Daylight hours

Football is big in Africa. While in Ghana I came across many groups kicking a ball about up until the daylight failed. I even came across a street seller walking along the main highway through Haatso, carrying a large net containing an array of footballs. Needless to say, I bought one and brought it home for my Grandson. All the way from Africa, an odd shaped ball; not quite round. But very colourful and I suspect when it is played with, it is good fun. The bonus being that we have electricity and street lights and playing is not restricted to daylight hours outside of Accra. Mind you in some parts of Wales, the County Councils are starting to turn off the street lights in order to save money. So maybe we are not that different from Africa after all?

Still Running

Maybe to the surprise of some readers; the jog and walk has been maintained. I went out for around 24 minutes each day for three days and then put in a good walk on the fourth day and again on the seventh day with 40 lengths in the swimming pool following the two rest days. The swimming was at four sets of ten lengths with a breather in-between each set.

Today’s walk was good fun, but the driving rain was hard work as was the cold wind. I am nicely settled down with a good beer at the moment and enjoyed the last hour playing with my Grandson. All in all no complaints, other than to ask; ‘where is Match of the Day?’ I do love the footy, but not the International matches. I don’t know why but they seem to lack something. The Premier League or to be more specific, Match of the Day is a bit ritualistic for me. The familiar music, the chance to check the news between games, my lack of interest in the post match analysis. It’s all good stuff.

Although to be quite honest I often fall asleep after the first two or three games. But not tonight as it’s International night. This is good news for the blog, as I was able to write this entry.

Run Roger Run

Well it’s great to be back after a gap of 8 years; running that is. Well, more like a jog and a walk. But 22 minutes nevertheless, and to make matters better, this included the enjoyable company of my eldest Jodi. I bought my new running shoes in Cardiff the other day. I bought them from a lovely lady in a running shop opposite the Railway Station called Run and Become. The shop is in Wood Street, Cardiff and the lady made me try on a test pair and run up and down along the pavement outside of her shop with my trouser legs rolled up while she judged my running style and what I needed in a good quality pair of road shoes. Well she got the prescription spot on as the shoes fit a treat! A high and deserved recommendation from me to all you runners out there.

So the fitness is slowly coming back. Although I have been poorly for the last two weeks I have managed a walk each day. This includes walking to town as part of my lunch break in work and a walk along the promenade after the long journey home. So the jogging walking addition should make a great difference.

The difference should be exponential when we factor in the renewed Gym membership in order to go swimming, and my intention to get my Road Bike out of mothballs. A new me, and it’s not even a mid life crisis. I think it’s all about my Grandson and the need for me to keep up. The running is great and thankfully it is in the cool of Ceredigion and not the heat of Africa.

Grandson

My eldest has been kind enough to upload a few more pictures of our Grandson who still enjoys watching the n-gauge model railway. Maybe I should upload a few model railway pictures as well! There is no getting away from it; a larger layout has to be built in the garage. And as readers of the Blog and friends will know; I have been trying to clear out the garage for a while and for that purpose.

Unfortunately though, the garage clear-out has been on hold as I have been poorly for just over a week. I intend to pop back to the Doctors on Monday and then hopefully refocus for next week and the following weekend. There is so much that I want to do, and being unwell places all of that on hold. Mind you I have managed to get quite a bit of fresh air as I have had difficulty sitting for long periods due to the pain. There is nothing worse than pain, so the fresh air was a nice bonus as the weather in the UK is very pleasant at the moment. I even managed to do a lot of office work, but that had to be done on my terms and at various times into the late evening. Life is a balance, and I supposed that scheduling is as well. So the garage clear out isn’t done, but the photograph’s of our Grandson have been uploaded. So it’s not all that bad, is it?

“7 out of 10 Coffee lovers prefer Costa”

Well, I’m not surprised. They do make a superior brew, and staff in the Aberystwyth Costa coffee shop are always friendly. I think that the Mecca had the edge, but unfortunately that closed down. The coffee and the owner in the Mecca were really nice.

I tried my hand at the Orangery for a long time and even took Princess Patricia along to indulge in their drinks and ice cream, while she was visiting Michael. It was a favourite of my African friend Michael and me. Anyway, things for me tapered off with the old Orangery and I tried my hand with Costa just as the old Orangery closed down. I deliberately differentiate between the old Orangery and the new one with the same name. I like Costa like I used to like Starbucks. The coffee is reliable and the people are friendly. I went to my first Costa in Egham, when my eldest was an undergraduate at Royal Holloway University College of London. The coffee was consistently good there as well. Consistency is sometimes important, but we must be mindful that sometimes it can mean consistently bad or to a consistently mediocre standard. But in Costa Aberystwyth the coffee is consistently good and staff are consistently friendly. Well done to the Manager, I say. Bravo, bravo.

Now the coffee in Africa was OK as well. Nescafe coffee granules contained in a small tin with a resealed lid. Very expensive compared to wages, but it’s worth spending out for a good cup of coffee. I remember liquid Camp Coffee when I was younger, and have had some terrible cups of coffee throughout my life. Bitter, burnt, cold, and tasteless: these are some of the terms that come to mind. Not that any of these terms apply to Camp Coffee if it’s still going. It’s just that for a quick brew Nescafe stands head and shoulders above the rest. Now as you can see, I like Nescafe a lot, but not as much as Costa.

The Big Clear Out

The last few weeks have been taken up by clearing out my garage and with it a lot of my past life. Enough paper to fill several sacks have been shredded, and twelve rubbish bags removed along with a lot of card. Gosh I feel good. It's important to have a good clear out now and again. Mind you, I could have picked the Summer rather than the worst Winter in the UK for the last twenty years to work outside.

Only yesterday I had to drive through snow across country to attend an important meeting in England. The weather was so bad that I had to slow right down on the Motorway, and many roads appeared to be un-gritted. Then again there has been a shortage of road salt in the UK and everything costs money and there is a credit crunch going on.

Mind you, financial crisis or not, I was able to afford to buy a huge array of 90litre clear plastic boxes complete with lids for my garage clear out. Now things are to hand and those that know me, know that I like to be organised. No more wondering where the bubble wrap is when I complete that all important scenery model. No more searching for the used envelopes to send the model and no more squeezing along through what was a narrow opening running the whole length of the garage. For the new Roger Bennett; there is space and time. And we all know what we get with space and time. For me time has slowed down, because it is all relative and I no longer have to spend time moving items, searching and moving items again.

Yes, the big clear out has been a success and now back to the Blogging.