Weekly Rundown: Sunday Walk

This year's big resolution is to walk more; not just to be more active but to actually go out places on walks. Luckily I have a group of friends who are happy to go a good long walk occasionally and so this time last Sunday we set out for a rather long Sunday stroll.

The estimate for the walk was that it was going to be somewhere in the region of eleven miles, so last Sunday I got myself organised, pulled on my walking boots and plugged myself into my mp3 player, then walked a mile up the road to the place where we had agreed to meet.

We had a rather muddy walk across the Meadows (our local playing fields) before getting onto the main road. The plan was to walk from town diagonally across the island to Ettrick Bay, a beach at the north end of the island. There's a little cafe at the beach where we were able to stop for some lunch before walking back into town along the front.

The week before our walk we had some awful weather. Storm Henry hit, bringing with him 90 mile per hour winds. The Sunday we went walking was probably the only decent day out of seven. It was pretty sunny on the way out to the beach, only starting to spot with rain when we arrived there.

Along the way there was a lot of chatting, laughing and pausing to take photos.

Arran looking all moody and Middle-earth-ish.

As I've been using my daily walks to count towards my progress across Middle-earth, I decided to have mushroom omelette when we reached Ettrick Bay; after all, according to my Middle-earth mileage tracker I was roughly at the point of the book 'A Shortcut to Mushrooms'. The mushroom omelette seemed fitting.

It was very drizzly on the way back. I ended up absolutely soaked, helped along by a car which drove through a puddle at the side of the road and splashed water over the three of us walking on the path! Despite that, I really enjoyed myself and we've already spoken about planning another walk at some point in the future, hopefully making it a regular thing.

It was a very good Fitbit day as well! I earned a whole bunch of badges, my favourite two being for walking 30,000 steps in a day (I may have put my laundry away one item at a time before bed to hit that quota) and climbing the equivalent of 50 floors!

 

The twelve miles did kind of kill my walking boots though.

I've had those shoes for well over a year now, but the recent increase in walking seems to be wearing them out quicker than before. The walk on Sunday finished them off and I wore right through the grips on the bottom. My new walking shoes have arrived now and I'm slowly breaking them in.


I'm curious to see how long these ones will last me!

Film Review: The Desolation of Smaug, Part 3

Time for another instalment of The Desolation of Smaug.

Last week we saw all the spiders, the Dwarves were captured by Thranduil and his folk and Bilbo smuggled them all out in barrels. Now it's time to catch up with Gandalf and head off to visit Laketown.

100. Meanwhile, Gandalf is trekking up the High Fells.

101. Health and Safety would have something to say about that staircase.

102. And that tunnel.

103. "Oh it's you!" Hi Radagast.

104. "This is not a nice place to meet." Hehe.

105. He was one of NINE. Oh, I wonder who they could be...

106. I love how this ties things so neatly into The Lord of the Rings. I know it's hinted in the book that the Necromancer is Sauron, but they spell it out a lot more obviously here.

107. And Radagast speaks the truth. I like how he's like, Gandalf, we need you.

108. Soggy Dwarves. The special features bit on this is hilarious. I think their fat/muscle suits swelled up with water and they kept getting stuck in the barrels.

109. Look out! There's a Bard about.

110. I love that Dwalin is all tough but when the youngest member of the company is in danger, he just steps right in front of the arrow with just a bit of tree to protect himself.

111. Balin was doing well at the whole 'connecting with the human' thing, until he mentioned the guy's dead wife.

112. Looks like they've found a ride into town anyway.

113. Lee Pace does a really good Thranduil. He's all distant and monotone. I can believe he's Legolas's dad.

114. Tauriel is quick with her blade.

115. And that Orc is not pretty, especially when he does that hissy thing.

116. "I do not care about one dead Dwarf." Yeah, but Tauriel does.

117. The Orc's eyes are unnaturally small. I think that's one of the things that makes him look so weird.

118. "You promised to set him free." "And I did, I freed his miserable head from his shoulders."

119. Thranduil's plan is basically to close the doors and hope no one notices that they're there. It shows how the events of this film change him that he agrees to send Legolas to the Council of Elrond.

120. Uh oh. Tauriel's out after curfew.

121. The 'Dwarf blood' bit is a nice little nod to the bit in Lord of the Rings where Gimli tastes the blood on the leaf and spits 'Orc blood'. These guys should really stop putting random blood in their mouths.

