And so, the mileage has to increase.

Well, yesterday was interesting. The training plan for the ride had 30-40 miles down as the requirement this time.
Getting up, and looking out of the windows, I immediately knew that my hopes for safe roads was gone for a Burton, so plan B (the indoor cycling machine) was needed for the first time.

To date, the midweek runouts have been pretty short really (under an hour) and therefore not intimidating. The weekend ones (of 2 hours or so) have been time bound so I just get on with it. But now I had to go out for a specific, long, distance.

In the pub on Thursday (bar billiards league, not drinking!) I was reminiscing with a friend about my first summer job at Ford HQ in Warley, Brentwood. My parents lived in Loughton, and I was back from uni to work - so my route was from home to Ilford or Romford railway station by bike (about 10 miles), train to Brentwood, and then cycle the mile up the hill to the office. And the do it all in reverse in the evening. 22 miles (or so) a day, dressed in (albeit student standard) work clothes. No bib shorts with padding, no Camelbak to keep me hydrated, and (perhaps most significantly) no fear of busy London suburb traffic. But that was 31 years and another life ago.

In my second half century now, things are different and I got on the bike with trepidation. The anticipation of a counter that read 0.00 miles and knowing that it had to get to 30 before I could finish was not encouraging. But, having fought my way through the snow drifts (and the logs left behind from the abandoned due to bad weather tree trimming) to the barn where the machine is I started. I had chosen Pink Floyd to accompany me yesterday morning - I hope that the noisy Animals, The Wall, and The Final Cut would prove a sufficient distraction - with Pigs On The Wing Part 1 gently introducing one of favourite albums, from one of my favourite bands, I started.

And so they did distract.

Just over a couple of hours later, with a some refuelling breaks (I've learned my lesson now of trying to do this sort of thing on just a bowl of cereal!) the counter reached 30.0 as Not Now John came to a finish.

To the more experienced cyclist this is probably pretty small beer. But to someone who's done little sport since an electrocution left him with a displaced vertebrae in the small of the back (with the consequential ever present back pain) it's pretty big beer.

For the first time since I signed up for this madness, I can see how I might actually achieve it. I have a very long way to go. The mileage yesterday would only get me a bit over halfway through day 1, and about halfway on any of the subsequent days. But the fact I didn't feel dead for the rest of the day is good.

Lessons learned?
- indoors is physically much easier without the lumps and bumps of the open road, traffic, and a headwind.
- the saddle on the indoor machine is rubbish
- music whilst you work is good!
- it's nice to cycle without 4 layers of clothing to keep you from freezing
- it's really *really* nice to know that 4 miles from home I can just stop and be there, rather than have those 4 miles to cycle (as has happened a couple of times before I started to take calories out with me!)
- I much prefer progress to be shown in 100ths of a mile instead of 10ths (once the mileage reaches 10 the counter goes to 1dp). As there is a sense of constant ticking over.

I spent the rest of the day well. Lunch was a lovely piece of rare to blue steak with some stir fried green veg (I tend not to cook steak at home as restaurants do it so well, but this time I did a half decent job although my judgement might have been skewed!).
England won a hard fought match against Italy in the snow and improved a bit on last week's win (more width in defence).

The day was wrapped up with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The 2011 film. I was troubled that this film was made, as I could not see how the BBC TV series could be bettered. But the loud praise could not be ignored. The film was done well, but…
- the “need to do some CGI” efforts to make it look 1973 were pretty poor in places. Notably the shot of the bridge and St Paul's Cathedral dome; and another of 2 characters walking through a gate with a clearly green screened background.
- it does help if the person who is watching it with you (and is not familiar with the premise and tale!) does not read the paper for the first 15 minutes and need a full debrief afterwards!!
But, it exceeded expectations, and the acting was good, and I was mostly able to forget the actors from 1979.

But that was yesterday. It'll need repeating (and more) over the coming weeks and months. But for now I bask in satisfaction and Marillion on the HiFi.

The 100 club

Since I was a lad I've been aware of the club on Oxford Street but never been.

In the 50's my mother used to come here in the era of Humphrey Lyttleton.

Finally a gig I want to attend, and a ticket I could get. Steve Hogarth, better known to Marillion fans as H, his 2011 Christmas Party.

Doesn't look to me as if it's been decorated since Ma was here!

And finally a good view!

"we accept her one of us
we accept her one of us
we accept her we accept her
we accept her one of us"

A slightly better view from the more expensive seats

Well, not really, just got back to a step!

