parkrundays: Blyth Links #265, Rising Sun #412 and Town Moor #694

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Bit of a catchup as I’ve not had time to post about parkrun the last couple of weeks.

On the 7th we headed to Blyth Links as Geth fancied a faster one. I’d been avoiding speed while rehabbing my hamstring so was delighted to be able to pick it up a little and finish in 28ish mins. Nice to visit the coast too!

Sprint finish past the beach huts! Photo from Blyth Links parkrun Facebook page.

Due to weeks of rain followed by overnight subzero temps on the Friday night, Valentine’s Day was one of those parkrun roulette days where it’s a matter of ‘what’s not cancelled round here?’. Rising Sun was the one not cancelled round here so off we went, along with a few friends. One of those fabulous mornings where you’re just grateful to be parkrunning. And it wouldn’t be a winter Rising Sun without the enormous puddle (now upgraded to ‘canal’ apparently)!

Overtaking in the puddle! Photo from Rising Sun parkrun Facebook page.

Yesterday we went to Town Moor. Temperatures have much improved and it would be starting to feel almost springlike if not for the harsh cold wind! My run felt a bit difficult as a result but still pleased with how my leg is holding up.

Photo from Town Moor parkrun Facebook page.

Some volunteering for a special milestone next week.

Phone Box Thursday: Midgar Phone Boxes

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Geth has been playing Final Fantasy VII Remake this week. Final Fantasy VII is not set in the UK (far from it!) so we were pretty surprised to see some familiar-looking phone boxes in the game.

Red phone boxes, Midgar. Don’t ask me for the coordinates for these ones!

This is far from the first red phone box I’ve seen in a videogame (I’ve featured Professor Layton in the past and Disney Dreamlight Valley more recently, and at some point I’ll do a post on the Mass Effect 3 phone boxes) but certainly the first I’ve seen that’s not pertaining to the UK in any way!

These FFVII ones are even covered in flyers, just like real phone boxes 😀

Gig Review: Holly Johnson at The Glasshouse (Sage Gateshead), 12th November 2023

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On we go with the gig blog catchup!

I really enjoyed this gig… well, I remember I did once the main act came on. There was a support act, which I only know because I took a picture. The old listing from the Glasshouse website tells me his name is Matt McManoman, but I’m afraid he was most likely doing the kind of acoustic stuff that my memory tends not to retain:

I’m also basing this assumption on the acoustic guitar.

Sorry, Matt. If I see you again I’ll try harder to remember your set!

Onto Holly. Setlist recorded by the good folks at setlist.fm. It was a perfect list as far as I was concerned, with a great mix of Frankie classics and solo highlights. Holly also had some great stories about Newcastle back in the ’80s when he used to come up to record The Tube.

Best photo I could get due to (a) my rubbish camera (b) my nonexistent photography skills (c) the particular stage lighting for this gig.

The encore was one song – ‘The Power of Love’ – which Holly said he believes shouldn’t just be a Christmas song but should be played year-round. I see his point, but seeing this lovely performance of the song in the run-up to Christmas did feel pretty special.

Onto 2024 next week! We’re getting there…

parkrunday: Town Moor #693

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Last Saturday, Geth and I went to the Moor for a change. He fancied a faster effort and I was still taking it really easy due to my hamstring niggle. It’s strange how slow parkrun feels when you’re taking it properly easy. I was a little faster than the previous week at Jesmond Dene… but not much.

No picture as there was no photographer (I did take a selfie for logging purposes but it’s not particularly blogworthy).

I’ll still be taking it easy this weekend (yet to decide where) but the hamstring is much improved following a sports massage so hopefully I’ll be able to get a bit of speed up again soon!

Phone Box Thursday: Cruella’s Phone Box

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Continuing the occasional theme of ‘red phone boxes in videogames’, one finally showed up in Disney Dreamlight Valley:

It appeared in the Cruella de Vil area of the newest expansion, Wishblossom Ranch. I have yoinked it to put next to my virtual house!

I’ve been posting a phone box post every Thursday since 1st February 2018 – that’s 418 Thursdays in a row including today! I will continue to do a phone-box-related post every week, but the main log of boxes will be on hiatus for a little while as I consolidate some things.

Gig Review: Duran Duran at Leeds Arena, 4th May 2023

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It was getting to the stage at this point where I realised I was starting to ‘collect’ Duran gigs in different cities. Birmingham, Dublin, London and now Leeds. There’ll be at least one more city added to the collection in the upcoming weeks of this gig blog catchup! Leeds was probably the easiest for travelling so far.

A couple of support acts on this tour, the first of which was Lia Lia. I mostly remember this as ‘experimental but quite pleasant to listen to’.

Next up was Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters fame. He mainly performed his band’s classics, which was fine by me – I vaguely remember seeing the Scissor Sisters at some T in the Park or other back in the day, but like the majority of my twenties, it’s a very blurry memory, so it was fab to be able to see these songs played live again.

Onto the main event! As usual, setlist.fm has the details here.

As mentioned above, this was my fourth time seeing Duran in less than two years so I was quite familiar with the Future Past era setlist by this point. A couple of songs I was delighted to hear live for the first time were ‘Night Boat’ (in hindsight a hint towards the upcoming Danse Macabre album, at that point not yet officially announced) and ‘Is There Something I Should Know?’

I was also intrigued by the mashup of ‘Lonely in Your Nightmare’ and a cover of ‘Super Freak’ – another track that would later become very familiar in the Danse Macabre era! At the time I was a little concerned that this mashup had replaced my old favourite ‘Girls on Film’/’Acceptable in the ’80s’… but I needn’t have worried, as the latter made its appearance later in the evening 😊

I didn’t realise at the time that it would be a while before I saw the band again. 2024 ended up being Duranless because their only UK dates were a couple of festivals down south and the logistics didn’t work out for me. But there were quite a few other gigs, which I’ll be continuing to blog about over the next few weeks!

parkrunday: Jesmond Dene #246

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I’ve felt a bit ‘deep in the winter slump’ this week. The winter running slump was what used to happen before I started my daily run streak (and, indeed, was one of the main reasons why I started my daily run streak). Every winter without fail, I just wouldn’t run at all for a couple of months. The streak put an end to that, thankfully, but there are other ways in which it shows up:

  • The ‘strength and conditioning’ winter slump (I am making an effort to mitigate it and am back doing my prehab and gentle S&C again)
  • General fatigue and stiffness (my hamstring has been tight and uncomfortable this week so I’ve been protecting it via less running and more cycling)
  • Taking a break from race training plans (HIGHLY NECESSARY after the last couple of years but not great for motivation)
  • Not making any more effort to get to a parkrun than I have to (I do make sure to attend parkrun every week, but in the winter it’s preferable to take the easy option, which most weeks is just walking to and from Jesmond Dene)

There’s something a bit ‘hygge’ and cosy about just going to your home parkrun all the time in January. Even if the infamous puddle is back and so you walk home with wet feet.

Photo from Jesmond Dene parkrun Facebook page.

No plans for next week other than ‘attend parkrun’. Taking it a day at a time!