rich_jacko

2023 was the year I ran a marathon in under 3h45m and climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa! Let's break it down a bit more:

• 2 holidays away - Norfolk with friends in April, and Tuscany by myself in September (my first trip abroad in over 4 years!)


• 1 new arrival in the family - my cousin's baby daughter, Isobel


• 1,023km run - including 1 marathon (setting a new PB of 03h42m47s), 4 half marathons (sort-of, including the Round Sheffield Run), and 44 parkruns in a staggering 20 different locations. I also donned hi-vis vests in 3 different colours, volunteering a total of 33 times across 4 different events.


• 1,064 days - breaking into quadruple figures with my Duolingo streak (also a 440-day winning Wordle streak, not missing a single day with either this year).


• 35 films at the cinema - the 35th of which was my favourite, Miyazaki's The Boy and The Heron, but many others were very good too.


• 12 books read - rather paltry really; I have no excuse. I've loved Chris Wooding's 4-book Tales of the Ketty Jay, and also been through Project Hail Mary (Andy Weir), Amongst Our Weapons (Ben Aaronovitch), The Apollo Murders (Chris Hadfield), The Collectors (Philip Pullman), The Descent of Man (Charles Darwin), Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin), Wild (Amy Jeffs) and Stone Blind (Natalie Haynes).


• 3 music gigs - 4, if you count listening to Arctic Monkeys from the park, just outside the fences. ;o)


• 3 days of snow - which, frankly, is not even close to enough.


• 2 swims in the sea - which isn't remotely enough either!

Plans need to be made for 2024 (I have the odd one or two in mind...). I hope all yours come to fruition - a healthy and happy New Year, everyone! :o)

2021 managed to clear the very low bar set by 2020 (Hey, the only new scar I have this year is a physical one...). We may not quite be back to normal yet - cancelled parties this week have sadly proven that - but we've collectively come a long way and this was the year life began to resume.

I've enjoyed regular meet-ups with friends again, trips to the seaside, a birthday picnic and meal out, the return of parkrun, two big family events/celebrations, my sister/nieces' visit to Sheffield, a trio of major running events, my first holiday away in two years, and a much freer Christmas than last year.

All the best to you all, however you're seeing in the New Year, and may you have a fantastic 2022!

This weekend, I took my Mum and Dad to Tramlines. It was back in Hillsborough Park for the second year running, so I took advantage of my two free tickets and bought a third one for myself. The crowds were bigger this year, the weather not so clear and I'd heard of fewer of the acts but, despite all that, the music and the atmosphere was still just as amazing. We all enjoyed ourselves (even though it's not normally Dad's sort of thing!) :o)


Friday:

The weather was grim and we had classic festival mud (My poor park!), but we mostly managed to stay dry. We got there in time for the Seamonsters, who I'd enjoyed last year and were (bizarrely) sampling Theresa May's resignation speech this year. Then we had a look round before settling in front of the main stage for Circa Waves, the Manic Street Preachers and Two Door Cinema Club. Mum and I both really wanted to see the Manics, and they didn't disappoint. They got one of the biggest cheers when they covered Sweet Child O' Mine. We didn't think too much of 2DCC, so went and got food (giant Yorkshire pud!) then watched Red Rum Club on the Library Stage to finish off the night.

Saturday:

I was chuffed to introduce my folks to the most Sheffield band they will ever see - the good ol' Everly Pregnant Brothers (more confident on the big stage this year and really working the crowd well). I had to explain the Leeds thing to my Dad and they were both a bit put out by the Worcester Sauce gibes in "Hendo's", but they definitely enjoyed it. We came home for a late lunch (handy being so close!) then back out again to a massively crowded park for a triple bill of Reverend and the Makers, Johnny Marr and Courteeners in the evening. Johnny Marr was the best of the three, but they all rocked the crowd pretty well while the sun went down. Before that line-up, there was an unscheduled tribute song to Sarah Nulty, led by her brother. Despite the crowds, we still managed to find a decent spot for the evening (where, importantly, we could sit down between acts!) and it didn't take long to queue for essential food and beer (overpriced but, hey, it's a concert). A good second day.

Sunday:

Mum and Dad needed a gentler day, and I had Bethany's nowhere-near-a-birthday lunch to go to, so we only returned to Tramlines late afternoon on Sunday. Lewis Capaldi was first up on the main stage and, while his music was good, most of the crowd couldn't make out what he was saying during his long talking bits between songs. Rag 'N' Bone Man followed and was much better. After that, we had a clash - Doves and Nile Rodgers & Chic were on at the same time, and we wanted to see both. Inevitably we were going to get split up, so we arranged to meet up at the end. I listened to Doves' first four songs, then wandered around for a bit (and danced along with Yonaka at the Library Stage for a while) before ending up at the main stage for Nile Rodgers & Chic. Their Let's Dance / Le Freak / Good Times finale proved why they've been a success for so many years and really worked the crowd up into a bouncing, clapping, party frenzy, proving to be the perfect end to the festival.

My parents have been up visiting for the last few days. We've been exploring all over Yorkshire and Derbyshire. The summer sun arrived at just the right time! :o)

They arrived Saturday lunchtime, bringing chairs, whisky, dinosaurs and space Lego! (Aren't parents great?) After we lunched, the Chivers popped around for tea in the afternoon as Mum wanted to meet my godson - mostly this resulted in Dad and the Bug building Lego together. In the evening we ate out at Silversmiths, which was as fantastic as ever. I showed Mum and Dad a bit of the town centre, including the new Women of Steel statue, before we went home.