A young person's guide to Marillion

Or the A-Z of Marillion as chosen by the band

Asylum satellite #1
Born to run
Cannibal surf babe
Deserve
Especially true
Fantastic place
(a few snatched phrases of Grendel) Gazpacho
Half the worldv
(a short) Intermission
(a crowd voiced/sourced) Jigsaw
King
Last century for man
Marbles
No such thing
(the) Only unforgivable thing
Pseudo silk kimono
Quartz
(the) Release
Sugar mice
Three minute boy (followed by *T*he *U*naccompanied audience later joined for a jam by the band!!!)
Under the sun
Voice from the past
(joined by Dave Gregory of) XTC Senses working overtime
You're gone
(opening with rock 'n' roll) Zeperated out :-) but there were shouts for Stairway to Grendel!


Actually, I'd like to take a bit of the credit for this (or at least the framework for this). Some months ago when Marillion were planning the weekends Mark Kelly (@markke11y) tweeted asking for ideas. I suggested an alphabetic theme, but based over 2 nights (so that Saturday could end with Neverland). In the end, the band decided to try for all 26 in one night's phenomonal performance (well 3, Port Zelande, Montreal, and Leamington Spa). Kudos for including a track from Fugazi and hoping the crowd would help out (and more importantly remember)!

Having got a rare, near perfect view at the gig...

One gets moved off the steps (alone amongst all the others there - seems I inadvertently *partially* blocked the view of someone important).

To the more usual viewpoint for a not entirely tall person.

^%$$#$

A short person's guide to a Marillion gig

Or why does Darth Vader always stand in front of me. When I've been stood here for 90 minutes through the support act and the intermission?!

Probably the best fridge magnet in the world...

Eden Project Core room

From further back

Probably the best fridge magnet in the world...

Eden Project Core room

A return to reality #TEE09 #marillion

En route back to Blighty from Berlin and one of the better Tech*Ed of the last 16 years.

But it's tinged with immense sadness, for I return to a world without Jayne. Her funeral was last week and I already said how I feel about that.

On the plane I'm listening to tracks that were played at her funeral, and those to which I have a great emotional attachment:
Marillion:
Beautiful
The Great Escape
Made Again
Neverland

And now a dose of King Crimson
Red
Starless
Heartbeat
Heroes
These might get back into a less docile frame of mind.

Neverland is the live recording from the fanclub warm-up of 30th April 2004. The date's important because it carries with it my strongest memory of Jayne. Early that year I'd started an all or nothing diet that enabled me to lose about 4 stone or more. Jayne and Mark were at the gig (Aylesbury Civic Centre), but we'd not yet seen them. All of a sudden there came a loud shriek from across the bar area and blue jumpered and long black haired blur ran up to me shouting "OH MY GOD - WHAT'S HAPPENED TO YOU!!!!!", immediately followed by an enormous hug (both arms reaching round and meeting <g>). It was Jayne. It was the greatest possible affirmation of what I'd achieved, and really welcome.

Sadly, thanks to adverse reaction to statins, that achievement of mine is temporarily lost, but that happy memory of Jayne lives on.

So, to home, and a Yes gig tonight in Birmingham, boy am I going to be knackered in the morning :-)

If Marillion made beer

It'd taste a lot better than Carlsberg.

more vSphere pain... (and education!)

Coming soon - an investigation into vCentre 4 (upgraded from 3.5) misbehaviour. vCentre and Update Manager services will not start after a reboot...


Update 1 - up until 2am this morning trying to get vCentre4 to work properly. it's a "fill your boots" install with Guided Consolidation, Update Manager, Convertor; and all on a local SQL Express (or MSDE as I still incorrectly think of it :-)). Anyway, last week the upgrade to VI4 went well, and over the weekend I upgraded the ESX hosts to 4 and patched them.


Then I rebooted the entire infrastructure - a kind of defence mechanism for me after changes of this nature to make sure it all works. And it didn't. ESX4 hosts were fine, but I could no longer access the vCentre4 box.

Surprise of the night

On mach (and partial drum tech) Ade "the first swap the band" Marillion fan from England. That was a double take moment and a half

That pre concert thing

I'm currently mid tour with Marillion which means I am in wolverhampton for the late afternoon and evening. Trouble is - what does one do between close of shops and the gig. Normally a meal or a beer is a good thing but the £ and the calories build up :-) so what to do? Bars are still smoky (but next time!!!), no art galeries or museums appear to be open, no library in evidence so......

This time i've ended up on a bench in the centre of town getting strange looks and queries from the teen and pre-teen wannebe gangs whilst I check email, stare into the distance thinking about the current technical problem, or writing this blog. Better go, they might want to nick my phone (but at least with Exchange Mobile Admin I can kill it in 10 seconds!)

The view at marillion weekends has improved!

This photograph shows why!

Marillion convention

(in a strong Geordie accent) Day 1!

An incredible journey down, M11, M25, M2 - starting at 8 and NO holdups at all. Our friend hadn't really planned and was late and needed a taxi to get to the Eurotunnel terminal but...

More later.: