A proud dad writes...
Jack's been studying at Oxford. As he's only 15 and Oxford University likes to maintain high standards, I've been keeping it pretty quiet in case he failed the course.
Said course, Introduction to Philosophy, is a distance learning Higher Education module focussed largely on epistemology and ontology. The final assessment was an essay on Berkeley and Locke. Today he received news that his submission had been approved.
Consequently he receives 10 CAT points, which are undergraduate credits he can transfer to any university which accepts them. (While we're out here, the O.U. looks a good option.) Thus his degree is up and running and he starts the 'Higher Education' section of his CV with 'Oxford University'.
Not bad for fifteen.
12.08.2015
9.07.2015
Prague 10k 2015
Michael writes...
Strong and fresh (before the race!)
At the weekend Jack ran his first competitive 10 km race. We started together on a flat if somewhat cobbled and overcrowded run through Prague. Pacing was a little tricky at times with 9000 runners on a course which had room for half that number but we managed to hit the first 5 km pretty much bang on our 5 min/km pace.
This is me after about 8 km, I think, with the Senate behind me - but I'm not sure, so if you know that part of town better than me, please make suggestions:
Here's Jack at 9 km, crossing the bridge on the run back into town:
I lost sight of Jack at 4.5 km - but he was never far behind, finishing in a spectacularly impressive time of 50.34. I just squeaked under my 50-minute target, managing 49.56, in the last frenetic kilometre shredding my thighs such that two days later I still struggle to walk from one sofa to the other. Here's my standard "dead man walking" finish line photo:
Still, at least I can walk. Jack caught the bus to school this morning! Here's his final sprint:
I think this may well be the last time I go under 50 minutes for 10 km - courses don't really get any easier than Prague's riverside. I suspect it's also the last time I beat Jack: not only did he scarecely train but he's getting stronger every year.
Next year's target?
Anything under a hour!
Strong and fresh (before the race!)At the weekend Jack ran his first competitive 10 km race. We started together on a flat if somewhat cobbled and overcrowded run through Prague. Pacing was a little tricky at times with 9000 runners on a course which had room for half that number but we managed to hit the first 5 km pretty much bang on our 5 min/km pace.
This is me after about 8 km, I think, with the Senate behind me - but I'm not sure, so if you know that part of town better than me, please make suggestions:
Here's Jack at 9 km, crossing the bridge on the run back into town:
I lost sight of Jack at 4.5 km - but he was never far behind, finishing in a spectacularly impressive time of 50.34. I just squeaked under my 50-minute target, managing 49.56, in the last frenetic kilometre shredding my thighs such that two days later I still struggle to walk from one sofa to the other. Here's my standard "dead man walking" finish line photo:
Still, at least I can walk. Jack caught the bus to school this morning! Here's his final sprint:
I think this may well be the last time I go under 50 minutes for 10 km - courses don't really get any easier than Prague's riverside. I suspect it's also the last time I beat Jack: not only did he scarecely train but he's getting stronger every year.
Next year's target?
Anything under a hour!
7.30.2015
Celebration - 15 years married Slavili jsme 15 let spolu
Yesterday, we went to Bellavista - a restaurant at the top of Petrin Hill - to mark our 15th wedding anniversary (19 years together). It was a bit windy and we stayed a little longer than planned, waiting for it to stop raining (despite the backdrop, then, quite an English celebration).
Včera jsme oslavili 15. výročí svatby (19 let spolu) na Petříně. Ke konci jídla nastalo docela anglické počasí - foukalo, pršelo - přesto se večer vydařil.
Včera jsme oslavili 15. výročí svatby (19 let spolu) na Petříně. Ke konci jídla nastalo docela anglické počasí - foukalo, pršelo - přesto se večer vydařil.
7.04.2015
Parachute Jump
Michael writes...
A couple a facts:
1.On average, a little under one in one hundred thousand parachute jumps ends in death. I looked it up. (This is as likely to kill you as running a single marathon; or two scuba dives; or riding 48 miles on a motorbike; or cycling 100 miles. If you share my morbid love of such statistics, you can look them up here.)
2. Jack signed us up for the course well aware that he was scared of heights. He's not the first person to seek such a radical solution. Ranulph Fiennes conquered his acrophobia by climbing the north face of the Eiger.
So last weekend, having both visited specialist doctors to be certified as fit to hit the ground at 120 mph, we went into Prague for the first day of training, watching videos, listening to lectures and dangling from harnesses to practise what we'd learnt. I had to demonstrate I had understood all of the instruction...which naturally had been in Czech...so whilst Jack almost fell asleep in the harness, I spent all day pumping adrenalin. Fortunately I passed the tests. We were supposed to have the second day of training, culminating in the jump, the very next day but the wind was too strong for beginners...and their plane was broken.
