5 days ago.

Hi all,
I'm so SORRY for keeping you all in the dark for so long. As predicted, it turns that out I am pretty rubbish at keeping a blog going,  and as you may well have decided. 

I know you must be wondering 'how is Darren's training going for his Hadrian's wall trek? '.
So you deserve a quick round up of my fitness progress and my preparation. I have to go back to the start of the year to see any progress. In January a 20 mile walk seemed too much. In January 30 mins badminton was too much. Now it's not daunting and I can do 90mins and still have more in the tank. I take the stairs and walk a lot around London instead of using lifts and tube trains. 

So I'm  fitter.... But am I fit enough? 

Getting fitter

Hi all, SORRY it's been a while.
I had a fitness lapse in April but I'm back on it in May. Back to Badminton, back to long walks across London (3-4 miles a day) Back to stretching.
I'll get you a juicy post soon. For now good luck in all you do.

R. I. P. Barry Aken

My brother in law passed away in his sleep on Sunday 21st April 2013 around 9:30pm.
His football team Spurs won 3-1 against Man City earlier that day. We like to think he heard the result on his hospital radio before he left.
My sister Kerry and my niece Katherine (aged 9) have lost a cornerstone in their lives. It's going to be harder for them now.
Barry fought blood circulation problems since an accident about 10 years ago. Doctors tried to save him by amputating both legs. His circulation was so poor that he was unable fight infections in his stumps.
On Friday we were told that Barry had hours to days left to live.

One friend I spoke to said
"the circle of life is a c*nt"
I tend to agree.

Also please make a note.... Bipolar is a c*nt.

Sorry to leave you on this crud news folks. I promise I'll be more cheery on the next post.

Idea 2

Ok so here's a 'back-of-a-cab' idea....

Idea 2: For cars particularly taxi cabs, in the hinges of the doors could be little dymo type like generator. Customers would generate electricity every time the got in and out of a cab. This could be fed back into the engine or stored for later use or maybe run a free email mobile charging service in the back.

Well that's Idea number 2.
I've overworked both brain cells now. It's only 8:47 am so I'm not sure what I'm going to use for thinking now... Maybe I'll get a Danish on the way in to work.

I'm back to Badminton tonight for the first time in a few weeks as as its not been on due to holidays and exams etc. In terms of training it's has been like "what is training" But with tumbleweed on.
I need to get a groove on...

Katherine Aken Art

Great pitcher, nice. X x

Holy cow.

On a stag do on Saturday I took this picture. The restaurant is a steakandchicken in a tram shed in London. I had chicken in a basket and some chunks of steak. Oh and a beer and some onion rings.... Guess How much...
£40!
"holy cow! "
And I wasn't referring to the Damien Hirst centre piece.

Snow Joke

Hi readers, are you looking forward to the clocks going forward on Sunday? I am, because it means I can attempt after-work walks... I'm not afraid of the dark or anything, I'm just programmed for lounging on the sofa when the sun goes down.

I subscribe to the idea that on average life is 90% 'normal' and 10%  'weird'. The everyday routines, timetables, plans, queues, clocks, the things that are essential to make up the structure of normality of our world and society. Bricks, lines, forms, recipes, rules, traffic lights, gravity and the royal mint. We all need normal.
But it's the odd abnormal weird bits that make it really alive. Complimentary to the the normal. You may not think you need this stuff. But you do. Curly chips, Autism, comic relief, mould, northern lights, comfortably numb, gunpowder, evolution, pooh sticks, brightly coloured stick-on (computer monitors) fluff monsters and Will I Am . Have you ever noticed how a bridge looks so much nicer with a little corrosion? The hundreds of pigeons that come to bread-throwers but it's the pigeon with the one gammy leg that catches our eye. All the silver, blue and white cars but the van at the end of the street painted in red and orange flames that sticks out and cheers us up.

