Just before Autumn arrived in Wigan, I ran my route again, made more difficult by the 50mph crosswind and the threat of rain. Here’s the fly-through:
In other news, Garmin have accepted my Forerunner 410 is faulty and it’s been sent back for exchange. We’ll see how long it takes…
Other people taking advantage of the good weather over the weekend included, I’m told, my ex-girlfriend’s ex-husband who was getting remarried in Derby. I represented her successfully in Court as her McKenzie Friend against him but who knows after all the lies she told me how much of her case was fabricated?
Anyway, I wish the happy couple well for their future together; I understand they may be trying to move away due to what they felt was ongoing harassment by the ex.
I was also told that my ex-girlfriend’s eldest daughter was a bridesmaid. It’s good that – having been thrown out of her home before she’d even turned sixteen, so I was told, because she didn’t get on with the new boyfriend – she’s building a relationship with the parent who may actually care about her.
Funny how things turn out…
I made the most of the last of the Indian Summer we’re enjoying at the moment to go for another run near the Premier Inn at Wigan (M6, J25). Â The first mile is uphill which means a bit of an effort to start off with.
Because my Garmin Forerunner 410 has decided it doesn’t want to work, I’ve had to switch to using iMapMyRun on my iPhone, but the benefit is Google Earth fly-through:
Am I mad?
So my shiny newish HP ProBook 5320m has the facility to take a SIM card which means no worries about a dongle being lost or losing a USB port.
HP’s Connection Manager software allows you to chose the connection speed: 2G or 3G or Auto for either.
All this is fine.
The trouble is when the coverage is dodgy: the HSPA connection automatically switches to UMTS but Windows doesn’t like this so your ability to use the connection is in effect removed. You have to then disconnect and reconnect.
Very annoying, especially when it happens multiple times each day!
Changing the Connection Manager to only 3G doesn’t help as it classifies both UMTS and HSPA as 3G.
Grr!
Another great weekend: an early-ish start for me, as I had another photoshoot planned with the fab Anita De Bauch at her home in North London. She’s a great hostess as well as model: knowing I’m watching my weight and love my coffee, she’d laid on decent coffee and some very low calorie snacks to munch on during the shoot, which was on a Hollywood/Film Noir/Boudoir theme.
Some great results already despite my not really having much if any time for edits on Saturday afternoon before I headed over to Epsom for Dinner and a film: the really rather dull “Paranormal Activity 2”.
Sunday morning and off we went over towards Swindon for  our second attempt at skydiving … and our second postponement, again due to weather. Grr! Trying again in October.
Back to Epsom before heading out for an 11.5 miles bike ride over the downs and country parks accompanying GT who’s doing another half marathon in a couple of weeks and hasn’t really trained. Trained? Trust me, she doesn’t need to: she treated it with disdain like a stroll to the shops. Awesome, as they say…
I decided that I should go for a quick run this afternoon to make up for a mahoosive meal at Nando’s in Epsom last night – we won’t mention the cake and jelly at IKEA Croydon {shudder} – and knowing that it’s pasta and partying tonight.
So I chose a nice and easy 2 mile jog. I felt fine a mile into the route so carried on, and the same after a mile and a half so I decided I’d head on to the 2 mile mark before turning back. Worked well, I think.
Oh dear! It seems that the bigwigs at Premier Inn aren’t aware of the philosophy that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Some dabbling seems to be spreading around their hotels when it comes to the Premier Inn “eat as much as you like” breakfast: whereas before it was all freshly cooked to order (or at least it seemed to be that way), now they appear to be rolling out a hot buffet style. I saw this for the first time recently at the Premier Inn, Norwich Central South where there was plenty of food laid out but invariably it wasn’t piping hot, the beans and the eggs were drying out under the hot lamps and it just looked generally not as fresh as one cooked to order. OK, if you ask, they’ll do you poached eggs and vegetarian sausages especially for you, but even so…
And as of this week – much to the chagrin of the chef! – the Premier Inn Wigan (M6, J25) is doing the same thing. I was told that they used to do this if there were 40+ guests staying, but today, for instance, there were only 15 people and of course the restaurant is open from 7am until 10.30am. The buffet therefore has to have sufficient food cooked and on display but of course it dries out or cools down and of course there’s the wasted food to consider.
I suppose the benefit is that a buffet is quicker for guests in a hurry, but for those of us who plan enough time to eat our breakfasts, the quality of the food suffers.
Oh and whilst I’m moaning, it would be nice if the Premier Inn published nutritional information for the food it serves. I was told that because the restaurants are operated by different groups, they couldn’t tell me, but that’s rubbish as the breakfast menu is the same at every location.
To end on a positive note for Premier Inn though: of the budget hotels, they’re by far the best. Travelodges are atrocious and appear to me to be generally tatty – I went to one where the leg of the bed was broken! – and the buffet breakfast I had at the Hilton Express in Norwich was simply dire.
Just a short run tonight as I’m still very sore from the crash and because it was late, between rain storms and just before dusk. Those are my excuses anyway!
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