DAYS

It's getting close folks. It's that wonderful, magical time of the year again. Yes indeedy - it's time to celebrate the end of one temporal measuring unit with the start of another!! If you could only see how excited I get when I have to turn the page on my wall calender at the end of one month and the start of another - well, imagine that excitement, times twelve!!
It's also a time, apparently, for "resolutions". "Resolutions" are, as we all know, simply promises made in the knowledge that they will only be kept for a maximum of three weeks.
It's a great time for health clubs, gyms and sports shops. I would imagine that about 80% of their annual turnover could be made in the next few weeks, as they happily take membership fees from people who they know dam fine will, by Burns Night, have retreated into a life of loafing about the sofa, encased in elasticated sweat pants, filling their puddy faces with leftover Quality Street.
If you want to change/start something new/stop a bad habit etc. Then do it when the idea pops into your head!

Anyway. Don't let my negativity seep into your world. If you want to get caught up in the wake of the massive, steam powered, tartan, Leviathan that is "Hogmanay" then embrace it and have fun.

So. What of life away from "Planet-moaning-bastard"? Well. I'm Still keeping to the idea of runs every day that are 10 miles or more. Quite enjoying it. Although I think if I managed to get out for at least one run without getting battered by a gale I might enjoy it a little more. Out over by Spott way today, then along by Burnhead and Pitcox before heading back up Starvation Brae into a nice strong head wind. Keep telling myself it's doing me good.
What didn't help with todays run was the fact that the rubber "shoe goo" I had applied to the heel of an old pair of shoes decided to become frayed and loose half way round. I could hear it scuffing along for about two miles before I'd had enough. Sat down, got a firm hold and pulled. Bloody thing stretched to about two foot in length before it finally detached and snapped back - onto my thumb. Agony. Even when I got home it was sore. Stood with my thumb under the cold tap for a while to try and bring the swelling down.

The fifth of my top five? Well. I am a sucker for a good piano trio and they don't come much better than John Taylor's, and his last album "Giulia's Thursdays". An album of songs by Italian film composer Carlo Rustichelli.
This sounds more like a suite rather than a "collection" of individual pieces. Very romantic in feel and maybe a bit "old school" when taken in context with today's crop of post EST, Brad Mehldau trio and Bad Plus emulators. But that isn't a bad thing at all. I enjoy the new crop of trios. But I want to listen to them "as well as" more traditional formats - not "instead of".