Amanda and I have finally found a way of watching British TV. We had for too long been subjected to the complete tosh that BBC America tries to force upon the American public and British ex-pats alike. But enough is enough and UKNova has come to the rescue. I actually can't say thank you enough to the team of people in the UK who must just feel sorry for folks like me stuck without British TV and who use their own time to capture and make available British TV shows so that I can watch them. Last week I was able to watch Eastenders for the first time since July as well as Dead Ringers and Bonkers (that was mum's recommendation) and of course as soon as the torrent for Making Your Mind Up became available I was all over it...
I was shocked at the results. After all the anticipation, all the hype: Will Morrissey be singing? Will all these "real bands" get into the Eurovision vibe? Will we actually have anything good? We get one decent song and five piles of poo. And what do the public select from this clear choice of 5 really bad songs and one that might actually stand a chance? This great big pile of poo.
Flippin' Scooch. I hate them. Not only can they not sing (my good friend texted me during the competition to tell me they are "shoddy live" which seems an accurate description), but their song is awful, they're "Flying the Flag" but for what I don't know and besides Europe kind of hates us so waving the Union Jack around seems like a daft idea. And on top of that they keep saying lewd things in a salacious manner and I'm not sure this is to be encouraged. I mean, come on "Some salted nuts sir?"
One of the singers (the "captain" of this rag tag outfit) was on this show, which I think explains the caliber of what we are dealing with here.
AND. As if all of that weren't enough, I'm having a case of deja vu....
Slovenia 2002 and they did it far better. Sequins and erm...all.
So, I'm voting that we remove the vote from the British public and give it to me. They clearly can't handle the responsibility.
The OU women are out of the basketball tournament. We made it to the Sweet 16 but the Elite 8 was apparently not to be. And I was all ready to cheer and be proud in a pub, with beer and possibly nachos. Oh well, there's always next year...
On Sunday morning, while the Sooner women were preparing to lose, I managed a second 18 miler. I was so panicked after last week's 6 mile-long sensation of being about to die that I thought I'd better give it another shot. It was much better. A much slower starting pace easing up to a final 6 miles at race pace. Maybe I really can do this thing.
The first couple of miles were tough, they always are. There's something about the first 2 or 3 miles that always seem like they're just there to test me. If I can get past those I feel like I can do anything but those first couple of miles are a slog. Mile 4 and 5 I was getting into my stride until my favourite running occurrence occurred. Dogs.
I'd already avoided one dog at mile three. I spotted it a couple of blocks away and quickly changed direction to run around, rather than towards it (with a block of houses safely between us). But at mile 5 I turned a corner and there they were, at first they looked like a heap of clothes on the porch of what looked like an abandoned house. I was just thinking to myself what a lovely house it would be if someone took the time to clean it up when the heaps began to move... and bark. It was too late to run in the opposite direction, a big black dog had me in its sights and wasn't going to let me go without making a lot of noise about it and maybe even eat me (it had big teeth and it looked cross).
I stopped dead. I had read that you shouldn't turn your back on a dog so I looked for a way to make an exit while facing my angry friend, I looked down the street I had turned onto only to see another dog (probably attracted by the barking) walking towards me. The only way for dog avoidance was for me to back around the corner but any movement just provoked more barking. Fortunately the other heap on the porch wasn't all that bothered, although black dog thought it should be, and each time black dog turned around and barked in an effort to rouse its friend, gave me the opportunity to back another step around the corner. I must have been there for more than 5 minutes in the terrifying face-off with black dog until I'd got far enough around the corner for it not to see me running away.
This isn't the first time I've come across stray dogs although none have been quite so close and angry at me. I think it's because people here usually have their dogs sleep in their gardens and it's just much more straightforward to escape from a rickety fence as opposed to a sturdy front door. I think I'll have to come up with a better plan, possibly involving pepper spray.
Of course, the worst thing is that it messed up with my pace. How will I ever know what I can do on a continuous run if I keep having to stop for angry dogs and traffic lights?!
Our girls have made it to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Basketball tournament. I think this means they're one of the 16 best in the country but frankly I'm new to this whole sports watching thing and championships and league tables confuse me. They're winning a lot though so that has to be good, I may even have to go and watch their next game somewhere with beer. It seems that this is the most widely accepted method of offering support.
