Bibliophilia

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Aliveandrunning June 10 2014 Juneathon Day 10

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This is my little friend, Sidney and he lives on the rockery beside the new pond. He’s not a great conversationalist but he’s reliable and has a god heart. He has assured me that the mushroom he’s acquired is not “magic” and that everything is just fine in Fairyland.

Out with the club tonight. We ran just over a couple of miles to the foot of a hill, a Cambridge hill, which means some people might dispute whether or not it met the criteria for a hill. A wise person said it rose 23 metres. It looked like  a gentle incline from the bottom. We split into groups of 5 and chased up to the  top the top as fast as possible, a distance of around 400 metres. Not far, really and we did that 5 times.  A small group of runners, including me, went up a sixth time. And then we trotted back to the University Track. A highly technical person revealed we ran 7.3 miles. We warmed down , congratulated each other on our fine performances and went home to a nice cup of tea.

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Aliveandrunning June 9 2014 Juneathon Day 9

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I don’t read these books, of course. I just get them for their titles or cover design. Or, if they are published by Penguin, I get them because they are published by Penguin. Why? The answer to this question must lay deep in my psyche. A large team of psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists would have to work in shifts to explain this behaviour.

No, I’ve changed my mind. I will read them because they are clearly interesting. I’ll alarm myself with the Penguin and have a laugh with the short book on humour (except it won’t be funny).

Anyway, who buys hard copies of books these days. Surely only losers! They collect dust, attract spiders and clutter up the place. So last century. So much more convenient to download e-books onto the e-device of my choice. And as for buying hardbacks, that’s the equivalent of  acquiring a valve radiogramme  to listen to the World Service.

A short run this afternoon, simply to placate the Juneathon secret police who will surely persecute me if I fail to run everyday. It was hot, around 24c and I continue to feel tired running although this is mainly confined to the first 5 minutes. Tomorrow,  I’ll be running with the club in the evening. This requires a more sustained effort but we warm up properly and I find this more manageable.

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Aliveandrunning June 4 2014 Juneathon Day 4

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1. The sensible, go-through-immediately door (requiring the slightest degree of stooping) after it’s radical, no-nonsense haircut.

2. I am snapped assertively addressing a group of local residents and employing demonstrative body language to convey  I am in charge of the village. I am informing them that everyone is obliged to run 5k each day and eating chocolate products is forbidden.

3.This black hole spontaneously formed in the woods where I take Rupert the dalmatian for a walk. Spooky or what! What?

Juneathon Day 4. I took the risk of drawing the attention of the increasing number of zombies roaming around on the outskirts of our village and went for a lonely run down the course of an old Roman road called Akerman Street, now a wide grass track bounded by trees and bushes with cultivated fields behind them. The Roman gods were quiet today and I’ll attempt to commune with them on another occasion. It’s odd to consider this would have been a busy bye-way of transport, travel and commerce 1600 years ago. And now I run along it dressed like a banana. That’s progress for you!

Society in today’s Guardian has an article titled “Psychiatric support teams can save hospitals millions.” It describes how on-site psychiatric care in acute hospitals can greatly reduce, or much better manage, resources taken up by the estimated 25% of patients who have a mental illness in addition to their physical illness. Apparently, most acute hospitals are not equipped to deal with mental health disorders that come through their doors, according to a consultant psychiatrist. It was ever the same. Everyone working in general hospitals and psychiatric teams has practical experience of such problems and such a scenario will have been recognised for decades. This article seems to focus on the elderly but the same situation pertains to all ages. These well funded pilots and projects simply underline what can be achieved with appropriately applied services. No funding, no service country-wide but every so often a pilot gets some cash allocated and reinvents the wheel.   bit.ly/1ovTDiL

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Aliveandrunning Janathon January 11

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Day 11. From this to that! The post race snap of my new trail shoes doesn’t really do justice to the mud love-in that took place at Wimpole Estate 1st anniversary parkrun today. And, unbelievably, I didn’t win it, thanks to the 72 people that barged in front of me. To put it another way, if those 72 people had stayed in bed rather than get up for a 9 am start race, I would have been covered in glory as well as mud.

It was a glorious day. A blue sky, low, very bright sun ( I accept the sun is generally bright in a cloudless sky: it just seemed extra bright today) and a little too cold for me but manageable. 207 finished, the first coming in at 19 minutes 13 seconds and the last recorded at 55 minutes 28 seconds. That’s the thing about parkrun; it’s completely inclusive (with the proviso that you are able to run or walk). As for the conditions underfoot, we started off on a puddle and soil infested asphalt path and then transferred to marshland, swamp, morass, bog and finally quagmire in that order. However, I was impressed by the quality of the mud. It was runner friendly, forgiving, light hearted. It had a certain je ne sais quoi unlike the evil mud at Hinchingbrooke on New Years Day which tried to drown me.