But this weekend the weather has been beautiful, so yesterday found us at a remote airstrip outside Kolín, a central Bohemian town about an hour east of Prague. More training, then a final written test. It helps to sit opposite the examiner when she's marking other students' scripts, so we both passed and were cleared for take-off.
We were scheduled to jump last, so whilst we did have to hang around all afternoon we did benefit from watching all of our classmates jump, in so doing learning
(a) Our flight-path for the day and
(b) That the parachutes we'd been issued really were reliable and idiot-proof. Every time someone jump, the parachute opened! That settled the nerves.
Finally our turn came. Their plane, which first saw action in the Franco-Prussian war, was still broken - but we flew in it anyway. (I'd have been less keen going up in it if I'd not been wearing a parachute.)
In addition to me and Jack, the plane contained four tandem jumpers and their highly-experienced "pilots". Having the two of us there seemed to settle the tandem passengers' nerves once they discovered that we'd be jumping on our own...and that we'd never done it before. Suddenly their trip seemed easy.
I'd hoped Jack could go first, so I'd be there to encourage him to jump - but for technical reasons to do with balancing the plane, I was nearer the door. At 1200m that fateful door was opened, I took up position, felt a tap on the shoulder and jumped. It was easier than expected - we'd trained the routine often enough on the ground, so I just jumped without thinking. The rest of the routine was more erratic as there's rather less turbulence on the ground than there is when you jump out of a moving plane a mile up in the sky. However, once I'd worked out which way was up I found the static line had done its job and a miracle! my chute was fully and cleanly deployed.
Jack tells me that when he was tapped, he stuck his head out of the plane, thought better of it, stuck his head back in for five seconds, then gathered up his courage and hurled himself into the abyss. When I saw his chute deploy about 100m above me (with just a small twist he promptly corrected) I was awash with both relief and pride.
I looked all the way left. No airstrip. All the way right. No airstrip. Fortunately these parachutes are easily turned, so I did a 180 and there it was, delightfully large beneath me. Ground control helped talk me in. With a little steering and some erratic braking I landed dead centre with a more dramatic roll than some, but nothing broken. A few seconds later Jack did likewise.
So we now both have parachute licenses...which I suspect we'll never use! For him, jumping out of the plane was a dramatic cure for acrophobia but once descending, he felt little fear. For me, jumping was the easy part but spending a few minutes suspended rather high above the ground was a little disconcerting.
However, I have a terrible record when it comes to applying my "Never again!" exclamations. Marathon running, emigration...
Whether or not either of us do ever present our licenses at a remote airfield and buy a one-way plane ticket, at least next time we watch James Bond we'll be able to say, "Parachuting into eastern Europe? I've done that!"
A couple a facts:
1.On average, a little under one in one hundred thousand parachute jumps ends in death. I looked it up. (This is as likely to kill you as running a single marathon; or two scuba dives; or riding 48 miles on a motorbike; or cycling 100 miles. If you share my morbid love of such statistics, you can look them up here.)
2. Jack signed us up for the course well aware that he was scared of heights. He's not the first person to seek such a radical solution. Ranulph Fiennes conquered his acrophobia by climbing the north face of the Eiger.
So last weekend, having both visited specialist doctors to be certified as fit to hit the ground at 120 mph, we went into Prague for the first day of training, watching videos, listening to lectures and dangling from harnesses to practise what we'd learnt. I had to demonstrate I had understood all of the instruction...which naturally had been in Czech...so whilst Jack almost fell asleep in the harness, I spent all day pumping adrenalin. Fortunately I passed the tests. We were supposed to have the second day of training, culminating in the jump, the very next day but the wind was too strong for beginners...and their plane was broken.
But this weekend the weather has been beautiful, so yesterday found us at a remote airstrip outside Kolín, a central Bohemian town about an hour east of Prague. More training, then a final written test. It helps to sit opposite the examiner when she's marking other students' scripts, so we both passed and were cleared for take-off.
We were scheduled to jump last, so whilst we did have to hang around all afternoon we did benefit from watching all of our classmates jump, in so doing learning
(a) Our flight-path for the day and
(b) That the parachutes we'd been issued really were reliable and idiot-proof. Every time someone jump, the parachute opened! That settled the nerves.
Finally our turn came. Their plane, which first saw action in the Franco-Prussian war, was still broken - but we flew in it anyway. (I'd have been less keen going up in it if I'd not been wearing a parachute.)
