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Thoughts on the Bournemouth half marathon yesterday

  • Hengistbury Head is nice. Outdoors-y but with a nice cafe and visitor centre

  • lovely route…I didn’t realise how much I missed the sea

  • the steep climb, at about 8 miles, up the side of Boscombe Chine was…. challenging (swears omitted here)

  • just two portaloos at the three mile point is nowhere near enough

  • we were lucky with the weather

  • I didn’t win

  • trying to spot my young, bearded, skinny chum coming the other away among lots and lots of other young, bearded, skinny people is enough to make you go cross-eyed. It’s like an endurance version of Where’s Wally

  • it’s a nice medal. It looks a bit on-the-nose, but the detail is nice

  • I’m very grateful to the organisers and volunteers for putting it on

A medal with the text "13.1 Bournemouth" is shown with a blurred background.
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wish me luck! 🏃

start line of Bournemouth half marathon
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Hengistbury Head and the Needles in the background

Hengistbury Head and the Needles in the background
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Hengistbury Head - I read that it doesn’t really have much to do with Hengist

Hengist bury Head
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Enjoying a stand-up LP by the-lady-from-Fisk on Spotify

Kitty Flanagan - Seriously?

LP cover

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Theresa May gets it right here. It was appalling that Putin tried to assassinate someone on British soil, and it was just unbelievable that they didn’t care about who else got poisoned

“May said the men acted with “utter recklessness”. She said: “You felt they just didn’t care about anything.”

Novichok poisonings Justice ‘highly unlikely’ over Salisbury novichok attack, says Theresa May - The Guardian

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the temperature has dropped, and the fingerless gloves are back on

I feel Dickensian

fingerless gloves hand poised over a keyboard
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Some music-related AI pub signs

Oasis:

Auto-generated description: A vintage-style pub sign features two men in suits and caps, one holding a guitar, with a pint of beer beneath them and historical buildings in the background.

The Pogues:

Auto-generated description: A pub sign featuring caricatures of three people and the name The Pogue's Mahone is displayed.

The fifth Beatle:

Auto-generated description: A decorative sign features an artistic rendition of four musicians with the text The Fifth Beatle and 5 Mth Uni Debes, surrounded by ornate designs.

The Waterloo Sunset:

Auto-generated description: A vibrant pub sign features a sunset-lit cityscape, a man with an afro, a bird, and ornate details.
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James Cleverly has been knocked out of the Conservative leadership race

This seems like fantastic news for Labour, and probably also for Nigel Farage….but it doesn’t seem like great news for the country

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#TodayILearned that

While humans are split between right-handers and left-handers, elephants have a preference for which side of their trunk they use. Wrinkles reveal whether elephants are left- or right-trunked, study finds

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Beautiful day in The Shire…if you can avoid the rain

riverside path with Salisbury cathedral in the distances, and puddles
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After years and years of having an Android phone, I’ve only just discovered the usefulness of the Gboard personal dictionary, with the suggestion bar turned on.

I’ve got ‘xxm’ set up to generate a markdown link

Gboard settings can be accessed by long pressing the comma

Smartprix page about Gboard

Screenshot of micro.blog post screen with xxm generating the suggestion [xxx](yyy)
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I enjoyed Supacell, but it did make South east London seem a bit grim.

I was hoping a bit for superheroes in capes laying waste to Lewisham High Street.

That didn’t happen…but it’s a great show

Supacell poster
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As the commentator pointed out, it looks a bit like Everton are playing Saudi Arabia :(

Newcastle playing in their away kit, which looks like it's in Saudi colours
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Pam Ayers has a pile of wood and rubbish in her garden which provides a habitat for hedgehogs and insects and such

She has a genius word for it. It’s her ‘nonfire’

Midnight Meets - Pam Ayres

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A friend has met Paul McCartney a couple of times

I thought about what I’d say if I ever met him.

I came to the conclusion that I’d ask him what his favourite Elvis song was

I dreamt last night that I met Sir Paul in a cafe. I’m a bit disgruntled that in my dream I neglected to ask the question

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One of the Conservative candidates for their Leadership was just on the telly.

The reporter asked if she’d speak to him (and therefore to the country), and she said “No…I’m speaking to the members”

That’s kind of the Conservatives' problem in a nutshell

And perhaps a problem with party politics generally

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I still miss Jose

The Fenerbahce manager, José Mourinho, was booked by the referee on Sunday after he protested against a VAR decision to disallow a goal by placing a laptop in front of a TV camera and displaying a picture in an effort to show the offside decision was incorrect

José Mourinho booked for bizarre laptop VAR protest in Fenerbahce match

⚽ #MastodonFC

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My favourite pub name is The Conquered Moon

By the way…everyone should have a favourite pub name - what’s yours?

The Conquered Moon was a pub on Bemerton Heath which shut down many years ago

I searched online for a picture of the pub sign. I couldn’t find one, so I got an AI to do this

More to come

An ornate sign depicts astronauts on the moon with a British flag, against an illuminated moon backdrop, framed in a decorative border.
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