Sunday, June 15, 2025

UK Road Trip, June 2025

All over the place, UK. Saturday/Monday 7/16-June-2025.

It all started with Elles Bailey, our favourite blues/Americana singer, being chosen as a support act for Rag’n’Bone Man. We were really pleased for her as this will give her fantastic exposure to an audience who will not previously have had the opportunity to hear her music. 

We thought this was too good to miss especially as we also like Rag'n'Bone Man so we decided on a trip back to the UK. We booked tickets for the first of the series of concerts: Friday night at the Guildhall Square, Southampton. And obviously fit in a cheeky Southampton parkrun the following morning.

We booked our flights for a week away with the plan of doing a small road trip along the south coast to visit our friends Bob and Lynne in Ringwood where we used to live, my second cousin in Bournemouth and possibly our friends on the Isle of Wight. But then it all went a bit haywire.

Firstly, Mary realised that she had left her purse with credit cards and driving licence in Penrith. Then our hi-fi in Italy blew up (well just never powered up when we plugged it in). So we bought ourselves a replacement to be delivered to Penrith with the plan of bringing the dead one back for repair and swap out for the new one. 

Also, due to a calendar mix up, we had to vacate our Italian home a day early to make way for some Home Exchange guests. We decided to bring our flight forward and take a longer road trip. 

The trip to Penrith was to be a quick out and back on the train to pick up the stuff but when we looked at car hire for the rest of the trip it was outrageously expensive. Six weeks' long stay car park at Heathrow was one third the price of 10 days car hire. So we decided to catch the train up to Penrith to collect our own car, use it for the road trip, drop it off at Heathrow (where we will be returning in August) and get the bus down to Gatwick for our return flight. 

Day 1, Saturday 7th - Cisternino to Gatwick:

As always Saturday morning starts with parkrun which we were able to do at Salento as we had a late afternoon flight. Despite the heat, I managed a respectable time of 29:14 and a number 3 finisher position.

This was high position made possible by the fact that we had no tourists to boost the numbers; it was just some of the regulars. It also meant that the token sorter did not have too onerous a task!

After parkrun, we came back for a quick shower and final cleaning and tidying before our HomeExchange guests arrived later that day.

We parked up at Bari long stay and had an uneventful flight to Gatwick. We knew that the flight would land too late to catch a train up to Penrith so we had booked ourselves into the Gatwick Hilton. A snack and a couple of glasses of wine in the bar ensured a good night’s sleep.

Day 2, Sunday 8th - Gatwick to Penrith.

We had an uneventful train ride up to Victoria, across London arriving at Euston in time to buy some lunch for the journey.

At Penrith, it was a drop off the bags and a quick change at home in time to go out with friends Andrew and Sarah. By a stroke of luck our favourite local band, Bare Wires, was playing at the Boot and Shoe at nearby Greystoke and it gave us a chance to hear their excellent new singer.

This was followed by supper at Grants of Castlegate. That was, of course, followed by the ill advised nightcap in Fell Bar ensuring another night of deep sleep.

Day 3, Monday 9th - Penrith:

Mary had some errands to squeeze in (stereo repair, opticians) and a physio appointment while I was mostly pottering about including a trip to the recycling to clear out all the rubbish before our Penrith Home Exchange guests arrived.

Day 4, Tuesday 10th - Penrith to Cranham:

After a trip to the chiropodist for Mary, we set off from Penrith. We took the opportunity of this road trip to break our journey south at Cranham, just outside Cheltenham, and spend the night with our friends John and Andrea as we haven’t seen them for ages.

We spent a very pleasant evening with them including a pub supper at The Butchers Arms in nearby Sheepscombe. As we left the building we were treated to an exhibition of traditional English Morris dancing.

Day 5, Wednesday 11th - Cranham to Ringwood:

As per our original itinerary, a visit to our friends Bob and Lynn in Ringwood, which is where we lived for 13 years in Ibsley, a small village couple of miles north on the A338. 

