Batman Lives

While we were walking about at New Lanark yesterday I turned on the route mapping software on my phone. I figured that if I was going to do the walking I wanted credit for the workout.
When I looked the profile on the website it was nice and symmetric, as you would expect from an out and back walk.
It was only when I looked at on the phone's app. Due to the different screens it has different scaling.
The distance along the x-axis is compressed, the vertical is expanded, allowing other details but I didn't expect Gotham's own to be staring out at me...

New Lanark

Had  a great day in New Lanark yesterday. Weather was brilliant and because its in a valley it was dead calm.

This is basically a 19th century mill sitting on the Clyde. They have restored the buildings and equipment and there are some nice walks up the Clyde, through to the Falls of Clyde.

Ciaran was well pleased too. When we arrived there was music playing. It turns out that there was a music festival of some sort. Despite us not being particularly interested in that, there was a specialist guitar shop present where Ciaran spent some time.

As we walked up to the falls we also got a chance to see the nesting pair of peregrines.

Guess which metal segments are missing from the bridge?

Kindle Down

An unfortunate connection of knee and Kindle has left the Kindle the loser.

The technical reports says that the screen is 'not responding to page turns' and 'has artifacts'. The text legibility has been compromised. The issues arose after 'pressure had been applied to the screen'. A hard reset has not resolved the issues.

In laymans terms its buggered because it was knelt on when it was under the duvet and the pjs were on the other side of the bed.

 This Kindle is the original Kindle 3. I got it for my birthday in 2010. The product was renamed the Kindle Keyboard in 2011 when it was superceded by the Touch. The Paperwhite is now the current model and my model is only available second hand or old stock and not from Amazon.

It is accepted on both sides that the warranty has expired. But that didn't stop me from chancing my arm and phoning Amazon support.

After establishing the technical report as described above (because it seems their tech support can't jump from its broken because someone knelt on it and I heard it crack) I was passed onto their dedicated Kindle replacement team.
A few minutes later, those minutes establishing what I had already established a few minutes earlier, I was offered a few upgrade options to replace my broken Kindle. If  I return the broken one to them I get a discount. So I am now waiting for a refurbished Paperwhite for about 65% of new price and 80% of refurbished price.

In the meantime I am back to analogue books. I worried about RSI manually turning the pages...

Upland Plateau

March was not a good month for my weight reduction campaign.
As of 6 April I have dropped a total of 10 kg which is good news.
I am looking at the positive side. My weight is reducing but I've been here before.
Sadly there is only 0.1 of a difference between the trend and the actual, with the actual now being higher. I seem to have flat-lined my trend line. I am now not expected to hit my target at all! Of course this is a logging issue, mostly with me being away from my scales for a few days. fingers crossed.

Looking at the graphs it seems the blip that was the Kinross weekend is still the tail wagging my curve, though my slope is not as steep as it was at the end of February, meaning the weight is not shifting as quickly.
The end of the 'month' was a disaster as far as reaching my goals are concerned. I use month loosely. Since I started all this on the 7th of Jan, I have been reporting on the 7th of subsequent months, for the preceding month. That is getting too complicated so from now onward I'll report the calendar months. Suddenly March is not too bad. A definite easing but no disaster. April looks like a nightmare though...


Why the stall in my progress? I'm not really sure why. Well I am really. The cold weather -The coldest March since February they were calling it, coupled with Easter holidays.
Holidays have always been a double whammy for me. Not being at work means my discipline tends to be lower and I'll graze. This coupled with other activities which keep me away from my exercise means I tend to slip a bit. The bad weather and other incidents also meant that I never managed any longer cycles over the weekend, and this included missing our now annual Millport cycle over the Easter weekend.


Looking back at February, I did 13 workouts. My totals were 9.41 hours and just under 120 km. For March it was 16 workouts but only 117 km in just over 10 hours.

This would seem to be the problem - I seem to be slowing down a bit. But I'm not. Alright, some of my lunchtime cycles were slower but there was a stiff wind, and the cycle computer takes no account of wind.

March Cycling pace in km/hr

March had more walks (these are outdoor walks, not my treadmill sessions) so they tend to be slower, and sometimes punctuated with trips to the coffee shop. And I did forget to turn off the timer when we were waiting in line...

But I burned over 1500 more calories in March. So where is the problem? A weeks holiday meant more eating and since that included a trip back to Dublin and Easter I am going to excuse myself, but April will need to see me firmly back in the saddle.

Incommunicado

Got back home last night from a short break with Ciaran in Dublin.
The parents' lack of wifi afforded a welcome break from most of my electronic communication - only texts from Fiona were read. I found it quite refreshing but I think the electronic silence was a bit much for Ciaran. He was booting the laptop before he got his coat off last night when we got back in.

We had a pleasant time in Dublin. I finally sent my American passport in for renewal. It's only 3 years expired now. We also headed into Dublin castle but spent much of the day looking at music shops.

Ciaran is "working that whole rockabilly look" at the moment and obsessed with guitars. Fortunately he does seem to be able to play and is taking lessons. So we spent a good chunk of time window shopping for guitars.

When I was talking to my brother he said that Ciaran was described as a 'bagel'. He wasn't sure what it meant but didn't think it was too good. There was no wifi but there was broadband so we did find out an urban definition and we all learned a new word.

On our final day my niece and 2 of my nephews were visiting Grandma.While we were messing about I warned Jack that i could see what he was doing because I had eyes in the back of my head. When he scoffed Ava warned him "He does! All grownups have eyes in the back of their heads to watch kids!" It seems the message we got as kids is passing down the generation.

So three communication points - I can survive without the incessant beeping of emails and reminders; a bagel is not just for breakfast; and selection of the fittest evolves parental rear view eyes.