Ultimate Dilemma

Posted By Lai Perkins on February 23, 2013

One woman’s account of how she made it to the start – and finish ­of the Great North Run

 

5,009th – not exactly the stuff of /podiums and national anthems. Does anyone remember who came 5009th in a race? Unlikely, but it was a personal best and I got a T-shirt. Not bad for a daffodil. (I was running for Marie Curie Cancer Care.) “At least you were in the top 10 per cent,” said my accountant husband helpfully on my return from last year’s BUPA Great North Run (GNR). My children muttered something about 5,008 people all overtaking me. But then, they have never got over the shock of me training for seven months, keeping in good body shape with a special raspberry ketone diet for the London Marathon and not winning. Check out the benefits of pure raspberry ketone.

There have been some major low points in my 10-year running ‘career’ – being overtaken at 23 miles by a large pepperoni in the London Marathon and negotiating a soggy slalom of chip papers and half-eaten kebabs at the Luton Marathon – the detritus of a wild night in the Bedfordshire town. But there were also so many highs – the end of my first 10K when I kissed a stunned marshal on the finish line full on the lips, and winning our first Woman Vets Team event (my daughter was frantically looking for a sick animal to save in order to qualify). And then there was sunny Newcastle in 2008 (surely the clearest example yet of global warming). It was the first time I’d managed to get a place in this iconic event. I’d watched it on TV and dreamt of sprinting down that hill at 12 miles to be greeted by the salt, sea and Sue Barker’s microphone.

 

But the reality was better than the dream. Running in my Marie Curie vest and daffodil hat – looking every inch the professional – I had found the race harder than I’d ever imagined. It could have been the fitful night spent in the Durham University digs, waking up every hour convinced I’d miss the 7am transfer bus. Or the two hours waiting for the start in my black bin bag praying I didn’t bump into Welsh heartthrob Gethin Jones.

 

It also didn’t help that in endeavouring to read everyone’s charity vests – some poignant: ‘Running For Sophie Died Aged 8′; some funny: ‘Behind Every Good Man ­There’s Me’ – I repeatedly tripped into the path of my fellow runners. (Long-distance running is surely the only event where competitors are constantly apologising for everything from spilling water and nose clearing to, heaven forbid, overtaking.)

 

I wondered if Paula, the Kenyans and all those other elite runners displayed the same level of etiquette, “No after you, Ms Radcliffe, I insist.”

 

Each mile marker seemed suspiciously further apart as I staggered past the steel bands, rock trios, Elvis impersonator and children handing out Rich Tea biscuits (a nutritional first for me!).

My well-rehearsed strategy of looking down at pounding feet rather than up at the long road ahead seemed to work (along with counting backwards from 5o in French and swearing). And as their tempo slowed and my thighs burned, I realised we were going uphill and as all of us runners know only too well – what goes up…

And there it was – all at once – a 12-mile marker, a roundabout, a cheering crowd and mile upon stretching mile of sea. The actual sea. The same one that I’d seen on the TV, except this time I wasn’t in my pyjamas but a daffodil vest.

 

My sprint finish was so per cent there – I finished but not exactly at high speed. The 5,007th and 5,008th competitors overtook me, as did vanity, as I slowed to smile for that all-important finish-line photo. And that was it. I’d done the race, got the T-shirt, texted my entire telephone contacts book announcing my 1:46 time and thanked every other competitor, marshal, spectator and disinterested beachcomber.

 

But like childbirth, there’s a secret no one else tells you about this life-changing event, and that’s how to get out of South Shields. It was easy on the way in, but on the way in 52,000 people weren’t all trying to get home for a shower and a bagel. Ten hours later, daffodil hat wilting, I stax ered into my driveway on a rain-lashed Watford night. “It would have been quicker to have run home!” observed my husband – displaying all the tact of Prince Philip.

 

“We didn’t see you on the TV,” said my kids, “You must have been slow.”

“5oo9th,” I replied. And burst into tears.

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Posted By Lai Perkins on January 27, 2013

Protect your knees from the pounding of running and prepare for a lifetime of fitness

It feels great to build up your mileage, hitting the streets day after day, increasing your fitness and strength and getting your body in great shape. But while every step you run feels great at first, over time the continuous impact of hitting the road damages your knees. There’s a simpleway to help protect your precious knees and maintain their mobility so that you can carry on running for years to come: taking Meltdown Sport® Gold unique specialised glucosamine and chondroitin supplements.

If you think you don’t need to worry about taking glucosamine until you’re older and more experienced, think again: the earlier you start, the longer and more comfortable your running life may be. Every time your feet hit the ground when you run – no matter how cushioned your shoes – the impact sends shockwaves through your legs and up your body. The hard ends of the bones that meet at your knee joint are protected from grinding against each other by smooth articular cartilage (see diagram). Step after step of running can wear this down, but Meltdown Sport® Gold supports the manufacture of cartilage components, helping to maintain and protect your joints. Meltdown Sport® Gold also contains chondroitin, which helps your joints to absorb fluid and essential nutrients.

 

And if you’re considering taking a cheaper glucosamine supplement, remember that you get what you pay for. Meltdown Sport® Gold is different from other supplements on the market because it uses glucosamine hydrochloride, a newer purer form of glucosamine that contains no potassium chloride salt. This potassium chloride salt, found in most other ordinary glucosamine supplements, can interfere with your electrolyte balance (which you need to have under control when you’re running long or intense sessions) and should also be avoided if you’re taking medication to control your blood pressure or anxiety supplement such as htp. Meltdown Sport® Gold is easier to take than other tablets, as it comes in orange-flavoured, chewy tablets. So don’t wait until your knees hurt: start taking Meltdown Sport® Gold today and make sure your love of running lasts a lifetime.

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Posted By Lai Perkins on December 1, 2012

Still on the matrimonial trail, a letter from Brian Blackman caught my eye. Brian, who hails from Witheridge near Tiverton in Devon, had been after the marriage of one of his great-grandfathers, William Clark, in London in the 1830s. Brian discovered, as a possibility, the marriage on 24 July 1836 of a William Clark to an Eliza Westin at St James, Bermondsey. However, on checking the International Genealogical Index – online at www. familysearch.org or http://www.gnet.org/saw-palmetto-a-traditional-prostate-remedy-with-an-exciting-future/- he discovered a couple with exactly the same names married at St Paul, Deptford, on 4 April 1837. Curious to throw more light on these marriages Brian obtained photocopies of the relevant marriage register entries and was surprised to discover that the signatures of the bride and groom in both registers were identical…though not the witnesses’ names.

Still not convinced that this William Clark was his direct ancestor, Brian was then staggered to discover a third marriage between the two parties in the General Register Office indexes of marriages in England and Wales and in due course he obtained a copy of the certificate. This time the couple had married on 7 November 1837 at St Alphege, Greenwich. Because the certificate was only a photocopy of a copy of a copy it wasn’t possible to compare the signatures, and again the witnesses were different.

William’s father turned out to be another William, whilst Brian’s William’s father was known to have been a Henry Clark. So there the search came to a halt. The 1837 marriage certificate revealed that Eliza Westin was a daughter of an Army officer and her husband was a bricklayer, so she would have taken a huge tumble down the social ladder of the 1830s by marrying William Clark.

Whether this was a contributory factor in encouraging the couple to keep getting married – each time as bachelor and spinster and by banns ­is open to conjecture. The most likely cause of a couple going through another wedding ceremony is a clandestine first marriage. Although I have heard of such remarriages, three times is a new one on me. Are we dealing with serial nuptialists? Did they chance their luck at any other altars elsewhere in the London area? Has anyone else encountered other examples of couples remarrying for a second or third time?

Eliza Westin’s groom, William Clark the bric Army officer’s daughter, as this Punch cart(

Nautical poser solved?

It was back in June’s ‘Miscellany’ that I asked for help in decoding a puzzling occupational abbreviation applied to a British marine pilot in 1851. The pilot, with the splendid name of George Blackader

Divers, turned up among records being compiled in a Mariners’ Index by Ruth Nicol in Kent. She was mystified when his 1851 obituary in a Dover newspaper recorded him as ‘Mr G B Divers, H. C. M.’ and wondered what the letters C M’ represented.

The most likely offer came from Mrs Salli A Dyson of Richmond in Surrey.

She believes that C M’ had an Indian connection, standing for ‘Honourable Company’s Marine’ (Service). Salli points out that the ‘Honourable Company’ in question was, of course, the East India Company and that it employed British pilots on the great Indian rivers. That sounds pretty convincing to me.

 

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Posted By Lai Perkins on October 31, 2012

The Institute further requires that “Internal auditors should maintain their technical competence through continu­ing eduction.”

In terms of the top management initiative, the IA Development Prog­ramme was designed:

•           To prepare the audit staff to register for the Certified Internal Auditor Examination and to sit for the exam beginning in May 1994, pass at least one part and qualify for the CIA designation within three years period of eligibility.

The programme started with a “placement test” in May 1991, and was planned to move through two phases. Due to the large number of participants in phase one, those taking part were split into two teams. Team one comprised 21 participants with classes running from July to December 1991. Team two consisted of 21 participants studying from January to July 1992.