I finally managed to run my 18-miler last weekend. Unfortunately I had to present a 5 minute piece at a conference earlier the same morning so by the time I got around to running my long run it was 5 hours since I'd had breakfast, I probably hadn't had enough water and my run took me across midday through the hottest weather this year, on the longest run I've done ever. Probably not the best conditions. Still, I started out well and on pace and continued that way until I ran out of water. It's tough to find water on campus during Spring Break and I think that I'm going to have to either start planting water, doing loops past the house or making Amanda be my support crew (I don't think that's really going to work but she'd look cute with a whistle and a loud hailer), thank goodness they have aid stations at the marathon... I found water and continued on my merry way. It was hot and getting hotter, the cloud cover that was making it semi-bearable was burning off and the gummy bears I had taken as fuel were starting to be sickly.
After several water stops and 16 miles I was ready to be done, it was hot and I'd had enough. But I'm too stubborn to give up so I plowed on for the last 2 miles, convinced that my pace was so slow at the end that I'd ruined my run and that I'd never make it to the end of my marathon. In comes the magic of the Garmin which tells me that actually overall the pace was the fastest long run I've done for a while and that every mile was on pace according to the McMillan Running Calculator except for mile 17 which was slightly below target pace due to having walk a little in an effort not to make the big dog cross enough to jump over the rather low fence.
Yay! Maybe I will make it after all. 6 weeks to go...
This morning I have been thwarted in my attempt at an 18 miler. Stupid Oklahoma weather, it has been a constant battle for me while I've been training; the ice, the wind and now a giant all-day (possibly two-day) thunderstorm. Part of me wants to wait until it dies down and then step out, but on a 3h+ run I could wind up more than an hour and a half away from the house if it comes back and with the possibility of not only being hit by lightening but also pummelled by "dime-sized hailstones" and even the possible tornado to "Dorothy" me away this doesn't seem like a wise plan. Perhaps I'll try it on the treadmill later this afternoon but just the idea of that long on a treadmill sends me into a stupor.
So, now that I'm all awake and filled with my pre-run coffee and breakfast I thought I may as well make use of the time and tell you all about the OU women's basketball game. I could tell you about the men's basketball too but frankly they were rather pants and the women have just won the Big 12 Championship thingamies which just proves I am right in my assessment of their greatness.
I was lucky enough to get tickets to The White Game where we played Texas A&M and were given free t-shirts. We unfortunately went on to lose but it was a nail-biting finish and one exciting game!
Anything Texas represents a bitter rivalry in Oklahoma and although this wasn't our arch-enemy the Texas Longhorns (which results in a football game so fierce that neither home ground can host the game and Sooner fans have been known to actually have the Texas Longhorn logo tattoed upside-down on themselves) the team had the word "Texas" on their shirts so 'nuff said.
Somehow Amanda and I wound up in the student seating and these students mean business and never sit down. So for the next couple of hours we were forced to join them in standing and yelling and joining in the cheers...
When we first arrived the band was already playing and most of the spectators had on their t-shirts (the t-shirts are white and the audience is supposed to wear them so that the whole auditorium is a "white out"). In fact people that weren't wearing their t-shirts yet were picked out by the White Out Cam and shown on giant TV screens with a message telling them to "put on your shirt" . The band was playing my now favourite OU chant as we arrived (and continued to do so throughout the game), it's the tune of that (Possibly KLF) Dr Who song with the "Hey!" in it and goes something like this...
(Dr Who) O!.....
(Dr Who) U!.....
(Dr Who).....We're gonna beat the hell out of you!
It was pretty awesome, especially with the accompanying gestures demonstrated with much vigour by the cheerleaders (one of whom I have myself convinced is actually Larry the gay football player from early seasons of Buffy). Then the crowd settled down for the pre-game National Anthem which was possibly my favourite thig of all, apparently I've been mistaken all this time; it's not "The land of the free and the home of the brave" it's the home of the Sooners of course, I don't know how I could have been so stupid!
I just have to say that I think that basketball might be my new favourite American sport, and this was possibly even the most exciting sporting event that I have ever been to in my whole life (sorry dad, yes, even more than that Braga match you took me to when I was about four and the people behind us told me to stop waving my flag) though perhaps I was just caught up in all the headiness of the cheers. This definately beats football though, with all its silly stopping and starting and swapping of teams depending on whether they're being defensive or offensive. Here it was just 5 (they did substitute though) tough girls battling it out, only stopping for the briefest of time outs while the cheerleaders took the court and entertained.
I wish I could give you a play-by-play account of the game but it was a little while ago now so I don't really remember. Mostly what I remember is the tension of those women running up and down the court shooting and getting baskets (and then missing a little too often too), the excitement of yelling a lot and lifting my arms up into O and U shapes as I yelled and occasionally being very cross at the referee, the worry that one of these times those male cheerleaders was going to drop one of the girls and there'd be a terrible mess but most of all it was feeling like I had a team and I was going to cheer for them dagnammit!
