Property Investments, Landlording, CrossFit, Nutrition & Safety

As I’ve previously mentioned, there are several named Crossfit workouts which are used to monitor your specific Crossfit progress. I first attempted “Fran” 10 weeks ago. There’s a video on that post showing what Fran is, but it’s basically:

21 Thrusters (squat with a 40KG bar on your front shoulders, then stand up quick and straighten your arms over your head)
21 Pull ups
15 Thrusters
15 Pull ups
9 Thrusters
9 Pull ups

It sounds easy, and really it is, but for one thing: doing it the Crossfit way! All Crossfit exercises are done as fast as you can, so you try to blitz through Fran, without pausing, resting or in any other way taking a break (doing the reps “un-broken”). However Fran also has a special reputation for being particularly demanding.

Last time / the first time I tried Fran, I got 7:27 which I felt was a respectable time, but nothing fantastic. So this time I was determined to do better.

Well I did… a lot better: 5:31 Which I was particularly pleased with. Now just to put this into perspective, that was the days workout complete…. in just 5 minutes and 31 seconds. Yes there was the option of doing some Cleans afterwards, but I can tell you that 30 minutes later, I was still barely able to lift myself, let alone any real weight!

Nothing can prepare you for how Fran makes you feel. It’s by far the worst of the Crossfit workouts that I’ve encountered for that. I write this post 2 full days later, and I can still feel the effects of Fran on my legs. She is a beast and no mistake. In some respects, this time I was worse too, because I knew before the start what the effect on my body was going to be, and that made me quite apprehensive.

Still, the sense of achievement is worth it. I managed the whole first round (21 Thrusters + 21 pull ups) un-broken (without a rest) and that’s an improvement on last time for sure. In fact, take my pauses for breath out and I reckon there’s a sub 4 minute time in there somewhere. But for the moment, I’ll be ecstatic if I get a sub 5 minute time next time, I reckon I just need to get the 2nd round unbroken too. Lol, if only it was as easy to do it as say it. 🙂

I thought technology was meant to make our life easier?

Got a British Gas Customer Services email today saying my new bill was ready online. As they sent a meter reader only the other day, for the first time I thought I’d check the bill online. Seems the doddery old fool needs new glasses, as he read the meter wrong: he read 6,013 when it should have been 5,013. Which means we were over charged to the tune of £250 !!

The first technological challenge then was to print out the bill, which appeared to be much harder than it should have been. First off, Print Preview crashed Firefox for some reason and I had to reload (2 browsers and 30 tabs take a minute or two!) Technology failure number 1. Then the bill didn’t fit on the paper with the default page margins, so I had to keep fiddling the Page Setup and going back to Print Preview to stop it cropping the actually numbers off the bills right side. Technology failure number 2.

Then I noticed that the bill slightly over ran to 2 pages, but that page 2 had just some rubbish footer stuff on, so I elected to save a print page and printed only page 1. Silly me, the printer only printed the first half of page one, missing out the vitally incorrect meter reading info. So I went back and printed just page 2. Nope, that gave me… just page 2, sans the missing info. So now I had page 1 and page 2, without the actual bit I wanted to keep a record of: the incorrect meter reading, doh! Technology failure number 3.

I try again and do a full print of both pages and miraculously, all the info is there, including the British Gas incorrect meter reading. Finally.

So back to the British Gas site as I still need this fixed. The “Submit your meter reading online” button is tempting, but I’ll be putting a reading in that’s less than the last “official” meter reading. I didn’t spend years working on Utility Company billing systems without realising that that’s just the sort of scenario that’s going to lead to 3 months of hell trying to sort out the billing mess that’s inevitably going to ensue. Anticipated technology failure number 4. So no, I resist the allure of the easy path and trot off to the help section….

I navigate the help sections and can’t find anything that deals with my problem. No mention of incorrect meter readings anywhere. So I search the help for “incorrect meter reading” and get 64 hits, with the page showing results 1-10. No, no help on the first page, they are all about meter readings, but nothing that addresses my problem, so off to click “Next Page”. Hmmm, that’s strange, it still says showing results 1-10. Huh, I’m still on the first page of results?!? 2 minutes of clicking and redoing the search and refreshing later, and I can still only get results 1-10 of 64. Technology failure number 5.

Ok then, the dreaded Contact Us page, fully expecting to get a premium rate number only option. Hold on, what’s this? A form to fill in, and it’s pre filled some of my details as I’m logged in, that’s nice. And there’s more, it’s a simple form, with just a few options, and they seem to make sense. Excellent, I make my selections and type in the nature of my “query” explaining carefully what’s happened, and what needs to happen to fix it. The form informs me that I have a 5,000 character limit (generous by today’s standards) and helpfully has a counter that shows how many characters I have left as I type. All very thoughtful and my confidence increases as a result.

Over confidence, that was my mistake. Conned I was. Lulled into a false sense of security!

Finishing my diatribe, I go for the submit button… Click…. What’s happened? I don’t understand? I appear to be still on the Contact Us Form page. Yes yes, there’s all the details I just filled in, that’s right. But what’s this, now it wants my name and contact details and account number, but it already knew all that a before. Ah I see, it’s logged me out while I’ve been typing my query. Even though I only used 1,000 of the 5,000 words available, the session time out time is too short to cope. Technology failure number 6.

I copy my text to the clipboard. Login again. Go back through the help, back to Contact Us, and refill out the form, pasting my text back into the query box (as I predicted, it hadn’t remembered what I wrote). And now off to click Submit again…

Huh? What am I still at the Contact Us Form? What happened? Nothing it seems, oh wait, there’s something different: everything is the same except now there’s a message above the Submit button that wasn’t there before, it says (paraphrasing): “Click to submit your query, be sure to click the submit button only once, when you do, you’ll be given a reference number”

!?! But I just clicked it already! Technology failure number 7.

Hmmmm, maybe British Gas will email the reference number to me. Check email, nothing. Wait 5 minutes, check email again, nothing. Nope. Ok the forms broken, lets try that submit button again. Click. Ah now we’re cooking on gas, a new page has appeared, what does this say: “System Error, please try again” Gah! Technology failure number 8.

Back. Submit. System Error, please try again.
Back. Submit. System Error, please try again.
Back. Submit. System Error, please try again.
Back. Submit. System Error, please try again.

I give up. I’m going to have to call them. Oh God, this is going to hurt, both in terms of my phone bill and my sanity.

Actually, this is where the story takes an unexpected turn. I’m going to call customer services of British Gas, and it’s not going to go how I expected at all, this is one story you won’t believe!

First to find the phone number, ah there’s a “Call us” link. Hmmmm, select your number: “Online Gas and Electric Account Enquires” that should do it. Oh, there’s a surprise, not a 09xxx premium rate number at all, a 0845 4p per minute number. That’s still too rich for me, so off I trot to www.SayNoTo0870.com which has a database of 08xx numbers and gives you their geographical numbers, ie the number that you can call that *is* included in my mobile phone tariff.

Sure enough, I look up the British Gas Customer Services problems number 0845 6005001 and get given this geographical number: 0113 338 1022. So I call them on the mobile (I get 5 free hours per month, which I never use up). As I expected, it goes straight away to music and I settle in for a long wait on hold, putting up with musak and sporadic announcements about how wonderful British Gas is. Did you know for example that their 5,500 qualified engineers (grrrrr, technicians they mean. But don’t get me started on that hobby horse!) will fix 3 million boilers this year? No, neither did I. Nor if I were British Gas would I publicise the fact that say many of the boilers that they have undoubtedly sold to their own customers over the last few years, seem to break down so often. But I digress.

As I *didn’t* expect, my call was answered within about 4 minutes. That’s not bad. Nor did I expect not to hear the sound of Bombay Rickshaws in the back ground, this girl was English! (Nicola I think, or something.) I paused, waiting for the normally scripted opening: “Can I have your name, account number, address, date of birth, mothers maiden name, inside leg measurement of your dog….” but that didn’t come either, just a pleasant “How can I help you?”

Not to be put off, I immediately started by grumbling about their broken website, to which I got what actually sounded like a sincere apology! Hang on, what’s going on here, this isn’t how things normally go? Ignoring my placated grumbles, I braced for the full impact of dealing with some numpty who I had to explain the problem to 5 times, in between her “checking with her supervisor”. I dove straight in:

“Your meter reader has over read my meter and your last bill has charged me for 10x the gas it should have. I didn’t want to use your Submit an Online Meter Reading form as I’d be putting in a lower number.”

“Ah right Mr McNulty, no problem.” That was an unexpected start, but even my wildest optimistic side didn’t expect what happened next: “You did the right thing by calling, I need to cancel your last bill, take your meter reading, and issue a new one. Let me do that now. There, that’s your old bill cancelled, what’s your current meter reading?”

“Errrr 5,030” I said, rather stunned.

“5,030, right” she continued, “There that’s a new bill done for you, you are actually £137 in credit Mr McNulty. You can check online now, that will be immediately updated for you. Is there anything else I can do for you today?”

…… pin …. falling …..

“Errr, no. That’s fine. Thanks. Goodbye.”

Sat at my desk, not really knowing what to think, I notice that email is coming in. It’s 5 identical emails from British Gas, they all say this:

————-
Dear ,

Thank you for submitting your query online, the details of which are given below:

Your query

“”.

We shall be in touch shortly to resolve this query with you.

Kind regards,
British Gas Customer Services
————-

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Technology failure number 9.