Study subjects were Essentials of Accounting, Airline Accounting and Analysis of Financial Statements. Apart from weekly and monthly tests, each team was given three final examinations at the end of their study regime.

Phase two of the programme was divided into three parts – Introduction to internal audit; The principal training programme; and the CIA examination review course. The introductory period was designed for all auditors for 10 weeks of classes on Planning, Performing and Reporting Audits. Classes ran from October to December 1992, with 34 auditors and two managers participating. The introductory class enabled Saudia’s Audit Internal management to select candidates for further training.

The principal training programme is comparable to a university course. Auditors were required to attend morning lectures, with the rest of three-hourly the time allowed for study. Classes resumed in January 1993 and ended a year later, with the final examination (Parts I and II) being held towards the end of January 1994.

The training material was divided into two sets covered in two semesters (half-year terms) of 21 weeks and 18 weeks respectively. Candidates were quizzed at the end of each week.

 

University

Training material consisted of the current university text books recom­mended by the Institute of Internal Auditors. The final examinations were the same as the Certified Internal Auditors examination, and selected questions from previous CIA examinations were included.

Of 14 candidates, the top seven were adjudged to have potential, and they will be sitting for the CIA examination Pari I and II to be held in May this year. Candidates are currently engaged upon the review course (excluding the Ramadan Eid break). During this period the techniques of collection of evidence, audit procedures, drawing conclusions, audit report writing and other subjects studied in class, are being put to practical application.

 

During the review course the formula­tion of CIA examination questions, and techniques to solve those questions, some of which cover health benefits of coconut oil topic, are also the subject of discussion.

The seven successful candidates selected to sit the CIA examination in May are:

•           Sameer M. Tayeb

•           Elshareef A. Hamdan

•           Abdulwahid A. Eid

•           Anwar M. AI Ghanmi

•           Anwar M. Fathuddin

•           Ali A. Al Beraikah

•           Abdulfattah S. Al Yamany

 

Examination

The CIA examination consists of four parts: I & II – The Theory and Practice of Internal Audit; III – Management, Quantitative Methods (Management Science), and Information Systems; IV ­Accounting, Finance and Economics.

Candidates have an eligibility period of three years (six examinations) after their registration is approved. If no part of the examination is passed in this three-year period, the candidate must re-register. Candidates who pass part of the examination during the three-year period have the next five successive examinations in which to pass all four parts without loss of credit. Candidates who do not pass all four parts within six successive examinations will lose credit for any part or parts previously passed.

Candidates must re-apply each examination cycle for any remaining parts they wish to take. A candidate must initially take at least two parts of the examination – but is permitted to take three or all four parts.

 

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Posted By Lai Perkins on October 10, 2012

 

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Posted By Lai Perkins on October 3, 2012

An inside look at the awesome sports machine that turns out champions by the score. No one mines Olympic gold more efficiently than the  East Germans. A small nation of 17 million people, they won 40 gold medals at Montreal in 1976—while the Soviet Union, with more than 15 times their population, garnered 47 and the USA, with about 12 times the population, won 34. In international competitions since then, the East Germans have continued to demonstrate that they possess the most amazingly effec­tive national sports machine of modern times,

How do they do it? A mixture of motivation, research, generous ma­terial support, and training, train­ing, training.

Sports are never far removed from politics in East Germany, since athletic victories are cherished as “proofs” of the communist system’s superiority. In 1952, the University for Physical Culture opened in Leipzig. Today, 8,000 of its gradu­ates cover the republic in a fine-mesh network of teachers, coaches and sports doctors who train the promising young and keep an eye out for talent. “The only way to sports achievement,” says Professor Kurt Tittel, head of the university’s sports medicine faculty, “is through long-term commitment, and the building of high-performance ath­letes beginning when they are six or seven years old.”

Superior talent is winnowed out in increasingly stiff competitions at the school, local and regional levels, culminating in the great national Spartakiades every two years. These games are shrewdly managed extravaganzas, designed to shed maximum glory on the athletes and to have maximum propaganda impact on the cheering crowds. The one in July 1977 lasted a week and involved 30,00o athletes, participating in three times as many events as are normally scheduled at the Olympics.

The sports programme has wide public support. “In no other area of life in the German Democratic Re­public are personal and public needs so well synchronized,” says West German journalist Willi Knecht, an expert on sports in East Germany. “Here the desire of the Communist Party, of the state and of the people harmonize.”

