Danwichmann

9 hours ago, choffer said:

What? Nobody else wants to know which flat @Danwichmann is perving on with his huge telescope?

Dormitories full of beautiful students in there early 20s, why would I only spy on one?  

*It's actually not my photo or telescope, and it's pointed at a teaching building, not dormitory. 

11 minutes ago, bickster said:

1:10,000

Because it doesn't matter what the one number is the other just has to match

Probably slightly less, as I think certain numbers like 1234 or repeating all the same numbers are not allowed as PINs so wouldn't be issued. 

19 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

I only spent a day there as its where I caught the train to Tibet from 

At the time , (2011 ) they were just building sky scrapers everywhere in anticipating of growth from Microsoft and other tech companies moving there 

there is surveillance everywhere in China , but it was a lot more noticeable in Xinjiang , i guess what with it being Uygur  ... felt safe enough , I seem to recall it was hard to get a beer there , wasn't thriving with bars  

I guess that was Urumqi? I never went there but certainly not many sky scrappers in other cities around the province. 

Seems our experiences don't have much in common. Before going there we were warned by plenty of people our phones would probably be checked, hide our VPNs etc but there was absolutely nothing like that. Security can be a bit OTT everywhere in China but no more noticeable is Xinjiang than anywhere else. Kashgar has a large Muslim population but there were plenty of bars about, maybe because it's quite popular with tourists. 

1 hour ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

I will hopefully visit there at some point within the next year...

About to move out to China (in June) for one year to work in Nanjing.

Xinjiang is great, I really loved Kashgar. Felt more like Central Asia than China. 

Unfortunately, I'm moving the other way, back to UK in the summer. But hopefully only temporarily. 

2 minutes ago, Tayls said:

Where on earth are you?!

Edit: forgot about looking at profiles - pretty mad. Assuming still there). 

I suspect my profile is out of date. This is Guangzhou, south China. Photos are from last week taken by students at the university I live and work at. 

My easy 10km was the only exercise that wasn't a disaster. First I came off my bike in the rain, big grazes all down my right side, managed to run without incident but then went for a swim and cramped up badly. Luckily I was in the shallow end so was able to avoid the humiliation of being rescued. Electrolytes, stretching and rest for me this evening. 

54 minutes ago, blandy said:

The light’s on, but there’s nobody home.

More proof that they don't care about the environment, wasting electricity like that. 

Related to the allergy talk, I often wonder if it's only in the west people have a lot of allergies. In Asia you never really see warnings on food packaging, meals don't list ingredients and I've just never heard people talk about it, certainly never known anyone with a food allergy in Asia. 

5 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Hang on, if he's already failed his asylum claim, why the **** are we paying him?

It's not voluntary deportation if you wait until you've failed, surely, or were there more appeal avenues to pursue?

It's The Scum, I wouldn't take anything written their as a fact, especially details like 'failed'. 

8 hours ago, sidcow said:

The Thin Blue Line. 

The Brittas Empire. 

I liked both of those to be honest. 

Mrs Browns Boys by far the worst from the UK. There are too many terrible sitcoms from America and I guess the very worst ones don't even end up being seen in UK so remain unknown. 

Two Broke Girls if we include all the American rubbish. To be fair, I've never watched a whole episode but I've seen a lot of clips. It seems like every line has a laugh track after it, whether there is a joke or not. Even where there is a joke, it's not remotely funny. 

14 minutes ago, pas5898 said:

Where do you think you need to be running distance wise in training to complete a marathon? 

I ran 2 marathons in my early 20s on no training, but I played football 3 times a week, was 20kg lighter, 15 years younger and not shaped like a wonky potato.

I'd like to set myself a target of running one next year. 10k is about my limit at the moment. 

There's no real answer to this. A lot of coaches and runners now promote lower milage training for marathons so you don't need to be running that much each week to be able to run one. I think the standard long run most people will aim to complete at least once in a marathon training cycle is 20 miles, but plenty of people manage it without that as well. 

But if you can run 10km now and you are looking at marathons next year, then there is absolutely no question you can 100% do it. Find one you like the look of and get signed up. 

Another one I don't think has been mentioned much is Mr Bean. I know it won't be many people's favourite but hard to think of a sitcom that is so globally popular and recognized. 

