Mr Invincible

How have you spent your Friday evening? Mine has been the most unusual in a long time as I have been along to North Berwick to watch the 'American Style' wrestling, performed by some Scottish blokes from Dalgety Bay. I should make it clear I am not a wrestling fan, although i was partial to a bit of Saturday afternoon wrestling viewing on the World of Sport. Big Daddy, Pat Roach, Giant Haystacks to name but a few of the over weigh lardy's. My reason for tonight's performance was that Stuart had 2 of his mates over for a sleep over to celebrate his birthday, so as they are all wrestling mad, I took them on a surprise trip there. For them they had died and gone to heaven, for me I had to pinch myself to ensure I wasn't in some sort of nightmare.

I can only describe the occasion as being like a hybrid of Gladiators and pantomime. I knew I was in for a good quality night when the first baddy was introduced. Something like Ying Tong Nagasakitona, loosely sounding oriental. Lots of booing was being encouraged just because he was from Japan. The character was masked, but I had my suspicions that Ying Tong perhaps originated from the East of Scotland in the Fife region rather than Japan. On the sunniest and hottest day of the year, his red arms and neck on his pale white skin were a bit of a give away. Of course he lost his fight to the gayist looking wrestler I have ever seen, wearing pink leggings and a hat. The most memorable had to be Mr Invincible. He was the fattest bloke I have ever seen and weighed in at 30 stone. Look at the pictures to get an idea of his size and of Stuart's amazement. His name was Mr Invincible, although could easily have been Mr Ginsters, Mr Blobby, Mr Coronary Care, or good old Mr 15 Pints a Day. He won his fight and then scalped his oponent. Funnily enough he had a similar physique to the bloke on the sound desk...you work it out! To add to the occasion I won a prize in the raffle....4 photos of wrestlers. This gave me an opportunity to chat to the woman behind the desk, who turned out to be the main wrestlers mum. In fact I got the impression that this was a day outing for the residents of Dalgety Bay. His name escapes me but with that long greasy hair he looked like he might be a student earning a few extra quid to pay off his beer debt...sorry I meant educational debt. But overall it was a good night out, unique and good value for money. The show went on for 2 and half hours. The kids loved it and summed it up with "This has turned out to be the best day of my life".

Hello Primary 5 and others

I have discovered that the blog is being followed by some of the classes at school. Thanks for reading it, I hope it gives you a glimpse of what is going through my head, and I will do my best to not embarrass anyone. A big HELLO to you all.

Hey! It's the Fonz

We got a nice surprise at the school the other day when a 70’s tv icon made a guest appearance at the primary school. Andrew came home to tell us that some bloke called ‘The Fonz’ was coming in to his class. He had no idea who he was, and could not understand why women of a certain age were getting so excited about him.

His visit arrived, and lots of people suddenly found excuses to be in school. I am easily enthralled by a celebrity, especially ones that were once almost‘A’ list (if you were a 15 year old girl) and are now just legends. I popped in to get a glimpse and ended up staying for his talk and reading. He had written some books about a dyslexic kid, and told his own story of his ‘learning challenges’ caused by his own dyslexia. He was pretty good and had a very positive message for the underachievers in the school. Whilst I am sure the sale of his books was driving him, he was passionate about his cause and had time for the kids who he once was.

Andrew got to meet him and have his picture taken for the papers because apparently he was the coolest looking kid. Henry Winkler is obviously trying to put his Happy Days behind him, because when the photographer asked him to give a thumbs up, he replied...’err NO!...I’ll hold the book instead.” He also looked far from cool in his old jeans and a big baggy jumper. But he was still a good performer and very animated as he spoke. He revealed that he was 28 years old when he played the Fonz, and that he got 50,000 fan letters or parcels a week. I had to watch a couple of episodes with the boys on Youtube to remind myself of what he was like. They were actually quite funny, and I had forgotten Robin Williams’ ‘Mork’ was a character on a couple of episodes. I think Mork & Mindy was a spin off series of it. Fonzie is 63 now! Can you believe it.

Big Run

I did a big race on Saturday, the Edinburgh to North Berwick road race. I did it last year but I had been training hard, so on the long road to recovery, with just 2 long runs in 6 weeks I was hardly going to break any records. Besides, the course was 2 miles shorter and only 20 miles for reasons unknown. So no pressure to get a PB and just out to enjoy it. I immediately set off too fast. I was hitting 6.50 minute miles for the first 10 which was quicker than the 7.30's I had planned. I got punished for this as I faced the long climb from Aberlady through to Direlton. As with last year I got arse cramp! A genuine pain in the arse that just niggled away at me like a dog with a bone. One of our club runners pulled alongside me on his bike to egg us on, and this was followed by more support from Dr Neil (he's called Neil and he's a doctor) prescribing us jelly babies in Dirleton. The drinks stations were supposed to hand back to your own drink, labelled with your number to speed up distribution. Nobody bothered doing that so all the bottles were in a big pile, costing vital seconds trying to find it. On the 13th mile station it wasn't even there, so I was a bit annoyed with them. With 1 mile to go I was really trying to avoid cramp and injury so I was ready to wind down, when Emma's cousin Rhona appeared. Rhona is a good runner and I have to work hard to beat her. Now was the worst time ever to be tested on that, so we ran in fast, picking off a couple of runners as we battled it out. In the end I found a bit of reserve and clocked a 2.24:42, with Rhona getting 2.24.49. Too close for comfort but a good result for me given the lack of training. The worse injury I picked up was sun burn. I have now got a lovely pair of red shoulders, and the tan lines of a vest.
This is a good marathon training run. I am not doing the marathon although regret not booking a place as i think I probably could do it based on that result. I have however booked in for the Loch Ness marathon in October.

Beyonce has walked

Along with Lady Gaga and Take That, Beyonce's cd has also gone walkabout. This should help the police narrow down their search for the thief...a fat bloke with a taste for the ladies music.