Three unconnected things...

1. My local police station is far from the suburban local police station you might expect. No. When I first moved to the Bay it was little more than a two story portakabin; today it is a multi story monster of a building, housing the Eastern Divisional Headquarters of South Wales Police.

I happened to look up to the roof as I was passing earlier in the week and couldn't help noticing a rainbow flag flying. How times have changed; I remember when they arrested us homos for holding hands and dispatched mounted police to contain us as we protested against the spiteful Section 28 in the late 80s.

2. Splott is an area of Cardiff, the name of which some people think is derived from a truncation of God's Plot. It isn't; it's from an Old English word meaning speck or plot.

On my way home tonight, I saw a sign for Splott Sunday Market; except it doesn't appear to occur on a Sunday...?

3. One of the routes I take for running takes me past the entrance to St David's Hotel in the Bay. Madonna camped out here while she rehearsed for her Sticky & Sweet stadium tour, which she opened in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium in 2009. I didn't see her once during her stay - not even out jogging through the Bay with her bodyguards. I often hear of international sports teams staying here but, again, I've never actually seen any of them.

On tonight's run, I'm please to say that I was lucky enough to whizz past Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen as he made his way to reception. At last, I can die happy.

I hope I haven't spoiled the surprise make-over anyone was planning for me?

Today's run at 17:57
Distance	4.01 km	Time	21:29
Pace	5:21 min/km	Cadence	82 spm
Comments: Clear.

How to tie a bow tie...

I'm off to a black tie do tonight. I've always bought a self-tie bow tie rather than a pre-tied bow tie. I mean, you'd never wear a pre-tied conventional tie would you - unless you work in mental health.

So here are instructions on how to tie a bow tie. A diagram and a video: take your pick. You can practice by tying it around your leg above the knee whilst seated.

And remember, when it comes to bow ties, practice never makes perfect. If you want perfection buy a pre-tied bow tie. I much prefer the self-tied variety because it doesn't look as neat as the pre-tied version; it has character.

Having said all of that, I may just wear a conventional tie tonight.

Today's run at 08:31
Distance	4.01 km	Time	23:25
Pace	5:50 min/km	Cadence	81 spm
Comments: Squally showers.

Unlucky...

Throughout tonight's run I continued to build on last week's efforts of ensuring that my running cadence is above that in which I've recently been languishing. My concentration was so focused on this that I stepped in dog shit. Twice. I was not impressed.

It followed me round like a bad smell. At least I imagined being able to smell it. And not every now and then but constantly throughout the rest of the run, despite wildly kicking my legs through the long damp grass in an effort to clean my trainers.

Isn't it lucky to step in dog shit? Or is it lucky when a bird shits on you? I forget. Anyway, I didn't feel very lucky. Were I superstitious, I'd say, "I don't think I'm over the bout of bad luck caused by the last mirror I broke, without adding to my woes through this one." But I'm not superstitious, so I'll shut up.

A week or two ago I broke the mirror door on a cabinet I have in the bathroom, so on the weekend I bought another cabinet. I did try and find out if I could get hold of a new door separately but seemingly not. It was the whole cabinet or nothing. Judging by its weight, this one is a much sturdier model.

Tonight, I got out my hammer action drill (not a euphemism) and I fixed the cabinet to the bathroom wall. After much measuring, a fair bit of vibration and a lot of dust; it looks good, it feels solid and it seems level. More than I could have hoped for, really. I also managed to replace two halogen spotlights with two LED spotlights (green tick in the box) and I got the clock on the microwave working again. If I carry on like this, I'll have built an extension by Thursday.

As for luck, I've yet to be convinced that such a thing exists - despite the dog shit incident. I believe in coincidence, happenstance, serendipity even but not luck. The only effect of me breaking my bathroom cabinet mirror door is that I've been without a mirror door on my bathroom cabinet since I broke it. And for the record, the fates had nothing to do with my treading in dog shit tonight either. That was all down to a diverted focus. Dame Fortune and Lady Luck are best left to romantic fiction and pop songs.

Take it away, Ms Lovich.

Bits and pieces...

I've spent the morning looking out of the window at the frequent but irregular showers and the first part of the afternoon getting soaked by them. When I looked at the BBC's weather forecast for Cardiff last night it showed a dull start but brightening weather throughout the day. The weather bulletin on BBC Radio 4 this morning seemed to corroborate this. However, the reality today was a stop start grey drizzle through most of the morning followed by glimpses of blue sky but unpredictable heavy downpours throughout the afternoon. I guess that's what they mean by brightening.

I got fed up by lunchtime and cycled to the swimming pool. I didn't want to feel trapped indoors like I was yesterday. I paid the price of getting soaked to the skin before I got there, drenched again on the way to the supermarket after my swim and half drowned cycling from the supermarket back home. Yet everytime I parked the bike and went indoors the rain stopped and there was a blaze of sunshine.

My swim was pretty uneventful. The pool was relatively empty and fairly quiet. I like it that way, especially when the lanes are configured at 50m, as they were today. Such a peaceful and relaxing swim. Upon exiting the pool, I did spot a woman in the changing village stood looking in the mirrors in jeans and a bra, which she was trying to hook up (see last Thursday's post). Hello, this isn't your bedroom!

Following my swim, I then went home for a spot of DIY. Basically, I'm getting a bit fed up with the connection dropping to my desktop computer on my wireless broadband. It seems to do this at about 6ish or 7ish every evening. Could it be the interruption from everyone turning on their wireless broadband? Anyway, I'd been looking into buying some adapters and setting up a powerline network in the flat so that my main desktop computer doesn't suffer these outages. However, a cheaper solution I'd thought about was to run a network cable via the loft from the router in the lounge into the desktop in my spare room.

After buying a 15m network cable this afternoon, I wrung my clothes out and set about it. The bit I always hate is crawling about in the loft space. I'm scared of falling through between the beams, the insulation makes me itch like hell and I hate the the huge spiders up there. However, Indiana Jones like, I braved this hostile environment and managed to connect computer to router. The bonus is it seems to be working (so far). Another bonus is that I don't seem to have made that much mess. Remarkable!