Wrights pie for lunch

Only a few people would know that to have a Wrights pie for lunch means that I am spending the first of three nights away from home in Stoke-on-Trent.

I am staying at what was called the Grand Hotel in Hanley before it was renamed the Quality Hotel. I often complain when football commentators say "the team lacks quality" that they are are getting it wrong - every team has some quality or other, its just that some of them have better qualities than others.

Certainly if they called this hotel the High Quality Hotel (second photo) they would get a slating. But I have one of the "posh" rooms and its pretty good apart from the lack of water in the washbasin. But it least its ensuite.

The house that I suffered for my first four weeks in the Potteries as a student in 1975 didn't even have an inside toilet. My landlord was an alcoholic and the house (which I walked past today - top photo) was in a dreadful state. If I had known that it was going to take four weeks to get something better I would not have been able to stay. I mastered the art of making sandwiches from sliced bread and slices of processed cheese and ate at the Polytechnic the rest of the time. I also took showers there or visited the public baths in Newcastle on a Saturday morning (and I mean baths not just the swimming pool - local authorities used to provide public baths for people who didn't have them at home.

I walked about 12 miles this afternoon taking photos and clocked up about 14 today altogether - and some mild blisters.

Most of the pubs I remember seem to have closed but I have got to have a pint of Marstons or Banks before I move on tomorrow.

The second of my two homes in the Potteries was with a landlord and landlady in a council house in Newcastle-under-Lyme (above). It was luxury compared to my first home which looks a lot better now than it did then.

When your luck is against you

I'm beginning to wonder if it was a good analogy to make. The one where compared by attempts to save my aching body by taking much better care of it being like my attempts to keep our car on the road long after the signs were there that it was crying "enough".

After getting a fair amount of work done on our 14 year old Clio last week, it was put to good use yesterday morning taking an old fridge to the amenity site before every cubic inch was filled with leaves from the cottage destined for the same place. After a visit to Robbie and a lovely walk with him around Quine's Hill (third perfect Saturday in a row), I set off to take my mother-in-law for a trip "up north".

The oil light came on and I turned through Baldrine Park before the engine seized. Its a bit worrying that its final resting place was only half a mile from the Ballanette Cross Country. If my analogy has too many similarities they might be burying me in the mud!

It was definitely the most expensive week of my life. The news from two vets about Marie's dog was worse than expected and he is to have operations on both legs.

Next there was the new boiler we installed at the cottage last year. A big capital outlay but the one that would save on maintenance costs. The one that tranmits a signal to a display in the kitchen to record the oil level. The one that was showing half a tank of oil but had actually run out. More than £500 to rectify not to mention another tank of fuel earlier than budgeted!

So if anyone saw me during the first few laps of the walk at the National Sports Centre looking a bit glum this morning perhaps you will forgive me. For when I went to start taking photos my best camera would not work! Not quite sure why but after going home and changing the card I was able to take some photos of the second half of the race and by then the rain had eased.

A change of luck at last? Then I watched the football!

Autumnal scenes yesterday.

Welcome you 11

I've just added all of the Manx Fell Runners fixtures for 2013 to the Fixtures at a Glance list - 11 fell races, plus the junior champs and three hill races.

I've noticed that the number of visitors to the site has been very high in recent weeks and up to yesterday was running at an average of 293 unique visitors a day for the year. That compares with 282 at the same stage last year.

Don't stop

I've been addicted again. I've spent hours and hours and hours face tagging photos this week. Tonight was a typical example, I started at around 7.30 intending to do something else and spent 2 hours trying to match faces. Picasa is very good at times and awful at others - either that or there is some serious inter-breeding on this Island.

When I popped out to buy a bottle a wine, Marie had something on TV where a choir were trying to sing Christine McVie's song Don't Stop.

Once I start something I find it hard to stop which applied to my running too. I was afraid that once I stopped I would never get started again. And after 5 weeks of doing nothing these last two weeks have been tough. I managed to do 2 x 1 miles this morning at a slower pace than I was training to run marathons at and yet I am stiff today!

Like my scanning projects, the face tagging does bring some good results. These two are the same person:

Keith might have retired by the time I finish the face tagging!

Magic Bus

I've had to take the bus to work today and will do so again tomorrow as double Parish Walk winner Peter Kaneen battles to extend the life of our Renault Clio just as Isla Scott has been trying to extend the running life of its driver and will do so again on Friday.

There was nothing magical about the Bus Vannin but I've been reading the autobiography of the man who wrote a top selling song called Magic Bus. That's quite an achievement for me as its my second autobiography in about three months!

As has been well documented, the Who's Pete Townshend stayed on the Isle of Man when he was a child when his father, who played in a big band, played for the season at the Palace Ballroom. What I hadn't realised was that he was here for 10 summers in a row.

He returned with the Who in the 60s at the time the Who had recorded Magic Bus and of course he also wrote Happy Jack which made references to the Isle of Man.

My favourite Who bus story though has been told before. My brother Mike witnessed them, in the days when if it was foggy at Ronaldsway the planes went to Jurby, on the bus with the other passengers being transferred between airports.

I like studying people; and relationships. I often say that we should get on with people even if we are not necessarily best friends. I like the story in the book about Pete Townshend having an argument with the Who's singer Roger Daltrey when they were still teenagers - he said they developed a grudging respect for each other that was to last a lifetime. I can think of a few relationships I have like that.

I have to admit I was rather scathing of Pete Townshend when the Who played in Peel in 2008 and he said how much he loved the Isle of Man and yet left within 30 minutes of the show. Reading the book I realise that it was been a big part of his rather confused childhood.

But it was Roger who returned last year.

 

Roger Daltrey poses for me at the Villa Marina last year.

Here ends the talk about My Generation. No Substitute for athletics where the Kids are Alright.  I Could See for Miles on Suiday. I Can't Explain how I started this bit but I Won't Get Fooled Again although I will be catching the Magic Bus at 5.15 tomorrow.I'm sure you will Join Together to get rid of me.

What a day for photos

I was inter changing a couple of cameras at the Postman Walks on the Marine Drive this morning to get different shots to make the most of the stunning scenery.

Then I wet to Ballanette to take photos and videos of the Microgaming Cross Country League. The forms to register cameras are not really designed for five cameras. I took them home and unloaded the data before heading to Peel for a walk along the headlands with Marie. I stuffed my compact Samsung in my pocket and was pleased I did.

If you can't get  a decent photo today you never will. I haven't got far with the video but I aiming to get it uploaded before rejoining Marie for the only TV we watch together each week at 9 pm.

Things I wouldn't have done had I been running a marathon in 12 hours time

Had a lovely walk from Port Soderick to Keristal with Robbie this morning. Can't remember a time when he was ready when I called for him and nice that he said "that was really enjoyable" as we climbed back from the beach to the Marine Drive.

For all its loutishness, football can be extremely entertaining, particularly if you team goes ahead, falls behind and then wins as mine did today.

The scanner didn't get used today as I have returned to one of my other addictions - face tagging in my photo collection. Spent several hours on it today.

And and this without ignoring Marie - we've been out to an Indian Restaurant tonight.

I have to admit to some concerns when Graham Young advertised tomorrow morning's Postman in Uniform Walk as being in a scenic course when referring to the Marine Drive. I have run around there on the majority of Sunday mornings in the last four years and it can be bleak if the wind in the wrong direction. But all looks good for tomorrow. I will be there with camera.

And I'll be further up the coast in the afternoon too. Better start charging the batteries,