Don't think it's been mentioned yet, possibly because of the bluenose connections, but I always enjoyed The Detectives. Not the greatest ever by a long shot, but I guess it would make my personal top 10.

1 hour ago, bickster said:

Fred West's ashes were scattered on the beach at Barry (not an) Island

 

I know he wasn't very nice, but that seems a harsh punishment for him.

Running season over me now, no more racing until Autumn. Just finished 30km trail race in brutal humidity. I was trying to take it easy but still felt spent and was walking a lot of the last 5km. At least I finished because now the heavens have opened and they've stopped the race for the runners still out there. 

4 hours ago, TreeVillan said:

Quick update. I downloaded the C25K app and went out to give it a go before work.

I don't have any earphones to listen along though so thought I would pop into Sainsbury's to pick some up but Argos doesn't open until 9 (What's that about?) so I just used the timer on my phone and found it quite enjoyable. Amittedly I'm not sure what I was doing could be considered running rather than jogging but will definitely be doing this more and hopefully the migraines stay away.

Doesn't matter, keep at it and you'll see improvements in no time. 

9 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Something isn't adding up, your 1:31 half should have you down at a sub 3:15 marathon at least. Maybe you need to tweak something minor like pacing or fuelling.

Could be. That half was about 6 years ago and I was new to marathon distance then, so pacing and fueling were still being learnt. It's been a while since a really raced a half but I don't think I'd go under 1:35 now. 

2 hours ago, andyjsg said:

Totally agree with this, I started at 34 after being a 20 a day smoker, trained for a few months and dragged myself round a 10K in 55 mins, didnt think I could get much faster and mixed it up with cycling and as I got fitter from both, times started to come down. Year on year consistent training has done it, sadly I get injured a lot but can usually drop in a couple of good performances a year, managed a 1:15:30 half last year, ran 2:57 this year despite jogging (and stopping for over 5 mins combined) the last 10 miles. Have a PB of 2:45 but think if I can finally turn up to one of these races fit I might break 2:40. At the height of marathon training Im doing 10 hours a week, 3 in one run and maybe 1.5-2 in another and the rest made up of mileage here and there and a lot of it at easy pace with a couple of hard sessions a week (or races, not both). 

 

That's all pretty familiar, I started out very unfit, worked up to 10km and then got that under an hour, half marathons under 2 hours. I kicked it up about 6 years ago, more racing and smarter training, times came down a lot and managed a 1:31 half and a 3:31 marathon. I also started doing ultras and although they were much slower they did wonders for my endurance. 10 hours or more at peak training load sounds about right as well. A few weeks ago I managed a marathon PB of 3:27 off the back of a couple of months of excellent training, where everything went to plan, but it took absolutely everything, I had nothing left at the end. That's as well as I can train, I had the easy longs, the speed work and the other easy miles with plenty of cycling and a bit of strength work as well. My 5km/10km are gradually getting slower even with that quality training, I just don't think there is a way to get significantly faster for me. 

Maybe if I'd started serious training in my 20s instead of my 30s, I could have run sub-3. But I've been training consistently for 10 years, I do a good mix of speed work, endurance, cross training and recovery but I just don't have the top end speed needed for sub-3, and however I train now I'm past 40 my top speed is getting slower. I still love running and I'll keep going but any chance I had of sub-3 can be filed under 'what might have been'. 

5 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Ah running is about adaptations, just stay consistent running and the times drop and fitness rises. 

It is, but we all still have our own ceiling that no amount of training will take us beyond. I'll never run a sub-3 marathon however train. 

37 minutes ago, delboy54 said:

Only ever watched a couple of episodes as I dont have access to sky or HBO or whatever it was on.

However I am reading the first book in the series and the first half, approx 400 pages, is deadly dull scene setting stuff, hopefully it gets better.

I agree with some comments and complaints about the author explaining to the minute detail the colour of someones armour or flag etc, and it is pretty tedious to be honest. However, it is nothing compared to Tolkiens Lord of the rings novel, where the description of some hobbits clothing goes on and on seemingly for pages and pages of drivel....

I think the worse for that is Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Gave up that one when I got fed up of pages of fish genus and species.