Wormwood Scrubs Up Well

Last week was a week of firsts.  On Wednesday I went for a run around Wormwood Scrubs for the first time, on Friday I drove to a clients for the first time and on Saturday the Bees finally won their first away game of the season!  WOO HOO!

Located in the north of LBHF past the BBC on Wood Lane and A40 the Scrubs regularly features in the Minder episodes Sarah and I routinely watch while we're sat at the living room table having dinner.  I guess you could say it's become 'our thing', one of many no doubt!

HMP Wormwood Scrubs (Grade 2 listed don't you know!), Hammersmith Hospital and the Linford Christie Stadium line it's southern perimeter while to the north and east it's bounded by railway tracks.  The Old Oak estate lies on its western boundary with one of its roads, Braybrook Street, being famous as the site of the Braybrook Street murders.



Three Met Policemen were murdered on 12th August 1966 and there is a memorial headstone close to where the incident took place.  The most famous of the three men who played a part in the murders is Harry Roberts.  He's still in prison 44 years later while the other two are dead.  Football fans are most likely to be aware of the song, used to taunt the police, which features his name. 

Jake Arnott's second novel called 'he Kills Coppers' is based on the murders and in 2008 ITV produced a three part drama of the same name.  It's avaliable on DVD for £3 if anyone is interested.

After jogging up from the flat I completed three laps in 55 minutes.  I took in all the 'sights' following the perimeter of the grass as best I could and have mapped my route here.  The lap is fairly flat and at 2.25 miles it's a decent length.

As I expected there were people walking dogs, kids having a post-school kick about and other runners doing their usual Scrubs lap/s.  What I didn't expect to see were people flying kites and model aircraft enthusiasts recreating their own Battle for the Skies.

Turns out there is an area dedicated to the flying of model aircraft with signs warning of their presence and a large notice that sets of a code of conduct.  There is also a pony centre for fans of all things equine.  Isn't it amazing what is unknown but available on the proverbial doorstep.

I roped Sarah into doing a lap on Sunday afternoon and hopefully we'll run up there, weather permitting, most Sundays now.  We also did a couple of laps of the stadium track (Sarah just couldn't resist) and judging by the wide-open gates anyone can get in there.  Just outside the stadium gates there is also small collection of outdoor gym equipment although it could do with a spruce-up!  In fact calling it equipment is being pretty generous.  There are a couple of pull-up bars, benches and random dark green thingies.  Yes, that is a technical term!

As we walked back to Scrubs Lane I started thinking about how people seem to bemoan the lack of facilities in their local area, especially those that are easily accessible for kids.  There certainly isn't a lack of facilities in W12.

Wormwood Scrubs has marked football pitches with goals, an athletics arena, all weather pitches for five-a-side football, hockey and netball.  There's an all weather tennis court that also has basketball rims, chuck in a couple of kids playgrounds and there are plenty of facilities for the local community to use.

I also think the Scrubs would be a prime candidate for a new Parkrun event.  The events in Richmond Park (there I am again!), Old Deer Park and Wimbledon Common aren't exactly local and there are seem to be plenty of local pavement pounders on the streets of W12.  Something for me to think about setting up perhaps, any other budding volunteers out there?

I was a both nervous and excited about driving to see Oxfam on Friday.  I woke up at about half five and then just drifted in and out of light sleep.  For me that’s a tell tale sign that I’m about to embark on something new, an adventure.

Since we brought the car down from Bury, Sarah has taunted me about my driving.  She reckons I can't drive or at best I’m useless so it was good put an end to that chat by driving up to Oxford.  For my first ever solo drive of any note it was a piss easy start.  A jaunt up the A40/M40/A40 to Oxford and then a short hop across to the business park where the Oxfam HQ is located.

On the way home I took a detour to Griffin Park via the M25/M4/A4 to pickup tickets for the Carling Cup game at St. Andrews next Tuesday but typically the offices were shut.  No biggie though because I cycled back later in the afternoon and got them.

I'm looking forward to using the car more although I'm not one for just hopping in a car a going for a drive.  It’s great to have a choice of decent size supermarkets within easy reach and it'll be good not having to rely on the train and lifts.

