Observations

13.06.2009 Observations

Brussels Rollers 2 – 26.7km and fast!

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

06.06.2009 Observations

What do you do with kittens trapped in the basement of your building in Brussels?

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

06.06.2009 Observations

Belgium Rollers, Brussels

It was the first Belgium Rollers in Brussels yesterday evening – not a bad start to the season. The website says things start at 1900, in fact it was due to start at 2000, and we finally departed around 2030.

19.05.2009 Observations

Painful Montréal Marathon, 1:50

The picture is from lap 8 of Sunday’s Montréal Roller Marathon. Ouch, what a race. First of all, the weather – 6 degrees at the start, and very windy. The race is around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – on an

04.05.2009 Observations

A tale of two approaches to cleanliness

This is the view that greeted me when walking from Schuman to my Brussels flat this morning – a smashed up TV just lying on the pavement. Presumably the owner didn’t know it had to be put in a special

05.04.2009 Observations

46:09, 175th place for the Berlin Half Marathon 2009

OK, so the first race of the season is behind me – the Berlin Inline Half Marathon took place this morning. My result is here. I managed the 21km in 46 mins 9 seconds, giving an average speed for the

15.03.2009 Observations

The simple guide to good espresso with a Gaggia Classic

I’ve been the happy owner of a Gaggia Classic espresso machine for more than 2 years. It’s a stout, shining beast of a machine that sits proudly in my kitchen and provides 3 or 4 excellent cups of espresso that

21.02.2009 Observations

When a skater, languages and a small child almost collide

It was a grey yet dry day in Brussels; time to put my inline skates on for the first time this year and skate more than 24km between Delacroix Metro (line 2, in Brussels) as far as Beersel in Flanders,

05.01.2009 Observations

10km in Walthamstow and Hackney Marshes

Just back from an excellent morning run – 10km from Leyton through Hackney Marshes, then Walthamstow marshes (almost as far as Tottenham Hale) and then back. There was a sprinkling of snow on the ground, and the grass in the

30.12.2008 Observations

New focus for 2009

There are going to be a few changes here at this blog over the coming few weeks as, from a professional point of view, 2009 promises to be a year of major changes. I’ll be starting a Limited Company in

26.12.2008 Observations

Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS – Mac data analysis and blogging

Having skated the Berlin Inline Marathon in 1 hour 35 minutes in September 2008 I’m determined to do better in 2009. So I need to make my training regime more professional… Problem: when skating there’s no way other than GPS

17.12.2008 Observations

Royal Mail is not actually very good – so why whine so much?

So Peter Mandelson announces that Royal Mail is to be part privatised. Cue much teeth gnashing / soul searching / resignations / bemoaning of the loss of a national icon, bla bla. Come on folks, let’s get real about this.