Having some time to spare we decided to make a slight detour via Stonehenge on the way. The first time I went to Stonehenge was over half a century ago! Back then it was basically an open field and you could wander in and around the stones and sit on them with no restrictions. Now it is much better managed. There is an excellent visitor centre some distance from the site with a shuttle bus to take you to the stones.

They have an audio guide app which provides useful little snippets of info at various points. And even better we are English Heritage members and got in for free!

Lynn cooked a delicious venison stew and we had a good old natter catching up.

Day 6, Thursday 12th - Ringwood:

After a relaxing morning waiting for the rain showers to pass we had a delightful walk round Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve.

Walking around the lake, we stopped at various hides and were fortunate to catch multiple sightings of kingfishers which was a real treat. 

Unfortunately, they move too fast to get a decent picture so here is a more sedate photo of a swan and cygnets.

We passed a whole clutch of Scarlet tiger moths which had just hatched out. They were very lively and, like the Kingfisher, impossible to photo. I did manage a screen grab from a video clip but even so the black and white parts of the wings were a blur.

That evening we dined with two other friends in Antepli Turkish restaurant. I am getting to really appreciate Turkish restaurants having had some excellent meals over the last couple of years. Lamb is one of my favourite meats and they do it very well. Most lamb served in Italian restaurants just does not seem to be the same quality.

Day 7, Friday 13th - Southampton:

Finally, the gig that prompted this whole road trip. We had an early supper of Thai style tapas at Mango Above Bar and went in early to see if there was any seating we could grab. Any perches were already occupied but we did find a bit of fence to sit against.

The first support act was Glasgow singer, Kerr Mercer. Not a band as such just him and a fellow guitarist. He sang a number of excellent self-penned compositions and got a good reception from the crowd. He also did good banter with the crowd including "If you can't understand what I'm saying ask for a translator".

Elles was second support act immediately before Rag’n’Bone Man. She mostly sang songs from her latest album “Beneath the Neon Glow”. She was on great form and put on a rocking show that really caught the audience's attention. I am sure she will have acquired a bunch of new fans as a result.

Rag’N’Bone Man rounded off the evening singing songs from both of his albums plus one new composition. I was fully expecting the encore to be “Human” but he actually chose that as the last song of the main set at which point we started threading our way through the crowd while he did two encores.

A great concert with three excellent acts.

Day 8, Saturday 14th - Bournemouth via Ripley:

Saturday was another packed day. First of all we did Southampton parkrun which was my hundredth tourist location. I emailed the Run Director a couple of days prior and got a shout out and a round of applause.

Then it was back to the apartment for a shower and check out by 11 which worked well as we had a 70th birthday party in Ripley to attend. Jane was a contemporary of my sister's from their very first day in primary school so we have known her for 65 years! There were a number of old acquaintances there so it was great to have a catch up for a couple of hours.

Then it was a drive down the A3 to spend a couple of days with my second cousin Effie.

Day 9, Sunday 15th - Bournemouth:

As Effie no longer has a car, we take the opportunity when we visit of going on an outing. This time we decided on a trip to Kingston Lacy. It was our first visit and Effie had previously visited the gardens but never been inside the house itself. It was a beautiful sunny day for the trip and our NT membership cards got us in for free. We spent the morning exploring the gardens including a Japanese tea garden.

After lunch in the cafe we did a tour of the house which was fascinating. 

Kingston Lacy has a dynamic history. Over centuries the Bankes family built, altered, embellished and rebuilt their house. Their wealth came from extensive estates and profitable marriages, including inherited wealth from Caribbean plantations supported by the Atlantic slave trade.

William John Bankes created the house we know today between 1834 and his death in 1855. Forced into exile for homosexuality, at that time punishable by death, he lived in Venice and remotely remodelled the house, creating lavishly decorated interiors such as the spectacular Spanish Room. Displaying remarkable paintings by renowned artists like Rubens, Van Dyck, Titian and Brueghel, the house is a miniature ‘national gallery’ for the South West, and includes Bankes' collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts, the largest private collection in the UK. [National Trust :: Kingston Lacy]

That evening we dined in a local Italian restaurant, which might seem like coals to Newcastle, but it was a very different style to the Italian food we get in Puglia.

