Arbitrary 300 parkrun Analysis

Mark's 300th parkrun.

I do like a spreadsheet! Having just hit my arbitrary 300 milestone I thought I’d do a bit of analysis. At Salento parkrun I tell tourists that it may not be my home parkrun but it is the one I’ve done most often. In fact more than my current and previous home parkruns added together. We live in Southern Italy half the year so our NENDYs (Nearest Event Not Done Yet) are 400 km away (Sicily and Rome)! 

I do like a pie chart so here is the circular version. 

Eglington is close to where my mother-in-law used to live, Talkin Tarn Country Park and Keswick are local when we are in the UK. Most of the 2’s are where I had to repeat to allow Mary to catch up having started parkrun 18 months later than me. The “Once only” are down to Mary having got the tourist bug, mostly driven by challenges such as Alphabeteer, Pirates, etc.

Mary's 250th parkwalk.

Mary also loves a spreadsheet but she uses it more for planning e.g. second Alphabet, 100 locations and getting the latter to coincide with her 250 parkwalks. 

It seemed only right that I do the same for Mary’s recent milestone of 250 parkwalks. The numbers:

And the pie:

We have done the same countries but in a different order owing to starting parkrun at different times; I was already five countries in before Mary started.

Mark's performance by year.

Someone in the parkrun discussion group on FaceBook asked, “What have older people's thoughts been about seeing their performance drop off? How do you feel when you look at your times from a few years ago and notice a decline?”

Of course I had to do an analysis of my average time and age percentage by calendar year.

I looked back and my average time is the same in 2025 (age 73) as it was in 2017 (age 65) and the age grading has correspondingly increased. Feeling Smug!

The improvements in 2018 and 2019 are attributable to training for the London marathons. The improvement in 2021 was thanks to twice weekly runs with Nigel around Penrith during lockdown when you were allowed to exercise with one other. Looking at the two parkruns bracketing the lockdowns I improved by two whole minutes, from 29:07 to 27:07.  

Mary's performance by year.

The same analysis for Mary would show slowing down with age and injury but would not really be worthwhile as she occasionally volunteers as tailwalker or parkwalker which would skew her results.

Dom Martin and Blue Nation at The Clooney

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Tyne and Wear. Saturday, 15-November-2025.

A weekend trip to Newcastle upon Tyne to see two bands that we have seen before, three times each individually, but now together as a double header. As before, at this venue, we dined at the excellent Cook House close by.

Apparently on this tour Dom Martin and Blue Nation take it in turns as to who goes on first or second. This particular night it was Dom on first and he plays a really mean guitar! I would put money on one of his guitar heroes being Jimi Hendrix, he definitely had that skill and style. Another of his heroes is Rory Gallagher who he mentioned several times.

At one point, Dom came down off the stage and did a walk amongst the audience so we got a close-up view. We have several of his albums but he is definitely an artist to see live. His shows are much more rocking and upbeat than most of his studio albums.

After the interval it was Blue Nation. The lead guitarist does a lot of chat and there is great banter between the two guitarists. At some point one of them always makes an appeal to the men in the audience to take care of their mental health. An excellent set of blues-influenced rock  

For an encore, the two bands team up with two guitarists and two bass players on stage, but I don’t know which drummer was on duty.

It was clear that they greatly enjoy each other’s company and playing as an ensemble.

An excellent evening with some class musicianship. After the gig, it was a quick Uber home and so to bed.

Wine Tasting - North vs South

Bassenthwaite Lake Station, Cumbria. 06-November-2025.

This tasting was a comparison between the northern and southern hemispheres. Each pair of wines were the same grape but from opposite sides of the equator. All wines from Majestic.

It was a slightly smaller crowd than normal, so the wine tasting was held in the lovely saloon car which worked very well there, perhaps due to the openness of the carriage.

Name, Vintage, ABV, Retail Price, Hemisphere, Country 

• Tasting notes 
• Mary’s notes and star rating out of three
• My preferred hemisphere 

For each pair of wines, a show of hands was taken to decide which hemisphere was the winner. Generally we were in agreement with the consensus. On our table my vote was: Northern hemisphere 3, Southern hemisphere 1.