On Sunday we visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and managed to see several sculptures which weren't there or that I missed the last time I visited. Once we were done there, Dad wanted to go for a drive to explore some of his old haunts. We found the house in Shipley where he grew up, as well as his grandparent's house and the green where he used to walk the dog. Then we drove across Ilkley Moor and found the Cow and Calf. It was a good day out (apart from the brief horror when the sat-nav took us home via Leeds!).

Yesterday we went to Bolsover Castle, which I'd never been to before. It's impressive, especially its dramatic location! We explored it thoroughly and had a late lunch at the cafe. Afterwards we went into Chesterfield and had a wander around there before coming home. In the evening we ordered Chinese food and watched movies (and why not?).

This morning was a lazy one. Mum and I had a stroll around the park but otherwise we spent the morning in. Mum and Dad left just before lunchtime.

P.S. - I'm pleased to say I won the money battle and managed to pay for us all, everywhere we went!

P.P.S. - Family invasion, round 2 will be the second week in August, when my sister and nieces come to stay...

( Photos )

So, 2015: For me it was a year dotted with quite a lot of amazing times, for which I'm very grateful. I took a personal record-breaking ten flights, which took me 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle for Clare's birthday, to Bavaria for a great 2 weeks with the Chivers, and to Geneva again with work.

Speaking of work, it was an excessively busy year, but one in which I gained a quite sudden and unexpected promotion, which was very welcome. I saw Queen (+ Adam Lambert) in concert in February and a 90% solar eclipse in March (which, when added to the Northern Lights in March and a lunar eclipse in September, made it a great year for celestial phenomena!). I probably spent too much money on Lego and not enough on boring stuff, like the house.

Family-wise, my mum ends the year with two new hips and half an inch taller, while my sister and her family well and truly settled into their new home and came up to visit for a very successful week in the summer.

In the news, 2015 wasn't such a great year for the wider world. The chaos in the Middle East seems to go from worse to even worse, with no end in sight. Politics at home and abroad has taken several nasty turns. Several terrorism attacks and widespread flooding added to the misery. And the world lost too many amazing individuals this year, chief among them Sir Terry Pratchett and Sir Christopher Lee. Let's hope for a much brighter 2016...

Film of the year for me was (no, not the obvious!) Pixar's Inside Out, while book of the year was Andy Weir's The Martian.

Happy New Year, everyone, whatever you're up to this evening. I wish you all a very healthy and enjoyable 2016!

As posted on that facebook, my Auntie Carolyn has very kindly nominated me for the MND ice bucket challenge, which half my extended family seem to be taking up at the moment.

I'll be honest. I'm not convinced by this craze and I don't think it's been properly thought through. From what I've seen in the media, there hasn't been nearly enough emphasis on the fundraising, which is supposed to be the main point. It should be possible to wring far more donations out of it than you'll get by following the official rules.

So here's the deal:

1) I will NOT be having a bucket of ice water dumped over my head in the next 24 hours.

2) I have just donated £50 to the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

3) I am already planning to have an open house party (Lego Movie!) at some yet to be determined date next month. If guests at that party can match my donation by raising at least another £50 for the MNDA between them on the day, I will endure the ice bucket there and then. And you can all watch and laugh. If not, I won't.

4) As a generosity incentive, whoever donates the most gets to pour the bucket and post the video online. Everyone ELSE who chips in gets their names put into a pot to nominate the next two victims...

Even if you have no interest in this nonsense, I encourage you to donate to a very worthwhile cause if you can.

Mum and Dad came up to visit this weekend. I gave them a bit of a tour of Sheffield centre in the sun yesterday, which included watching IVFDF morris dancers outside City Hall and visiting the "Designed to Shine" exhibition in the Millennium Galleries. We had dinner out at the always wonderful Zing Vaa. Today we re-watched bits of the Olympic Opening Ceremony on the big screen before taking a leisurely stroll out to the Admiral Rodney and back for lunch. :o)

Overall I think I will look back on 2011 as a year in which I spent an awful lot of money, but spent it well. After a long, long wait I bought and furnished a house. I went on two enjoyable holidays (to Flamborough and to Cologne), had a fab party weekend away in Hartington, and made several visits to London.

In less-expensive news several friends had babies, I became a godfather, and my sister is expecting her third (and - she swears - final!) child. A close friend coped amazingly well with cancer. We discovered a great new Friday social venue in The Blake, and had several hiccups with the Walkley Cottage. Work was busy but mostly more of the same - no more promotions on the horizon for a while. I succumbed to the evils of Facebook but made up for it by also reading more books than usual. Movies were mostly good but Doctor Who was disappointing. Cake was not disappointing on many, many occasions. The weather was hot and sunny surprisingly often. There wasn't nearly enough snow.

My New Year's resolution is kind of dull - I'm aiming to get up earlier and get into work earlier on a regular basis. This will give me more time to play in the evenings, in theory at least!

Best wishes for 2012 everyone! :o)

Pinched from farrel by means of being a quick way of doing an update:

( Actually not all that quick )