Day 10, Monday 16th - Bournemouth to Cisternino:

Because of the logistics of flying in and out of different airports we drove from Bournemouth up to Heathrow and dropped off the car at purple parking long stay. That way, our car is in the right place when we fly back to Heathrow in August to avoid the Pugliese heat. We then got the bus round the M25 to Gatwick. From there it was the usual flight back to Italy, pick up our car from Bari long stay car park and drive home in time for a late night snack, a couple of glasses of Verdeca and bed.

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Maria Ausiliatrice 2025

Cisternino, Puglia, Italy. Thursday/Sunday 21/25-May-2025.

A weekend of festivities for Maria Ausiliatrice. 

Mary, Help of Christians (Latin: Sancta Maria Auxilium Christianorum) is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, based on a devotion now associated with a feast day of the General Roman Calendar on 24 May. John Chrysostom was the first to describe this title, in 345 AD. Don Bosco also propagated the devotion. It is associated with the defense of Christian Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from non-Christians during the Middle Ages. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Help_of_Christians].

A full timetable was posted around the town.

Thursday night we met up with friends for supper at Chirico before strolling to the music venue on the edge of town. Vega80 are four piece band who belted out a succession of ‘80s disco covers with some aplomb. Very professional with video screens showing movies clips of Dirty Dancing and other ‘80s movie classics.

Then it was time for a quick costume change and some smoke machine atmospherics.

It was quite nippy so we didn’t hang around too long. Back in town the usual, very Italian street illuminations were up.

The next morning we got a street marching band as advertised.

Then main event: the evening procession of the BVM. They have moved with the times. Instead of the statue being carried on the shoulders of the faithful she is driven around on an electrified milk float arrangement.

There was a pause in the procession outside San Cataldo across the street.

Then they were off again down our stretch of Corso Umberto and away..

That’s it for another year.

Wednesday, May 07, 2025

International Jazz Week 2025

Puglia, Italy. Wednesday / Sunday 30-April / 04-May-2025. 

In 2011 UNESCO declared 30th April to be International Jazz Day to "celebrate the power of jazz as a force for peace, dialogue and mutual understanding". This year in Puglia we got a week of celebration with an International Jazz Week 2025 featuring the Itria Jazz Ensemble. 

By way of a warm up on Friday 25th we went to a jazz evening at a local restaurant, La Capese in Via Roma, with two friends Andrea and Elaine who were visiting for a week. The trio played some classic dinner jazz tunes and the guy on the left at the keyboards did a good Satchmo impression for a couple of the songs. It was clearly popular - the restaurant was fully booked.

Our friends' last night coincided with the opening night of the jazz festival in the beautiful Piazza Maria Immacolata in Martina Franca.

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing, doo-wop, doo-wop! The set list consisted of a collection of jazz standards.

The second night the festival moved to our town, Cisternino. It was supposed to be held in the Pineta Comunale, a small park overlooking the valley but as we stepped out into the street we found them setting up in Corso Umberto I. It seems they had decided that our street was a better location.

Since we had heard them the night before and had plans to see them again on Sunday in Locorotondo  we did not stay out for the concert but we did get a good birds-eye view of the concert from our terrace!

The last day of the festival and the penultimate concert was in Locorotondo. We met up with friends Ceri and David for music and lunch. 

The event was joined was a fife and drum group from Adelfia, a small town south of Bari, parading around the streets. Not an official part of the festival but they added to the festive atmosphere.

The concert itself was in the Villa Comunale, a small park just outside one of the gates into the old town.

A different atmosphere at lunchtime and considerably warmer than at Martina Franca. We got a fair amount of chat from the band leader who was particularly proud of the fact that all the towns where they performed were represented by members of the ensemble.

Afterwards we had a tasty, light pasta lunch just down the street at Pavì. A lovely way to round off the week.

