Parakeets On the Run

Welcome home!

 Well we've been back over a week now and thing's haven't changed - it's chilly, windy, wet and muddy, and that was just on the first Saturday morning at the back of Wormwoods Scrubs! No we're not being accommodated at Her Majesty's pleasure, it's just that the Wormwood Scrubs Parkrun was just a few stops down on the central line from Lancaster Gate tube station where we staying in an interesting hotel (say no more!) Back of the Scrubs is the home of Thames Valley Harriers one of the oldest running clubs in the UK. These chaps were very welcoming and we had hot mugs of tea after the race in their clubhouse just by the Linford Christie Stadium. Very nice facilities but the Parkrun course also doubles as a notorius cross country course and we were sent round woefully unprepared for the greasy surface - the crafty winner wore spikes! I didn't have spikes but managed to slither and slide to second place overall (23.12). You might have guessed that there weren't many there the day after Boxing Day, otherwise I'd have got nowhere near the front. Vicky and Lyndall were 18th and 19th (38.51 and 38.52) and finished covered in mud! Gunnersbury Parkrun just a couple of miles away attracted nearly 150 runners who were clearly afraid of getting their legs dirty.

I was only saying the other day....

 As you will know I've found pictures of the various ornithological specialties that we've seen around Australia and the US in the past few months. This is a Rose Ringed Parakeet and, incredibly, as we were trying unsuccessfully to warm up before the parkrun I heard a familiar cry which seemed very out of place. The cry of the parakeet is fairly raucous to say the least and I was suddenly reminded of Australia (without the heat!). There were thousands of the blighters roosting in the trees at the edge of Wormwood Scrubs making a real racket. I remember seeing a colony of these in Stockport in the 1980's - apparently they've since died out (possibly ending up on a menu in some local ethnic restaurant!)

The saga continued with a Parkrun on New Year's Day at Victoria Park in Warrington - me in 20th with a time of 21.25 but 172 runners at this one. We then planned another two days later at Huddersfield but were dreadfully slow in traffic round Manchester, so I had a brainwave and diverted with minutes to spare to the Oldham Parkrun which was at Alexandra Park - a real old fashioned council park with well tended flower beds and a bandstand (and some nice gentle slopes as well, can't expect Oldham to be flat can you!) so I got round in 17th with 21.23 and Vicky's time was much improved - 149th our of 175 in 34.24.
(And well done to Vicky's sister Caz, who we were hoping to meet in Huddersfield - she did her first Parkrun - first of many I bet!)

And just in time for January we've found a regular outlet for the idiosyncratic Heavy Industry Brewery ales in Prestatyn. This is a small village brewery run by a rather eccentric chap called Tom who seems to just brew what the hell he wants to. His brewery is located in an old abbatoir in Henllan, Denbighshire and this brave man comes up with recipes such as Pigeon Toed Orange Peel beer. We had the Diawl Bach and the Nos Smoked Porter at Bar 136 at the top of town on New Year's eve! (But then it might have been Bar 137 - still we'll be able to remember where we found it....won't we!)