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Me running past Wimpole Hall and with my daughter Isobelle who also took part. My son Dan ran Valentine’s Park 5K and got a personal best on fast, flat paths. Lorna took some great photos and we met up with a load of friends. A very enjoyable morning. The only sour note? Their second hand bookshop (previously loved and treasured then abandoned books) was not open before 11 am and we left at 10.45. OK, I can deal with it.

I felt tired when I sat down in the afternoon and started to doze. The sun shone and the temperature had risen a little higher so I went for another run lasting around 45 minutes. Much more alert after I returned. Note to self : when exhausted run for an hour plus.

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Aliveandrunning2013 December 7

I’m struggling to regain my running form after my calf strain in October/November. I haven’t been doing longish training runs and my running week seems to have lost its rhythm. The barometer of success is parkrun. Not only have I failed to beat my arch rival Mike but I am being outpaced by runners who are usually behind me. Woe is me! I am at least 30 SECONDS off my normal pace for a 5K race. That’s a very long time compared with the Big Bang and the creation of the Universe 13.7 billion years ago. On the other hand it’s no time at all if you believe God did the hard work in 6 days. Time to employ a cunning plan to return to form and mop up those superfluous seconds.

The miracle of Nelson Mandela and his associates. White South Africans escaped the retribution they might have expected after decades of cruelty, murder, destruction of human rights, extreme inequality and poor health care for the black majority.

Went to hear Raymond Tallis and Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury discuss the issues concerning Science and Religion. It took place at Heffers bookshop in central Cambridge after the shop had closed. Heffers is a large general and academic bookshop and puts on regular literary events. This was the first event we had attended. There was a strong sense of being in a wonderful environment where you only had to reach out to touch a book, even when you were sitting down listening to the speakers. All manner of naughty thoughts ran through my mind. I fancied I co-owned the entire shop (I don’t mind sharing books with others), I considered moving in and I pondered Lorna’s reaction if I bought thousands of pounds of books (helpfully the shop was still open for purchases following the talk (which we enjoyed). Being a disciplined sort of chap, I pulled myself together and left quietly without causing a scene.

Into Cambridge again this afternoon. We meant to go to the “bohemian” Mill Road Winter Fayre today but didn’t get any further than a clutch of charity shops 15 minutes walk away. The large Oxfam shop has an excellent book section but their staff have a serious attitude problem. Because I have more than enough books at home I selflessly decided to browse rather than make a purchase. As I made my way out, empty handed, a sales assistant barred my way and declared I wasn’t permitted  to leave without buying several books. I looked at him incredulously and laughed in his face. Attempting to push past him at least six of his colleagues suddenly appeared out of nowhere and I instinctively knew that my high minded decision not buy anything was doomed. I finally capitulated when someone flicked my earlobe and suggested I was “frightened of books.” I chose four items, resentfully, paid up quickly and stormed out, my dignity in tatters. I won’t be going back there, thank you very much. at least until next week. I really hope their attitude improves but I suspect not.

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Aliveandrunning November 23

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Decided to go to Wimpole Estate parkrun today. Our 5K run takes us twice past the main house, the largest in Cambridgeshire and dating from 1640. The course takes us around the parkland and incorporates a medium short hill which is steep in parts. I have tried to run up it in the past but now I walk, or rather stride, a section because it’s quicker than a slow jog. It was very chilly and on the muddy side. I wore gloves, trackster bottoms and a heavy running jacket because I feel the cold acutely when the temperature  falls beyond a certain point. Of course some people wear shorts and vests in defiance of the cold and last year, when it fell to minus 10-11C there were still individuals wearing summer kit. The run went OK but the time was inevitably slow for me. Traction was poor and the ground was soft underfoot. I enjoyed it, however and I was only a minute outside my personal best on this course. I didn’t stop for coffee because none of my chums were there. Lorna is still a long way from starting running again and isn’t coming along to parkruns. I was therefore a lonely running god, my only audible human interaction confined to thanking the marshals at the gates. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Once I could be regularly seen sipping barista created coffee in the Wimpole restaurant, surrounded by friends and engage in light banter.Perhaps I would indulge in some limited badinage but I never stooped to persiflage. They were but distant memories today but one single, beautiful thought kept me going. The anticipation of the joy of browsing in the excellent second hand bookshop! But the Fates were against me this morning. What greater woe can a bibliophile experience than to face huge closed doors, possibly 6 metres high, barring the way into the Courtyard containing the aforesaid bookshop. In common parlance, I was too early and bookshop hadn’t opened yet. Greatly irritated, I attempted to split the oak doors asunder by using a particularly powerful glare but to no avail. Crushed in spirit, I called it a day and headed home.