122. I feel like they could have done something before now to show Gloin having money to spare to explain why Thorin asks him for the extra money here.

123. Hehe, Bilbo moving away from the knothole in case they can see him.

124. You should really watch the featurette on filming this bit. Those weren't fake fish they were dumping on the Dwarves.

125. I love Laketown. It just looks perfect. Not quite what I was imagining but it makes perfect sense.

126. Alfrid gets mixed responses online, but I think he serves an important role in this film. He's horrible but he's a great character.

127. You should see the audition tape where he plays the character like a slimy used car salesman.

128. I think those dogs belong to Peter Jackson. He almost had a cameo here, but it got cut.

129. I'm not easily disgusted, but Alfrid throwing the contents of the chamber pot out the window and getting it everywhere is really gross.

130. "There's even talk of an election." "An election? That's absurd. I won't stand for it." "I don't think they'll ask you". Love it.

131. "Bollocks!"

132. Okay, this bit is also really gross. I love Stephen Fry but he's just horrible in this. Which is totally the point.

133. I've never really thought about it before, but this is Bilbo's first encounter with Men. He spends way more time in the company of Dwarves, Wizards and Elves.

134. "What do you know about my wife?" "I know her as well as any man in this town." This film has so many little quotable lines.

135. And Bard's daughters are played by James Nesbitt's daughters. I love how much of a family affair these films are.

136. I love the Dwarf theme.

137. Tilda makes me smile. "Will they bring us luck?"

138. Recap of the beginning of the last film, with a few more shots of people trying to attack the dragon.

139. And a bonus show of Luke Evans made up to look like Bard's ancestor, Girion.

140. They need to get to the mountain very soon or the quest is a waste. Or they'll just have to wait for another year.

141. I'm with Balin. Why the insistence on 'proper' weapons?

142. Oh dear. Kili isn't feeling too hot.

143. Apparently drawing bows on each other is how Tauriel and Legolas greet each other.

144. Sheesh, if Thranduil's treatment of Tauriel is 'favouring' her, I'd hate to see how he'd treat someone he didn't like!

145. Tauriel speaks the truth. It's basically her we have to thank for Legolas being able to head off and join the Fellowship.

146. I love the prophecy rhyme.

147. Who needs a ladder when you've got a bunch of Dwarves to climb?

148. How many weapons do they need? They're not planning on travelling light apparently.

149. Nicely done, Kili.

150. It's snowing!

151. Thorin has got the hang of the politician's speech.

152. Bard has not.

153. They've never seen a Hobbit before. I'm not sure he's the most reliable one to vouch for Thorin.

154. They're all quick enough to complain about Girion failing to kill the dragon, but I didn't see anyone else up there trying to get Smaug.

155. "I say unto you WELCOME!" _{to another episode of QI.}

156. Oh dear. Kili's being grounded.

157. I love those instruments.

158. Did no one notice that Bofur was missing?

159. "The entire town twittering your name." Hehe, nice little nod to Fry's presence on Twitter there.

160. Hehe, I love the Master's response to hearing Kili's sick.

161. The overlook looks suspiciously like the bit of Mordor overlooking the Black Gates.


And we'll leave things there for now. Next week, Bilbo finds the door, figures out how to open it and gets sent inside for his troubles.

Chapter-by-Chapter: New Moon, Chapter 8

Friday means it's time for another Chapter-by-Chapter blog post.

Last week we saw Bella and Jacob preparing to take the completed motorbikes out for a spin; we also learned that there are strange things going on amongst the teenage boys on the Reservation, and that Jacob enjoys jumping off of cliffs in his spare time.

Now we're onto Chapter 8: Adrenaline

What Happens?

Not much. Charlie gets suspicious about all the injuries Bella seems to be getting so Jacob suggests they cool it for a while. Bella is disappointed because whenever she goes out on the bike she hears Edward's voice. Then she realises that they could hike to the meadow where she saw Edward sparkling because that'll be a fun way to spend time with her new almost-boyfriend.

Thoughts as I read:

This chapter is called 'Adrenaline' which I guess is going to refer to Bella's feelings as she rides the motorbike for the first time. Perhaps she'll also have a run in with Sam and or someone else that Edward would disapprove of, thus giving Bella a burst of adrenaline. Let's read on and find out.

