mjmooney

Just thought I'd bump the thread to see how everybody's training is going. Anybody done a race? Given up on the whole thing? I've increased my weekly mileage to about 30 miles p/w (in four sessions) and it seems to be paying off, with increased stamina and speed. Did a cross-country race at the weekend and had to beat a hasty retreat from a crazed horse (which had just kicked **** out of another runner's leg) by running through gorse bushes (got some impressive scratches) and leaping a wall! The joys of the countryside. So, how is everyone doing?

Mouse at work, touchpad on the laptop at home. Got used to both, now.

John Coltrane - "Spiral" (from "Giant Steps")

My level of interest in rugby is such that I don't even know who "the big game" is between!

Hahahahahaha, you've got a bit of the Captain in you... Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay is the girliest drink around: mango-, coconut-, or pineapple-flavored rum that's only 42 proof. That's the epitome of a bitch drink. I prefer Sailor Jerry, which, at least in the USA, is 94 proof. Ah, now that sounds a bit more like it! (All this Hemingay I've been reading seems to have affected my Testosterone levels....)

got 4 MJ tickets... wohoo. surprised no MJ thread on it Get 'em on ebay! (Can't think why you'd want to keep them).

I say old bean, I think we've seen this somewhere before!, but quite a long time ago, so perhaps worth a revisit. I didn't vote in the poll. My parents were unequivocally old-school working class - factory/shop workers, left school at 14 with no qualifications, lived in a council flat, never had a car, no bank account, never travelled aboad, never ate in a restaurant, etc., etc. My kids are uneqivocally middle class - university educated, take foreign travel for granted, assume home ownership as the norm, travel by car as the norm, have all the trappings. But me and the missus (whose background was similar to mine) are somewhere in between. We grew up as working class kids but had the benefit of a grammar school and university (full grant, no fees) education, which undoubtedly made us "upwardly mobile" - and will live in a nice house in a nice area. Most people would consider me to be middle class, but I don't feel "part of the club". Many of our neighbours seem quite alien to me - middle/senior management (or self-employed) big cars with vanity plates, play golf, watch rugby union, vote Tory, several with kids at private schools, and so on. That's not me. So I want a new category (and I have several friends around the country who whould fall into it): ex-working class, intellectual (it's not an insult), left-wing, public sector (education) employee - and probably a complete dinosaur! Oh, and I fluctuate between "mom" and "mum", "dinner" and "lunch", "lunch" and "tea", etc.!

What do you think he'll be buying, Chateau Robothschild?

Just tried the most disappointing drink EVER. Morgan's Spiced Rum. Saw it on offer in Morrisons and thought "Hey that sounds good". Was expecting the taste of dark rum with a real hard edge, maybe ginger or chilli. You know, a proper hard man's drink, as favoured by pirates and Caribbean gun runners. Pshaw. Doesn't even taste like rum. It's a very soft, vanilla-flavoured, girly drink - and only 35% at that. What a let-down. Back to the Famous Grouse.

What did you make of it? I'm a big Mailer fan, but I must admit that when our narrator was revealed, I did have to stop for a moment and wonder if this was Mailer's last joke on us all. It was brilliantly delivered and thoroughly entertaining though and I think I liked it but I'm not quite sure. I thought it was great, real food for thought (for those who don't know, it's an imagined telling of the childhood of Adolf Hitler - and Mailer was Jewish). I followed it up with A. N. Wilson's "Winnie and Wolf" - a novel about the relationship of Hitler with Richard Wagner's daughter-in-law. Also good, but not as good as the Mailer.

Hmmm. Well I definitely need both. I always have at least two or three books on the go, one of which will be a novel and the others non-fiction - lots of history, but also popular science, in fact anything that catches my imagination. At the moment, well I've just finished the Hemingway and I'm also reading a thriller "Los Alamos" by Joesph Kanon, plus Stephen Ambrose's dual biography of Crazy Horse and George Custer, and a book on Quantum Physics (really!)

Ernest Hemingway: "The First 49 Stories". I'd forgotten how great he was. The best thing I've read in a very, very long time.

Edition, not Addition. Written by the great Mickey Newbury

I find it impossible to listen to "JOTS" without expecting the voice of Peter Jones to come in, talking about towels and pan-galctic gargle-blasters.

We Get Along - Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers (NOT the Red Hot Chilli Peppers)

As "BoB" was to "Private Ryan", it will be interesting to compare this with "Flags of our Fathers"/"Letters from Iwo Jima".

Estonia to England then to south America to El Salvador and Ecuador? England - East Germany - Estonia - East Timor? Helluva fast plane!

Here we go again. Yes it is. And so are Scotland and Northern Ireland. I think Wales is technically a principality. The United Kingdom is a sovereign state, which is probably what you were thinking of.

Oh come ON. A number one's a number one. Even if it's a load of old "number two". Do tell.

Yes you will, Magners is the Devils Piss. You should've been regretting it the moment the ice touched you lips. Greene King IPA have a fantastic new ad (in their "The Pint with nothing to prove" series) ripping the piss out of Magners. It was in the Guardian sports pages on Saturday, but I can't find it anywhere online - even Greene King's own website, although that does have others in the same vein putting the boot into pseudo-Aussie lager, American beer, etc. Greene King

Er, no, not pathetic at all, I may be a raver but classical is top too you know. Er, it was a joke. Tchaikovsky's 6th is the "Pathetique".

Tchaikovsky - 6th Symphony. Pathetic, I know.

Was looking at this book in a bookshop the other day - it's amazing. More from it.

Nail on head there. For me, these are two pairs - drink/football would be the first choice to eliminate, then sex/music. TBH, at my age - and assuming I can live to be into (say) my 80s, I think music might be the better long term option to keep, due to better availablility! Whatever I chose I'd regret it, though.

A mate of mine is Brian May's cousin. He's got some quite bizarre family photographs featuring little old ladies and blokes in flat caps on the steps of a terraced house, grinning at the camera, and there in the middle of them - sure enough, Brian May. EDIT: My mate doesn't lke Queen at all, but he did say that BM is a sound bloke.