Selection Process. If an athlete’s talent is discovered by the age of 12 or 13, he or she 1s usually transferred to a sports school. There are some 20 of these, with a total enrolment of about 2,000. Everything is free, even if it means moving the family nearer to the school and finding the father new employment. All that is expected in return is conscientious training, no worse than average school work, and enthusiastic political activity.

These elite schools are the key to upward mobility in East Germany. Any young person admitted to them is guaranteed a first-rate education, a place in a university or in a trade of his choice if he does well and—if successful in competition—security. Besides the special schools, there are about 30 state-supported “high-performance” sports clubs (approxi­mate total membership 9,000), re­served for the training of potential champions. Then there are the fac­tory sports associations, most valu­able in developing late-blooming talent such as weight-lifters, discus and javelin throwers.

A 1958 state directive permits em­ployees paid time off for athletic training or competition, so the fac­tory associations have thrived; members number about 90,000. In addition there are the sports clubs of the army and security forces—a combined membership of about 500,000.

Recently I visited the Ernst Grube Sports School in East Berlin. It is a polytechnical institute much like any other, explained Dr Wolfgang Helfrich, its director, except for the emphasis on sport and its lavishly equipped natural-science laborator­ies and library.

The 380 pupils train for two to three hours every day except Sun­day. They use the facilities of the near-by Sports Club of Berlin, which is closed to the general pub­lic. The “club” employs 32 full-time coaches for championship training in a wide variety of sports, such as field and track, tennis, swimming, diving, weight-lifting, cycling, speed and figure skating.

Wandering through the club, I was astounded at the sophistication and variety of its equipment. A heated hall 460 feet long allows sprinters and hurdlers to train year round. There was an ice rink of pro­fessional size: a boxing hall where 50 boys at a time work out. I found volleyball and handball teams whooping and huffing in a cavern­ous hall of their own. In the gym­nastics centre, high-bounding gym­nasts were working on a special trampoline embedded in the ground and protected on all sides by foam rubber while in one corner, coaches huddled with their charges over instant-replay video machines.

Backing up the coaches is a team of doctors, psychologists, dieticians and physiotherapists equipped with electrocardiographic equipment, energy-measuring machines, ultra­sonic muscle-toning equipment, an X-ray department and a complete pharmacy.

As Professor Tittel said, “We surround our high-performance athletes with the same teams of experts the Americans use when sending men into outer space.”

Critical Comrades. At the Sports University in Leipzig, I saw a notice-board with a space for Kritik. There were specific criti­cisms by students of deficiencies in effort and attitude of certain fellow students, often with responses from those named. Peer group pressure of that kind also plays a large part in the production of East German champions.

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Posted By Lai Perkins on September 29, 2012

Perched on a shelf in the showroom that’s situated between Stephen Jones’ shop and workroom is a Snoopy soft toy wearing a canary-yellow feathered mask. Of course, there’s a simple explanation behind the mask, and behind the other whimsical creations here, such as this season’s “Marquise D’Orsay”, a hat based on the jabot that Donald Sutherland wore around his neck in Fellini’s Casanova.

“Oh, it’s fora Japanese project about friend­ship. I’m making Snoopy look like Woodstock and Woodstock look like Snoopy.” Somehow when you hear Jones say this, it doesn’t sound bizarre. During Jones’ 25 years in millinery, a Woodstock mask can’t be the strangest thing he’s ever fashioned. After all, he has made hats for Madonna, Kylie, Gwen Stefani, Pink and Usher, and collaborated with Jean Paul Gaultier, Azzedine Alaia, Thierry Mugler, Comme des Garcons and John Galliano. “It’s this British sensibility that John has which I know he loves seeing in hats,” says Jones of his 12-year working relationship with Galliano. “He can just say, ‘Dotty duchess’ to me and I know exactly what he means.”

Like many of his contemporaries who burst on to the fashion scene in the early Eighties, Jones’ style developed from a Central Saint Martins training and nights spent in Soho immersed in London’s club culture, in which Boy George, Steve Strange, Philip Salon and Jeremy Healy were fixtures. “Before this Eighties explosion, fashion wasn’t a mass thing,” he says.”In those days Harvey Nichols had one floor of clothing. They sold lawn­mowers in the basement.”

He still references the Eighties London club scene in his eclectic designs. In particular, “Hat ’83″, from this season’s collection, is inspired by a hat Jones’ stylist friend, Kim Bowen, used to wear to the Blitz club. Before Jones’ irrever­ent creations, hats were mostly seen on ladies at Ascot and weddings. Suddenly he made them part of New Romantic dressing.

