Grace Under Pressure 2

  After what has been described as one, if not the worst ever performance under his leadership, beleagured Manchester United boss Eric Ten Hag, must be a relieved man this morning after receiving a letter of support from fans asking the board to keep him in his job.  Unfortunatly said letter was not writtten by fans of Manchester United but by fans of Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Ipswich Town, Leicester City, Liverpool, Mancheter City, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Wolves. Speaking to Grace Under Pressure rival Manchester City supporter, Ezoff Side, revealed, "I can understand that getting battered by Spurs is probably about as bad as it gets and has resulted in calls for his dismissal by the teams own fans. But we think Ten Hag just needs more time, lots more time, certainly till the end of the current season and possibly much longe...

On Saturday night TOM and I had a jolly into a very busy Nottingham for what could have been a bit of a risky theatre trip. A risk because I wasn't sure if it would be TOM's cup of tea.  And that particular cup of tea was Dear Evan Hansen, in what was the first time that this Broadway and West End sensation has toured the UK. Winners of Tony's, Grammys and Olivier awards it has been described as 'the musical of a generation which was evident from the packed out audience of a noticably younger age range than almost any of the other plays we have seen.  Dear Evan Hansen has certainly struck a chord with late teens and early adults across the world I just wasn't sure that is would also appeal to TOM's generation as well, prefering as he does 'entertainment' rather than a musical about social exclusion, suicide, mental health, parenthood, loss and the lies we sometimes tell to protect others and ourselves. As it turned out I needen't have worried....it ...

Thankfully I remembered to bring my Garmin watch with me today and so this latest cross country jolly could actually count as an officiall entry crashing into the top 60 at number R51. Managing to get a Sunday Morning off work I had the option of twolocal races, the Robin Hood Half Marathon round the streets of Nottinigham at £42 a pop or the Wirksworth Undulator at a bargain price of £10. I'll let you guess which one I chose.   There is a saying that what goes up must come down although where running is concerned I have never been convinced that there is as much down as there is up. Today's little trail run was called the Undulator for a reason and so it came as no surprise that the 8.4 miles were rather lumpy, starting off with the steepest climb of them all within the first 50 yards of the start. And take it from me there nothing like being gasping for breath almost before my watch had a chance to register whether I had started to move or not. I have done this run once befor...

 

 

    As Philip Schofield is set to reurn to our TV screens as a modern day Castaway, Grace Under Pressure wonders if he will have a Man Friday or on other days of the week too?

Just to show that there is no end to his talents Sir Keir Starmer has used his first Labour Party conference as PM to stun the scientific community by redefining the meaning of the word light. This came during his speech in which he said there was and I quote ' light at the end of the tunnel'. In the Oxford English dictionary light is defined as 'a type of electromagnetic radiation that allows the human eye to see and which makes objects appearer clearer and more visible'. Yesteday in a ground breaking move, Sir Keir's use of the word light at the end of the tunnel was interpreted by those listening to his speech as meaning 'an indistinguishable, intangible, incomprehensible vagueness in which everything is shrouded in murkiness and nothing is revealed,  in focus, clear or easily seen.' Atomic physicist, Ivor Nucleus, remarked, 'Even great minds like Albert Eistein, Stephen Hawking and chiselled cheek boned Brian Cox would have been left discombobulate...

  there is a saying amongst the running community that if it isn't uploaded on Strava or some such similar site, then the run you have just completed didn;t actually happen. I am now officially a member of that club. Not the Strava club but the 'run that didn't actually happen'club. Last night I was in a dilemma, faced as I was with four different options to run; two based in Hucknall and two up in Ravenshead. Different places, different routes, different terrains,  different starting times, different running buddies. In the end I plumped for my regular group up at Ravenshead hoping that due to the earlier start time we might be finished before it got dark given that it had been an overcast leaden sky all day, one that was threatening to break at any moment. So there I was waiting as the group of 8 runners and 3 dogs assembled and began the routine of making sure our head torches were functional  and priming their watches, I suddenly realised that mine was back at home ...

