Computer World - Kraftwerk

In this digital age of ours I must say that I am looking forward to getting back online with Virgin down in Wales as we have really struggled with the Old BT Network up here in Derbyshire. Talk about S L O W... last night even Sir Alan Sugar was interrupted so much it took three re-loads of the I-player for him to say '
Y....ou are f...i re...d!' It's really annoying...

It's bloody annoying actually as we are meant to have a 10mb download speed and it never really gets out of first gear and peaks at 4000 revs. How can BT offer a 40MB service?...hmm don't think I  will be going for that baby. Sir Michael up at the Hall who has a better speed than us on BT kicked that idea into touch straight away.

No, we are heading for Richard Branston and his super highway with limitless MB's without nasty emails at the end of the month (please) saying that we have once again gone over our limit.

It's all been a bit cheeky really...

How on earth is the 4G network ever going to work around the country, if we can't even receive a call in our own home in the middle of the UK?... Come on you communications companies, pull your finger out! If it can be done in Cardiff, it can be done anywhere or perhaps Wales is the new centre of the universe... if it is, then we are heading to the right place...

ARAF!

Drive - The Cars

We have been putting more miles in on the motorway than in training over the last couple of weeks... A daily running and gym routine for both Jenny and myself is totally out of the window right now. Although the sheer amount of physical activity and amount of pure hard work is keeping us in shape and one marathon a week is keeping the wolf from the door for me right now.

Fitting exercise around a busy life-event, such as moving, can be a real nightmare. I am thinking of it as a really positive break in my training and a useful rest.

At the end of this week, when we are finally in Cardiff, I can get back to some proper training again as everything we own is now a fresh shade of Magnolia!!!

More tomorrow...

DIY - Peter Gabriel

No wonder DIY shops are going out of business and it does make me wonder how IKEA ever manage to keep going as I am flabbergasted at the amount of different jobs I have had to do/fix/make and ok yes Screw together in the last couple of weeks. You need a Quantum Physics degree to get some of the jobs done... that and lots of physical AND emotional endurance... Took me 4 hrs to put a curtain pole up in a bay window last night and I know what I am doing!!!

Yes, moving must be a real bugger if you are no good with a brush and a screwdriver. And we are a mile from being anything like a Kevin McCloud, Grand Design job... as we are keeping it really simple. The only hard factor really is the 167 mile trip with a trailer which has seen Miss Salter behind the wheel with Yorkie Bar in hand... well for a split second anyway.

One more good trip and we're done... yes it's only one more battle with a few curtain poles, a couple of light fittings and a washing machine to go before I have the December ULTRArace Newsletter to get underway. My how we live, 'spose I had better DIY that too!

More tomorrow...

Move it - Cliff Richard

Useful Map...

Well I reckon we are half way there to being moved. And right now and it feels like we have one foot still left in England and one firmly planted in Wales, it's a 167 mile step forwards! A couple more trips and we'll be there are hopefully by the end of the month we will finally be in settled in ARAF.

It will also mean that we can get back to training and planning our 2012 season... running right now is limited to just marathons and not much in between... I am really looking forward to some peace and quiet, especially with Christmas coming up.

Another bash up the M5 awaits tomorrow... nice... is anyone else moving right now?

School - Supertramp

I had my annual email today from my old school friend Jeanette Davey today as it's time for our school reunion... made even more poignant as it's our 50th birthdays this year. It's a frightening thought as it's 38 years since I left Broad Street School and it's some time since I saw my old school friends. I'm really looking forward to seeing them once again...

It seems like yesterday and I have great memories of being there and really loved my old school days. I wonder what my daughter Pearl (6) would make of my primary school of the 60's. Hers is very different and they have some innovative methods of teaching pupils with differing educational needs - we were more of the one size fits all brigade.

Makes you wonder if her generation will be better prepared for adult-hood eh? We'll know in 40+ years...

More tomorrow...

Paint it Black - The Rolling Stones

Well it's been a very busy few days getting our Cardiff base ready for our move their at the end of the month and I can tell you that I never want to see a tin of Magnolia paint EVER AGAIN! Who on earth invented the stuff? There must be stockpiles of it in giant magnolia banks around the UK to meet the demand from builders and homeowners who are 'doing up' their properties.

Along the way, we have found the most confusing DIY shop... in the world in the shape of B&Q, Hadfield Road, Cardiff which seems to have little concept of having similar items such as paint, all down one aisle rather than littered around the store. It's like that in ALL of it's sections. I need one of their people to guide me round whenever we go in there.

Thank heavens the painting is complete now... my hands are as rough as sandpaper!

Let's hope, with a couple more trips, we will hopefully be installed in ARAF and things can get back to abnormal...

More tomorrow...

Snow Patrol - Eyes Open

Time for action now after the big 700 up and I am back on the case with my power-hours on the treadmill. It's sweat and tears without the blood (hopefully) as I get myself back into shape after so many recent events. If you are in a similar place where you have peaked for races, you'll know where I am right now.

Getting your butt moving and re-energised is certainly not an easy prospect especially in the dark winter months... hopefully the hibernation will be a good one and I will emerge as that fit 50 year old I have set as my goal for the 2012 season.

Anyway... nose to the grindstone tomorrow and another step small step for Rorykind.

Radio GaGa - Queen

Well I hit the heady heights of BBC Radio Derby again today talking to Aleena Naylor about my specialist subject... Marathon running. No surprise there but it was a really refreshing interview for me as the presenter was more than interested in my story as she is also going thru a similar process herself.

Funny how something really matters to someone as soon as it's relevant and personal to them as well as you...

Maybe I will get Aleena to come and take part in one of our races one day or even just come along to experience the buzz of the finish line so that she can continue with her rise to fitness.

Who knows, anything is possible...