In addition to me and Jack, the plane contained four tandem jumpers and their highly-experienced "pilots". Having the two of us there seemed to settle the tandem passengers' nerves once they discovered that we'd be jumping on our own...and that we'd never done it before. Suddenly their trip seemed easy.
I'd hoped Jack could go first, so I'd be there to encourage him to jump - but for technical reasons to do with balancing the plane, I was nearer the door. At 1200m that fateful door was opened, I took up position, felt a tap on the shoulder and jumped. It was easier than expected - we'd trained the routine often enough on the ground, so I just jumped without thinking. The rest of the routine was more erratic as there's rather less turbulence on the ground than there is when you jump out of a moving plane a mile up in the sky. However, once I'd worked out which way was up I found the static line had done its job and a miracle! my chute was fully and cleanly deployed.
Jack tells me that when he was tapped, he stuck his head out of the plane, thought better of it, stuck his head back in for five seconds, then gathered up his courage and hurled himself into the abyss. When I saw his chute deploy about 100m above me (with just a small twist he promptly corrected) I was awash with both relief and pride.
I looked all the way left. No airstrip. All the way right. No airstrip. Fortunately these parachutes are easily turned, so I did a 180 and there it was, delightfully large beneath me. Ground control helped talk me in. With a little steering and some erratic braking I landed dead centre with a more dramatic roll than some, but nothing broken. A few seconds later Jack did likewise.
So we now both have parachute licenses...which I suspect we'll never use! For him, jumping out of the plane was a dramatic cure for acrophobia but once descending, he felt little fear. For me, jumping was the easy part but spending a few minutes suspended rather high above the ground was a little disconcerting.
However, I have a terrible record when it comes to applying my "Never again!" exclamations. Marathon running, emigration...
Whether or not either of us do ever present our licenses at a remote airfield and buy a one-way plane ticket, at least next time we watch James Bond we'll be able to say, "Parachuting into eastern Europe? I've done that!"
5.24.2015
Karlovy Vary Half-Marathon 2015
Michael writes...
We had quite a sporting weekend. Father-in-law John came over from England to run the Karlovy Vary half-marathon with me; and Jack, being under-age for the main event, ran in the 3 km race.
Jack ran first and was magnificent, managing a top-10 finish in a field of over a thousand.
Here he is...
John and I couldn't match Jack's performance, the top ten in our race knocking off the 21 km in a little over an hour. However, John managed a highly creditable sub-2.10 and I was ecstatic to finish six minutes inside my two hour goal.
Here I am bouncing along, so it must have been near the start...
...and whizzing past the camera...
Big thanks go to Vera, who was not only very positive throughout my pre-race diet and training, but also a great support team before, during...
We had quite a sporting weekend. Father-in-law John came over from England to run the Karlovy Vary half-marathon with me; and Jack, being under-age for the main event, ran in the 3 km race.
Jack ran first and was magnificent, managing a top-10 finish in a field of over a thousand.
Here he is...
..
...and in the final sprint for the line...
...and afterwards with me and John, before the start of our run...
John and I couldn't match Jack's performance, the top ten in our race knocking off the 21 km in a little over an hour. However, John managed a highly creditable sub-2.10 and I was ecstatic to finish six minutes inside my two hour goal.
Here I am bouncing along, so it must have been near the start...
Big thanks go to Vera, who was not only very positive throughout my pre-race diet and training, but also a great support team before, during...
...and after the race.
4.26.2015
Dharma Transmission
Michael writes...
For the last few years I've been working with Ed, a fellow traveller on the Zen path. For the last few weeks Vera's been sewing his rakusu, the beige thing you see hanging round my neck:
It's a badge of office in the Zen community which means, "Officially enlightened!"
(Unfortunately the Zen community also believes that everything is impermanent, so whatever my spiritual state when I received my rakusu, it's been a while, so...)
Ed picked me up form Heathrow on Friday afternoon and dropped me back there 24 hours later. (Heathrow's not as grim as it used to be. Terminal 3 was really rather spacious and friendly!)
In between I'd had the privilege of attending his meditation group's zazenkai (brief, intense meditation retreat) and of conducting his dharma transmission (ordination) ceremony.
Here I am saying something terribly profound:
And here's a view which gives a better impression of what was really going on. The orange bucket was, when it arrived, full of cars. The four year-old standing next to it ensured that this was the noisiest transmission ceremony in 2,500 years of Buddhism!
And here's Ed receiving his rakusu and me demonstrating the profundity of my eyebrows.
(Photos come thanks to Nick, a previous recipient of Vera's sewing skills.)
3.16.2015
back from holiday zpět poprázdninách
We've just spent a wonderful time in France with Steph and John. Jack now skis well. We had views of the Alps above 3000 metres - the highest I've ever been (barring flying). I feel rested and restored. Jack is having another week off school, because most of his class is on a trip to England.Some photos below. The last one is in Geneva - where we changed buses and had a couple of hours to kill, by seeing the sights - here, Lake Geneva.