  Have you ever wondered or cared what all the 175 Conservative MP's who lost their seats during the election bloodbath are doing now?  No, me neither and that could be where todays blog ended. Short and sweet. But sometimes you get the answer to a question you have never asked whether you want it or not. And it turns out that the answer is to be on TV. Seeking inspiration from former Tory MP Michael Portillo, who is almost as omnipresent on our TV screens as Rylan, deseated Conservatives will be flooding our goggleboxes in one giant tsunami like blue wave this autumn. Expect to see baking, dancing, skating, singing, sewing, diving, driving, presenting, travelling,celebrity Big Brothering and last but by no means least eating the anus' of various antipodean marsupials.  Which I am led to beleive will be a slightly different to that served at Conservative Club where the menu staple is now Humble Pie.

In breaking news Grace Under Pressure can be the first to fashionably reveal a proposed Christmas 'Catwalk with Keir' special has had to be pulled from the TV schedules due to unforseen circumstances. Organised by the Labour heirarchy to give the PM a touch of Festive sparkle and help boost his ratings, a leaked report has revealaed that Sir Keir Starmer's macho man makeover was in fact a freebie done by the guys at 'Queer Eye for the Dull Guy'  The team were reportedly hired by an annonymous Labour donor, in an attempt to improve Starmer’s image ahead of the festive period, a time when it is well known that the ratings of new PM slip almost as much as reindeer on a snowy rooftop. Grace Under Pressure has managed to obtain a sneak preview of the footage which will never now see the light of day and can only commend the efforts of  Jeremiah, Antoni, Jonathan, Karamo and Tan to transform Sir Keir's famous browns and beiges into a fabulous flurry of festive fabri...

The question today is how do I manage to stimulate my nervous system enough to stay alert during Synod or as it has recently been rebranded, the District Gathering'. Especially when the agenda looked even less interesting / useful than it normally does. Read on. One, and possibly the only, advantage of Synod being held in Derby is that it gives me a chance to fit in a different Park Run on route. The closest one to the venue where the synod, sorry district gathering, is held is Markeaton Park, a location where I think I have managed to run one of my fastest ever Park Run times back in 2019.  So with today being the big 50 in my 60@ 60 challenge, how close could I come to that time or possibly even beat that mark. After all surely all this extra running during the past year must count for something. Turns out it doesn't...lol. For the first time that I have run here there were two pacemakers today, one running at 30 mins (a bit too slow) and the other running at 24 mins (a lot ...

 

Ever wondered where all the money saved from not giving pensioners their winter fuel allowance was going? Well wonder no more. It's simply being transfered 'amongst pensioners' or to be more precise to one particular pensioner, Sue Gray. Quicker to spin than a well lubricated gyroscope, government spokesperson, Ease Incharge, revealed that in order to keep hold  67 year old ministerial advisor Sue Gray, having found out that government was quite a bit harder than simply shouting from the opposition benches, certain funding issues had to be addressed.  "We campaigned on the promise that we would put more into a pensioner's pocket and now we have done just that. It's just a misunderstading of semantics that caused those who voted us into power to assume we meant more than one pensioners pocket." "And £170,000 is a small price to pay to appear remotely competant espcially given that our leader is so poor he and his wife can't even afford to buy clot...

  A short but sweet little jolLy tonight; Bestwood Backwards. And no before you all think, 'Wow John is getting so good at this running lark, he is now showing off by doing it backwards, just hold your horses.' Bestwood or to give it it's proper term Bestwood Village is probably my nearest park run, one that I have run on many occasions alogside upto 100 other runners on a Saturday morning. It consists of what is locally referred too as a 'lumpy' clockwise loop of 3.16 miles containing two short but sudden hills.  And it is a run where I consistantly get nowhere nearer my fastest recorded time done back in 2019. Bestwood backwards is what it says on the time, running the park run course but in an anticlockwise direction. Now there is a regular Tuesday night group that do this run every week but they start at 7.30pm which as any of you will know looking out of the window at 7.30pm in September means its dark.  Recenty a group from Ravenshead runners has started to ru...