We start off the chapter with Jacob giving Bella a quick overview of the controls of the motorbike. There's a clutch, brakes, throttle and gearshift. Bella confirms that she knows the location of each of them and realises that suddenly riding a motorbike might not be the best of ideas after all:

My stomach was contorting strangely and I thought my voice might crack. I was terrified. I tried to tell myself that the fear was pointless. I'd already lived through the worst thing possible. In comparison with that, why should anything frighten me now? I should be able to look death in the face and laugh.

I've forgotten what the 'worst thing possible' is. I want to say nearly being eaten by a vampire but I suspect that she's talking about Edward dumping her.

We get to watch Jacob starting the bike for Bella because she can't do it without the bike falling over. These few pages are basically a beginners guide to getting started on riding a motorbike, until Bella is suddenly interrupted by a voice telling her that she's being 'reckless and childish and idiotic'. I wonder who that could be.

Bella loses control of the bike and ends up with it on top of her. Instead of worrying about her sanity, she's actually pleased:

More than fine. The voice in my head was back. It still rang in my ears – soft, velvety echoes.

Bella is basically happy that she's found a way to give herself these strange auditory hallucinations. Apparently the motorbike was a good idea because of this. It spurs her on to try again. Sure enough this prompts the voice again, this time asking if she wants to kill herself. Clearly she does because she half ignores it and does what Jacob tells her.

It doesn't take long for her to get the bike moving but unfortunately Jacob hasn't taught her about important things like turning corners. And as one comes up ahead Bella loses control of the bike. Once again she ends up with the bike on top of her until Jacob shows up and rescues her. She doesn't notice the massive cut on her forehead which is gushing with blood until Jacob points it out.

And so Bella needs another trip to the hospital. It's been a while since she was there last, hasn't it?

Except Bella is concerned about her dad finding out about the bikes, so first they have to hide the evidence of the bikes. Jacob is, quite rightly, worried about Bella's head wound but she convinces him otherwise. Meanwhile she's positively thrilled that she's figured out how to get the Edward in her head, or hEdward, to talk to her and is planning more trips out on the bike. Perhaps it might be a good idea to invest in a crash helmet as well as some serious therapy.

I can't really comment on the fact that Bella insists on changing out of her bloody clothes before letting Jacob take her to hospital though, I insisted on changing out of my clothes that I'd spilt dinner down before letting Mr Click take me to hospital when I was was experiencing hyperstimulation and was in excruciating pain. I'll just have to let that one slide.

Bella's clearly concussed or something now because on the way to the ER she finds herself staring at her younger, shirtless companion and musing on just how attractive he is. At first he thinks it's the head injury talking but when Bella assures him it isn't, he takes it as a compliment. I wonder how hEdward feels about Bella's moving on from him. It's like he doesn't want to be in her life but he's happy to be in her head.

She ends up needing seven stitches and having to make up a story about falling over in Jacob's garage, this is highly plausible given how easily she injures herself at the best of times.

A few days later she winds up with a concussion again and this time the hospital calls Charlie, who recommends that perhaps she might be better off out of the garage. So she comes up with a new explanation; now she's hiking with Jacob, which gives Charlie another cause for concern; after all, there's been a big bear spotted out that way.

"Charlie's getting nosy," I complained to Jacob when I picked him up after school Friday.
"Maybe we should cool it with the bikes." He saw my objecting expression and added, "At least for a week or so. You could stay out of the hospital for a week, right?"

Hehe. She'll find that tricky.

Bella's kind of depressed at the thought of not getting to hang out with the auditory hallucination for a while. She really needs to make up her mind about what she wants; either she wants to be with Jacob or she wants to be alone with the voice in her head. It's like she wants Jacob and the voice.

She's desperately trying to come up with new ways to be with Edward or at least the memory of him (and his voice) but all the places she thinks of are too human. She needs something a little bit more vampirish. Then she remembers the field where she first saw him sparkling and thinks that perhaps that's the place she needs to try. So she suggests it to Jacob as a place they could go instead of playing with the bikes.

Surely if all the places she's trying to 'find' a little bit of Edward are too human, taking someone else to one of those places is just going to make that place feel more human too. Jacob is prepared to rise to the challenge though, obviously not knowing why Bella wants to go to the meadow and so it's another date.

