I said to myself I’d at least blog every long yomp, if not all the podcasts I listened to. You would think I’d know myself better by now. But how else ya gonna get outa bed if you aren’t riddled with self-delusion?
Yesterday I left the house at about 0940. I was wearing a weighted jacket with about 11kgs of coins (1,2, 5 and 10p pieces) and a knapsack with two full bricks and one about-three-quarters brick. I didn’t used to think that an extra brick was That Big A Deal, but you know, after a couple of hours, it is. I did my usual canal towpath yomp, even though it was gonna be a bit muddy. Previously at this weight I’d only gone 4 hours, but this time I pushed on, as far as I’ve ever gone (bridge 79) and then a tokenistic bit further, for the shiggles.
Major concern – how little birdlife I encountered. Very few moorhens, no swans. The only thing that seemed to be doing alright was the geese… And then there’s the dead rat.
Podcasts were these.
| Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History Blitz 59 Destroyer of Worlds | Extremely long overview of US nuclear policy and so on (Mutiny of the Admirals) before honing in on Cuban Missile Crisis. Fascinating, albeit extremely long. Good on Krushchev judging Kennedy as weak b/c Bay of Pigs and their Vienna 1961 summit. |
| The Rest is Politics US 263 Donald Trump, Silicon Valley and Wall Street | Good on a few billionaires slinking back to Tump. The Ackman-Biden face off blah blah |
| The Rest is Politics US 267 If Trump Wins, what actually happens to America | Nice stuff on Heritage Foundation’s Plan 2025, I guess. |
| The Rest it Politics 264 Rishi Sunak’s defining moment | yeah, okay. War Criminal and Tory being pally. Great. Quite horse-race stuff, inevitably |
| Private Eye Page 94 114 Special Non-emergency election episode | Yeah, okay. Horse race etc, but with snark. |
| Generally though, do I need to be spending my finite time listening to podcasts which are obsessing about minutiae? Vapourware, tomorrow’s fish-wrap and all that… | |
| Fiction Writing Made Easy 137 Five Tips for Writing Better Fiction | Good stuff, on Point of View, and midpoint… |
Got home at 1520 (so, 5hrs 40 mins), had two ibuprofen (and two more four hours later) and a fry-up heavy on the protein, though this is probably the worst for weight loss (turns out weight loss is harder in your 50s. Why did nobody warn me of this?)
Next time – I will go up to three full bricks, and see how I feel at bridge 79 – bridge 78 seems to be about 15 minutes further on, according to GoogleMaps.
Fascinating, eh?
marchudson.net 
Marc, is this some form of self flagellation?
Trying to keep fit, keep weight under control (ideally would shift some lard, but that would require me to be an adult about what I put in my mouth, and when, so, um, not likely). See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortification_of_the_flesh#:~:text=Mortification%20of%20the%20flesh%20is,of%20the%20process%20of%20sanctification.&text=In%20Christianity%2C%20mortification%20of%20the,in%20the%20Passion%20of%20Jesus.
Marc, I think I’ll give piety a miss.