Sarah, the 'burden' days are over!

Get Settled, Get Curtains Drawn

Another weekend is coming to an end.  Dinner's been eaten and the night is drawing in.  The clocks go back in two weeks as we say goodbye to BST and welcome back GMT for the winter.  The central heating has been on in the flat for the past couple nights, autumn is here and winter is on its way.

I actually don't mind winter.  Cold, crisp and sunny mornings are a joy to wake up to and help make up for the grey wet days we get more and more used to at this time of year.

Saying that it really doesn't rain that much in London not compared to Sarah's beloved North West anyway.  In the four and a half years that we've been going out it's only not rained in Bury once when I've been up there.  It was even raining the first time I went to Bury, Easter Monday 2002.  That really was a miserable day!

It was 1st April and the joke certainly was on Adam, Gabs, Paul and me.  Traipsing up to the relegation threatened Shakers expecting a nice Bees win to help us on our way to promotion.  Nothing ever goes to plan as we were well beaten on surface that was almost totally bereft of grass.  End of season came around, Bury did indeed go down while we finished third, made it to the play-off final and lost without even mustering a whimper to Stoke. MIS-ER-Y!!

Eight and a half years later I'm going out with a Bury lass and looking out for the Bury scores.  They had a nice 4-3 win away at Torquay yesterday having been 2-0 down in 20 minutes.  Hopefully they can join the Bees and near neighbours Rochdale in League One next season.  We're up to fourth bottom after the 3-0 win at Tranmere yesterday, still in the relegation zone but at least we're showing signs of life with two wins in three October games.

Yesterday I did my third straight Parkrun, something I've only managed once before.  I went round in 21:14, my best time since July, and finished 36th out of 197.  I finished 36th last week as well and 35th the week before.  If I'd have finished 35th this week I would have won a prize, damn the bloke who managed to keep me at bay in the final 100m ;)

As my number of Parkuns increase I'm becoming more and more interested in how and why my times change from week to week.  I was 57 seconds quicker this week than last, a pretty dramatic increase.

At Richmond there is quite frequently a noticeable headwind as the course climbs and then flattens just after halfway.  Last week however there was a pretty strong headwind over the first half of the course as we undulated our way down Sawyers Hill to Sheen Roundabout.  As soon as I felt it my time was done for.  My mind was confused, annoyed and resigned to defeat after about 750m.  I wanted to stop but you just can't, can you?!?  No, especially not having got my arse out of bed earlier than on a weekday and cycled to Richmond.

The number of runners varies from week to week so I'm also interested in my finishing positions and times.  As I mentioned earlier I've finished 35th, 36th and 36th in the past three runs.  In the Summer I did three runs in a month and had times of 21:06 (32nd), my PB of 21:05 (33rd) and 21:06 (22nd).  I don't wear a watch so three consecutive runs within a second of each other was pretty cool.  Now I have three consecutive runs within a place of each other, also pretty cool.

Elephant Stone

As expected Sarah’s day at the races turned out to be a boozy affair so she was in no fit state to join me for the Parkrun. I decided to take my camera with me because during the week I’d talked myself into going elephant spotting after the run.

Having just missed out on a PB last week by 10 seconds (is 10 seconds just missing out?!?) I made an effort to try and beat it this week. The start was a bit of a disaster. Plenty of us we still strolling across the grass to the start when suddenly everyone else was pegging from the line!

I don’t wear a watch so the only way I can tell if I’ve done a decent run is how I feel at the end. I felt pretty much similar to last week in that I was pretty knackered so I thought I’d done OK in my quest for a PB.

I don’t wait around so once I’d had my barcode scanned I headed off to unlock my bike for the ride to work so that I could print out a map showing where to find the elephants.

When the weather in nice the ride to and from Richmond Park is a really nice one. OK it’s mostly on busy west London roads but there are some decent views along the way. One of these is from Chiswick Bridge so I decided to stop there and take a couple of photos. OK, OK, I really wanted a photo of the Griffin Park floodlights!

As I was slowing down I noticed that tell tale hissing sound from my back tyre. Yep, a puncture! I don’t carry a pump and repair kit because the cycle to and from work is only ten minutes each way so if I get a puncture I just walk it home.