1 Winzer Krems Gruner Veltliner 2024, 12.5% £11.50 Northern Austria 

• Crisp and refreshing, look for peach and citrus with notes of mineral and pepper on the finish 
• Pale lemon; zingy on nose, tart; citrus, good acidity, mineral, medium length ✱½.
  A low score because Mary is not a fan of this particular grape variety!

2 Saint Clair Pioneer Gruner Veltliner 2021, 13% £15 Southern New Zealand 

• Handpicked in a relatively warm vineyard that intensifies and ripens the characteristics. Look for stone fruits and white pepper on the nose and a fruity balanced structure with enough acidity to hold its own with curry or spices. 
• Warmer/soft nose, green apple, citrus; richer, more body, much softer/not so acidic/bit flabby? ✱
• Preferred

3 Naudin Pere et Fils Chardonnay 13.5% £11.50 Northern France 

• Made by one of the oldest mansions in Burgundy, this wine is remarkably aromatic with flavours of mango, peach and citrus. Fresher than its southern hemisphere counterpart it will pair well with white fish. 
• Light nose, not oaked / not much oak; green very slight butter; fresh, sharpish, green, pepper. More like Chablis ✱✱
• Preferred

4 Luis Felipe Edwards Gran Reserva Chardonnay 2024, 13.5% £11 Southern Chile 

• From one of the largest family-owned vineyards in Chile, the fine wines produced offer great value for money. This is a rich, creamy Chardonnay with notes of tropical pineapple, mango, butterscotch and vanilla and a gentle nuttiness. Great with creamy chicken.  
• More open, stronger nose, peachy, tropical, buttery; gentle, tasty, tropical, vanilla/butterscotch; decent length ✱✱
  Note: comparison of these last two was probably as much about the oak treatment as which hemisphere.

5 Le Grand Retour 2021, 12.5% £12 Northern France

• Wine production of the Malbec grape began in South-West France, specifically in Cahors where this wine comes from. This wine is exceptionally fruity with flavours of raspberry, blackcurrant and blackberries and gentle tannins. Great with roast pork! 
• Not typical Malbec/Cahors. Mahogany with brown at rim; soft, fruity, slightly sweet, lighter nose, lighter body; soft, fruity, nice flavours, berry fruit fruits, soft tannins ✱✱½
• Preferred

6 Intacto Gran Reserva Malbec 2022, 13.5% £12 Southern Chile 

• This Malbec has intense notes of black fruits, ripe cranberries and chocolate with some violet notes. A spell in French oak gives structure in the mouth. Great for pairing with slow-cooked meats or char-grilled barbecue foods. 
• More purple; strong nose, vegetal, softer, fruity ✱✱

7 Chateau Sainte Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon 2022, 14% £18 Northern USA 

• From the cooler Washington State, this wine is unlike anything we have tasted from the warmer producers of the USA. Sainte Michelle is Washington's most respected winery, named Winery of the Year no less than 22 times! Look for exceptional complexity and notes of blackcurrant and plums.
• Light nose, lovely nose, dark fruit, slight acetone?; yummy, dark fruit/plums, complex, some tannins but soft, good balance, great length ✱✱✱
• Preferred

8 Rustenberg Cabernet Sauvignon 2023, 14% £16 Southern South Africa 

• Twice winner of Young Winemaker of the Year, Murray Barlow is one of South Africa's most exciting young producers reflected in thiswell-crafted Cabernet. Expect dark berries, tobacco, oak ageing and ideal for ageing. May need decanting. Northern v South 6th November 2025 
• Softer, stronger nose; dark fruit, plums, tobacco, some tannins but more astringent, not as fruity, too young? ✱✱

They opened one last bottle for a supernumerary glass after which we staggered back to the Pheasant Inn for a completely unnecessary last pint of beer before bed.

