My goodness.

It really is incredibly shiny.

Excellent service from the folks at Swim Stop (the photo at Simply Swim was better).

Browsing the Project Scotland web site (their “electronic office”) I discovered something wondrous.

Videos!

I nearly had to buy another keyboard.

Sadly I can’t embed them, or link directly to them (you’re missing a trick there guys), but here is where you will find them:

• Volunteer FAQ
• About us
• Ginger

If you find any more, let me know.

I’ve been using Podrunner on my Sony Walkman when running for absolute yonks. Only the faster BPMs work for me, which means a lot the slower mixes aren’t so good for my purposes, but I really like having an hour or so of fixed BPM when I’m running. My favourite is Velocity Angel, and has been ever since I downloaded it, even though the faster Velociraptor is slightly better paced. Having Velocity Angel’s opening sequence (in the words of DJ Steveboy “a gorgeous orchestral piece by Aluminium”) in my head got me through the tortuous run leg of the Edinburgh Sprint Triathlon in June.

Anyway, yay for Steve but boo for us. Podrunner has its first sponsor and the change in music licensing means that from 1st November the archives are disappearing. So if you’re a podrunner virgin, get your ass over there now and download a bunch.

…bus fare and fizzy juice! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!

[ObNonComprehending: the above line is stolen from a radio ad for Project Scotland, because every time the guy in the ad says “fizzy juice” I corpse. Play the video. it’s the same guy. And I felt like it. So there.]

[ObStillNonComprehending: in Scotland “juice” can refer to any soft drink. Not just stuff squeezed from fruit. So “a tin o’ fizzy juice” can be Lilt or Tango or even Irn Bru. In England “juice” only means stuff that comes from fruit.]

Well that’s it.

I have finished the year-long training programme that has recently had me working late nights and weekends to get all the various bits and pieces done by the deadline. I’ve squeezed a year’s worth of work into 9 months. Why? Because I wanted to move to Edinburgh (five triathlon clubs to choose from!) and if I wanted the job in Edinburgh I had to be done by the end of October.

Monday morning I start work in Edinburgh, the land of Bean Scene, Lush, the Commie Pool, the Bicycle Works, cool nightclubs and cool people. Frood and I are planning on moving over there so we’re not having to commute from Fife. Maybe even before New year so I don’t have to get up so early for the NYD Tri. Only 8 weeks to go!

Yay!

Thanks to the folks I’ve been working with for the past 18 months for the scrummy Lush goodie-box and the leaving lunch. Much appreciated.

When you’ve got a link to EntryCentral — postcode filtered — on your links bar.

Haddington is next weekend and will be my last triathlon this year. I can’t find an entry form for Balerno despite looking in all the places I can look and the website of the club that runs it has been down for months. So it doesn’t look like that will be a go-er. I haven’t done any running since Aberfeldy, which isn’t worrying me as much as it should given that I’m racing in a week. I’m going to go for one today after stripping down Peregrine’s headset (please let it be a simple grease problem!) I’m quite looking forward to the end of the season. I’m planning on spending the winter hill-running, mountain biking, walking and weight-training; although if I want to do a middle distance next autumn I can’t let up on the structured training for too long.

Frood and I had a great holiday in Gairloch, even though it rained and/or howled like a banshee almost the whole time. I’ll post about that later, after some quality mechanic time with my Pinarello.

Bedding in my new shoes by wearing them round the house; testing my new pack by chucking stuff in it and jumping up and down; and staring out the window at the mirror calm sea mroofing because I had to go to the dentist today — again — and if this patch fails the tooth is coming out, so I have to mollycoddle it and can’t go swimming.

So that’s my dull day, enlivened only by that special feeling you only ever get the first Monday of a two-week break from work.

Going shopping for dinner the way it should be done, by bike and trailer (the fish is called Benji, and that’s a very long story):

Drinking stuff made from fruit and clouds:

Easily pleased, me.

The Clubhouse is back up after our host borked like the Swedish Chef in the middle of a chicken shortage. Again. I had to console myself by re-reading old episodes of the Chronicles. I’d forgotten how much fun some of them are.

Not only that but Frood got free hodilay gin and there’s a cool story about clever crows on the Beeb!

What a grand start to my hodilay!

Bought these socks in Run4it today. Just so I could bring them home and take a picture to share with the world. Check that first bullet point.

Engineered to help athletes go faster by reducing aerodynamic drag on the ankle

Yeah, cos that aerodynamic drag on my ankle is adding whole nanoseconds to my run time. I’m sure that I’ll really feel the benefit of that special aerodynamic engineering in my next race.

I laughed so much I nearly peed.

Has led to me being sent home. They had to give me as much anaesthetic as they would for a full extraction, as it was a partial extraction of a broken cusp. As I’m resistant to anaesthetics I still felt it. Even so, that’s a lot of chemical to have injected into your head. I’m still suffering the effects so it was decided all round I’d be better off at home this afternoon.

Anyway. Just thought I’d catch up on the rounds and cadged this from Dooj (who still hasn’t put me on his friends list, the bastard).

I disagree with the naturalist being an intelligence by the way. Of course I notice that shit. I get paid to.