A purple circle

Death of our sporting hero's !

2010-09-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

Not so long ago you really could rely on your sporting hero’s.
Maybe as I get older I have started to look at things through rose coloured glasses, harking back to a time when things really were less complicated.
A simple time where there were heroes’s as well as villains.
Big daddy and giant haystacks, good and bad simple!
Now I know that this is a simplistic view and I’m sure that back then there were just as many bad apples as now. Or were there?
I can’t remember a time where there has been quite so many bad apples bobbing up to the surface.
Let me give you a few examples: Cricket spot fixing aligations,rugby blood gate (faining injury to cheat)Boxing Ricky Hatton snorting coke ,Floyd Mayweather calling Filipino Manny Pacquiao(The best boxer currently in the world )a little yellow chump! David Haye (heavyweight world champion )saying that his up coming fight against Audley Harrison is going to be as one sided as a gang rape.( can you imagine those words coming out of Mohammed Ali's mouth? Snooker, john Higgins allegedly throwing frames for cash. Athletics Drugs drugs and more drugs.Cycling see athletics. Golf tiger Woods playing away .football see golf x million.
The list just seems to go on and on and on.
On the second lap of the 1976 Nurburgring Grand prix Nikki Lauda 's Ferrari caught fire with him stuck in the car.Luckly for him Arturo Mezario and guy Edwards pulled over and got Lauda out of his burning car.
Lauda suffered severe burns and fought for his life for several days, but made a miraculous recovery.
Now I’m in no way saying that Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton wouldn’t do the same in that position.
I'm just going to let you make your own minds up!

Brian haw Moden day hero

2010-09-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

Brian Haw began his protest against the economic sanction in Iraq in June 2001, and has remained opposite the Palace of Westminster ever since.
On 23 May 2006 , following the passing by parliment of the serious Organised crime and police act prohibiting unautharised demonstrations within a one kilometre radious of parliament square.

The History Of The Varsity Jacket

2010-09-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

The History Of The Varsity Jacket

unwanted friend

2010-07-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

I shop in a variety of Tesco stores through out the country and have always been slightly underwhelmed by the service , but never by the quality of its produce until the other day.

Having visited a Tesco metro store in Shoreditch I came away happy with my lunch choice tucked under my arm and headed back to the office to enjoy it.

I have to say yes the sandwich was a little dry , but to be fair it was ok.

The problem came when I tucked into my desert.

Usually I would plump for a chocolate bar at this point , but today I had turned over a new leaf and thought no! No chocolate today , I’m going to have some fruit.

So after a couple of minutes debating the pros and cons of raspberries against strawberries I went for raspberries.

Ummm bad choice I hear all those strawberry lovers out there saying?

Well I think that you may be right.

Once the tub had been opened I tucked into my little red friends with relish , not knowing what was about to happen.

After about a third of a tub I noticed that I wasn’t alone in the office.

No one of the girls hadn’t come back into the office without me noticing her.

It was a visitor that hadn’t been invited and one that was looking up at me from a raspberry purchased from Tesco.

The visitor in question was a slug. Not a small one either he was quit a good size.

In fact he was such a good size it crossed my mind how he slipped past the quality control officer without a trace.

I have attached a picture of this slug for you to pass onto your quality control department , so they know what to look out for , so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else.

I would be very grateful if you could email me back with a solution to my lunchtime problem.