Lorna had a scan on her ankle this week. She is considered to have  Achilles insertional tendonitis. It’s still swollen after 6 months and can be painful after walking even short distances. Running is out of the question. Next week we will get the results of the scan and a decision about treatment will be made. I do hope she will be back running  early next year. I  do miss running with her.

Good article in the Guardian concerning the destructive nature of the competition laws on the NHS.  http://bit.ly/1hNvh4z

The Sun newspaper has a daily circulation of 2.8 million. Big bold headlines yesterday SUICIDE MUM IS WATCHING OVER JOEY. This is a reference to Joey Essex, a young actor in a reality TV programme who is currently a contestant in another reality TV programme called I’m a Celebrity….Get Me Out of Here. The celebs are living in the jungle and undergo “trials” like eating insects or grubs and having various creatures crawl over them in confined spaces. The headline refers to Joey’s mother who committed suicide when he was a child. More evidence that at least 2.8 million people in the UK have switched off, or possibly permanently deleted, their critical faculties. Note to self : devise a sensor to identify Sun readers and enable me to take evasive action.

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Aliveandrunning2013 October 19

It’s hard not running. I feel more tired and physically slower, I’m eating too much and I’m mildly resentful of running buddies who have the nerve to keep on running rather than show solidarity with me and hang up their shoes until I’ve fully recovered. My calf is no longer aching or sore when pressed but the swelling persists. In three weeks, I’m registered to do the Bonfire Burn 10K. I would be able to complete it but there would be a strong chance of re-injuring my calf and setting me back further. Anyway, I’ll see how I progress overt the next fortnight. There’s an equally strong chance I’ll make the wrong decision.

We volunteered at Wimpole Estate parkrun handing out the finish tokens at the end of the race (which are then scanned alongside  a personal barcode and  appear online as a results table). The weather held and the parkland setting was as beautiful as ever. We had coffee with our friends and then we retired to the second hand bookshop where I underwent a near mystical olfactory experience. Yes, that’s right ! A smell, an odor, a fragrance. The perfume of books on wooden shelves. The scent of old fashioned libraries which only contained physical tomes. I had only taken three steps inside when my not so sensitive nostrils took me back to to my childhood and adolescence. I do know a sizeable number of book people actually sniff them as a part of a sensory experience which digital devices cannot provide. Don’t worry if you are such a person. It’s completely normal and entirely conducive to good mental health. Anyway after recovering  my poise, I bought Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach and three Pelican Freud Library paperbacks, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis and The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. The Freud volumes are not difficult to read but do require a degree of concentration. However you can dip into them. Sometimes you can feel that Sigmund is talking directly to you. His cultural world and psychological insights continue to fascinate and resonate equally. There is an otherness about his writing which in these times of evidence based research is refreshing. That’s an example of the kind of reasoning which I employ to convince me to buy a book. I have an array of different justifications for various types of books or magazines. I usually succeed in making the right decision.

We’ve got a pair of tickets to see the austere looking Donna Tartt in Cambridge soon. I read The Secret History around 1992 and liked it. I’ll have to get a copy of The Goldfinch and get it signed. “Thank you, Ms Tartt. I’ll be sure to buy your next novel when it’s published in ten years’ time. By the way, have you ever thought of going blond?”

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Aliveandrunning2013 September 29

Cambridge parkrun went well. No problems with my right calf muscle and I was only 22 seconds away from a personal best. My arch rival, Mike, beat me by 17 seconds but ” vengeance is mine, sayeth the runner” and we go head to head next week in the Wimpole Hall Estate Hoo Haar half marathon. Lovely, sunny weather for the 5K parkrun. Lorna volunteered, scanning finishers’ barcodes and, after the race,  we had coffee, with friends, outside in the warm sun. Why wouldn’t you do parkrun at 9 am on Saturday morning? Staying in bed often results in feeling lethargic during the day and susceptible people are at risk from Krispey Kremes or other dangerous sugar and fat confections if they don’t take active steps to wake themselves up. If you are feeling down in mood, running and particularly social runs can help you to manage your mood or positively alter your mindset. Runners readily form communities and everyone can belong. There are so many more available races these days and it can work out fairly expensive in terms of entry fees. Soon, people will be turning to crime to fund their running habit. But parkrun is free! They only ask you to volunteer occasionally (and this is fun rather than a chore). It gives an insight into the amount of organisation required to stage a run and allows you to contribute to its success. Parkrun is very inclusive ; parents frequently run with babies in buggies, carry toddlers or run with older children. You don’t have to be a “serious runner” or particularly fit but it will motivate you to think about what you would like to do regarding levels of fitness and how you could realistically achieve those goals.