City Break - Glasgow, October 2025

Glasgow, Scotland. Thursday/Sunday 30-October/02-November-2025.

Another action packed M&M weekend, this time in Glasgow. 

Fulfilling the corporate mission "To Eat, Drink and Have a Good Time!"

Thursday 30-October. 

Since the 30th is our wedding anniversary we decided to extend our weekend in Glasgow and go up early, on the Thursday, for a nice meal there.

A friend recently shared a couple of photos from his album of our wedding that we had never seen before.

We had hired a couple of double-decker buses to ferry our guests from the church (Saint Paul’s Cathedral) to the reception venue on Wimbledon Parkside.

For our anniversary dinner we went to Six by Nico which had been recommended by several friends. Their USP is that they only offer a six course tasting menu (with the option of a matching wine flight). The menu has a theme which they change every few months. That night the theme was Space. Somewhat tenuous connections with some of the courses but the first course was a flying saucer: a levitating spinning dish.

Friday 31-October. 

The morning was a tour of some of the fantastic Glasgow murals. Fortunately, Mary was able to provide some social context for these two murals. At a disco a lad wanting to ask a girl for a dance might approach her and ask using this phrase “Are ye dancin?” to which the reply might be “Are ye askin?” as popularised by Scottish comedians Rickie Fulton and Jack Milroy as Francie and Josie [youTube].

A collage of the best. Unfortunately, a number of the murals have been defaced with tags by graffiti artists.

This cultural walk was followed by a late curry lunch and drinks with old friends Geraldine and Alasdair at Obsession of India.

After lunch, we headed off to the Hydro to hear the multi-talented sisters that make HAIM. Full gig report here Haim at the OVO Hydro.

Saturday 01-November. 

Victoria, Glasgow 01/11/2025 29:11 [272/430]. .

Saturday morning was parkrun (of course). There are many park runs in Glasgow to choose from but this one gave us a “V” for our second alphabet. It was also my 300th parkrun. While not an official milestone it is worth celebrating so I emailed the RD and got a shout out.

SIL Sandra came and joined us and then drove us back to see their brand new house in Killearn, half an hour north of Glasgow. Then back to Glasgow for a rest.

Saturday evening's entertainment was a pre-dinner drink at Vroni's then dinner at Sarti's which again came highly recommended and lived up to expectations. Over a final glass back at Vroni's we got chatting to a lad from Belfast and now have lots of great recommendations for a planned trip next year. 

Sunday 02-November. 

A not-too-early train back to Penrith and a relax. Phew!

Haim at the OVO Hydro

Glasgow, Scotland. Friday 31-December-2025.

We cannot remember how we were introduced to Haim but their third album, Women in Music Pt. III, has been a regular on our play list. They are three sisters who play melodic tunes and sing in harmony. My favourite track on that album is “Don’t Wanna”, closely followed by “I Know Alone”.

We bought these tickets way back in April as soon as we learnt about their tour. Glasgow was the obvious venue which is easy to get to for us and which happens to be the last night of their UK tour.

I’ve got so used to going to smaller more intimate venues that it was a bit of a shock to be re-introduced to a cavernous stadium.  The standing arena area is massive and was only partially filled when we arrived but soon was packed to capacity.

The support act was Nell Mescal who we had never heard of but must be an established artist as she is on her third EP and has a dozen singles to her name already. As we have found with previous support acts they are incredibly grateful to have been selected, in this case at very short notice, and the mutual admiration and support is heartwarming to see.

Haim then took to the stage preceded by a ticker tape of “I Quit…” messages; “I Quit” is their latest album which this tour is promoting. We had listened to “I Quit” in preparation for the concert but live it came across as much more rock. The bass was ramped up to 11; it set my rib cage rattling.

The three girls Alana (guitar, percussion), Danielle (lead guitar) and Este (bass guitar) - actually all play multiple instruments and took it in turns to take the spotlight. They are all supported in the background by a drummer and a keyboard / sax player. 

