5 Challenges

As my last two posts have been very focused on jogging I thought it may be sensible to explain why this is as if any one actually reads this blog they may be surprised by the sudden change in focus.
As I have previously said my Mum passed away in December, my Mum was a massive inspiration to me and so, as I think is practically unavoidable, I started to think of what I could do to honour her, she was not a big one for sentiment for sentiments sake so I doubted that buying a plaque or other memorial would be worthwhile so instead I thought I should raise money for the pancreatic cancer trust - pancreatic cancer is the 5th most common cancer and people diagnosed are afforded just a 3% survival rate. - my plan therefore was to run the marathon for PCT, the only problem being that I doubted I could run down the road yet alone 26 Miles!

Last year however a very good friend of mine decided he was going to run the London Marathon, when he announced it in October I think most people found it hard to believe as he was not someone you would have thought of as a marathon runner.

After 6 and a bit hours however he crossed the finish line showing everyone who had doubted him that they were wrong and showing me that if you had the spirit and motivation that you could achieve your goals. So now I had decided next year I would be crossing that finish line either by jogging or pure determination, but I would be doing it.

But what to do and when? My first plan was to run the Windsor half marathon in October and then the London Marathon in April. However whilst working towards this (including a very sobering 1st Mile jog that really showed how much work I had to do.) I was asked through my work to join the 10,000 steps challenge.

This challenge involves walking 10,000 steps a day - as an office worker I was currently on about 4,000 so it is a substantial increase. - as it fit into my training schedule and the money I raised still went to, pancreatic cancer I  agreed and now had three challenges.

The next big change to the plan happened when I went online to book my place at Windsor only to find that they were full. As my training would take at least 20 weeks I couldn't really bring the half marathon forwards and I am going to Florida two weeks after so I did not have many options as to when I can run - to be honest the 7th October was my only free day, so I needed to find another half marathon on that day. As luck would have it there were several including the royal parks and one in Surrey, unfortunately as my luck would have it they were sold out too.

At this point I started to worry that I would not get selected for the London Marathon, as the public ballot isn't until October, and by that time everything else would be full so even if I didn't quit I may end up failing just through not being ready to commit in time. After a considerable period searching I found the Bleinham Palace half marathon on the right date, although not particularly near to home. The main problem however is that it is for the British Heart Foundation and I had intended to do both runs for Pancreatic Cancer but I am sure my Mum would have forgiven the deviation and it is still a worthy cause, and fits into my schedule. At the same time I decided I needed a back up plan in the likely event I am not selected in the London Ballot. Looking at other local marathons I saw that it was the last date to sign up for a guaranteed place for Brighton so I signed up there and then to at least make sure I had a half and full marathon booked, even if they wouldn't be my first choices.

So with three challenges set in place I started to like the idea of completing 5 challenges, if I am honest I picked 5 only as I think it sounds good. My 4th challenge is a family affair as I will be completing the Chiltern 3 peaks challenge with my Dad and my Sister to raise money for Ian Rennie Hospice at home (I know I had planned to raise all the money for PCT and this is in fact my third charity but Ian Rennie really helped my Mum so my Dad wants to give something back and again they are a great cause so I still think it is good.)

So that is my current plan.

2nd July to Mid August = 10,000 Steps for Pancreatic Cancer Trust

September = Chiltern 3 Peaks for Ian Rennie Hospice

7th October = Bleinham Half Marathon for British Heart Foundation

14th April 2013 = London or Brighton Marathon for Pancreatic Cancer Trust

As you may have noticed this leaves me short by one challenge and to be honest I have no idea what to do for it. But the way things have been so far I am pretty sure something will turn up.

Serious runner, or forget everything.

Had a big decision to make today, 2 months into my training and my wife offered to get me custom fitted for some running shoes as an anniversary gift. Whilst this may not seem like the biggest decision in the world it was huge for me as if I let her purchase them for me then it increases the pressure not to give up on my training, for the first time someone else has invested in me and shown belief that what I am doing is serious and more than just the usual post Marathon season fad. This morning if I quit it all I would be letting myself down, now if I quit I would be letting us both down.