At the moment, I think I will be sufficiently fit to do the Wimpole half marathon. I have done very little training, due to injury, and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to complete the course without calf pains. If I feel uncomfortable, I will stop running. After more than 30 years, the penny has finally dropped. DON’T RUN ON AN INJURY ! It’s so tempting. How easily we can delude ourselves and become  unrealistically optimistic. We find we can run the race and the pain hasn’t been so bad. Then we discover, at our leisure, that we have compounded the injury which might have cleared up in a third  of the time  it will now take. Anyway, that’s the theory. But if I’m just ahead of Mike and my calf starts to twang, no way am I going to pull up and let my arch rival beat me so easily. In fact I will redouble my effort and push on, even if I need to be stretchered off at the finish line.

Today, we spectated at the Bourn to Run 10K where Mike and Sue were running. Both ran well over an undulating trail course and their young daughter, Emily, did the 3K race. A second excellent day of weather with unbroken sunshine and early Autumn warmth. We met loads of running friends of all abilities and it was an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday morning. Again, why wouldn’t you want to be a part of that? If you experience problems with your mood, here’s a gold standard activity (running or volunteering or spectating) to mitigate and manage those difficulties.

Chief Constable Mike Barton of Durham Police has called for the decriminalisation of Class A drugs and advocates the care and treatment of addicts rather than criminalising them. He argues that the  disappearance of the criminal element of drugs removes the income stream of criminal groups, erodes their power and influence and allows for a “controlled environment” for the dissemination of addicts’ drugs, possibly administered under the auspices of the NHS. This approach has been implemented, or part implemented, in a few other countries. I don’t know what the outcomes have been but it is a dramatic change of tack that is increasingly being discussed. Unfortunately these kinds of controversial measures are laden with political risk for the party bringing in the appropriate legislation. The government would be denounced and pilloried by the right wing media whose demographic comprise the frightened middle classes, unthinking people, bigots and the mindset that requires all transgressions to be punished. I presume the coalition, or rather the Tories, won’t genuinely address the issue or will dismiss it.

Lorna pointed out a statistic in yesterday’s Guardian. “For 36% of Britons , a tidy home is a greater pleasure than a holiday, a night out or sex But the study showed that woman still do most of the tidying).” Source : survey of householder appliance manufacturer Beko. Ye Gods! What inferior kind of holiday, night out or sex are these people having?

Random pictures of books in our home. Reading a book, of course, is a greater pleasure than keeping a tidy house.

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Aliveandrunning2013 September 26

Hooray, I’m into the Cambridge half marathon for 2014. Various off spring are also trying to get registered. I got in today because I had pre-registered and have a Cambridge postcode, tomorrow registration is open for those who previously emailed their interest and on September 30, registration is open for everyone else……if places are still available ! The first tranche of registrations (which includes ME) has taken over 2000 of the 4,600 places in under 12 hours.

Great local story in our city newspaper, Cambridge News, which was taken up by the nationals. Trumpington Village Hall which hires out rooms or the Hall to groups like the Women’s Institute, pensioners and the Brownies, took an unremarkable booking for a “relationship support meeting.” In reality, the booking was undertaken by a bondage group who intended to provide lessons in “flogging, spanking and domination.” The paper described the individual workshops and sessions and noted that the low cost fee included tea, coffee, pastries and biscuits. One of the sessions offered Kink on a Budget, focusing on BDSM, “without breaking the bank.” On September 25, the paper’s headlines announced a bondage workshop at Trumpington Village Hall (with considerable detail) and on September 26, the headlines reported that the  village hall trustees had cancelled the booking (with more substantial detail of sessions that would now not take place and quotes from outraged local residents). The hall manager said “We provide services for little old ladies and child care groups. Some of our little old ladies who come to play bingo will be upset.” The articles marvelously illustrated the British stereotype of condemning anything sexually unconventional by implication or insinuation rather than straight forward criticism or argument. The clear message is it’s smut from which vulnerable people (little old ladies and children) need to be protected. The case for mild sexual diversity in the Cambridgeshire villages has received a body blow (with no sexual frisson in this instance).

In the near future I will be posting pictures of my books where they live, sit or are stacked, dreaming of an air conditioned, low light, purpose built library extension. I may also include pictures of piles of papers and magazines too. The world waits with bated breath.