Full timetable and Credits:

SETTIMANA INTERNAZIONALE DEL JAZZ

International Jazz Week 2025

  • 30 aprile ore 20.00 Comune di MARTINA FRANCA Piazza Maria Immacolata
  • 1 maggio ore 18.00 Comune di CISTERNINO Pineta Comunale
    con la partecipazione dei giovani talenti
  • 2 maggio ore 19.00 Comune di CEGLIE MESSAPICA Salone del Castello Ducale (ingresso libero)
  • 3 maggio ore 19.00 Comune di OSTUNI Piazza della LibertĂ 
  • 4 maggio ore 11.00 Comune di LOCOROTONDO Villa Comunale
  • 4 maggio ore 19.00 Comune di FASANO Piazza Mercato Vecchio

ITRIA JAZZ ENSEMBLE

  • MINO LACIRIGNOLA tromba / flicorna / dir.artistica 
  • FRANCESCO MILONE sax
  • GIUSEPPE ZIZZI trombone
  • MARIO CARAMIA tromba 
  • FRANCO ANGIULO trombone
  • GIOVANNI BIANCHI tromba 
  • ALDO DI PAOLO pianoforte
  • CLAUDIO CHIARELLI sax 
  • VITO BELLANOVA contrabbasso
  • FRANCESCO GALIZIA sax 
  • PASQUALE ANGELINI batteria
  • GIUSEPPE SABATELLI sax 
  • ANTONIO DILORENZO batteria
  • FERDINANDO FILOMENO sax 
  • CRISTINA LACIRIGNOLA vocalist

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

May Day Car Rally 2025

Cisternino, Puglia, Italy. 01-May-2025.

The town council closed off the main drag (Via Roma) on a public holiday for an "Esposizione Veicoli D'Epoca" - a vintage car rally. Unsurprisingly Fiat 500s featured heavily as they are the classic car of Italy.

Other colours are available.

No idea what the marques are but plenty of lovely old cars polished and gleaming.

The grey car top left is another vintage Fiat still displaying its 1949 tax disc!

Not all were Italian cars. The El Dorado triggered my mental juke box, twice.

“Don't you gimme no Buick 
Son you must take my word 
If there's a God in Heaven 
He's got a silver thunderbird 
You can keep your El Dorados 
And the foreign cars absurd 
Me I wanna go down
In a silver thunderbird.”

Marc Cohn - Silver Thunderbird 

El Dorado also gets a mention in Revolution Number 9 by The Beatles (although that might refer to the mythical city of gold).   

Another mental juke box track.

“My Maserati does 185
I lost my license, now I don't drive.”

Joe Walsh - Life’s Been Good To Me.

And, of course, Little Red Corvette, except this one’s black.

So much gleaming chrome.

How could I have missed this 1992 London black cab but Mary spotted it and took this photo.

A Fiat Multipla 600 all set for a trip.

There were also a number of old Vespa and Lambrettas on display. A very pleasant way to spend an hour in the sunshine admiring these fine machines.

Sunday, April 06, 2025

Milan Marathon 2025

Milan, Italy. Sunday 06-April 2025.

Letting the cat out of the bag (25-March-2025).

I know I said “Never again!”, but I am doing another marathon, this time for men’s mental health. I am entered in the Milano marathon on 06-April-2025 raising money and awareness for Andy’s Man Club. 

Why did I change my mind?

It was a combination of factors that aligned. I knew after the London Marathon 2019 it would have to be something serious (or a bonkers amount of money) to make me ever even consider a repeat. In spring 2024 I had been gestating in my mind a series of posts about my time at Oxford which reminded me just how miserable I had been there. I used to say I would trade three years off the end of my life to be able to splice those three years out of my past and never have lived through them.

Extract from [Oxford Life 02 - Social

"All this had a detrimental effect of my cheerfulness, what nowadays would be termed mental health. By the third year I was not in a good place. There was no obvious pastoral care provided by the university, so I went to the doctor to explain the depth of my unhappiness. They asked a few questions: Do you get on okay with your parents. Yes. Are you managing okay with your studies. Yes. Do you have a girlfriend? No. Do you have a boyfriend? No! The outcome: “Nothing really to worry about. Off you go”. Thanks a bunch pal (sarcasm)! These days I am sure I would receive a more sympathetic hearing."

My state of mind was such that I didn't go to a single lecture in my third year. No one noticed! No one asked how come, how was I, how was it going. It was like I was invisible.