So if you’re reading this Ms British Gas representative (like eSure did to my post about my experience with eSure customer services) I can conclude that your website needs a lot more work, but your Customer Service Staff are doing a fine job and should be congratulated. Well done for having a 0845 number (even though I didn’t use it); well done for answering the call quickly; well done for having a UK call centre; well done for having well trained knowledgeable staff; well done for exceeding my expectations, and well done for solving my problem to my complete satisfaction on the first call.

My last months update showed my weightloss (or fat loss) on the Zone Diet Plan had stalled, which was a stark contrast to previous months. Take June for example where I lost 4% body fat in one month on the Zone Diet.

This month is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand I’ve lost a bit of weight, down to 13st 8 (190 lbs / 86kg) although my waist is still 37 inches at the belly button, which maintains my body fat at 18%. The real question though is how my Zone Diet efforts have gone this month, in terms of menu and recipe choices, and how much I’ve cheated!

Actually I’ve not done as well as I’d hoped at recovering my previous zone diet zeal. I continue to make good Zone diet menu choices for breakfast, eat good zone food for lunch, and my repertoire of zone diet recipes for tea (dinner to most people) is expanding nicely. (Did a nice baked Haddock with lime and curry powder, served on a bed of stir fried vegetables the other day.)

No, it’s still the evenings that let me down. I have cut back on the wine some, but not nearly enough. There’s also too many sweets and chocolate sneaking in during the week day evenings too. Not much, but enough to make a difference. The big question is why? Am I messing up and not really in The Zone at all?

I don’t think so, as it’s not really that I’m craving these things. I’m not hungry in the evenings, nor do I have the lust for a sugary snack. No it’s more habit grown from many years having a glass of wine with the evening meal, and/or watching a film. A glass leads to 2, then to 3, and by the time I’ve had 3 glasses of wine, all bets are off. Then, if there are sweets in the house, my ability to resist is sufficiently diminished.

The point is, I know it’s the wine that’s the route cause of the problem, not my Zone Diet food choices. In the last couple of years, I’ve packed in the cigarettes, started exercising regularly, sorted out my diet…. the booze is the next big battle: finding that happy balance. I’m determined that this month will be different, in fact it has to be if I’m going to meet my target of 15% by Feb 2008, especially with Christmas round the corner!

One of the defining features of Crossfit training for me, is its variety. Not just in the scores of different discrete exercises, but in the myriad ways they can be put together. Changing just one of the 4 (say) Crossfit exercises you are doing as part of a routine, can fundamentally alter the impact of that Crossfit workout on your body. It’s also variable depending on the individual too.

Swapping 20 Crossfit ball slams for a 400m run for example, whilst ostensibly they are both predominantly leg exercises, for me the run would tire me much more than the ball slams would. But for someone else, they may find the running the easier exercise. (If there is such a thing as an “easy” Crossfit exercise!)

It’s no surprise then, that different people prefer different Crossfit workouts. Typically you prefer what you’re good at, which brings me nicely to yesterdays workout at Crossfit Manchester

1 Clean
1 Push Press
1 Push Jerk
1 Split Jerk

This was done as a single complex set, without putting the bar down between the exercises. The idea was to work up to a maximum weight. This Crossfit workout is right up my street. Heavy weights, Olympic lifting, technically complex exercises, and plenty of rest, lol !

I won’t bore you with the gory details, but I managed 80kg (176 lbs) as a complete set, and got the clean and Push Press at 85kg (my body weight and a 20kg increase in Personal Best for the Push Press!) however I was getting tired and I dumped the 85kg Push Jerk, which was a shame as I could and should have got it.

Not withstanding the failure at the end, I thoroughly enjoyed this workout. It played to all my strengths and engaged the brain as each exercise requires concentration and focus to get right. I also got to throw lots of weight over my head, and whilst that gets pretty scary very quickly, there’s something very primordially satisfying about it! All I have to do now, is convince the Crossfit Manchester coaches to let me do it again. 😉

There are 2 points of view about Aromatherapy Massage: one that the powerful essensial oils are mystically attuned to your energy pathways and that massage allows their healing properties to seep into the skin, and hence you derive benefit. The other is that it’s a load of hocus pocus, and it’s just a massage that smells nice.

Well there is a very good reason why you should send your loved one to have an Aromatherapy Massage and that’s cos they like it! Whether you beleive in it or not, I highly recommend splashing out the dosh and sending off your significant other (male or female) and getting them pampered for an hour and a half of nice smelling, possibly envigorating, Aromatherapy Massage.

Bonfire night is coming up and I’ve been chatting to a mate about fireworks and the like and we decided to try our hand at making black powder (gun powder to use the more common laymans term).