Kind regards

David Holden

D Day Landings

2010-07-27T02:52:00.000-07:00

There was a sense of anticipation as we all gathered together ready for the off.
Some had nerves etched on their faces, others an air of confidence.
Me? I was looking forward to the unknown not really knowing what to expect from the next ten hours?
As the first people packed there things together and rolled out I started to feel a little more out of my depth.
As we left the park on the stroke of Eight o clock I couldn’t help but feel that a couple of pints and the smell of BBQ in the hazy summer sunshine might have been a better shout that the adventure we were about to embark on.
Ten miles in .Yeah feeling good seems like there are a lot of different types of people doing this, vie got a nice pace going its all good.
Two energy drinks in 35 miles down and my early enthusiasm has disappeared over the horizon like the summer sun.
Wooooshhh another Lycra clad blur flashes past me.
There not proper cyclists in think to myself! That one just coasted past me! He's not ridding the whole way? He’s going to free wheel for 40% of this, where as me. I’m ridding this fixed. No free wheeling for me just peddling all the way.
52 miles in. Food stop.
It’s like a seen from a war movie! Carnage. Bikes stroon across every available bit of grass.Peoples bodies everywhere, small glowing white lights from new arrivals, red lights disappearing into the distance from early arrivals.
Hi mate how you doing? Yeah I’m ok thanks. Are you ridding that fixed? Yeah.Your a fool!!
Nice to meet you too?
75 miles and we have gone the wrong way? No more tale lights to follow no more people in the same amount of pain as you.
Just an iphone , pitch black country roads and the thought of navigating another 45 miles to the finish.
Jesus this is getting tough now. I think we have about 15 miles to go and my legs are in bits. Shoulders too! Come to think of it my back doesn’t feel great, are we there yet?
One more burst and we are there, just around this corner.Ok the next one, umm maybe the one after that, but I know we are close.
F**k me we made it.Theres the beach.
We are greeted by a similar seen to the one we left at the food station all those hours ago.
Carnage!
What would you like to have said the lady on the food stall?
Think I’ll just have a hug please I said!!
Didn’t I see you leave hackney about eight last night?
Yeah that was me alright maybe a little less grey looking but, yeah it certainly was.
See you next year?
Ummmm maybe......................

Hackney to Dunwich 200km Left 8pm arrived 05.40am

Cycled every km.

none of this freewheeling

go fixed or go home!

Maison Martin Margiela

2010-06-19T14:06:00.000-07:00

In october 2008 maison Martin margiela celebrated its 20th anniversary.
This wonderful exhibition pays tribute to those 20 years and salutes one of the worlds greatest fashion houses.

if your in London you must go and see this!
Just beautiful.

2010-06-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

Every time that i go and visit Graham at his workshop in High gate , I'm amazed just how much stuff he has in there.
I turn up about 13.30 as Graham is heading out of the door.You've just Cort me he says,I'm on my way out.Need to be somewhere.
Cool no worries . "have you got any saddles"
Yeah loads .You had better come in.
now if your into bikes this kind of invitation is like being 8 years of age having £1 in your pocket and standing in front of the pick and mix in Woolies! (gone but never forgotten)
once you enter a part of you worries that you may not get back out again.its just the amount of stuff he has in there .Its amazing!
There are hundreds of vintage frames ranging from the 1940's -1980's and more parts and accessories than you will have ever seen.
The only saving grace is that you cant use your debit card in here.Its hard cash, and for me that tends to rain in my spending if i physically have to hand over the money.
So 45 minuets later I'm out of there with a new saddle for the bike , some invaluable tips on the maintenance of my new companion and a couple of new wheel nuts on my back wheel after Graham had done a small off the cuff running repair for me.
What a guy , and what a shop.

Always a real pleasure.

Karma

2010-06-06T12:12:00.001-07:00

Let me make this point first of all.
i really want England to do well in the world cup, and i don't hate Manchester united anymore than the rest of the British population does!(joke)
i just wanted to have my say when it comes to people talking about Rio Ferdinand and the curse of the captain in major tournaments.
GOOD!
I for one am glad he is out injured.Not because i dislike him ,because i don't .From what I've seen of him he seems like quite a like-able chap , who i understand does a lot of good work for disadvantaged kids and alike.
my reason goes back to September 2003 when our national captain failed to turn up for a drugs test and went shopping instead.
now i don't tend to dwell on things but i do believe in Karma.That's it.
That's my only point.
Chickens do come home to roost.
In life you cant expect to do things without the results of what you do having some kind of impact.
I hope that Rio makes a speedy recovery and i also hope that England lift the world cup.

