atomicules

Mostly walking the dogs

I Fell In Love With His Long Legs

"I fell in love with his long legs, saw him getting smaller in the distance, felt him pulling one of those long strings out of my heart."

— Monkey Grip by Helen Garner

Loved it. Has been on my list for some time. I didn’t know anything about it, but didn’t realise it’s a cross between Trainspotting and Normal People, but set in Australia (I’m sure people would hate me for saying that). And of course pre-dating either of those by years. I find anything “relationshipy” incredibly stressful and this stressed me to the max (but I still thought it was great).

The Secrets To Dressing Well In Your 40s

"Remember: There is power in being in your 40s. Your body may have changed in the past decade, but so too have your budget and your confidence. This is the era in which you buy nice clothes that make you look good. It should be the best you've ever dressed."

Made me LOL and then stop reading the article. I had more of a clothing budget when I was a teenager. On a related note, I have just bought some running shorts from Vinted for £3. Mostly to go over the top of my worn leggings so I don’t get done for indicent exposure. Has taken me about 30 months to “save” for them.

A quote not from a book! I’ve nearly finished my next book though.

Maybe in my 50s?

Salomon Sense Ride 5

Some quick initial thoughts on Salomon Sense Ride 5:

  • In a roundabout way I got them for a fiver which is why I went for them (wouldn’t normally consider Salomon just as a way to cheap the options down).
  • They are a great road/trail/dog-walking shoe.
  • The tread pattern reminds me of the old Vittoria cyclo-cross tyres I had - i.e there is an even enough surface for road use and enough tread for off-road.
  • Since they are a road to trail shoe they are “good enough” on the road and “good enough” off-road. But not great on either. That is just the compromise you have to make.
  • I have of course christened them through lots of mud, but I was “cautious” in them in the really slippery bits because they don’t instantly “bite”.
  • The fairly tight tread pattern also means they don’t shed mud that well once it’s dry.
  • They have a semi-collapsible and nice soft heel counter which I like.
  • They look pretty good.
  • They do take a bit of breaking in. I was not a fan of walking in them when I first put them on, but I’ve done almost 100km of running in them now (and more walking) and they are fine now; And were fine some point before this.
  • The laces aren’t normal laces, but they are mostly set and forget.
  • The absolutely worst thing about them is they have a really shallow toe box. A size UK 10 feels too small, but actually isn’t length wise. I replaced the insoles with some old Nike ones which are a bit thinner and that helped. I still thought I was going to end up with badly bruised toenails, but actually they are no worse than usual.

Giving the new shoes a proper christening. Wish Brimmond Hill was a bit nearer. I definitely can’t be doing that very often before work; However, did make it back in time to take the dogs out before a meeting.

Note: Should have said it last Friday, but the Heartworms album is probably going to end up as my album of the year. Can't stop listening to it

The Snow Did Not Look Like A Killing Blanket

"And, today, the snow did not look like a killing blanket but like a tender coverlet designed to keep the cold away from germinating seeds."

— Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

Sarah Walters says in the forward “it’s also the most engaging and accessible of her fictions” and I was going to say “but I can’t remember The Magic Toyshop being this bonkers”, and yet it turns out I did say just that.

Why A Woman Should Want To Murder Her Husband

"There are many reasons, most of them good ones, why a woman should want to murder her husband."

— Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

I mean, in the grand scheme of things, she’s not wrong.

From Water That Holds Within It The Entire Sky

"Outside the window, there slides past that unimaginable and deserted vastness where night is coming on, the sun declining in ghastly blood-streaked splendour like a public execution across, it would seem, half a continent, where live only beads and shooting stars and the wolves who lap congealing ice from water that holds within it the entire sky."

— Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

Beautiful.

And From The Coffin Of Your Madness There Is No Escape

"Farewell, old man. And from the coffin of your madness there is no escape."

— Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

First book of the Christmas book haul done. Since then I’ve got another two. Due to the rest of life getting in the way I could see it taking me until near the end of the year to get through all these.

Apple Watch Series 3 Five Years On

Five years on it’s still going pretty strong: It has a 90% battery capacity (although Apple are very generous with their percentages). I can, however, get up at 6-7am and either do a couple of runs (one for me and one with A) and have just enough battery to make it to bed time at 11pm ish, or I don’t do any GPS activity and I easily make it to bedtime with around half my battery left.

Since I don’t have an iPhone anymore I am literally just using it as a running/exercise watch as opposed to a smart watch (well, I do use timers for cooking - WorkOutDoors and the timer app are the two things I have in the “dock”) so that probably helps with battery life. In the day it’s connected to the house WiFi - I could turn that off I guess, but no real need.