In the end what swayed me to get it done was the same reason that it scared me. That someone believed in me enough to put their money on backing me not to give up.

The custom fitting was done at Running Free in Parkstone in Poole http://www.runningfree.net/ the actual fitting took about 15 minutes and involved running up and down the shop then swapping shoes and trying again. Luckily the shop was mostly empty so it wasn't too embarrassing (always the main worry for someone of my protracted knackerdness) after three trips up and down the store I was informed that I needed lots of support for my arches (This is about as technical as I can get) but the long and the short of it is that I left the store with a new pair of Nike Zoom structure+ 15.
Now to make sure I don't let her down.

Jogging in Poole

As I was down in Dorset to visit my Nan my jog today was in Poole. The plan for today was for 4 Miles so I ran around Upton Lake, it was a far cry from my usual exhaust filled runs on the A23. The sun was bright but had not got too strong and the breeze coming off the lake was very refreshing, although got a little too blowy at times. The path was good condition and smooth - another welcome change to street running. Only real killers were the inclines that went over the railway and the lakes inlets but a good bit of hill training always mixes it up a bit.

The jog was my fastest yet coming in at 7 MPH and taking only 30 mins to complete 3.8 miles. The path I took led to the gates of Upton Country Park so a great deal of scope to extend the run, just a shame my next jog will be back home swapping boats and breezes for Crawley in a rush hour.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/108482449

The Campaign for Elected Police Commissioners Starts Here

Once again it would appear that a significant political event is looking like it may occur unnoticed, as the title of this piece would lead you to understand I am talking about the elections in November to elect police and crime commissioners (PCC). For me this is a massive change in the political spectrum and one that I have personally supported for a long time, I am disappointed however that such a seismic switch in the political landscape should come without a referendum and a mandate from the people (As is happening for the elected mayors) obviously as a supporter of the idea I would have voted for it however there is a certain argument that could be put forward that the police service should not be accountable to politicians and that the Police must be free to uphold the law without being subject to the whims of the majority (Don’t forget that both Racial Segregations and Fascist Governments have been brought in by popular vote) so it would have been nice to have the debate first.

All that being said this is now going to be one of the most important locally elected officials, I think you could actually say the most important after all this one person will have a real effect on crime and disorder in your area and this is something that will affect everyone, for the most part the local council services are passive to use where as when it occurs crime is intrusive – If you try you can basically ignore what the council is doing where as crime can affect anyone at any time. So for this reason I am going to give the Sussex campaign as much attention as I can so at least my two readers will know a bit more about what is going on.

I am also looking to leave any party political bias out of my writing of these campaigns, my personal ideal of an elected police commissioner would be for an independent, in fact I think these roles would be ideally suited to someone with Job knowledge who also knew how the political games worked, for example Ray Mallon who is the Mayor of Middlesbrough.

In the Next Few Days I will be reviewing the people who have so far thrown their hats into the rings but for now here is the information I obtained from the Police Foundation.

But as a start here are the people that are looking to stand in the election.

Name: Paul Richards
Party: Labour
Website: http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2012/01/13/power-to-the-pccs/
Occupation: Labour Author and Commentator
Political Experience: Losing Parliamentary Candidate in Lewes

Name: Ian Chisnall
Party: Independent
Website: http://ianforpcc.wordpress.com/
Occupation: Works extensivly in the voluntary Sector including working with Brighton Street Pasters and Sussex Churches Together
Political Experience: 2004 - 2009 Member of the Sussex Court Board, Since 2004 Member of he Independant Advisory Board.

