Ride on time

Not the 1980s dance floor smash hit (apparantly the words are actually"right on time" but the Italian producer misheard the first word when it was originally recorded), but an appropriate title to commemorate my first proper go on my new indoor bike trainer.
Having spent a considerable amount of time (and many viewings of various videos showing how to assemble the equipment - what would we do without YouTube?), I finally managed to attach my road bike to my wahoo kicker (I am probably the least mechanically minded person I know so I count this as a major achievement). 30 minutes is not long in the great scheme of things but I also started listening to a new podcast series - E. is a great devotee of podcasts but I have been much slower to adopt so by combining use of my new training equipment with a (for me) newfangled entertainment medium I am very much breaking new ground at the moment!

Walking on sunshine

Yesterday’s post is slightly late (only 24 hours….) mainly because of the golfing activities alluded to in my previous post. Regular readers will therefore be relieved to hear that I emerged from the experience (relatively) unscathed – I managed to pick up a speeding ticket on Hessa Street after I had purchased my new golf shoes so it was slightly more expensive than planned....

There is nothing more pleasant than spending an afternoon out of the office in the glorious Autumn sunshine of Dubai and yesterday was absolutely sensational weather - wise – clear blue skies, not to hot, and the course seemed to be bathed in a warm slightly hazy glow. Whilst my progress around the course was somewhat haphazard, I did manage to bump into a former colleague from many moons ago at the Dinner afterwards. She has recently retired which certainly gave me some pause for thought (although she is a slightly earlier vintage than me). Interestingly I now know a few people who for one reason of another have moved away from the main career – although it has to be said that most of them have not really retired but are focussing on something other than the daily grind (nice work if you can get it….). My Father was able to retire from the Civil Service at 57 which is not that much older than I am now – and he has made full use of the post-work years. However, given the age of the children, I suspect it will be a number of years before I am in a position to retire and certainly at the moment it seems a very distant prospect.

New Shoes

I play golf maybe once or twice a year. I do not regard it as ..."a good walk spoiled" but neither do I see it as a sport that I am ever likely to be even passably average at so my clubs (traded with a colleague in Hong Kong for a bottle of whiskey) spend most of the year in hibernation, making a somewhat dusty and increasingly decrepit appearance on the rare occasions that I let my guard drop and am persuaded back on to a course. Tomorrow is such a day and as I excavated my equipment this evening from the darkest recesses of the Cat's room (also doubling as a storage room), I suddenly recalled exactly how stretched my meagre golfing resources had become when the memory of the sole of one of my golf shoes completely detaching itself from the upper part while striding up the fairway on the 18th hole during the last game I played back in March earlier this year. At the time I regarded the incident as being - if not exactly fortuitous - at least fairly well timed as (a) it could have happened on an earlier hole leaving me to shuffle around the course even less elegantly than normal; and (b) giving me plenty of time to purchase and break in a new pair. Obviously as soon as part (b) of the above had emerged as a conscious thought it disappeared forever into the box of "things I need to get round to doing", emerging only at a time (coming up to 10pm the night before the game), and place ( my bedroom) which is not particularly convenient. So tomorrow morning will now comprise fitting a days work into a morning, getting to the course and buying some golf shoes, breaking them in and going to the practice range whilst trying to remember exactly why I let myself get talked in to these things. Wish me luck.

AI

Spent most of the day at a conference where one of the topics included a discussion on likely developments in the use of AI. I had been asked to participate in the discussion a couple of weeks ago (much to my surprise) and it was only when I took a look at the other panellists last night while preparing that I realised quite how different, shall we say my skill-set, was from the other panel members. Not being an engineer or a designer or an economist, I did rather stick out like a sore thumb and wonder whether my role was to lighten the mood - the situation was not helped when someone called me on my phone literally as the moderator was asking the first question of the session which he had directed at me. Mercifully the phone was on silent but I was painfully aware of the phone vibrating insistantly against my chest in my jacket pocket as I struggled to focus on the question and to compose an intelligible answer. As the audience shifted expectantly for my response I became aware that the microphone clipped to my tie was picking up the humming sound from the phone and I ended up taking the phone out of my pocket and with as much nonchalance as I could muster placing it on the table in front of me where it continued to rattle and hum whilst I thanked the moderator for asking me such an interesting question in an attempt to buy some more time. Fortunately the rest of the session was slightly less stressful. However, the conference was running very late so I had to hare up the Al Ain Rd to my next appointment which was the parents evening at the kids school for V's year. Fortunately this proceeded a lot more smoothly. V has had significant challenges this year due a badly broken leg (of which more anon) but notwithstanding the impact this has had on her school activities her teachers were fulsome in their praise so well done V.

Post RWC Blues

It was probably just as well that I posted by thoughts on the Rugby Cup final before the game yesterday as I was certainly in no mood to do so afterwards! A very disappointing outcome but I do not think the English team and supporters can have any complaints as the better side won (although I guess we were entitled to dream about what might have been after their extraordinary performance against the All Black last weekend….). I was also still recovering from my exertions in the Dubai cycle challenge build up ride on Friday morning so yesterday was a very quiet but nevertheless sports filled day as I have access to all the premiership football on the TV so took full advantage in an effort to numb the disappointment of the rugby. V. and I also caught up a couple of episodes of “The Good Place” which she had been very keen that I watch with her. Still not entirely sure that it is appropriate viewing for a 13 year old but it is a very clever series – I am guessing that she may have already seen some of the later episodes as she keeps dropping in teasers about what is going to happen next and I am looking forward to seeing how the plot develops. For someone who claims that not to watch much TV (except for the sport) I seem to be devoting quite a lot of time to it at the moment and this does not look likely to change in the near future particularly a I have a number of episodes of the Great British Bake Off to catch up on as well. Anyway, will try to move on to less TV and sport related topics for next post.

World Cup fever

Big day today as England take on South Africa in the Rugby World Cup final in Japan. As usual I am looking forward to the game with a mixture of excitement and trepidation - the last two finals England have been in having resulted in a win (vs Australia in 2003 a match also made notable for A deciding to take his first steps) and a lose (vs S Africa in 2007 a day when V. also decided to take her first steps) - so both occasions particularly memorable! The match kicks off in just over an hour and I will be joined by some Australian friends so thought I would get my daily post in early just in case the aftermath does not lend itself to a blogpost!

It's that time of year again

So the 1st November signals as ever the start of the blogpost per day challenge and after a full year of neglecting this part of the internet I am determined to meet this years challenge....... plenty of material over the last 12 months so there is no excuse for failing to put pen to paper/ finger to IPad. One of my last posts in November last year was about my preparations for the Dubai cycle challenge and today was the final build up ride - 85km. Very hard work this year as I managed to lose the peloton whilst battling the head winds in the middle of the desert and spent most of the ride on my own so definitely feeling it this evening (although it did not stop the traditional Friday night BBQ). Completed the course in just over three hours six minutes averaging at around 26/27kph so definitely room for improvement- although hosting the office BBQ yesterday at home was probably not ideal preparation!