I had thought that I’d need to replace it last year but I guess I might get another year out of it before the battery is completely knackered. Perhaps if I was doing longer runs I’d notice it, but it’s fine for what I’m doing currently. There are rare occasions where I’d like to have a watch that has days long battery life (so not even a new Apple Watch) for tracking runs and steps, but I don’t need it.

Some follow-ups since the initial review:

  • I’ve realised wrist based heart measurements are just what they are. They are very person dependent, etc. WorkOutDoors having Precision Start where it starts measuring heart rate before starting a run helps a bit. So I use it, but it’s hit and miss: sometimes records perfectly during runs, other times gets maybe a couple of readings.
  • I used Siri via my watch once to phone little M whilst out in some bad snow and there was no way I could have unlocked my phone. Worked a treat, but that was the only time.
  • I stopped using the Strava app for WorkOutDoors and use audio sparingly for sprint intervals. I e. I could completely cope without a speaker on a watch.
  • Display-wise, when running I just have average pace and time nowadays which really helps with readability.
  • I stopped using Teuxdeux (sadly), but could still use the Shortcuts app for Taskwarrior. I do miss this specific smart watch functionality, but can cope without it (obviously).

In general I really can’t fault it and I’ve loved it as a bit of technology. If you have an iPhone, getting a Watch SE is a far better value purchase than whatever iPhone you have. It is Apple’s best product in my opinion, especially when combined with WorkOutDoors for the mapping, etc.

I am not unaffected by consumerism - I’ve window shopped hard for a new watch over the last year from the most realistic option (a forerunner 55) to dream level stuff (like a Suunto Race S or Polar Vantage M3). I’d love to buy something, but know there is no real point yet. Anything in my price range isn’t really going to be better it will just have more battery life. It’s not going to make any difference to my exercise routine.

Note: (Ma: Torture those privileged white kids. The token black teen and token poor white mum didn't balance it out)

Note: Watched Ma because Netflix said I'd love it based on Ready Or Not. But 2/5. A bit teeny and mostly I was rooting for Ma.

Note: Watched Ready Or Not. 5/5. It knows what it wants to do (even if the viewer doesn't), sets out and pulls it all together by the end.

LINK: Drinkaware

I’m not doing dry January (why make an already hard month more miserable than necessary?) so this post is just coincidentally in January - I actually started using Drinkaware last year, but only got around to writing about it now.

These are my uncollected thoughts on it:

  • As far as doing what it says on the tin I can’t fault it: It does make you very aware.
  • It would be nice if it worked offline / without an account.
  • It would also be nice if it didn’t nag every time about enabling notifications.
  • And further, if you could edit existing entries (names, percentages, volumes, etc) rather than having to delete and replace.
  • The unit goals can only go down which I find a bit silly. Ok, yes, I am trying to stick to 14 units a week, but if I only have 10 units one week I can’t then set a goal of 14 for the next week.
  • Related: It’s not the most positively re-enforcing app. It tends to want to tell you you’ve “significantly increased your drinking” if you’ve gone from a week with 0 units to a week with 10 whereas I feel it should be saying “well done, you are under 14 units”.
  • 14 units a week is not a lot at all.
  • Also, that the 14 units is a rolling seven days, which of course it should be, but that makes things even trickier and actually harder to spread things out.
  • What’s more, 8 units in a session (any more is technically binge drinking and a session is a whole 24 hours) is really not much at all. That’s less than four pints at 4.5%. If you had two pints at lunch on a Saturday and then two in the evening you’d be a binge drinker (technically).
  • It’s really made me aware how strong drinks are. It’s hard to find craft beers under 4%. It’s easy to find beers over 5%. Similarly it’s so much easier to find wines at 13% than 10.5% (and it makes a lot of difference: You can do a whole bottle of wine at 10.5% and stay under 8 units).
  • I’ve found a new found appreciation for “bests”: Bellhaven Best and Caledonia Best are only 3.2%
  • Of course there are lots of great alcohol free beers nowadays, but I also wish there were more around 3%. Similarly with lower alcohol wines (alcohol free wines are… not good).
  • I could probably give up drinking for myself, but, like everything else in my life, I’m trying to stick to these guidelines as a compromise.
  • But I’m also doing “everything in moderation, including moderation” - I.e. I didn’t bother over Christmas (I did have a very light New Year though just by accident).

[EDIT: 2025-02-28] Mentioned the rolling seven days.

These are the ten most recent posts (not counting any note drivel), for older posts see the Archive.