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Spring Cleaning
Ideally today I would be out in the garden taking care of the many outdoor tasks to be done. Unfortunately the weather has been highly variable, with regular showers getting in the way of anything useful I might do. So I have shifted my attention indoors and towards the long-overdue task of sorting my bathroom…
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Bank holiday workout
It hasn’t been a vintage bank holiday Sunday so I’m happy to have got a workout in, so that it is at least constructive. I focused on chest and back in terms of anaerobic and cardio featured in the form of bag work, trampolining, kettlebell swings and medicine balls slams. An hour or two later…
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Why can’t I spend more time doing this: working out
One of the challenges we all wrestle with is what to prioritise. By definition you cannot prioritise everything, although it’s hard to miss the societal pressure to be perfect in every domain. In the abstract we know that health and wellbeing should be our priority. Our loved ones and dependents cannot depend on us otherwise,…
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Getting it in before I’m gone from UoB: Edgbaston Reservoir
The countdown is well underway and I’m getting through my University of Birmingham bucket list of things to do. Today’s agenda was Edgbaston reservoir, which I’ve thought about walking around many times but I’ve never quite got around to it. It was a little cold and cloudy, although this didn’t diminish the experience. I’ll hold…
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London Town & City, University of London
It’s pretty rare for me to visit London spontaneously but this was only planned at 18:30 the night before. I had to get some important administration taken care of. It was a case of sooner-the-better, so I jumped in the car and got it done. Of course, it’s a long way to go for a…
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The garden: Lots of colour and a new bench (for the cat apparently)
18 months of extra-ordinary rain has to be good for something. The flowers in my garden are certainly very happy about it, I am seeing record blooms and there’s every reason to expect more to come. The garden has been neglected in the last few years but this year I have managed to squeeze in…
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Escaping the depressing de-developing dystopia that is the UK: Time in the Netherlands & Belgium
Spending time elsewhere in Western Europe (i.e., outside the UK) reminds you of what the terms “developed” or “advanced” nation really mean. The Netherlands and Belgium exude wealth, comfort and confidence in a way that the UK no longer does. There isn’t an endless array of empty stores, there isn’t homelessness at every turn and…
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London Weekend Adventure: Royal Parks, Literary Gems and Natural Encounters
I got lucky on the weather and put in some serious steps: 30+ thousand on the Saturday and 25+ thousand on the Sunday. I got my alternative-tourist money’s worth too, seeing the former houses of John Keats, Sigmund Freud and George Orwell as well as pretty much every Royal park and a fair few non-royal…
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Uplifting my Accessories Game
There comes a moment in life when you realise enough is enough: you’ve got so many jackets, coats, shirts, shoes, jumpers, etc., that buying any more would border on madness. So what’s a man to do? Simple: go big on accessories, which take up little space yet enable subtle variations on existing outfits. This uplift…
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Never Enough Time: enjoying the local park
Yesterday I managed to swing by my local park, seeking to follow through on a typical summer commitment to cycle rather than drive when running chores. In a truly impressive act of idiocy I locked my bike outside the doctors, only to realise that I had the wrong key for the lock. I therefore had…
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Dr Martin James 