Richard Loxley

My elderly mum is finding it hard to read books now. I suggested audio books. But she can’t learn new things any longer.

One of my friends found this dementia player in a charity shop.

It just has a flap to lift to start/stop playing, and a big button to skip tracks.

Today I downloaded some archive radio programs onto it. I also wrote a script that will add the filename as a computer voice at the beginning of each file so it’s easier to skip to the track you want.

Let’s see if she likes it!

Do you miss The Boring Conference, where passionate people wittered on in minute detail about things you couldn’t possibly imagine would be interesting?

Well here’s a video about bins:

https://youtu.be/Nbt_jhIYQVo

I don’t think I posted last week about my first #parkrun which was my first ever 5km run.

(I didn’t manage 5K at the end of my #CouchTo5k journey two days earlier).

Insanely hot, but lovely surroundings at Sizewell Beach, and I was accompanied by three running friends to support me.

I ran the whole way, and kept roughly to my sensible target pace of 9.5 min/km.

I was aiming for 48-50 min and managed 49 min, which was quite an achievement for me in the heat.

Here’s to friends! ❤

Against my better judgement, I got up early again for my second #parkrun.

Much cooler, and some shade. Busier, with 378 runners (I finished 355).

Official time was 47:14, but my actual 5km time was 46:03.

I shaved 2.5 minutes off last week’s time, but I feel it now! I started off too fast, as it felt easy, but I regretted not forcing myself to a slow pace early on.

Not sure I can cope with only 4.5 hours sleep each Friday night though to make this a regular thing.

And #CouchTo5k is done 🙂

I’ve only managed just under 3.4km so far, but I can now run for 30 minutes consistently. And the last two runs I completely enjoyed (I dropped my pace a little to make it more sustainable).

Now to actually do my first 5km in two days time at a local beach-front parkrun. I’m aiming to be able to complete that in 48-50 minutes.

It seems the Bungay Balls Up live webcam is still live after many years!

https://tlmb.net/BBU/webcam.html

#BBU #bbu2026 #bbufedi

Yesterday’s #CouchTo5k run was brought to you via Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Cold weather, and no pretty view, so I knew I just needed to retreat inside my head and get it done.

So for the first time I listened to music. I figured Frankie might have the right balance of energy and putting a smile on my face.

It worked. I didn’t really feel the pain and mostly enjoyed myself.

Slower than on the beautiful estuary path, but decent.

What type of things do you listen to when running?

Week 8 of #CouchTo5k and my longest run yet: 28 min and 3.18km.

Remarkably I mostly enjoyed it, unlike the last 4 which were a horrible slog.

Maybe it was the beautiful surroundings rather than laps of my local park?

Or maybe it was a little easier because it was on a hard surface rather than grass?

Anyway, a welcome break, as I thought all the enjoyable runs were behind me.

Pity I won’t be back here until after I’ve finished the course. But week 9 will be done in/around a buttercup field.

@bread80@mstdn.social I remember getting the firmware manuals in the 1980s and being so impressed. It spoiled me for technical documentation. When I later got Apple’s “Inside Macintosh” I was so disappointed as I was expecting something as easy to follow.

@Edent I feel old. I remember when it was only 1234567890.

Come and join us at #BungayBallsUp in a beautiful buttercup field.

You can #juggle if you want to, but it's not compulsory (or even expected).

https://www.bungayballsup.com/

#bbu #bbu2026

Boosts welcome.

@emf with the immersive demand for tickets, would it be fairer to do a lottery in future years? I’m trying to buy a ticket this year (I’ve never been before) but when it sells out in the single second it takes to add the ticket to my basket, it makes me wonder what’s the point. I don’t want buying a ticket to feel like a video game where my hand-eye coordination has to be perfect. (And thinking about it, it probably disadvantages people who need accessibility aids to use their computers.)