They played mostly songs from the new album plus a couple from Women in Music Pt. III. Full set list at setlist.fm. It was a much livelier and more rock-n-roll set than the more mellow studio album sound.

Being unsure of the best way to get home from the venue we snuck out before the encore and thus were able to snag a taxi before the mass exodus without queueing and were whisked back to our apartment.

The Dutty Moonshine Big Band at the Old Fire Station

Carlisle, UK. Thursday 24-October-2025.

We were pleased to see that Dutty Moonshine Big Band’s tour dates included this venue close to us and while we were in the UK. Tickets booked pronto! Our friends Wade and Tanya also booked tickets and Wade very kindly volunteered to be designated driver which meant I could have a beer (or three). Wade had listened to some of their music but this was the first time of seeing them live.

The support act were Cavegirl and the Neandergals, a female rock trio dressed in Flintstones inspired costumes. I thought they were OK but the others were not so sure.

Dutty and the band launched into their high energy electronic dance and got the audience moving. For most of the time there were 10 musicians on stage. They played some tracks from albums we already have ("City of Sin" and "Villain") plus tracks from their forthcoming EPs: Blood, Sweat and Tears. Dutty explained that each EP is a different style of music - ably demonstrated with a bluesy track from Tears with vocals by Maria and "Gorgeous George".

They had a couple of guest appearances. The first was rapper and MC, Abi Nyxx, the lady in the red hat.

The second guest artist was MC Pean, Drum and Bass MC in the brown jacket.

Mary showing her support in her Dutty Villain T-shirt.

Maria doing her high-speed rapping. She has a wonderful voice and an amazing machine gun delivery - not sure when she gets to take a breath!

Wade was at the front when Dutty picked up the set list and, as is apparently something of a custom, when Wade held his hand out, Dutty handed it to him as a souvenir.

Our friends were seriously impressed and agreed that it was a great night and a fantastic band. We knew that but it’s always satisfying when you introduce somebody to a band and they share your enthusiasm.

CSC Annual Technology and Business Solutions Conference - Baltimore

Baltimore 1993 (? Tbc).

Introduction: there was a time before social media! Can you believe it? I used to work for a large American corporation and managed to swing an invite to their annual technology conference in the states. 

Part of the deal was that I had to write a visit report for my UK colleagues. A written report is pretty dull so I thought I would do a photo journal. Bought myself a cheap disposable camera with 24 shots and documented my visit. 

How to share it with my colleagues? These were the early days of websites and I had created one handcrafted using notepad to write the raw HTML. So I scanned in the developed photos and did a kind of slideshow. It was very clunky. I was reminded of it recently going through some old photos and decided to re-create that journal using blogger. So here it is: version 2.0.

What is the ATBSC?

CSC as a learning organisation is the main theme.. Nearly 800 CSC'ers from around the globe attended the 8th Annual Technology and Business Solutions Conference (ATBSC). The main theme was CSC as a learning organisation. There were two days of parallel sessions on a number of themes such as:

• Organisational change
• Knowledge Asset Management
• Awards for Technological Excellence
• Case studies
• etc...

In addition there were presentations from various Strategic Alliance Partners, a key note speech and a final plenary session with prize draw.

Baltimore - location for the ATBSC.

Baltimore Inner Harbour. A sunny day at the Inner Harbour. Baltimore seem like a very pleasant town. Like any city near a body of water it seems to derive a certain bustle from its historic trade links.

Registration - People queuing to register

Queuing for a "goody bag". On arrival at the conference delegate register and receive a CSC shoulder bag. In it go a CD-ROM containing all the presentations, a delegate list, session descriptions, pen, lecturers wand, name tag and a small puzzle.

First coffee break.

First caffeine fix of the day. Coffee breaks are all too short as we rush from one session to another. The whole conference is very tightly time-tabled. It is an opportunity to talk to complete strangers and marvel at the breadth of CSC's collective experience.

Shopping Mall Atrium.

View from "the Gods". The hotel is a part of a combined building that includes a shopping mall. The general conference area outside the meeting rooms is, in fact, the top floor of the mall. At break times we could look down on the shoppers.

