<2weeks to Flying Pig. All the "big miles" done. Been lazy as ever though more fast miles than ever before.
Been averaging 6:40 ish for 5-7 mile runs and managed a couple of fast 10 milers, an 18 miler and 3 fast 15 milers. On Sunday did my last 15 miler - cold, snowy and a wind that was hard to fathom. Made it round in 1:35 so exactly 7 min pace - bit slower than I was want but not too bad.
Now it is the taper and maintenance phase - did a 5 miler at lunch today - fairly easy at approx 7 min pace.
Might skip tomorrow and do 7 on Thursday am.
Ho Hum, waiting game now, patience and healing
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Senile Moment!
Bugger me you know you are getting old when you can't trust your memories anymore.
Very strange string of events over past couple of days has me in a real daze. Going back over 20 years to a Middle School Trip to Dinard in northern France. I have (and have had or years) a very singular memory, about a girl I liked oddly enough (unrequited not so oddly enough, but them's the breaks). Anyway she (Louise Whitehouse, see I even remember her name!) was of particular interest to me at an age when I was just becoming aware of girls. She was going out with one of the "A-list" boys, Kevin Pit and as I wasn't exactly A-list material (lower C-list I suspect) I barely even spoke to her. Anyway I don't think Kevin was on the trip and she had actually talked to me on a couple of occasions which probably had got my recently emerging hormones right in a pickle.
So the scene is set.
We went to France by bus and ferry, now I don't remember the bus driver clearly but he was old (bearing in mind I was about 11 or 12, so he could easily have been 20 and counted as geriatric). Louise (the target of my developing affections) was a "well built lass", which probably went some way to explaining both my (and Kevin Pit's) interest in her I fear. Seems it might have attracted the rather pervy attentions of the bus driver as well cos Louise complained very loudly about him groping her! I was shocked, horrified and in some prepubescent way enraged! I can remember trying to stand between her and him whenever possible the next few days.
Well how this all ties together is with a song I vividly remember from this trip and have always linked with these events - Elvis Costello's "Everyday I write the Book". The song opens with the words "You say you don't know what love is, when your old enough to know better, when you find strange hands in your sweater". This line resonated in my young mind and reignited my fury at the bus driver (whose hands in Louise's sweater I had always felt this was s direct reference to). And the chorus with its "I'm giving you a long look" was always strangely melancholy, as I had given Louise many "long looks" but she never looked back! Oddly though the next year (post-Kevin Pit) we did become pretty good friends (though never an "item as I was far too scared to ever ask her out) and in fact I think she was the first girl to ever call me "Darling" - I remember the words hit me like a tazer!
Anyway you get the picture - young (unrequited) love and that summer and the song have been linked ever since - to the point where, whenever I hear the song I can picture the foyer of the hotel in Dinard when Louise spoke up about the Bus Drivers mucky paws.
So here's the rub..... Last weekend (some 20+ years later) I am in Okemos library and I spot Elvis Costello's greatest hits. I check it out along with a Thurston Moore disc. Sure enough the CD has "the song" as well as another favorite "Veronica", which is all about an old lady with dementia and which always drives me to the point of tears (I'm a daft idiot). Listened to the CD tonight for the first time. Check out the sleeve notes and "Everyday I write the book" reached #28 in the UK charts and was off the album "Punch the Clock" released in 1983 - three years after my trip to France!! I left the Middle School for High school in 1981 and never saw Louise again.
So this whole time (for nigh on 20 years) I have had a completely erroneous memory! Wow when you can't trust your own mind what is there left? I spent about two hours checking the web to see if maybe the song was released in the UK before the US. Apparently not. Bugger!
Till next time - if I remember
DB
Very strange string of events over past couple of days has me in a real daze. Going back over 20 years to a Middle School Trip to Dinard in northern France. I have (and have had or years) a very singular memory, about a girl I liked oddly enough (unrequited not so oddly enough, but them's the breaks). Anyway she (Louise Whitehouse, see I even remember her name!) was of particular interest to me at an age when I was just becoming aware of girls. She was going out with one of the "A-list" boys, Kevin Pit and as I wasn't exactly A-list material (lower C-list I suspect) I barely even spoke to her. Anyway I don't think Kevin was on the trip and she had actually talked to me on a couple of occasions which probably had got my recently emerging hormones right in a pickle.
So the scene is set.
We went to France by bus and ferry, now I don't remember the bus driver clearly but he was old (bearing in mind I was about 11 or 12, so he could easily have been 20 and counted as geriatric). Louise (the target of my developing affections) was a "well built lass", which probably went some way to explaining both my (and Kevin Pit's) interest in her I fear. Seems it might have attracted the rather pervy attentions of the bus driver as well cos Louise complained very loudly about him groping her! I was shocked, horrified and in some prepubescent way enraged! I can remember trying to stand between her and him whenever possible the next few days.
Well how this all ties together is with a song I vividly remember from this trip and have always linked with these events - Elvis Costello's "Everyday I write the Book". The song opens with the words "You say you don't know what love is, when your old enough to know better, when you find strange hands in your sweater". This line resonated in my young mind and reignited my fury at the bus driver (whose hands in Louise's sweater I had always felt this was s direct reference to). And the chorus with its "I'm giving you a long look" was always strangely melancholy, as I had given Louise many "long looks" but she never looked back! Oddly though the next year (post-Kevin Pit) we did become pretty good friends (though never an "item as I was far too scared to ever ask her out) and in fact I think she was the first girl to ever call me "Darling" - I remember the words hit me like a tazer!
Anyway you get the picture - young (unrequited) love and that summer and the song have been linked ever since - to the point where, whenever I hear the song I can picture the foyer of the hotel in Dinard when Louise spoke up about the Bus Drivers mucky paws.
So here's the rub..... Last weekend (some 20+ years later) I am in Okemos library and I spot Elvis Costello's greatest hits. I check it out along with a Thurston Moore disc. Sure enough the CD has "the song" as well as another favorite "Veronica", which is all about an old lady with dementia and which always drives me to the point of tears (I'm a daft idiot). Listened to the CD tonight for the first time. Check out the sleeve notes and "Everyday I write the book" reached #28 in the UK charts and was off the album "Punch the Clock" released in 1983 - three years after my trip to France!! I left the Middle School for High school in 1981 and never saw Louise again.
So this whole time (for nigh on 20 years) I have had a completely erroneous memory! Wow when you can't trust your own mind what is there left? I spent about two hours checking the web to see if maybe the song was released in the UK before the US. Apparently not. Bugger!
Till next time - if I remember
DB
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