Recently, at an Indian restaurant, Alison and I saw a little old lady wheel in a shopping trolley. (Let's call her Mary for now). Mary is obviously known by the restauranteur as she is seated a a table in the corner. Mary asks for a cup of tea. Then she proceeds to get several bags out of the trolley which contain packs of cards, paper, pens and envelopes etc. She spreads stuff over the entire table. It becomes clear to us that Mary has lost some of the plot. A few waiters ask is she ok. I think they just felt sorry for her. Mary told everyone who asked that she had lost a letter and now had to rewrite it. She then writes a letter, drinks her tea, and then gathers her stuff, pays and goes. The sad thing is she loses and rewrites a letter every week at the same table. There was a funny bit when Mary spoke to one of the Indian waiters and said "I know you can't understand everything I'm saying but...." Proper old school ignorance-racism. Hehe and the waiter was probably at some  university doing an English degree. There were other "normal" diners but I don't remember much about them. We enjoyed the meal more because of the weird.
We don't realise it but all need weird as well as normal to get 100% out of life.

Another weird thing... Snow. No two flakes the same. And this month the coldest and snowiest March on record for the UK. Freak weather... These bitter bone-chiller winds certainly let you know that you are alive!

Angry birds

Ok. I walked at least 4 miles in perfect spring weekend weather along the river Lee with the missus. Now I have a blister....
... But I'm happy.

Unlike the lady in this protest from Femen (ukrainian female activist group) who is protesting about the recent abuse of Amina Tyler in France by islamists on Facebook for displaying provocative messages across her breasts.
I'm not sure what I'd want to avoid more... Upsetting islamists or a infuriating a naked girl.
Angry birds anyone?

Meet the 'Fatsuma'

It's called a Queen Satuma but I prefere the name Fatsuma.
They were on offer in Sainsburys.
Btw Happy mothers day to all Mums.

3 pints and 2 miles

Hi readers. To update you briefly :
My stepson Daniel and I walked just over 2 miles today to darts and back. At Darts (winning only 1 game in 3) I cancelled all fitness out by drinking 3 pints of Tetley.....
There's lots I could say but really just want to say thank you to my wife for buying very nice matching hand towels a few weeks ago. Sometimes in life it is easy to take little things for granted.

I'll leave you with this thought : In life, there's only 10 types of people. Those that understand binary and those that don't. Goodnight =0)

7 mile walk.

What a lovely day! We took full advantage of it and walked 7 miles. Alison my wife, Daniel and Lauren my step kids and I walked about town. Dan and Lauren don't like being called kids. They are teenagers now. Step-yoofs.

Alison and I ended up at her mum's who served home made cake and coffee. Thanks Joyce.

I've lots to tell you but not right now.... I'm gonna have a nap. Z z z z

Flights of Stairs

Happy Wednesday readers. Walking is an activity I've come to quite like. I also still quite like not walking, sitting on my scrawny arse and drinking beer. I've done a little of all those things today as well as walk up and down 14 flights of stairs. (a strange expression, and can you get 'flights of' anything else?) All in aid of getting fit for Hadrians wall walk.
Yesterday we in 'hadrians walk crew' had a meeting (of which I still have to summarise.) We talked about a walk around Graffham water on 17 March. It's 8.2 miles around. Hopefully I will know where Graffham water is by the time I need to walk around it and will work out how to add maps etc to this blogspot.
Meanwhile I'm testing out this swipe method of typing on my phone. You just connect up the letters in a word and it works out what you are trying to type. It is tricky at first but I'm getting used to it. It means that there could be dozens of typos massive doodah.

Ok I'll just leave you with a joke that I was sent today :

Magic Apples

Daydreaming

Tip 1: All those expensive mini shampoo travel-size bottles... Don't throw the containers away.. Simply refill them from your large bottles ready for the next trip.

Idea 1: Ok so I heard this woman say how she pushed her baby around in a buggy all day for miles and miles. I thought of a Segway buggy. Mum just steps on the back of the pram and goes. Pram and Segway could detach and be used separately.

Dry Hands

Hello readers.
So. The fitness thing...I'm trying, I really am! I knew I was unfit. The piddley amount of exercise has exposed me as a skinny wasting breathless flump. I'm at the phase of realising the full extent of my 'unfitness'.