Name: Peter Jones
Party Conservatives
Website: www.votepj.com/news.aspx
Occupation: Worked in Investment Banking and was a non-executive director for a number of companies, he retired in 1994.
Political Experience: Peter Jones was elected as an East Sussex County Councillor in 1997 and leader of the council from 2001, Peter was chairman of the Sussex Police Authority from 2005 – 2007 he was also Deputy Chairman of SEEDA
Other: He is married to Ex-Conservative MP Jacqui Lait (MP for Beckenham until 2010)

Name: Paul Dendle
Party: Conservative
Website: http://www.pauldendle.blogspot.com/
Occupation: Paul was Managing Director of Avro PLC until he sold the company in 1995, in his websites profile he lists his business interests as varied among travel, technology and property.
Political Experience: Paul was elected to Arun District Council (Arundel Ward) in 2003 and has been cabinet minister for central services since 2006.

Tottenham Hotspur, Title Contenders?

So far so good for Tottenham this year, after the highs of last year’s Champions League were followed by the lows of failure to qualify it looked like our progress of late may have run aground, this season however has seen Tottenham seriously mentioned as a title contender for the first time since I can remember (I Started to support them in 1991) and it is definitely the first time I can remember them being level with points with Man Utd the business side of Christmas.

Unfortunately I have still been a spurs team throughout the 90’s and the 00’s so I am still slightly reluctant to believe that it isn’t all going to go wrong (Just too many false dawns.) this may all change however in the next six weeks as we enter our “Hell” period:

22nd January Man City (A)
31st January Wigan (H)
6th February Liverpool (A)
11th February Newcastle (H)
26th February Arsenal (A)
3rd March Man Utd (H)

Yes in 6 weeks will meet 5 of the top seven including trips to the City of Manchester, Anfield and the Emirates, this next 6 weeks should tell us if we are title challengers or just a footnote on a future sky sports premier league years programme. If we can arrive at the evening of the 3rd March in the top four then I will feel quite confidant of a top 4 finish (as I think we have a very easy run in) If we can actually win 3 or 4 of those encounters then I see no reason why we should not be considered title contenders. Personally I will happy with a draw against Manchester City and Arsenal. Think we should be able to beat Man Utd and Newcastle at the lane and would hope we can get a result from Anfield, but no matter how good we have been this year part of me will still be suspecting that we may lose all of them and be faced at the start of March with a tough road to re-qualify for the Europa League, either way these next few weeks will decide our season.

New Phone Review - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Well I finally managed to get my hands on my new handset 6 months after first looking around, The new handset is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which at the time of writing is the only phone to be featuring Android 4.0 (AKA Ice Cream Sandwich)


Initially I did not think I would be able to have this phone as it is not on sale with T-Mobile in the UK and I did not want to lose my unlimited internet so I had started to resign myself to the release of the two new HTC Quad Core Devices due for release Q2 of this year however after being offered the Nexus on Three with unlimited internet for £41 a month I decided it may well be time to switch from
the network I had been with since I got my first mobile back in the 90’s. I called T-Mobile to ask for a PAC-Code and instead they told me I could actually get the handset from Carphone Warehouse, not just that but they would give me a £20 a month reduction (to £25 a month) and I could keep my unlimited internet. So I picked up my phone Saturday morning at 10am and it took until about 10:35 until I was hooked.

Looks wise when I first saw the handset in the shop my first thought was “Massive” but strangely enough as soon as I got it in my hand it didn’t occur to me, If I place it next to my old Desire again I am shocked by how big it is but whenever it is back in my hand it just seems to fit, perhaps this is just that I have big hands, but it feels a good size. The Shape of the phone also helps with a very thin top side 6mm with a much wider base (11mm) this has the effect of the phone feeling light but with a substantial weight where you are holding it which gives it a good feeling of quality. The most noticeable thing on first glance is that there is a complete lack of any buttons on the front (In fact there are only two buttons on the phone (On and Volume)) this is likely to become the Ice Cream Sandwich standard as the new Android features on screen standard buttons (Home, Back and Multi-tasking)

Ice Cream Sandwich features a few interesting features many of which are more fun than reliable but show the way things are going to go:

Face Lock: Alongside the standard Android unlock options (Pin or Pattern) ICS features a face unlock option, simply look at the screen and it opens, now whilst this is a fun feature it can be slightly temperamental in less than perfect light and makes people think you are using your phone as a mirror, so you may seem a little vain, you can always bypass the face lock to access a pattern or pin
unlock instead.

