Sad to say but I reckon I’m going to have to join a gym if I want to keep my hand in with some reasonably enjoyable exercising over the winter. This is normally when I slack off but if I want to be in a reasonable shape to tackle the Heb next year then keeping up a regimen is important. If I joined one of the gyms in Dunfermline I’d probably never go, but one has opened up outside the back steps of Waverley station which I would have to walk past twice a day. Nice and handy for either morning or evening sessions.

New light! After failing to be able to distinguish between path and ditch while in the Pentlands the other week, I decided to get something with a few more lumens to its name. Behold my new Exposure Joystick. Even if I don’t get into the hills for a little while I intend to take it out onto the b-roads of Fife and Perthshire to give it a trial in the next few days.

As seems to be the way, I’d arranged to something else on the second day of the seminar and this time my intention was to either get out on the bike or do some decent running. There was also the small matter of going to see Dananananaykroyd in the evening. During downtime on Saturday we were chatting about what I could do today and I decided it would be on foot and it would be some off-road running.

Not wanting to go too far, I opted to head for the Lomonds and take in both West and East summits. Unfortunately, the weather had something against that and it was blowing a gale while lashing down for a couple of hours after I got up. However, I decided that shouldn’t stop me so I set off anyway.

Sad to say, I only managed the first summit. As I crested West Lomond the wind really picked up and I didn’t even pause at the trig point. Once over the summit I tried to contour round to see if East was a possibility. The driving wind and rain coupled with 20 metre visibility turned me back.

Lunch at the Pillars of Hercules was lovely as always. Since there were no seats inside I sat under the porch, wrapped in a fetching red blanket.

I decided to skip the gig. I was feeling quite tired and really didn’t fancy driving into the centre of Glasgow, making my way out to Oran Mor, watching a double support act gig and then driving back across. Starting the week on precious little sleep isn’t the best way to go about things.

Ah well, I’m sure I’ll see them at some point in the futre.

It turns out that in combination with tense hip and thigh muscles, the structure of my left foot is a little off as well. All this lopsidedness meets at the knee and causes it problems. The good news is that this seems to be fairly straightforward to keep under control by stretching and concentrating on particular exercises.

So, I headed out on the bike for a very gentle hour’s pedalling and, for the most part, I had no problems. There were a couple of minor twinges and after a month’s rest small hills caused more puffing then necessary but at least I’m back in the saddle. I’ll be keeping to a more structure training plan from now on.

I probably just pulled a tendon and it was taking its time to heal up, my continued training not helping. The osteopath also noted that I had very flat feet, a left knee cap which turns in while standing and very tense hip muscles. This has caused a bit of an imbalance of strength between my legs. All of those combined wouldn’t have helped either. After the inspection there followed half an hour of various stretches and massage. Some of this involved having an elbow pushed deep into various muscles. She commented that I must have a high pain threshold as a lot of guys find it very painful.

The plan of action is simple; rest it up some more (though tai-chi is allowed) and I’ll head in for a follow up next week. Until then I’ve got some new stretches to do in the evenings with a view to loosening up my stupidly tense muscles. It didn’t surprise me to hear that more of my muscles and limbs refuse to relax, it’s what I have a big problem during tai-chi as well.

It has certainly been a bit strange having so much more time in the evenings, most of which has been spent procrastinating though it’s not bad to have a week off. I’ve got through a couple of the unwatched DVDs and I’m going to sit down and play some XBox which hasn’t been switched on for nearly a month as far as I can tell. While I don’t want to get into the habit of coming home and sitting on the sofa until it’s time to sleep, a change of pace is relaxing.

The King of Kong

Although it’s well known that the documentary is more fiction than fact it’s still incredibly entertaining. I’ll definitely need to go back and reread the interview in Retro Gamer in which three of the main protagonists give their side of the story which, for the most part, seem to be at odds with what’s on screen. Ah documentary, it appears to be a dead idea. I wonder what we should call works like this which are clearly one-sided and are made to entertain rather than inform.

Eden Lake

Although I’d been warned off this at the last Zombie Club night I was pleasantly surprised. There’s an incredibly sadistic streak running through this slice of English horror though little that feels particularly fresh. To be fair, and I’ve probably said this before, there are very few films of this type that do feel fresh.

The cast all do very well, especially the group of teenagers as their group becomes more fractured. They could have done with at least one fewer though as the dialogue was spread a bit too thin at times.

What sets this apart from another film I watched very recently (though have yet to post about) is that this doesn’t feel like it comes under the heading of “torture porn”. Although their motivation isn’t anything to write home about the antagonists are at least believable. For most of the time at least, but I did feel that the conclusion was too obvious and relied on too many coincidences.

Sadly, I see the writer has a hand in Descent 2, a film for which there is no need.

