also seen it with my own eyes. The genteel, comfortable middle classes Church goers don’t seem to be able to welcome anyone who doesn’t conform to their particular norms. This is very clear when their services are attended by individuals whose behaviour may be loud or inappropriate or if they look different. They simply get ignored or sidelined or frozen out. I witnessed the good church folks in action against a women who probably has a borderline personality disorder in the reception after the funeral service. They really should have been able to accommodate her and make the effort to respond and make her feel comfortable. But they didn’t. And haven’t done on other occasions. I don’t like being around such hypocritical people. I don’t like to see such displays of prejudice and unkindness. They don’t take their own moral teachings seriously. They are self righteous nitwits!

Hot news! Scientists have found evidence of the signal left by the super-rapid expansion of space that occurred fractions of a second following the Big Bang, leading immediately to the creation of the Universe. That fraction is estimated to be a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second. Wow!! That’s even faster than the Tories took to start dismantling the NHS by letting the for profit companies take over services. That’s why we need health union leaders of the calibre of Bob Crow who very sadly died suddenly last week, aged 52.