HOW TO BUY MEAT

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I’m going away.
It’s ok, blog posts will continue.

But because I’m not sure of the internet connectivity around where we’re going, I’ve lobbed some posts up in advance, just in case.

And also because this is a football club weekend, almost certainly including some beers and some braai’ing, I’ve been on the lookout for this vinyl rarity:

I’ll be honest, I’ve never really struggled with the concept before, but with a top restauranteur and a guy who brought ¾ of a cow up to Kruger last year coming along, I think I need to be at my best.

Thankfully, the USDA seem to have this all sorted for me, so I guess I’ll just follow their instructions.
I’ve already got my scary eyes and pointing finger ready.

What could go wrong?

Nope. No, thank you.

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I mean, I say that, because I’m not a fan of heights. But actually. I’m really fine with heights as long as I know that I’m attached to something. And these guys – building a 400ft tower (a 122m transmitter in English) – in Ohio do at least seem to be that.

Also, they don’t even have to carry anything up there. It’s dropped in piece by piece from above.

Easy money.

For Midwest Helicopter Airways Incorporated, motto “We put big loads in tight spaces” (eish!), this is their job. You can see them lifting boxes and aircon units on some of their other videos, but this one is the best, giving you (almost) a bird’s eye view of a job you’d never usually get to see.

What happened last week?

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I’ve been looking back at last week, and I think one thing deserves a mention, even if only to make sure that I don’t forget it (MMIRIM, remember?).

Our health insurance has a sidearm to encourage its members to get healthier and stay healthier. This benefits the members in that they… er… get healthier and stay healthier, and it benefits the health insurer in that they theoretically don’t pay out as much money due to ill health. And then that extra money can benefit the members again by enabling lower premiums.

Lolz. Just kidding. That extra money goes to their shareholders.

Anyway… The sidearm gives you various points for working out for more than 30 minutes at various percentages of your maximum heart rate (calculated as 220 – your age). You can get 100 points for a >60% workout, 200 for a >70% workout and 300 for a >80% workout. Reach your goal by the end of the week, and you get a reward in the form of “Miles” which you can use to pay for everything from coffee to cinema tickets, and even a pair of sunglasses.

My goal is always 900 points – the highest for a standard person (i.e. non-professional athlete). Usually, I get around 1,100 or 1,200. But last week, I decided to see if I could – even at my somewhat advanced age – get to the maximum number of points for the week: 7 x 300 = 2100. That’s a full-on workout each and every day.

And it turns out that I could. Just.

Day 6 was a push. (Day 6 also included 28,000 steps at the OMD concert, btw.) Day 7 was almost impossible. And Day 8 was fairly miserable because of Days 6 and 7.

But I did do it.

Have I learned anything? Well, yes. Sheer will power and determination should never be underestimated, because they will help you reach your goals, but also, setting those goals too high is a silly idea.
And so will I do it again? Sure, probably. But I might work my way up to it a little more gradually next time.

In the meantime, after a (somewhat enforced) rest day on Saturday, I’m back at it, and have almost reached this week’s goal already.

And I can still walk.

#blessed #winning

Vicky Ling has my sympathy

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I do some photography and people are generally very nice about it. Sadly though, there’s always someone who will go out of their way to be rude.

Look, if it’s not to your taste, that’s fine.
But there’s absolutely no need to resort to – and then publish! – this sort of vitriol:

It might not be the greatest photograph ever taken, but there are certainly some positives in there. The leading line of the path, the tangled branches of the winter trees, some autumnal colour still visible on the ground.

But no, it’s not going to win any awards. Still, for me, the (New Milton) Advertiser and (Lymington) Times‘ critic has really overstepped the mark here.

Wholly unnecessary. Vicky has my sympathy.