Yesterday it pissed down with rain all day meaning I couldn’t get my bike repairs done. Today it’s a glorious day, I’ve done the repairs and the brakes are still fucked. Practically worse than before.

So I now have to take the bike in to Edinburgh to put it into a workshop because all the shops around me are shut on Sunday and I can’t get home from work in time to take it in during the week. This means I’ll be wasting a couple of hours while I could be out running instead.

Oh well, I’ve give the Cohens a call and at least I might be able to meet up with them while they’re over. I’m certainly going for a long run this evening for frustration venting.

The weekend just gone was the second attempt at a trip to the Lake District and this one was much more successful. We did a variation on the Walna Scar route on Saturday with an extra loop which brought the distance up to 37km. A decent day out but a little too much pushing the bike on the way back over the Scar. Also, my brakes were bollocksed by the end of it and a bit of attempted maintenance back at the youth hostel resulted in brake fluid spillage.

Due to the brake fiasco, I had to hire a bike on Sunday but this proved very easy in Keswick and surprisingly cheap at £20 for a day’s hire of a very well maintained bike. It was certainly appreciated as we biked over the Borrowdale Bash. A great route, despite the Lakes’ propensity for very loose downhills.

So Monday was spent in a waking daze, Tuesday was tai-chi and woo! I can now pretty much make it to third Bhudda. Last night was Zombie Night (and probably the least attended so far) and now I’ve got Dead By Dawn. The astute will notice there has been no running in the last week and the previous one wasn’t much better. I definitely need to start abandoning my lunchtime book and start getting some more kilometers under my feet.

The following is the dull movie round-up.

Female Agents

Pretty good though I did comment to friends that it was as trashy as I’d hoped. Probably the presence of Sophie Marceau should have alerted me. But yes, as a female version of the Dirty Dozen it was a lot of fun and exactly the kind of nonsense I needed when I watched it.

13 Tzameti

Weird, indie, monochrome French movie. Highly recommended. Penniless roof repairman puts himself in the way of a well paying job but unfortunately it just might kill him. Watch it. Fantastic.

Breach

A bit of Hollywood for a change. A solid enough movie but one that is constrained by the medium and necessarily has to focus more on the human aspect (though we get little of the villain’s motives) than the nuts and bolts. Being a fan of spies and espionage, that is what would have interested me more but that’s what books are for where you can flip backwards and forwards. Good though.

Let The Right One In

My word! A vampire movie I didn’t fidget through and actually enjoyed! Reasonable to excellent performances from the child actors and a good twist on this overly tired genre.

Coffy

A blaxploitation classic and deservedly so. Most people will probably not enjoy this for the usual reason that the originals are not like the parodies. Planet Terror? Yeah, I’d like to see the b-movies that were anything like that. Very good film and I want to watch more Jack Hill. Speaking of which…

Switchblade Sisters

Othello remade with girl gangs in 70s America. Brilliant. Sadly, as usual, I had to leg it before the end of the film to catch my train but I was thoroughly enjoying this slice of exploitation. There’s a DVD purchase in the offing for this one. I’m choosing to ignore the stand out tasteless scene. It’s hard to understand why it made it in, it really is. If I say Straw Dogs you’ll either know what I mean or not.

Step forward Northwave. Damn you, damn you to Hades!

Turns out I couldn’t for the life of my remember how to reset the rear derailleur so a call to Pyro was in order to clear up my foggy memory. We chatted for a while before I decided I was geting a bit cold and needed to move before the encroaching clouds were overheard. So, I packed up, jumped on and within fifteen seconds realised I had a flat. At the exact moment that it started raining. Joy.

First puncture I’ve had on that bike in 18 months of ownership and it took me far too long to wrestle the tire off the wheel. Luckily, I was carrying a spare tube and so didn’t bother wasting time attempting to patch it. New tube in, pump, go. I took the scenic route home through Devilla Forest, past Longannet and Culross. Total trip was 55km which wasn’t as much as I’d hoped but a decent figure anyway.

Today was garden day and when I forget; Charlotte (second early, salad/boil roast) are in the barrel, intn’l kidney (maincrop, salad/boil) are in the south bag and belle de fontenay (main crop, salad) are in the north bag. From south the bed contains four rows of peas and then several rows of onions. I’ve still got two tattie bags sitting empty so I’m probably going to put some crops in them. Also, four types of chilli to plant indoors.

Rounded off the afternoon with 11km of running so between that, yesterday’s biking and a few hours of digging the garden I’m think I’m justified in spending the evening with Terminator – The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

My legs still haven’t recovered properly so I’ve decided to skip tai-chi this evening. Much as it pains me to do so since I’m enjoying it so much, I just can’t imagine I’d be able to get much done. Instead, a quiet evening in which will probably be the only one this week.