I’ve been working as a freelancer for more than 5 years. It was at the end of the summer of 2007 that I took that leap, and until now there has been no looking back. I enjoy the flexibility, the fact that I am my own boss, and normally I...
Observations
I think these last few days I’ve started to realise what’s been so wrong with me for the last few months. I’ve ceased to dream, to have hopes for the future. “Something has happened to you these last six months” a dear colleague of mine said to me yesterday. “You...
So it turns out that this has been a significant week for me personally. Only three days after I took the decision to cease the pursuit of selection to become a MEP, a further decision taken by someone I don’t know and I’ve never met has had further important implications. My partner’s...
It’s 12:22 on Saturday 24th September 2011 and I’m sat in a friend’s flat in Berlin. At about this time 10 years ago I first set foot in this city, the start of a remarkable journey through European politics, work and further studies that has been a brilliant rollercoaster ride...
I seldom blog about it these days, but sport is important for me as a way to stay healthy and – to a large extent – to stay sane as a freelancer. Haruki Murakami talks about these sorts of things in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running....
Right, this is a blog entry that’s going to annoy a lot of people. But I’m very annoyed. So here goes. I’m totally, utterly and completely sick of dog owners. Note I am not completely and utterly sick of dogs. I’m not unfriendly towards animals. A dog is a dog....
I’m absolutely stunned – I finished in 70th position (among the ‘fitness’ skaters – i.e. anyone except the absolute pros) in the Berlin Half Marathon inline skating 10 days ago, with a net time of 47:01. I knew the race had been OK – that time is 1 minute slower...
At 0727 on 10th September an Intercity Express will depart from Gare du Midi, Brussels. Via Düsseldorf Airport I will end up later in the day in the 35ºC sunshine of Egypt, ready for a week of diving in Dahab. From there it’s to Berlin for the inline skate marathon,...
http://jonworth.eu/trailrunner-skate/trailrunner/DT6C3JL.kml More details and photos to follow, but for now here’s the route. Bit of a GPS error on mine, this is the definitive one – 135.6km.
No Belgium Rollers this week (due to the European Council in Brussels), so a sortie into the countryside of Wallonia instead – 42km from Namur to Tienen, most of it on Ravel 2 (Ravel is the Walloon network of long distance cycle paths). The route is along an old railway,...
Much better Brussels Rollers tonight – further, faster, better. Speed topped at 46.1km/h on the descent from Montgomery to Woluwe, and the sprint from Montgomery past Mérode and Schuman onto rue de la Loi was almost as quick. I ended up 3rd in the 2 sprints, but won the hill...
Aggghhhhh, it’s another one of those days where Belgium is driving me utterly insane (similar to the post issue the other day). There were two young kittens trapped in the basement of my building, presumably the offspring of a stray cat, and I needed to try to work out what...