Truefitt and Hill Est 1805

2010-06-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

Truefitt & Hill occupies the position of one of the leading men's barber shops in the World. Glancing at the appointments book, it reads like pages from Debrett's and Who's Who. Clients include Members of the male line of the Royal Family, Members of visiting Royal Households, Captains of Industry, Members of both Houses of Parliament, the City, the Theatre, Ambassadors and the Diplomatic Service, visiting Dignitaries, the Professions, the Arts, and all other strata of British Society. A haircut, a shave with hot towels, and a manicure at Truefitt & Hill leaves a gentlemen ready to face the world knowing that he has been well and truly groomed for the occasion, whatever it may be, by one of England's Hairdressing Aristocracy.
A huge thank you to Alan for letting me have a wonder around and take some photos.
Truly a shop for gentlemen run by a gentleman

Barefoot running

2010-06-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

I have been running now for around about four months.Over that period of time i have made good progress and I'm now down to around 7:30 per mile and do on average about 20/25 miles per week split into 3 sessions.
With this in mind i started to run with an urban running club once a week .
Run dem crew is based in the Nike concept store on Bateman street in Shoreditch East London.They meet up at the store on a Tuesday nights at 7:30.
From there you are split into groups depending on your running ability .
The groups are the tortuous , hares , greyhounds and cheetahs .
In for a penny in for a pound i launch myself straight into the greyhounds .
The route for the night is along the canal from shoreditch up to Victoria Park in hackney.
OK so far so good i make it Victoria park in one piece still feeling pretty good.
next up our leader for the night tells us that we should have a quick lap of the park and we can mix it up as we go around by doing some sprinting!
Not knowing the park that well this seems on the face of it to be a good idea.
Having now done it though . My god the park is bloody massive !
By the time we have done a lap with a few sprints thrown in there "to mix it up"my legs are in bits.
So we are finally on the way home.
about two miles from home i start to run with one of the girls from the group.
Now i have to say that in my mind I'm thinking yeah no worries i can keep pace with this girl(maybe a little male bravado)and get home without to much more pain.
Unbeknown to me i think that the girl in question was from the same gene pool as Paula Radcliffe.
My God she started flying along .Anyway call it pride call it stupidity i managed to keep up with her all the way back to base.
Now having given myself enough time for my face to go back to something approaching its normal colour again i approached this girl to congratulate her on her run.
Ah thank you she said .You had a good run too.You kept up all the way "and I'm known for my sprint finish"no kidding i thought !
she continued,I've got these new Nike free running shoes.They are the nearest thing that you can get to barefoot running.
Um barefoot running i thought.Let me look into that.
So off i went to do some research.
Now having looked at a few blogs and read a few magazines there seemed to be a good school of thought on this barefoot running malarky.
a)Barefoot runners experienced less impact injuries than there shoe wearing counterparts , even when running on hard surfaces ,since they took shorter steps and bent there knees and ankles in such a way as to reduce" torques"damaging forces on joints with a naturally limited range of movement.
now with this new found knowledge i thought to myself yeah I'll have a bit of this,I'm off to niketown to get myself a pair and get back to my running roots.
£65 later I'm feeling pretty good about myself.Ive got the Nike free trainers and I'm off home for a run!
Wow these things are so light i thought to myself as i took my first tentative strides.
Now everything i had read had told me that when you run in trainers you naturally lift off with your heel , but with barefoot running its the ball of the foot that lifts off first.
well that's all well and good but if like me you have been running a certain way for pretty much 37 years then it may take a bit of time to readjust.
I managed to run three miles that night !At the end my feet where begging me to never ever put them in those shoes again and start to run!
For the next four days i felt as though my relationship with my feet was never going to be the same and that they would never forgive me.
At the end of our running conversation i thought it only good manners to introduce myself to this woman who had given me my first insight into the world of barefoot running.
I'm David i said, whats your name?I'm Jo came back the reply.So what do you do for a living Jo?I work for Nike in their marketing department!!
Of course you do i thought
my conclusion is this.1)It may be a while before i take up barefoot running again 2)Jo is great at her job!

I think the expression is:

Hook line and sinker.

i cant believe it

2010-06-03T15:10:00.000-07:00

I don't want to get political, but at what point did Israel think that they could storm a peace keeping ship and start shooting people!
UK and US governments.Come on.
Grow some!