Hanging out with Jacob is getting expensive for Bella. Not only has she had to purchase a bunch of motorcycle parts, now she's having to buy hiking boots. Just as well that she gets an employee discount at Newton's. Unlike the motorbikes, Jacob and Bella aren't making any secret of their hiking trip. Even Billy seems enthusiastic about the idea, and not at all concerned at the prospect of the teenagers running into a giant bear. Either he thinks it's all a bit of a joke or he knows something that the rest of us don't.

Out at the trail Bella recognises part of the route to the meadow; it went in the opposite direction to the actual marked trail. She tells Jacob that it's because she's a rebel. There are a lot of things I would have described her as but a rebel's definitely not one of them.

Bella takes advantage of their time walking together to ask Jacob about his friend Embry; Embry's still hanging out with Sam and they're still giving Jacob funny looks. Presumably they know stuff about him that no one else knows yet. I've got a pretty good idea of what it's all about but I'm curious about how the big reveal will be made.

Their first attempt to hike to the meadow is pretty unsuccessful though and in the end they have to admit defeat. But they have a plan for the following Sunday, clearly the hiking is going to become a regular thing.

"Bears don't want to eat people. We don't taste that good." He grinned at me in the dark cab. "Of course, you might be an exception. I bet you'd taste good."
"Thanks so much," I said, looking away. He wasn't the first person to tell me that.

This has been another one of those chapters where not a whole lot has happened. I probably could've skipped this whole chapter and not been any the worse off for it. I hope we get to the bottom of all the stuff with Jacob and Embry and Sam soon.

Bullet Journal: One Month On

My Bullet Journal and I have been together for just over a month now, so it seems like a good time to do a little review of how we're getting on together.

In a word: Fantastically!

I wish I'd discovered this years ago. I keep on getting ideas for things that would have been fantastic to add to my BuJo if I was still at Uni or doing Open University. I feel so much more organised than I have been before. It seems like just writing down what needs to be done focuses my attention and prompts me to do it. And colouring in those little boxes really motivates me.

I've developed a routine so that my day begins and ends with my Bullet Journal.

Each morning, once I'm up and dressed, I open it up and check if there's anything that needs to be done before I leave for work. I'll check it throughout the day as well, this is mainly because I have my fluid intake tracker which I like to keep up to date so I'm constantly reminded of the things I need to do after work.

Then at bed time, I'll sit for roughly half an hour. I start at the beginning and work my way through; checking if there's any dates in the calendar I need to be aware of, filling in my tracker and countdown to Wales, checking my fluid intake tracker is up to date, checking off all the things I did during the day and moving any of the things I've not done to the following day, and finally doing a little review of the day and laying out the tasks for the next day. It sounds like a lot but it's mostly just colouring in boxes. I probably spend more time drawing fancy headers.

This month I'm pretty much repeating my layouts for January. I'll probably adapt it slightly when I get on to the graph paper section of my notebook but while I'm using the lines, the list format is working well for me. So I've stuck with the list format for the month.

I also loved my habit tracker, it's amazing how having a visual representation of my achievements (or lack thereof) keeps me going. In January I managed a walk every day and I'm so pleased to have a full column of green blocks. That's definitely staying again this month.

I'm also trialling a food log, because one of my targets last month was to eat less chocolate, which I didn't do so well on. I thought that keeping a food log might help me see where I'm going wrong and help me to reduce my snacking. It seems like I'm eating well enough on my breakfast, lunch and dinner, but already I can see that snacking at work is letting me down. Hopefully I'll be able to find healthier alternatives to switch to.

One thing that I did try at the end of January was to do a review of the month. Just as I do a review at the end of the day, this gave me a chance to focus on the good things in the month. I also picked up on some not so good stuff, but I tried to write it with a positive slant, or a note of what I need to do to make it better in the next month (or months). I'm going to do this again at the end of February, but I might try doing it in a slightly different format.

Are you Bullet Journalling or using a planner? Why not share some of your pages and link to them in the comments.

Wordless Wednesday: Recycle

Books 21 & 22 of 2015: Lastnight by Stephen Leather & The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue

Last week's two books had a bit of a connection to them, this week not so much.

The first of my two books that I'm review today is another of the Stephen Leather Jack Nightingale books, this one is the fifth in the series, Lastnight. It picks up where Nightshade left off, this time seeing Chalmers coming to Jack Nightingale for some help getting to the bottom of a series of murders which have hit the Goth community. Along the way he stumbles across a mysterious cult which believes in child sacrifice.

