Bits and pieces
It's not going to be 100 things you may not know about me. Much less ambitious than that. But, if I'm not to be guilty of welshing on various $1 debts, I can't write about poker, so just some random musings. Though, I did win a token on my first attempt at the Full Tilt two table $8.70 token satellites. All that has been written about these seems to be true -- if only tokens could be exchanged for cash!
I started running again early this year, after about a 15 year lay off (except for a couple of abortive restarts). I'm generally happy with how it's been going, I'm now up to about 7km (4.5 miles for the unenlightened), four times a week. I'd like to be running more, but have had to come to terms with the fact that a 40+ year old body simply needs more time for rest and recuperation. One of the great things about running in Dunedin, is the opportunity to run along the beach from St. Clair to Lawyer's Head. The beach is just over 3 km long, and on a sunny, calm day, with the right tide (a conjunction of circumstances that occurs all too rarely) there's nothing quite like it. And yes, it really is as empty as the photo suggests despite being right in town.
The Otago Peninsula continues north of that beach, and there are some wonderful trails and hikes there as well.
Besides watching far too much sports on television, my principal other non-poker leisure pursuit is reading. At the moment, I'm in that delightful state of enjoying a book so much that I am reading it in short sessions, because I don't want to finish it. The book is The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime
by Jasper Fforde. If you're a fan of Douglas Adams, or Terry Pratchett there's no doubt you'll enjoy Fforde. If you're not, but only because you find them a bit juvenile at times, you'll still enjoy Fforde. The Fourth Bear is perhaps not the book to start with -- The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime
introduces the characters, and the Thursday Next series, beginning with The Eyre Affair
defines (using that word in the loosest possible sense) the world in which all these stories happen. I found the second and third volumes of the Thursday Next series a bit weaker than the first and the fourth, but the whole series is well worth reading, and I wait with bated breath for further installments.
Photo Credits
St Clair Beach: Original photo by Nicholas Thompson.
Otago Peninsula: Photograph courtesy of Jeremy Ginsberg.
I started running again early this year, after about a 15 year lay off (except for a couple of abortive restarts). I'm generally happy with how it's been going, I'm now up to about 7km (4.5 miles for the unenlightened), four times a week. I'd like to be running more, but have had to come to terms with the fact that a 40+ year old body simply needs more time for rest and recuperation. One of the great things about running in Dunedin, is the opportunity to run along the beach from St. Clair to Lawyer's Head. The beach is just over 3 km long, and on a sunny, calm day, with the right tide (a conjunction of circumstances that occurs all too rarely) there's nothing quite like it. And yes, it really is as empty as the photo suggests despite being right in town.
The Otago Peninsula continues north of that beach, and there are some wonderful trails and hikes there as well. Besides watching far too much sports on television, my principal other non-poker leisure pursuit is reading. At the moment, I'm in that delightful state of enjoying a book so much that I am reading it in short sessions, because I don't want to finish it. The book is The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime
by Jasper Fforde. If you're a fan of Douglas Adams, or Terry Pratchett there's no doubt you'll enjoy Fforde. If you're not, but only because you find them a bit juvenile at times, you'll still enjoy Fforde. The Fourth Bear is perhaps not the book to start with -- The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crimeintroduces the characters, and the Thursday Next series, beginning with The Eyre Affairdefines (using that word in the loosest possible sense) the world in which all these stories happen. I found the second and third volumes of the Thursday Next series a bit weaker than the first and the fourth, but the whole series is well worth reading, and I wait with bated breath for further installments.Photo Credits
St Clair Beach: Original photo by Nicholas Thompson.
Otago Peninsula: Photograph courtesy of Jeremy Ginsberg.
Labels: random observations
posted by Michael Albert at 1:50 pm
2 Comments:
Nice photos. I need to make it to NZ someday, as I hear nothing but accolades - and good work on getting back into running. I have a running route that I associate with every place I have ever lived (and usually an iPod soundtrack as well). And your description of beach running reminds me of St. Andrews in Scotland.
OK, now I am totally envious..Toronto, looks nothing like that.
I LOVE Jasper Fforde, although I've never actually *read* him, but they are very amusing audiobooks for the commute. I'll have to keep my eyes open for the Nursery Crimes.
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