Author: martinjamesphd
-
Hats
Never something I’ve been especially interested in but I have always appreciated a good hat, albeit from afar. As is typically of me, I tend not to like the popular varieties (eg., baseball caps and beanies), preferring fedoras, cow boy hats, trilbies and panamas. I’ve received two additions to my fledgling collection and have two…
-
Long in the works
Over the course of a month (which speaks to how slow moving and bureaucratic my life is) I have purchased, picked up, figured out and attached roof bars and a bike rack to my car. I love active breaks: biking, trekking, kayaking (note: I have owned my own kayak for 2 years and have not…
-
Sibelius, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and a world premier of a contemporary composer
One of the best things about classical music concerts is that the star attraction is often upstaged by someone that you’re less familiar with. I attended to see Sibelius symphony 5 performed live. It was astonishing, and yet it was given a run for it’s money by two other performances on the schedule: the world…
-
WORKOUT #10 (2023)
It took until the second month of the year to get 10 workouts in. It was cut a little short, I only got in 7 sets due to time constraints. Form was inconsistent, I was strong on press-ups and weak on pec flies. The road to greatness is no straight line. Clips as ever:
-
Birthday number forty something: a treat or two
It’s good to look back on a solid year of progress between birthdays. In 2020 I took a big step backwards, my health and quality of life declining greatly. The situation was bad in itself and the time and effort required to escape it only made things worse. I’m now in better shape than I…
-
WORKOUT #9 (2023)
I’m on a late surge to make it to ten workouts in January. I was crippled with back pain last week so I’ve stalled at eight. Ten workouts in January means squeezing one in tomorrow, which isn’t looking easy or likely. Oh well, there’s been plenty of months where I have not managed a single…
-
WORKOUT #8 (2023)
I paid a high price for this workout, my back spasmed (at least 9 out of 10 on the pain spectrum) on the very first set. Squat thrusts are meant to be my calorie burning warm up not the exercise that breaks the camel’s (well, man’s) back before he even gets going! It was freezing…
-
Office Winter Wonderland
We caught a snow shower on Tuesday, much of it coming down during my drive into work on Birmingham University campus. It looked beautiful so I grabbed a couple of pics. Even on my worst days (which are few and far between) I feel very lucky to work in such a picture-esque place.
-
WORKOUT #7 (2023)
It’s been one of those Mondays, I am sure you know what I’m talking about. Suddenly everything happens at once, stalled projects go from dormant to active and you’ve just got to ride out the storm. This is a perfect recipe for skipping a scheduled workout, but I once again refused to be denied and…
-
WORKOUT #6 (2023)
This was a good example of squeezing in a session when there was ample justification not to. It was Friday night – gone 5pm – the end of a tough week; I was ready for a glass of wine more than a workout and I paused for a moment to ask that question we all…
Dr Martin James 