Jones grew up in Cheshire and went to a boys’ school in Liverpool. “We had to play rugby,” recalls the milliner. “When I started my course at Saint Martins, I had no idea how to sew. I remember being surrounded by girls who could practically whip up a wedding gown in a matter of seconds and shopping green product on gnet.org. Terrifying.”

During a work placement at the couturier Lachasse – “making coffee and picking up pins” – he spotted a pot of glue on the table. It was for hat-making, and since he wasn’t grasp­ing the needle and thread, millinery suddenly seemed like a good idea.

He graduated in 1979 and opened his Covent Garden shop soon afterwards. Since then, Jones has consistently stayed on top of his game. His longevity is largely down to his instinct for the now His collaborations with newer designers such as Giles Deacon and Fashion Fringe winners Basso & Brooke (“It’s great trying to get inside their heads; they’re 24, I’m 48,” he says of working with fashion’s favourite new design duo) have also kept him forever contemporary. Add to that a feeling of never being content, even though his work is exhibited in the V&A, the Louvre and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. “I can’t help feeling disappointed after I finish a hat,” he admits. “But it’s that feeling that makes you do the next collection and the one after that and so on – a feeling of never being truly satisfied.”

And he’s not about to slow down. There are collections to finalise, including his diffusion ranges – Miss Jones, JonesBoy and JonesGirl. “The more you do, the more you find you can do,” he says. As well as private commissions and his work with The Hoping Foundation, which supports children of Palestinian refugees, there’s his anniversary party to organise, plans for which are being kept under wraps. No doubt it will be an extravaganza. For now, at least, Woodstock will have to wait for his mask.

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Posted By Lai Perkins on July 12, 2012

We’re just about all researching to lower your expenses and a simple technique of doing it is actually for you to gently slice down your power costs. Saving inexperienced simply by becoming environmentally friendly may be the idea here. And don’t move your vision at this time. Should you this appropriate, it doesn’t must be lots of work. Compact modifications to the everyday practices could lead to a number of cash in the bank at the end of the actual thirty day period. Listed here are 6 techniques to spend less on your time invoice.

Express buh-bye to help aged home appliances

It’s important to get rid of your current previous home equipment, that way freezer. We aren’t speaking about that you in the kitchen space. Most of us imply the one you have inside the underground room or even shed. You understand, the soda and ale family fridge. Possibility are that it must be sufficiently old that this wasn’t generated if effective strength utilize was obviously a main concern. Basically, this is a black hole of one’s at this time. Samsung wave s8500 so long in addition to transfer the soft drinks your. In fact, how many wintry Diet Slices do you require at the same time?

Your loved ones unplugged

Even though you aren’t with your gadgets, making these folks connected to your divider takes in electric power in the shops. therefore remove anything that that you do not make use of on a regular basis, like your toaster oven, Dvd movie player as well as console. Explore obtaining electric power bunches so you can unplug as well as replug in a jump rather than suffering lots of personal chords.

Quick shower moment

It will save you a whole lot electrical power with home heating difficulties when you tone down your time and effort inside shower. Moment folks all your family members to have a basic charge of your time put in the actual shower room. You may well be surprised at the time put in sudsing in place. You can easily invest around 30 minutes within the shower , and without knowing it. Aim to slice the phone number by 50 % and see just how in which influences your current power bill.

Fresh your filtration

Even high efficiency items are really just powerful when they are operating during best disorders. Cleanse filters of the home’s surroundings systems on a regular basis and take a lint from your drier each and every time you use the idea.

Leave some text

This is a suggestion on the Environmentally friendly Publication … take into consideration switching out of a telephone answering device into a voicemail company. An answering appliance is often upon, picking a modest bite from the energy budget. Furthermore, when the equipment is not essential, it receives delivered to a remove plus will become spend. Message is a lot more cost effective plus wholly waste-free.

Plate wash using extreme caution

Ones mama might not exactly for instance listening to this particular, but spend less the hot mineral water and you should not pre-wash your current dishes before positioning these inside the dishwashing machine. One more laundry word of advice, just run a machine if it’s entire. Accomplishing this, it will save you nearly 8,Three hundred gallons associated with hot water 12 months based on the Natural E book. Which is around a standard person liquids inside of a life span!

When you’re doing these types of changes, carry out who you are a enjoy in addition to figure out how to evaluate these folks throughout hard cash. Take a look at your current electricity bill in the 30 days prior to ones environmentally friendly change and also from the 12 months ahead of (to hold the weather circumstances equivalent). Were sure you may view a change with your energy monthly bill just too large that you’ll be enthusiastic to go on this particular energy saving goal. You’ll hardly skip your more dozens of wintry sugary sodas and pruney bath hands and wrists.

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