Extract from [Oxford Life 06 - Academia

"Oxford turned a keen, hard working pupil capable of getting a First into an unhappy, disillusioned student who scraped a Third. All this for a piece of paper that has sat in an envelope for 50 years. No one has ever asked for it or even for proof that it exists. Am I bitter? Too f***ing right I am."

Around the same time as I was drafting the Oxford posts I read about Dave Lock running his 25th marathon for Samaritans at the age of 62 [BBC Sport]. That planted the seed of the idea in my brain. There was a cause that might provide the motivation. My 22-year old self could really, really have done with someone to talk to back then.

Here was an opportunity to do something for that 22-year old me.

Also a friend had just run his first marathon, the Manchester Marathon 2024, so I thought it does no harm to buy a discounted early bird entry for 2025 and if I don't feel like doing it I don't have to. I prudently took out the cancellation insurance so I could get back my entry fee back if I did not go ahead.

And there the idea sat in the back of my mind for six months. No one knew apart from Mary that I was even contemplating such folly.

Training.

After London Marathon 2019 I realised that what people are actually sponsoring is the training. That is where you put in the hours and miles that make the marathon possible.

Some time around September whilst in Italy I decided I might possibly go ahead so started upping the mileage with midweek runs, previously notable by their absence. 

At this point I decided to engage a personal trainer to help with the preparation. I was recommended Jo at Fellside Active. I had a number of sessions with Jo doing exercises I would never has done off my own bat like hill reps and fartlek / interval training. I am convinced that helped.

The training continued back in the UK in November and December and even while we were in New Zealand in February. I would find a park or path or city block and run round and round until I had done the distance or the time.

As with previous marathons I plotted all my training runs (65 runs, 535km) in Excel and plotted a best fit line, applied a fudge factor to predict a finish time of 5hr 38min.

So that was my plan: Jeffing aka Run/Walk: trot an 8 minute kilometre followed by 8 metre walk, rinse-and-repeat, to get me over the finish line in 5hr 40min.

Switch to Milan.

Having decided I would go ahead, I still had told no one apart from Mary and a couple of very close friends. Looking at our travel plans it would have meant flying out to Italy and then two weeks later flying back to the UK for the weekend to do the marathon and return to Italy. The flights were looking very expensive to get to Manchester and back when Mary asked the question “are there any marathons in Italy you could do?"

As luck would have it there were several including the Milan Marathon on the weekend we would’ve been heading to Cisternino. That meant we could break our journey to Puglia in Milan with the added bonus of visiting my nephew, his wife and their son, my great nephew, who I had never seen although he was born in December 2023. So I booked myself a place in the Milan Marathon, Mary rearranged the flights and I got my refund for Manchester.

Switch to Andy’s Man Club.

The original plan was to raise money for Samaritans but there are other men's mental health charities; CALM springs to mind. Then I learned that Andy’s Man Club had started a branch in Penrith, so not just national but with local flavour. I popped along on a Monday, early so as not to intrude on the actual meeting, and asked the lead facilitator to give me his sales pitch which he did. What I like about Andys Man Club is that it is face to face and helps build a support network. All the others are primarily telephone help line providers but there is no substitute for meeting in the real world. 

Dry March.

Not drinking is supposed to have all manner of benefits. It is conventional wisdom that if you lose weight you can run faster because you are not carrying so much weight. There is even a calculator that works out how much faster you can run for a given weight, distance and time: Weight vs Pace Calculator. I thought I would try going dry for a month in the run up to the marathon to see if a) I would lose weight and b) run faster. The answer for me was "No" to both. 

I did have two nights back on the booze when we hosted a dinner party and when we went to a wine tasting. After a month having noted no benefits in terms of weight, speed, sleep, complexion, energy levels or anything else I allowed myself one glass per night on the two days before the marathon. 

Marathon Fair.

For those of you who have not done a marathon this is how is works.