I have to admit that I didn't enjoy this book as much as most of the others. I wish I could put my finger on exactly what it was about it that I didn't like. I just didn't get quite the same vibe from it as the other books.

I suspect that a large part of my problem with it was the fact that this book didn't really give any explanation of what happened after the events of the last book. I was expecting some sort of repercussions from Jack killing the evil entity; he drove daggers through the eyes of something that looked like a small girl, I was expecting some more emotion from him regarding it. It just seemed that everything had been forgotten and the story moved on.

As I mentioned in my review of Cursed, I couldn't really imagine Chalmers coming to Jack for help so I guess that was a large sticking point in the story for me as well. Given the sort of relationship that Jack and Chalmers have, I just didn't buy Chalmers going to Jack about anything other than suspecting him for a crime. I also wasn't keen on how involved Jack has become with killing people, he seems like a different person from who he was at the beginning of the series; part of that is Jack reacting to the events around him, but I don't think it explains it all.

All the same, I did like seeing a character called Caitlin, even if she was evil (no comments please). And I am curious about what will happen next in the series. Part of me thinks that the series should maybe have come to its natural end around the third or fourth book, but that's not going to stop me from reading the next one San Francisco Night which I've just recently borrowed from my colleague (and will get to if I even reach the end of The Lord of the Rings).

I wanted something completely different to read after Lastnight so I went for one of the little books released for Penguin's 80th anniversary. They released 80 little books, each priced at 80p, and I got a collection of eleven of them (which I've added to since then). The book in question was The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue, the third book in the series. It is an Icelandic saga of an unknown author which dates from the 13th century. This edition was translated by Katrina C. Attwood.

This was a lovely little read. These little classics books are the perfect size for popping into a bag when you're out and about. They've got less than 60 pages each so they're very portable; practically pocket-sized!

I can't say that I've read many old sagas, but I've wanted to for ages. That was my main reason for picking this book when I bought my first batch of the Little Black Classics. This felt like a good introduction because it was short but a complete story. You could almost read it in one sitting; perfect for relaxing with in a bath.

I could definitely imagine this being an oral tale. It was quite conversational in places, like when it told you outright that people wouldn't be in the saga again. I'd love to hear it told by a proper storyteller, or perhaps in some sort of play performance.

I'm definitely going to be looking out for more sagas from this series.

Walking Progress

This isn't including my walk yesterday (since I'm writing this blog post almost a week ago) or my walk this morning either, but I thought I'd share a little update on how my daily walking is going.

Last week I hit a lifetime achievement on my Fitbit; Penguin March! That is, since getting my Fitbit I'd walked 70 miles which is the same distance that a King Penguin will walk. I'm not counting my everyday walking miles towards my target of walking the 458 miles from Hobbiton to Rivendell; so by last Thursday I'd walked roughly 45 miles. All the same, it's nice to see the way that they're adding up.

My main goal that I'm working towards on the Fitbit is the number of floors climbed. Every time I go up a hill or a staircase the Fitbit registers it. My daily target is set at ten but I regularly manage to get twenty or more. This is mainly because my current dog walking route involves walking down (and then up) a hill which is roughly equal to eight flights of stairs. This coupled with my regular up and down stairs trips at home means that I often hit my flight's climbed target before I even leave for work.

I should probably up that target really, but at the moment I quite like the fact that I've got one target I'll definitely hit every day.

My target number of steps per day is set at 10,000 though I only really get this at weekends (and the last couple of Sundays I've been really lazy). Looking at my results, I can get roughly 7,000 steps in on an average work day. The mornings are getting lighter, as are the evenings, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get out for longer walks with the dog so I'm at least hitting 7,000 steps per day.

In terms of my progress through Middle-earth, I'm now onto Day Three of the Hobbits' journey. If I can keep going at two Hobbit days per month I'll get through the whole walk before the end of the year. I've been trying to average 1.2 miles per day and I've managed it every day, bar two (when it was too icy to walk anywhere properly and when heavy winds meant it was highly likely I'd get bopped on the head by a tree if I went out). When I last checked I've been achieving 1.6 miles per day, so I'm ahead of target.

Now I'm trying to push myself up to 1.5 miles per day and I'd like to get to the point, possibly around April, where I can do two miles a day. I don't think I'll go any further than that because I'm not aiming to run marathons or anything, just walk a little bit more.


And so far I'm doing pretty well.