I go to a nice chatty pilates class each week. Today conversation turned to podcasts, the ladies praising "Diary of a CEO", "Table Manners with Jessie Ware", and so on. "What's your favourite podcast, Dave?" asked our instructor. @impq.bsky.social took a bit of explaining, but they liked the idea!

If you think Rick Wakeman's music's hard to listen to, try listening to his after-dinner speeches.

Manchester Marathon training week 7 of 18 complete. This week I ran 29.1 miles in 4h36m. "That's less that last week! How? Why?" Yes! It's a nine day training cycle, and two cross-training days and one rest day fell in these seven. This was nevertheless a tough week - the slack has been taken up.

Another great canvassing session with @edinburghgreens.bsky.social in Gorgie-Dalry. Such enthusiasm for Green message and @scottishgreens.org candidate @lornaslater.bsky.social in Edinburgh Central. #VoteGreen

Just watched an edition of Portillo's Railway Journeys where he visits a heritage railway in Essex where they have High Speed Train power cars. Now I'm old. I remember these being introduced. Inter City 125 was the aspirational travel brand of my youth.

This week I listened to @herring1967.bsky.social interview David O'Doherty on a podcast recorded at the fringe in August. I thought some of it sounded familiar, and reasoned I must have seen preview clips on YouTube. Today, I remembered I WAS AT THE GIG. I saw it all live. This is quietly scary.

There's a new series of "The C**t Factory" tonight.

Disengage from those who deplete you.

40 years ago tonight I got home from lectures to be told by one housemate that there'd been "an explosion on the space shuttle". Another was annoyed that TV was dominated by coverage. Went out to see Marillion. Fish offhandedly dedicated "Fugazi" to the Challenger crew.

Well done to the 5Ks team on "Only Connect". They perfectly embodied Parkrun, coming back week after week, and just doing it for the love of it.

Roger Waters demands conceptual attribution. “Power line, power station, what’s the difference?!” ranted the controversial ex-Pink Floyd curmudgeon.

"The gravelly-voiced Welsh icon" is a job for @secondmentions.bsky.social if ever I read one.

I'm quietly impressed with the unflinching brand identity of mass-produced haggis. A product that some people feel a bit queasy about, because they're vaguely aware it's made from internal organs, is shrink wrapped to vividly resemble a recently-harvested internal organ.

There was a new edition of @impq.bsky.social today and I listened to 60 minutes of it on the elliptical trainer at the gym. But you don't need any fitness equipment to enjoy what must almost certainly by now be the UK's leading pub-quiz format funny podcast about Iron Maiden. And that's a promise!

I'm glad we've finally welcomed Tracey Thorn from Everything but the Girl to the "Whoniverse".

If you've got a spare 25 minutes, watch "Airlock" on iPlayer. Just dive in and let the scenes aboard the Drahvin ship bathe you in dramatically powerful world building. Maaga's character and Stephanie Bidmead's performance feel like my highlight of B&W Doctor Who. It's scary and weird.

Manchester Marathon training, week six of eighteen complete, which means I'm a third of the way to Old Trafford. This week I ran for 5h50m and covered 36.7 miles. Today I ran a 515ft ascent while listening to Tony Banks solo material, which I doubt any amateur athlete has previously attempted.

Spouse is away for the weekend, so of course at nine on a Saturday night I'm analyzing my credit card spending for the last 12 months. I'm bonkers, me.

Quote skeet with a gif with a clue of where you're from...

I was volunteer coordinator at Parkrun today. Having got all the volunteers coordinated, I doffed my hi-vis, and ran the event. And then, I ran the course again, to reach today’s training target. I’ve clocked up 88 runs, and 77 volunteer credits. Feeling a bit sleepy now.

The greatest missed opportunity in the entire DVD range was that the commentary option here wasn’t labelled “Hear them over-talking”.

Having solved my issues with misleading heart rate readings (not one of my more engaging posts on here) I returned to the spin bike for a near-euphoric 60 minutes this morning, euphorically bathing in this chronological Yes playlist. I was almost singing along with the bass guitar lines at times.