You have to pick up your race pack prior to the event. This is a like a trade fair in an exhibition centre designed like Ikea or duty free at the airport in that you have to walk a labyrinthine path past stalls promoting services and selling merchandise: shoes, sportswear, nutrition, etc, you get the drift. The important part is the pack containing your bib (runner number) and chip. For this event the chip was on the back of the number, previously it was a small plastic rectangle that you attached to your shoelaces. 

The bag can also be used to drop off your personal effects in the bag drop area before the race to be collected afterwards. 

Then there is a goody bag of freebies from the sponsors, some a bit "random" (sponges and dry rusks) although the hand gel and shower gel will be useful.

An opportunity to take a selfie that you can share on social media - coincidentally promoting the Wizz Air brand!

And there is an app that your friends can use to track you on the day.

Race day [Edited 19-April-2025 to add extra photos].

Given the range of abilities they assign you to a start pen based on the predicted time that you provided at registration. I said 6 hr as that was at the upper end of my hoped for time. Even if I'd said 5 hr I would still have been in Group 10, right at the back.

On the day I am standing just behind the 5:30 pace runners with their green balloons and in front of the pink 6:00 pacers out of shot.

Me in my Andy’s Man Club t-shirt which arrived just in time for me to pack it before we set off for Italy.

The course is very convoluted, starting and ending at the Duomo (Cathedral).

The start time was 8:30 for the elite runners; it was closer to 9:00 before I crossed the start line. 

As the event progresses the crowd starts to thin out.

At the halfway point I managed a selfie to post live to FaceBook. I am not sure if I am gasping for air or just not good at selfies!

In the second half the crowd is well spread out.

At the finish line back at the Duomo.

At the end you get a medal and a t-shirt. They had run out of M so I settled for a S rather than XL. Seems to fit OK.

This is what the tracking app showed as my time and splits. The final published results always vary slightly from the live timing - in my case 05:45:04, but who’s counting 4 seconds.

They kindly provide a video of me passing through various key stages. Look out for the white baseball cap. I look bow legged but, honestly, that is just the shorts packed with jelly babies and a 330ml bottle of isotonic drink.

How it went.

Well, I crossed the finish line but I made the schoolboy error of going too fast at the start. Not helped by being hotter than predicted, 20 degrees instead of 16. My plan was 8 minute kilometres but my body was jogging along at 7:25. I should’ve eased it back. I paid the price in the second half but still finished within the timeframe I was hoping for. However, I had to dig deep. The last 10k were seriously hard work and I was definitely wobbly the last couple of kilometres.

Mary met me at several points round the course to hand me a refill bottle of isotonic drink. She reminded me of my wobble on the Brighton Marathon 2017 which acted as a timely reminder to keep hydrated.

My official pace was 8:11 per kilometre - not far off my planned pace of 8:00 but badly distributed.

At the end I had to sit down for half an hour during which I threw up what seemed like most of the isotonic drink I had consumed. I then started shivering, Mary had to lend me her hoodie and we went to sit in the sunshine. 

On the way back to the apartment on the Metro my Reynauds kicked in which took me by surprise. Normally it is associated with chilly Thursday Social Runs around Lowther Castle grounds with Eden Runners. Here it was 20 degrees. It obviously has to do with core body temperature being out of whack not just cold. Now I know why you see runners being given space blankets as they cross the line.

Went for a lie down after the marathon and this is what my Garmin watch told me about my stress levels. "Recovering from exercise. Try again later." No sh*t Sherlock!

Thanks to Mary.

Mary has been a star through the whole journey. Making sure there were slots in our hectic schedule to fit in the long runs and prompting me to go out for a training run when required. Plus the logistics support on the day. I could not have done it without her!

Smugness and Revenge.

I was once quoted as saying, whilst "in my cups", that the only two motivations I understood were "smugness and revenge". Well, running a marathon at 72 certainly fits the former. As for revenge, they do say that "Living well is the best revenge" [George Herbert] - so take that Oxford University and Hertford College!

Money and Awareness Raised for Andy’s Man Club.

Well that was both objectives achieved. It's not too late to donate: https://www.justgiving.com/page/mark-mclellan-milan.

Never Again.

Now I really mean it. In the words of Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon “I’m too old for this shit!”.