Pretty Vacant - The Pistols

It's funny how new companies starting up and try and break the rules that the established companies have previously been following. Take Ben n Jerry's Ice Cream as an example... in 1977 it set up it was a simple approach to Ice Cream and even took on and won a famous court battle with Häagen-Dazs before seeing the $'s and selling out to Unilever in 2000. What a shame for such a dynamic brand...

Well now it seems that easyJet are now going to charge for seat allocations and are looking to get more upmarket people to pay more for their seats, hence moving out of the ecomony airline sector. I wonder if Stelios would have done that in the early days of his business... it's not so easyJet now, more like pricyJet!

We'll see Johnny Rotten advertising butter next on TV...

Money talks it seems...

Clocks - Coldplay

When will the people who are in charge of whatever goes on in our world get things sorted out. It was nearly dark just after three in Long Eaton today. I was on my way to get Pearl just as the gates opened from Long Eaton School letting out their mass of children, a great many whom were cycling home in...

• Dark Blue Uniform
• Without Helmets
• Without Lights.

It was pure chaos... the children were simply out of control and an accident waiting to happen. What the chuff is their school thinking about...

I did call them and point the fact out but the Deputy Head, Mr Hunt, has yet to contact me back. I'm not being a busy body but there has already been a fatality near their school crossing in recent years. Please don't tell me it's the school's fault. It is... if they insist on the above to cycle to school at least the little monkeys I saw free-styling down the street will live to see another day.

Oh... and sort out the daylight saving once and for all.

More from my soap-box tomorrow. Hopefully Mr Hunt will have his cyclists sorted out by then eh?

Stadium Archadium - Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Poor old Seb's been at it again and Olympic chiefs have apologised after the historic military ship HMS Belfast was airbrushed out of an official poster for the London 2012 Festival. Andy Smith, chief executive of the UK National Defence Association, said it had been "extraordinarily insensitive" particularly in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday. Oh er! They are on a hiding to nothing... again.

The image of the warship, now based near Tower Bridge, was removed by designers from an aerial photograph of the River Thames because it clashed with some words on the advert.

It's a shame as HMS Belfast is one of my favourite London Sights and well worth a visit. How on earth they lived and fought aboard it, I will never be able to comprehend... fancy airbrushing it out...

Running all over the World - Status Quo

As I reach the 700 marathon target on Saturday (bit of a hurty knee, if I am being honest), it gets you looking back at some of the highlights of my 17 years of running. MdeS is obviously up there along with the gruelling 145 mile Grand Union Canal Race... as is my 3:24:21 Pb on my 15th marathon at the long lost Borders Marathon in Suffolk.

For me it's been the amazing people and now 'forever friends' that I have met along the way.

If you know me well and read this, you know who you are... 21,000 miles done so far and plenty more in the tank.

From here, well... I am trying to get to1000... that would be a brilliant life time target to achieve. Let's hope my hurty knee gets better eh?

News of the World - Queen

Here is the News...

It's official, a 90 minute run burns 800 - 1200 calories, it must be it's on MSN. Apparently it's good for fitness, weight-loss and toning. That's the level of the news today... As we await Michael Jackson's Doctors fate and wonder how the residents of Scarborough will get Gary Barlow back for criticising Scarborough, is this the best the press has to offer?

Yes, it's a dark Monday in November... and that means that there is bugger all going on... and we are all looking forward just over six weeks to the dreaded 'C' word.

My word it's a bit depressing...

Let's hope that there is something to cheer us up with later in the week, it's all bad news right now.

United - Judas Priest

Well, I went to 'The Theatre of Dreams' yesterday aka 'Old Trafford' with son Sam. It really is an experience and also one hell of a long day out for just 90 mins of Premier League football. There must be something in it though as we were one of over 75,000 people there to see United beat Sunderland 1-0.

The mass feeling in the crowd is just fascinating and the people at the ground are just a complete spectrum of all shapes, sizes and creeds. For instance we had Lovejoy just in front of us and as we left we saw fans who are simply barking insane, talk about bizarre.

People watchers, I think that this is the place for you... it's probably better then the game!

Ah, the game... It was brillaint to watch especially as Ferguson celebrated 25 years as a manager. As you would expect, Rooney was simply awesome, head and shoulders above the other 21 players... no wonder he is so well paid.

To think these boys are finished at 33, if your name is Rio Ferdinand (not very good, yesterday), makes your mind boggle. At 49, I am still marathon running and didn't start until I was 31... wouldn't have done too many too many marathons if I'd stopped then eh?

Thank heavens for ULTRAs.

Another Brick in the Wall - Pink Floyd

I was in London yesterday on some ULTRArace sponsorship meetings in and near the city. My word it's getting even busier in the smoke... also it's getting a whole new landscape of architecture. It's amazing that when I was a lad the silly old yanks bought The Old London Bridge thinking it was Tower Bridge and we thought of that and possibly St Paul's Cathedral as the Icons of the city.

Canary Wharf, Guerkin, London Eye, Strata Tower and now The Walkie Talkie (Shard Tower) are the new landmarks that we are now thinking of as we enter the Capital...

Oh how times are changing!

Steam - Peter Gabriel

Got the steam up today back on a 'Power-Hour' on the treadmill in the gym and feel brilliant for the opportunity to get proper sweated up running at a good tempo. It must be as a result of a good few days rest and watching some great athletes over the weekend on our 'JOGLE Ultra' Tester weekend.

It's a good omen for me as right now I'm in the middle of my marathon number crunching period where training is not really too much of an option between 26.2+ milers. The Rutland Marathon and Druids Challenge Triple Ultra cannot happen soon enough so my training can come back on-line and I can get really fit for 2012.

A really want a good MdeS and possible GUCR145 as well so I need to get my skates on later this month... Do you?