Actually, it’s always been a whistful dream of mine to make fireworks when I retire. I did some serious investigation of it last year, joined a few forums, read up a bit and discovered that the laws in the UK pretty much prohibit this as a home hobby. Apart from it being hard to get the ingredients, it’s an extremely unsafe hobby and I don’t have the facilities to manufacture and store the ingredients and gun powder (also known as black powder) safely.

That’s not to say that it’s illegal, even in this day and age, would you believe it is actual perfectly legal to make gun powder at home? It’s covered by the Manufacture and Storage of Explosive Regulations 2005. The relevent section is: Part 3, Section 9 which carries the title “Explosives not to be manufactured without a licence“.

However paragraph 2 details some exceptions to the requirement to have a license. It states you do not need a license for:

(a) the manufacture of explosives for the purpose of laboratory analysis, testing, demonstration or experimentation (but not for practical use or sale) where the total quantity of explosives being manufactured at any time does not exceed 100 grams

There you have it, you are perfectly entitled to manufacture black powder at home “for experimentation” without a license, providing you don’t make more than 100g at a time. Slightly tedious maybe, but I guess the line has to be drawn somewhere.
Having established I’m perfectly legally entitled to make some, let’s crack on with what and how exactly. First off, what’s the different between black powder, gun powder and flash powder?

Black Powder and Gun Powder are essentially the same thing and is defined in the legislation nicely as:

an intimate mixture, with or without sulphur, of charcoal or other carbon with potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate, whether the mixture is in meal, granular, compressed or pelletised form

Flash Powder is made completely differently and comprises potassium perchlorate and aluminum powder, usually 70% potassium percholorate and 30% aluminium powder.

Getting back to Black Powder, the ideal ratios of engredients are 75% potassium nitrate (also known as KNO3), 15% charcoal and 10% sulphur. 3 elements are key to the quality of the final gunpowder:

1. The purity of the ingredients.
2. How fine the ingredients are (course is bad).
3. How well the ingredients are mixed.

Of course there’s the small part of where to source the ingredients from, using for the most part household ingredients, which is something I will deal with in part 2.

With Bonfire night coming up, I’ve been teaching my daughter the meaning of it all. In a nutshell: Guy Fawkes was a Catholic terrorist, who plotted to blow up Houses of Parliament and King James I, the Protestant King of England, on November 5th 1605.

They were caught when someone tipped off a Catholic Member of Parliament, Lord Monteagle (probably his brother in law, Francis Tresham) and the letter of warning was handed in. A search of Parliament discovered Guy Fawkes with 20 barrels of hidden gun powder.

The story became public knowledge and fell into folk law with the Guy Fawkes poem: Remember Remember, the fifth of November:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
the Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent to blow up King and Parliament.

Three score barrels were laid below to prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s mercy he was catch’d with a dark lantern and lighted match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Hip hip hoorah!

However there is a second verse, one that is totally unsuitable for this Politically Correct society in which we live. To understand it, you must consider the religious battle between Protestants and the Catholics which has been going on for centuries. Anyway, here it is, I’ll let you decide:

A penny loaf to feed the Pope
A farthing o’ cheese to choke him.

A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A faggot of sticks to burn him.

Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.

Burn his body from his head.
Then we’ll say ol’ Pope is dead.

Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah hoorah!

Severe isn’t it? So what do you think, do you believe that the children of today should be taught such a politically incorrect poem? What’s takes the priority here: historical accuracy, or censoring religious intolerance?

Comment and let me know if you think I should teach this 2nd verse to my 7 year old daughter or not?

EDIT: It seems given the number and length of comments (thanks to all who take the time to comment by the way), many people don’t read the comments that I’ve posted below and still get all uppity at my question. So let me summarise a clarification that I made: the question is not “Should I *ever* tell my daughter the truth?” But rather: “Is a child of 7 old enough to handle the truth?” Or put another way, at what age would you teach your child the whole truth? After all, many of the films at the cinema can’t be legal seen by under 18s.

Wednesday at Crossfit was the Olympic Weightlifting Snatch – which is basically picking the bar off the ground and flinging it over your head in one movement, like this monster 202.5 kg Snatch!

I actually changed my schedule to make it in for this workout as I’ve been eager to beat my personal best 65kg snatch which has stood for 3 months now.  It was all going very well and I felt confident and strong and honestly expected to get at least 70kg, right up until I failed my first 65kg attempt.  Then it just fell apart, too much thinking and my head got in the way.

3 attempts at 65kg and I couldn’t do it,  gah!  It’s the most annoying thing not to be able to do at least what I’ve done before, especially when I know I’m stronger now and have better form.  Ho hum.

This is one of the best parody vids I’ve seen in a while:

This short video is just infectious:

These guys rig up a Wii in a Movie Theatre (cinema for us Brits), awesome!