People: The people app has had an update since my last Android Device (Running FroYo) particularly the ability to link in more accounts so I can link in my Googlemail contacts, Twitter Contacts, G+ Contacts and Linkedin Contacts. Now I am sure you may have noticed the obvious omission from there in that I did not include Facebook; unfortunately the ongoing disputes between Google and Facebook mean that people does not feature native support of facebook contacts. Obviously as I can not be bothered to come up with pictures of all my friends this was a bit annoying, luckily there is a way around it via a third party application, there are a few available but I personally selected HaxSync as it had been highly recommended – it set me back 62p but as soon as I had that and facebook app installed I could link my contacts to my facebook friends. Another good feature of people is the ability to “Star” your favourite contacts meaning that you can split off the people you
use most often who are displayed in a simple to use grid.

Voice Type: The voice typing feature is now a standard on all areas where you can type and seems remarkably responsive, I have dictated quite long text messages with so far no issue whatsoever.

Multitasking: One of the three buttons that exists on the bottom of the screen is for multitasking and selecting it will open up all of the open apps which you can return to with just a tap, or shut down with a quick swipe. A very similar interface is used for notifications where you can swipe to dismiss or touch to select.

There are plenty of upgraded experiences as well, such as the Apps menu which just feels nicer to navigate than a long list and contains all of your widgets as well, also the Google search bar is now a permanent feature at the top of the phone, and the long awaited arrival of the folders for your apps allowing you to better organise your apps so you can really take advantage of the 14GB of internal memory. Everything combines to make the phone feel both cutting edge and simple & intuitive.

If I was pushed for a downside I would have to say that the lack of an external memory card is a little disappointing but with 14GB internal memory I doubt it will cause me too much of an issue between now and next June when I’m next up for renewal.

Social-Capitalism

I have been thinking a lot lately about the idea of responsible capitalism personally I think from Westminster at the moment it is a lot of “Sound Biting” and an attempt to appease people with words they know but do not understand the meaning of, That said my ideal system would be what I would call the social-capitalist system where instead of kicking the free market with its size 90 boots the government could instead operate benevolent companies in the market place (For Example the BBC in Media, Northern Rock (had they not taken a massive loss to sell them) in banking, British Energy (Again had they not been sold) in the utilities) These companies which would by law have to strive to be profit making and would not be allowed to receive tax funding could then be used to provide a socialist element in a capitalist system.

This could include taking the unemployed on to provide skills and work experience (At
the same time making them work for their benefits) They could also ensure that price
fixing would be impossible as they would always look to lower end consumer prices whilst ensuring that there was still a level of profit to be made (Otherwise people would stop running businesses) and finally each company would provide a decent amount of money into the exchequer to remove a lot of the tax burden from the private sector. This way the government can manipulate the market rather than trying unsuccessfully to control it.

The important fact that seems to be lost of the protesters at St Paul’s is that unlike socialism and communism which try and control the way people behave to reach an ideological result capitalism is actually looking at things the other way as it does not try and change the way people behave but rather tries to explain the way people have behaved since society began, There is no way to abandon capitalism as it is our default setting and every attempt to move away from capitalism soon reverts to a close proximity to capitalism as people look to return to their natural behaviour, the challenge therefore is not to remove capitalism but to use it
to achieve the required aims, manipulate not devastate.

Not Been Around For A While

If I had any regular readers I am sure you would have noticed that my blog has not been active in the last few months, My mother was taken unwell with cancer back in July and to be honest I really couldn’t be bothered with much other than trying to spend as much time with her as possible. Unfortunately despite all of her efforts my Mum lost the battle two days before Christmas and so has now gone on to whatever adventure lay ahead of us all.

I would therefore like to take a few seconds of blog silence to remember my Mum a lady who was to me without equal and in life someone who touched the hearts of everyone she met.

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Good bye Mum, you will never be forgotten.