Playing badminton on Friday evening at Harlow Badminton club was brilliant. All the members were friendly and had varying ability. I soon felt relaxed in my first session. Thanks to Sandra for setting up the club and making me feel welcome.

This morning I went walking with friends Karen and Gareth and their dogs Penny and Poppy. Big thanks guys for your support. Five miles around rural Stortford was a great starter walk. The star of the show was Poppy who never ran out energy. (I was so impressed I'm considering eating dog food and chasing sticks for a training regime) =0)

Blogging, I have discovered, can be a conduit for many types of old guff. I'm struggling to nail mine down to one type but found that it's part diary, part opinions, part conclusions part information and part complete 'bollards'. Primarily its going to be focused on Hadrian's Wall training. Every now and then though.... That's right the inevitable 'guff' creeps in.

This might be Guff to 99.9% of you all as it's for our very dear friends whom Alison an I met recently. I noticed you both had dry hands. Try rubbing in each others hand cream. It might heal hands and hearts.

Thank for coming to the Gooseberry Bush and reading this far, chat soon. =0)

The old Vic.

London underground. The Victoria line - old and very over-crowded. Friendly commuters sometimes try to spark a conversation and say 'we are packed in like sardines in a tin'.. Which is of course the 'standing' joke. The seated people never say it.
From Tottenham Hale you can get off at Seven Sisters, and wait for an empty train where you can get a seat for the rest of the journey which is typically to Oxford Circus. I don't do this. Instead I stay on the over-crowded tube.
Firstly, this is because I don't trust that there WILL be another tube so I stay on one I know is running.
Secondly, I find it weirdly interesting to watch people's reactions to being so close to strangers that their personal space becomes a matchbox size area just in front of the nose. I have seen some real gems from the classic 5ft girl's nose up against a 6ft armpit guy to the shopper plonking her John Lewis bag on someone else's pushchair/baby!

Coffee

Hello again reader!

I would like to make a suggestion that 'The Gooseberry Bush' web-space  is like going down the pub.
If you went down the pub with me, this is the sort of *bollards* you could be listening to, which may make you think twice about a pub lunch.

Ok so I'm on this fitness thingy effort thingy sort of thing. I checked out Harlow Badminton club. I'm going Friday to check it out. I'll let you know how that went. Blah blah blah.

The meat:
The big news today is that I have given up mobile wii and pc games. Yep that's right. In an effort to get more out of life I have uninstalled all mobile games from my phone. This is a massive deal for me. Last month I gave up alcohol. This month, I was straight on it but it wasn't that hard. Unlike no more gaming. At least I get a few hours back each day! My brain feels less cluttered.

So the new blogging jogging and de-clogging Darren has emerged.... Mid life Crisis, or am I just waking up and smelling the coffee? Hmmmmmmm

Btw, Hadrian's Wall gang, I have suggested by email that we meet on Tuesday 26th 8pm at Grahams house.

In the begining

Good Sunday, all people of the world!

And we are off....my first blog, an experiment in talking bollards.
                                                one sec ....

WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

(That's better. Excess excitement has now been released, no more woohooing needed for a while.)

So, me the writer and you the reader. Me the producer and you the consumer. It's my duty now to provide you the best consumable readings that my three and a half brain cells can muster.

Alison just told me to keep my blog simple as she hates ramblers, that's the talking sort  not the walking sort, which brings me to the meat of my first blog.

The Meat: This year I'm on a mission to fight back against the pop belly thing that thirty something males get apparently by drinking beer and generally being lazy bums. So during 'Dry January' whilst Graham was doing 'Wet Thursday', (and was quite wet) I suggested that we exert ourselves and do a challenge like Hadrian's wall. Wet Graham then agreed and so the plan was hatched! In September, Graham, me and others will cross the country coast to coast along Hadrian's wall, 84 miles over 4 days. More details will be coming at you in this new corner of web-space.

Health progress: Only a week of walking about 3 miles a day has already made me feel a bit healthier. I played badminton with Adrian a few days ago but now groin and wrist muscles are all stiff. There now you know.

 'Who are Alison, Graham and Adrian?' I guess you ponder...ah, all in good time.
Until next time...Keep Smiling =0)