And all the Muses; if you bring no gift… out you go.
I started the activities this week on an altogether far too zealous note. After hauling myself up the Grouse Grind last weekend I was a little horrified to find out that my time was only average. Given the effort I put in I felt I deserved a little better. So in an attempt to feel I have achieved something I set out on Wednesday afternoon to improve it.
Obviously I did as anyone would do in a similar situation and prepared fully for the challenge. No, I didn’t enlist the help of the tried and tested carb loading program- and yes, chocolate brownies count as carbs, nor did I substitute the all important carbonated drink for the altogether more suitable sports drink, energy drink or just plain water. I went for the clothing. As everyone who has ever taken part in a sports related challenge knows the outfit is everything. So, once again thanks to Nike and diet coke I was totally looking the part and ready for the uphill.
The clothing may have made me a little overconfident to start with as I think I took the first part a little too fast, as I then spent the next three quarters of the way feeling like I was slowing down or about to explode through lack of oxygen. I was also a little concerned that since last Saturday the route seems to changed somewhat due to chunk of mountain disappearing. My first encounter with disappearing mountains was in Colorado last summer when a sign warned of falling rocks. Sure enough in the five minutes it took to pull over and take a photograph the road was littered with boulders! So while making me a little nervous I was going to be fine. I was entrusting my safety to a Nike t-shirt after all. I have to say, looks apparently are important as I managed to cut seven minutes off my time! Yay me. So with 1:04 a new personal best I’m aiming to match it again this week (or possible cut a few more minutes off…)
By Saturday I had decided that a little bit of culture was in order and I thought a visit to the art gallery to see the “Dutch Masters” exhibit was the way to get it. While Vermeer was a prominent artist at the exhibition “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” was not on show, which didn’t stop the gift shop being full of articles and copies of it. I did however thoroughly enjoy the precision with was shown in most of the paintings on display, and was totally entranced with the thought of looking through someone’s head into a world from 350 years ago, seeing the people, writing their stories, imagining who they must have been, what they would have been like to know, what they were thinking whilst being painted, it is like people watching in the past…
While the “Dutch Masters” exhibit was my primary reason for the trip I was entirely taken with a reclaimed house installation. It was spread over four floors and every item had come from one of many houses that had recently been demolished or restyled. At the bottom it was all very 1940s style and original furniture and fittings, and as the house meandered up through the floors of the gallery the atmosphere and eras changed until the later 1980s and early 1990s on he top floor. As you may have guessed by now I like art that I can make links to and create stories about, and this gave me many opportunities to place people into these areas, to image families about the table in the kitchen, to wonder what news was conveyed on the old phones, to think about the reactions and joy, sadness moving occasions each room could have seen, or the stories the pieces told.
I was in luck as this theme continued into the photography on the top floor. I do sometimes have issues with photography as art, I’m never keen on pieces that look like holiday snaps, I can be impressed with the light, or the texture or the fact it takes up a space the size of a small country, but I do like to have a story, a point of view or a collection of emotions that I can attach to a photograph, which is easy if it is a snap I took of something important to me, but much harder when looking through someone else’s camera. My favorite two photographs being one of an apartment building at night with all the lights on and various movements showing through the illuminated windows and the other a departure board at an airport. I do at this point have to admit my negligence at not looking at the artists’ names, and must make a mental note to go back and check.
Sunday was shopping day, and I have eventually gotten around to buying new running shoes! So not only will I have to stop complaining about how useless my old ones were, but I should now be able to run amazingly well, because as I have already attested to, the right shoes are really all you need…
Obviously I did as anyone would do in a similar situation and prepared fully for the challenge. No, I didn’t enlist the help of the tried and tested carb loading program- and yes, chocolate brownies count as carbs, nor did I substitute the all important carbonated drink for the altogether more suitable sports drink, energy drink or just plain water. I went for the clothing. As everyone who has ever taken part in a sports related challenge knows the outfit is everything. So, once again thanks to Nike and diet coke I was totally looking the part and ready for the uphill.
The clothing may have made me a little overconfident to start with as I think I took the first part a little too fast, as I then spent the next three quarters of the way feeling like I was slowing down or about to explode through lack of oxygen. I was also a little concerned that since last Saturday the route seems to changed somewhat due to chunk of mountain disappearing. My first encounter with disappearing mountains was in Colorado last summer when a sign warned of falling rocks. Sure enough in the five minutes it took to pull over and take a photograph the road was littered with boulders! So while making me a little nervous I was going to be fine. I was entrusting my safety to a Nike t-shirt after all. I have to say, looks apparently are important as I managed to cut seven minutes off my time! Yay me. So with 1:04 a new personal best I’m aiming to match it again this week (or possible cut a few more minutes off…)
By Saturday I had decided that a little bit of culture was in order and I thought a visit to the art gallery to see the “Dutch Masters” exhibit was the way to get it. While Vermeer was a prominent artist at the exhibition “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” was not on show, which didn’t stop the gift shop being full of articles and copies of it. I did however thoroughly enjoy the precision with was shown in most of the paintings on display, and was totally entranced with the thought of looking through someone’s head into a world from 350 years ago, seeing the people, writing their stories, imagining who they must have been, what they would have been like to know, what they were thinking whilst being painted, it is like people watching in the past…
While the “Dutch Masters” exhibit was my primary reason for the trip I was entirely taken with a reclaimed house installation. It was spread over four floors and every item had come from one of many houses that had recently been demolished or restyled. At the bottom it was all very 1940s style and original furniture and fittings, and as the house meandered up through the floors of the gallery the atmosphere and eras changed until the later 1980s and early 1990s on he top floor. As you may have guessed by now I like art that I can make links to and create stories about, and this gave me many opportunities to place people into these areas, to image families about the table in the kitchen, to wonder what news was conveyed on the old phones, to think about the reactions and joy, sadness moving occasions each room could have seen, or the stories the pieces told.
I was in luck as this theme continued into the photography on the top floor. I do sometimes have issues with photography as art, I’m never keen on pieces that look like holiday snaps, I can be impressed with the light, or the texture or the fact it takes up a space the size of a small country, but I do like to have a story, a point of view or a collection of emotions that I can attach to a photograph, which is easy if it is a snap I took of something important to me, but much harder when looking through someone else’s camera. My favorite two photographs being one of an apartment building at night with all the lights on and various movements showing through the illuminated windows and the other a departure board at an airport. I do at this point have to admit my negligence at not looking at the artists’ names, and must make a mental note to go back and check.
Sunday was shopping day, and I have eventually gotten around to buying new running shoes! So not only will I have to stop complaining about how useless my old ones were, but I should now be able to run amazingly well, because as I have already attested to, the right shoes are really all you need…
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