Here comes the sun!!

There's a sunny smile!

Three days in Scotland and it rained constantly, back down to Wales and the drizzle was unending. And then on New Year's Day, lo and behold, the sun emerged. We trekked up to Ormskirk to do the local parkrun to find nearly 500 other runners blinking in the unfamiliar bright light. We're not used to running with such a large group, however there were more big parkruns  to come in January as you will see.

Oh my gluteus maximus!

Next up was Birkenhead parkrun, this is in a fine and notable park which was designed by Joseph Caxton and became the inspiration for Central Park in New York (no parkrun there as yet!) This snap is of the Roman Boathouse on a nice sunny day, not how it was for us unfortunately - during our run it was cold and bleak! Vicky and I were accompanied by a very determined Linda McK whom we hope will do more park running in future. (And we were joined by over 500 other runners!)

Nice gates!

Some rather fine park gates to admire at Princes parkrun in Liverpool. This was another gloomy day - lots of runners though, another 500 plus in this one but the park seemed to cope. This was another park designed by Joseph Paxton who also happened to be the head gardener at Chatsworth House while he was designing all these grand city parks.

These gates were better than they look!

Even grimmer was the weather at Huddersfield parkrun and even more runners braved the gloom 729 of them! Despite my best efforts the photo we had taken of us by the park gates was of poor quality. Is this  a reason for returning in the summer? Don't count on it. Still it was a nice gallop round a fine park.

So there you are, nearly 2200 runners at just four chilly events. Safety in numbers perhaps, but we actually prefer the smaller low key parkruns.

Malta in Winter

Heavy metal medals!

No we haven't disappeared or gone away somewhere. Life still goes on but it's been a bit busy lately. Highlight of January was a quick dash to Malta on a Ryanair cheap flight - came back on Easyjet which was somewhat more comfortable. Weather was warmer than back home and BRIGHTER! We had a go at the Attard 10K a very popular race among the thriving Malta running community - over 1000 finishers the vast majority of them being Maltese.

Phew!

And that's me in the blue cap in a very slow 50:32. You can see the wet road, a sure sign that it's been raining. In fact we were kept awake a bit by a massive thunderstorm that shook our hotel during the night and I was concerned that flooding might prevent the race from taking place. Things were fine as it happened and apart from a shower towards the end of the race there were few puddles. Vicky had a great run to finish in 68:51.

What you got for me?

The Maltese have a mixed relationship with birds, during the migratory seasons folk with shotguns in many arts of the southern Med take pot shots at thousands of songbirds as they pass overhead. They're a so called delicacy but there can't be much meat on the tiny things. However we found a Birdpark with a wide range of avian species including this rather bedraggled Grey Crowned Crane. This is the national bird of Uganda and we couldn't help feeling this chap would have been much happier back home. Some of the birds were less restricted than others and some very pink flamingos had a large pool to wander around. The poor Kookaburras didn't seem at all comfortable though in their small cage.

No worries - it's a fake!

Finally here's Vicky being very impressed with a bomb. We were visiting the imposing rotunda in Mosta, a cathedral like church with a domed roof modelled on the Pantheon in Rome (which we'd seen a couple of years ago). Malta was subject to intense Luftwaffe bombing raids in World War II and, while a 400 strong congregation were praying in the church, a bomb hurtled through the roof and landed in the aisle skittering along until it came to rest with not a fizz or a pop. The Maltese proclaimed this the Bomb Miracle and attributed this to St Mary. The trusty British Army Royal Engineers made their way to the church, defused the bomb and dumped it out to sea. The bomb that Vicky is pointing to is therefore not the original but a replica - i.e. there isn't 500 kg of explosive lurking inside.