Práve jsme se vrátili z Francie, z pobytu se Stephani a Johnem. Jakub s naučil dobře lyžovat. Viděli jsme Alpy - stáli jsme ve výšce více než 3000 metrů. Tak vysoko jsem nikdy nebyla. Velmi jsem si odpočinula. Jakub má další týden volna, protože skoro celá jeho třída je v Anglii. Zde nějaké fotky. Poslední je před jezerem v Ženevě, kde jsme přestupovali - jeli jsme autobusem - a měli pár hodin na turistiku.
Práve jsme se vrátili z Francie, z pobytu se Stephani a Johnem. Jakub s naučil dobře lyžovat. Viděli jsme Alpy - stáli jsme ve výšce více než 3000 metrů. Tak vysoko jsem nikdy nebyla. Velmi jsem si odpočinula. Jakub má další týden volna, protože skoro celá jeho třída je v Anglii. Zde nějaké fotky. Poslední je před jezerem v Ženevě, kde jsme přestupovali - jeli jsme autobusem - a měli pár hodin na turistiku.
2.08.2015
1.18.2015
Michael writes...
Three years ago I retired from half-marathons. (See this blog's entry for 4th November 2011.) Two hours was my cut-off time for a "serious" runner and in Nairobi I nearly killed myself getting round in 1.59.38...
...but....
... before Christmas I went to the pub with Jára,
Here he is. As you can see from his very smart suit, Jára has a sedentary job, so when, after three beers, he announced that he was doing this year's Karlovy Vary half-marathon I said with a churlishly large dollop of irony, "If you do it, I'll do it!"
Later that week he sent me a scan of his entry confirmation. Oh dear. A gentleman has no choice but to be as good as his word, so I had a beer to cloud my judgment, then signed up too. (Another friend who was there made the same undertaking: I shall not name and shame him - but suffice to say that instead of training, he is gathering excuses not to run!)
So in May I'll be a 48 year-old with dodgy right fore-foot - and I have to somehow run 21 km, preferably in under two hours. I can't train, owing to the foot. All I can do to improve my chances is to have as little bulk as possible to drag round the course. That means dieting. I did it two years ago prior to a local forest race, so I know what's involved. (High protein, low carbohydrate, no beer, just vodka - sports diet of champions! Oh, and misery, too. Carbohydrate is nice. Beer is very nice.)
Here's the challenge I face:
There's lots of self-denial ahead. That said, I've just had a great fry-up for Sunday breakfast. Also, I have almost a whole crate of beer to get through before I can start the diet. The faster I drink the beer, the sooner the diet can start. Thus drinking lots of beer at this stage constitutes a key element of my training...
...but....... before Christmas I went to the pub with Jára,
Here he is. As you can see from his very smart suit, Jára has a sedentary job, so when, after three beers, he announced that he was doing this year's Karlovy Vary half-marathon I said with a churlishly large dollop of irony, "If you do it, I'll do it!"
Later that week he sent me a scan of his entry confirmation. Oh dear. A gentleman has no choice but to be as good as his word, so I had a beer to cloud my judgment, then signed up too. (Another friend who was there made the same undertaking: I shall not name and shame him - but suffice to say that instead of training, he is gathering excuses not to run!)
So in May I'll be a 48 year-old with dodgy right fore-foot - and I have to somehow run 21 km, preferably in under two hours. I can't train, owing to the foot. All I can do to improve my chances is to have as little bulk as possible to drag round the course. That means dieting. I did it two years ago prior to a local forest race, so I know what's involved. (High protein, low carbohydrate, no beer, just vodka - sports diet of champions! Oh, and misery, too. Carbohydrate is nice. Beer is very nice.)
Here's the challenge I face:
There's lots of self-denial ahead. That said, I've just had a great fry-up for Sunday breakfast. Also, I have almost a whole crate of beer to get through before I can start the diet. The faster I drink the beer, the sooner the diet can start. Thus drinking lots of beer at this stage constitutes a key element of my training...
1.17.2015
Jack's birthday Jakub má narozeniny
Jack's birthday flashed past. He's not very well at the moment - cough and cold, aspirin, runny nose ....
Jakub měl narozeniny ale proběhly bleskurychle. Není mu dobře - je nachlazený, kašle, bere prášky...
Jakub měl narozeniny ale proběhly bleskurychle. Není mu dobře - je nachlazený, kašle, bere prášky...
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| 15 candles - 15 svíček |
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| Thank you Liz |
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