So there I am, hot, sweaty and well annoyed with the prospect of a 45-minute walk back to W12. All I could think was that even in the close season being a Brentford fan causes misery! I was too pissed off to even bother to take any photos.

I made it home at about half ten and repaired the puncture. As it turned out it was the day for punctures because the new couple in Flat C were outside mending theirs as well.  Sarah was still wallowing in bed so I had some cereal, a shower and then got ready to head out on the bike to find those elephants.

After a quick pit-stop at work to get the map I was on my way. First stop was Kensington Gore and from there I went down to the Natural History and V&A museums.

Then on to (bear with me here!) Sloane Square, Kings Road, Royal Hospital Chelsea, Orange Square, Fulham Road, Harrods, Knightsbridge Green, Hyde Park Corner, a couple of sites in Hyde Park, Marble Arch, Old Quebec Street, Park Lane, The Dorchester, The Hilton Park Lane, High Street Kensington, Notting Hill Gate and finally Holland Park.

I was a bit apprehensive taking the first few photos but I soon got past that and had a really enjoyable afternoon cycling around west London. I hadn’t taken much notice of the parade until last week but I met loads of people making their way round London trying to collect the full set. A bit like Panini stickers I suppose. I need to pop into Westfield and bag another four. Be a bit silly not to seeing as it’s only a three minute walk away!

The parade is only on for another couple of weeks so it’ll be good going for to get even half the collection. Still, they are all in one place the weekend of 26th June so that’ll make it a bit easier :)

I’ve uploaded all the photos to Flickr and as it turns out so have a hell of a lot of other people!

A few beers in Chiswick with Chris in the evening capped a pretty decent day.  On Monday I checked my time and WOO HOO I'd managed a PB.  This time it was a case of 'only just'...one glorious second...turns out my 13th run wasn't an unlucky one :)

El Lunes

Weekend over :(

I clocked 23:12 in the parkrun on Saturday, my slowest time yet.  Oh well!  I'll put it down to having to weave my way through the swelled ranks of participants for the first coulpe of kilometres!

Down at GP the Bees won 4-0.  After a bright start, our on loan Polish wonder keeper got a hand on a Simeon Jackson shot and pushed it onto the post after a couple of minutes, Gillingahm showed why they are yet to win away from home in any competition this season.

A brace apiece from Charlie MacDonald and Miles Weston secured the Bees' biggest win of the season.  Conceeding two penalties and attempting suicidal back passes are never a good idea when you've only managed 3 away draws!  Wycombe up next at GP on Saturday, I'm sure Bees fans everywhere are already wishing away the working week :)

Away from football, I finally upgraded to a pro flickr account last night.  Not wanting to waste any time, I set a rather hefty upload going and it was still working away this morning!  I've given my internet connection a rest while I'm at work so I'll resume when I get home later tonight.  I've had three positive comments so far which is nice.

My on-line presence is growing!  Absolute geek!

Run Rabbit Run

Phew, run over!

There are loads of free timed runs dotted around the country.  They start at 9am every Saturday morning.  Sadly there aren't any in Northern Ireland just yet but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

The Richmond Park event is the nearest to me but it's still around five and a half miles away!  I always cycle there which takes about half an hour.  It's not too bad a journey and by the time I arrive at the park I'm awake and nicely warmed up.

It was my first parkrun of the year, my last was on 5th December, and there were well over 200 people lined up at the start, the biggest field I've seen.  People of all ages and abilities take part and it's good to see the numbers increasing  As always a big shout out must go out to the volunteers who give up their Saturday morning lie-ins week in week out.

At the finish the timer beeps you through and you get given a token, I was 72 this week.  I don't time myself so I'll have to wait for the website to update with the results.  My time will most likely be somewhere between 22:30 and 23 minutes I imagine, I run at a pretty steady pace.

SB did the run this week too, her fourth in total but first since October.  Hopefully she'll be joining me on the two wheeled schlep from W12 more regularly!

To give her credit, she found out about Parkrun.  Her first run was last Setptember, in Richmond's 100th event and  I was roped in to joining her the week after.  We're both slowly making our way towards the 50 run club!