Booths.

Legacy Management Business Solution. Around the coffee area were a number of booths about various aspects of CSC sources and the Knowledge Management initiatives. They are focussed on Business Solutions:

• Enterprise, Program, and Project Management
• Systems Architecture
• Legacy Systems
• Large Complex Systems
• Package Based Development
• Transition Management
• Continuous Infrastructure Services
• Component Based (CSC Lynx) Solutions

This is Yvonne Decker manning the Legacy booth and on the right is Don Henn.

Networking.

Break times are any opportunity to talk to friends and colleagues. This is Pauline Gardner Martin talking to X and Y (who?).

Dr. Pascal Gambardella.

Pascal Gambardella heads up the team that is coordinating work on incorporating DSDM into Catalyst. He is flanked by Elizabeth Buie (left) and Sue Stuven (right).

Dinner table.

Here are Elizabeth Buie, Pauline Gardener Martin (Catalyst and Sources, UK), Terry Martin, Diane Kropiewnicki, Dennis O'Neal (Systems Consulting, UK), Eddie Coombes (Data Warehousing) and Allan Andrews.

Technical Excellence Award Winners.

The technical excellence award winners received a trophy plus a certificate for CSC Share options - worth real money. The award winners were:

• ISD: Automated Enterprise Management System
• CSC Benelux: Automatische Traject Controle Systeem (ATCS)
• SSD: Autonomous Satellite Navigation Using GPS Technology
• SED: Hydra Security Tool Set
• CSC Benelux: Implementation of a customer care & billing system for Belgacom
• CSC Consulting / CSC UK: MCI, Integrated Product & Supply Chain Introduction

To learn more see the Lotus Notes database: technlgy\Award for Technical Excellence.

Keynote Speaker: Peter Cochran.

Professer Cochhrane gave a very entertaining speech on some possible futures. To learn more about his views visit the BT Labs web site.

Knowledge Asset Management.

Carol Bothwell explains the CSC Corporate Knowledge Program. The lady in the front row (back of head) is Sara Vose, Communications Manager for the Knowledge Program.

Artie Kalemeris and Email room.

Artie is the organising genius behind the ATBSC and deserves the big round of applause he gets for the incredible smooth running of this event year after year.

Baltimore Aquarium.

Friday night was a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium to see the dolphin show. Followed by an opportunity to see round the aquarium itself. A very impressive aquarium well worth the visit (better than the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans).

Steel Band.

Before the show we dined to the music of a steel band. When I say "dined" it was really a buffet, overlooking the harbour.

Beer.

The essential social lubricant of a beer or two. Personally I avoided the boring Bud and Miller; instead I went for local breweries wherever possible. The US has an increasing number of micro-breweries (aka brew pubs) which produce tastier beers.

Food.

The food was interesting with the option to go round twice and a number of people did. I liked the corn bread.

Bob Carlsen.

Bob's taste in Hawaiian shirts rivals his choice of cartoon socks. He tells me this really is from Hawaii, bought there on his last vacation.

Elizabeth Buie.

Elizabeth is the chair of the SIG on HCI (Human Computer Interaction) and works for SSD.

Elizabeth and Antonio Vallone.

Elizabeth and Antonio very kindly acted as my host as the hotel was fully booked by the time I got confirmation of my attendance.

Packing up the booths.

Charlie Wainwright and Tanya Lazar pack up the booths at the end of the conference.

Taking the "Red Eye".

That overnight flight is a killer. My preferred option is to eat before the flight and then settle down for the night even before we take off. If you ever fly business class keep the eyeshades because they are better than the nasty plastic ones you get in coach class. Also I use an inflatable travel pillow. Not only are they good for the flight but I use them on the beach as well.

Home at last.

Good old National Express coaches go direct from LHR to Ringwood just 2.5 miles from home. Note hand luggage only for a week in the USA - it is the only way to fly.

The End.

Footnote: Original clunky version.