Lowry Long Run

It's jolly warm out there and my brains are melting.
"How's that dissertation of yours coming along then?"
Nice of you to ask.
As there is no longer any truth, (Post-modernism stole it), I have to say, I don't know.

There's something wrong with it. Have you ever tried to turn a mattress that's just too big for you? It's like that. Other things that tire your arms. Actually, trying to fit a duvet into a fresh cover - similar experience. It's just hard to handle it all. My dissertation's got out of control. I wrote 17 and a half thousand words (it's only meant to be 15,000) and then started cutting back in a kind of random way, - and then I sent it off to my supervisor to look at, to see if she's got something wise to say before I break it in sheer frustration. That was on Thursday. Thursday night I dreamt I was driving my car too fast down hot city streets and side swiping the parked cars - in particular a rather smart black and grey Mini (one of the new ones). I didn't have much control of my steering. I was just veering around.

Since then there's been no point in me doing much. I am hoping that a large step back will help the process. So I've been doing other stuff. Friday I had a mad cleaning binge. I went as far as to clean out the microwave. Sadly I exploded an egg in it this afternoon so it's not looking so good anymore.

Saturday I cycled to the lagoons and took pictures of the Musselburgh 10K folk. It was a dismal grey day and the camera  was on a go slow because there was no light, so I missed lots of folk. I got quite cold and starving and then cycled home.

Today I went off to North Berwick early, having dropped off a flask of green tea at Aberlady. (Green tea is the new coffee. It's supposed to make you clever. "Are you so stupid you believe that?" I can hear you say. Well, yes I am. But once I've drunk quite a lot of green tea, I'll probably be quite clever.) I thought the second half of the run might be quicker, as the wind was behind, but I thought wrong. The undergrowth. It was the undergrowth. Overgrowth it should be called. Tall sticky things. Trippy things. Sharp stabby things. Itchy stuff...all sticking to my sticky skin... and it was warm! By 15 miles and Longniddry I was starting to lose it. I rounded a headland and saw all the people out in their swimsuits. It was a scene reminiscent of a Lowry painting, although I don't think Lowry did paintings of the beach. (Oh I've just googled and he did. There's a nice one that looks like North Berwick in the winter.) Anyway, I got that song stuck in my head...

the one about Lowry, complete with all the lyrics and the children's chorus. I didn't know any of that was even in there. In the interior.

Around the corner I noticed that a number of people have dogs that look like coyotes. Where do they get them from? One started to follow me. I thought it might be my spirit guide. Well something like that. Everything was shimmering in the heat. I sometimes extend this run to make it up to 18 miles by running to the far end of North Berwick and then back to the car, but there was none of that today. I was just glad to stop.

"So when will you be finished that dissertation of yours then?"

Oh Jeez, I dunno. I don't think it's up to me. I'm quite enjoying not doing anything about it at the moment.

More blooming moon

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "you and that blimmin' moon should get a room". That is if you're not thinking "where are the loom bands and crochet". I fear I may have driven away my readership with silence and then dissertation talk.

I've been talking to myself all along anyway. And I've got more to say about my dissertation. I worked "fairly" solidly from Saturday to yesterday and I've written 17,000 words, and it only has to be 15,000 words. So that's good. What we need now is a bit of gardening, a bit of weeding, mowing the lawn and tidying up the borders. That was a metaphor. I haven't got a garden. I was talking about my dissertation. Unfortunately I can't bring myself to look at it today. I am scunnered with it. So I'm taking a break.

I've just been reading about how bad sitting is for you, so I'm away to lie on the sofa and read a book.

A graveyard sandwich and swifts flying round the moon

 

 Damn it's hot out there. I'm taking a week off to get my dissertation done. Every time I say "my dissertation" I imagine that you imagine me saying it in the same voice Neil from the Young Ones used every time he spoke about his astrological star chart. "I'm going upstairs now to finish off painting my astrological star chart, all right?"

Anyway. It's going to get done. For sure.

Meanwhile, in running news. I've got nothing to tell you. I've been running about 35 miles a week and it's going alright. I was trying to think if I wanted to go and do the Barry Buddon Half marathon as it's a championship race but I could find no place within my heart that wanted to go and do a "fast, flat" half marathon near the end of August somewhere near Dundee. Nu-uh. Bets it's hot.

In other news I went to have my lunch in a hot graveyard the other day, and I only had a banana with me and I was hungry. What should I see, lying at the side of the road, just at the entry to the graveyard but a sandwich, brown bread, just a little corner of cheese showing and fastidiously wrapped in cling-film. I was too paranoid to eat it, but I wanted to.

Oh and last night there was a nice moon out the window and the swifts were darting around really high up in the sky.

And all I had to do was a bit of googling to reach back through the years to actually hear the real Neil from the Young Ones mentioning his astrological star chart. And now when I think about writing "my dissertation" I can hear Rik saying "Do you really imagine that anyone has ever been the slightest bit interested in anything you  say or do?" It's not good. It's not the right space for writing in at all. It's really heavy!