“ONLY THREE STARS. WHAT A SWIZZING SWIZZ, EH, READERS?”

Five gigs I've seen with women lead singers: Suzanne Vega Tori Amos Kate Bush Stewart and Gaskin AND… Bonnie Langford (Live at Gallifrey in LA)

I bought these very reel to reel tapes from Tandy to record “Nightmare of Eden” and “The Horns of Nimon”. I’d acquired an old tape recorder and loved the ritual of lacing the tape and the “warm valve sound”. It was close to the size of the telly, so the playback sounded similar.

Whoops. I appear to have bought a pair of ASICS Metaspeed Sky Tokyo carbon racing supershoes. Buggered if I’m taking them out in this weather.

Try as I might, I can’t think of a place name which rhymes with “legging”, “begging” or “negging”.

THIS. THIS! Kilometres are "k". Kilograms are "kilos". There are no "Kay Ems" or "Kay Gees".

Who was the most militant Sontaran commander? General Strike

I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace.

“It’s on the tip of my mind” “Brave heart, Tegan” “Feels different this time”

Manchester Marathon training week 5/18 complete. Back on form after last week’s illness. This week I ran 30.8 miles in 5h07m. Well-chosen playlists get me out of the door on dreich days.

The other day, two swans came flying low towards me over Craiglockhart Pond, one directly behind the other, wings beating in time but out of phase. The effect reminded me of "Nightmare of Eden" or "Warriors' Gate"'s electronic effects. Or Gary Numan on The Kenny Everett Video Show.

I wish Trump would do a #parkrun He’d be baffled. Lots of people trying hard, supporting each other, volunteering, nobody pays or gets paid, and even if you come first you can’t crow about it because it’s not an actual race. That urge to invade somewhere just sort of slips away.

When I upgraded my Garmin, I gained a built-in optical heart rate sensor and slowly abandoned my electrical chest-strap monitor. I've found myself striving to push my HR up to the desired zone while on the bike recently, using the built-in sensor. Today I tried the chest strap again. Still low. 1/2

🎶"It's said now that people will be shorter in height, they can fit twice as many, in the same building site, they say it's alright..."🎶 - Get 'Em Out by Friday, Genesis, 1972

is this Brian Souter’s car

Something something Sting something delayed spending something fuck it send.

What, so Superman wasn't bitten by a radioactive super?

The song’s soundscape is so transporting that it’s taken me 43 years to notice that the vocal melody is a sea shanty.

Ruin a band by changing one letter ELP

I didn't believe this, so I went to my Inbox to check the regular updates I'm sent from the Electoral Commission to debunk it. I'm astonished to find that it is actually real. They have submitted this.

In its final episode "The Ambassadors of Death" suddenly softens and reverts slightly to the series' centre. The aliens can talk. Murders desist. Reegan helps the goodies. The Brigadier travels in Bessie. Conspiracy dissolved, it's more business as usual.

Although Kate Bush's "The Dreaming" (1982) evokes the earth, some of the sounds make me sense the cloudless night sky of the outback, centuries-old light from stars taking the lifespan of the indigenous civilisation to reach the rocks. That'll be "Four To Doomsday" (1982) messing with my head, then.

The questions “Where do you catch the bus to Muirhouse?” and “What must be done immediately when Trump dies?” have the same answer.

Just watched "Life of Chuck". It's got that "Life on Mars"/"Black Mirror" sense of stylish oddness. It needs to be the shape it is, so I'm not complaining when I say the first half thrilled me most. It's pleasing to put something on and be thinking "Oh yes, this is for me" after only a few minutes.

I used to play this on my Atari ST.

SERIES 'B' BLAKE'S SEVEN EPISODES BY ROBERT HOLMES MAY NOT BE USED WHERE THERE IS LIFE. SAPPHIRE AND STEED HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED.

Manchester Marathon training week 4/18 over (I hesitate to say complete, having skipped 3 sessions due to illness). Icy surfaces drove me to do today's 100-minute run on the treadmill at the gym where at least I could look out on daredevils walking on the frozen pond. It didn't crack and nor will I.

Which "Eastenders" character has the highest fibre diet? Max Branning.