Odds and Ends

This week some odds and ends for you.

I was speaking to a lovely person over the weekend and during our conversation they reminded me of something amazing I witnessed (along with a lot of other people to be fair) in 2012. Now the Olympics are on! Paris is a awash with sports people from all over the world, competing for those medals and trying not to come a cropper on those cardboard anti ‘shag’ beds. Good luck. But my mind flashed back to 2012 and the Paralympics in London. I was sat in my living room with not a lot to do and the athletics were on. Our man who was tipped to compete well in the Men’s 200m in the Paralympic Games was Richard Whitehead MBE.

Richard Whitehead was born with a double through – knee congenital amputation. In 2012 he was to run on running blades. As we may all remember, the 200m event means you have to run round a corner before the home straight. Running round corners with both legs on running blades is very difficult and before the starting pistol, I was wary about whether he would win. Off went the gun and the runners. Whitehead was at the back of the pack until the home straight where he accelerated past all contenders and won gold. I knew I’d witnessed something a little special. The Olympics isn’t really my thing, but sometimes something sticks with you. If you’re a watcher, I hope you enjoy.

I listen to a lot of podcasts, mainly on politics. This is not healthy. In recent weeks, I’ve discussed my obsession with politics and the good advice Mum gave me to maybe not focus so much on it because I can’t affect it anyway without giving my life over to politics. So in trying to abide by Mum’s advice and to hopefully help with my mental health a little, I’m cutting down on the amount of podcasts I’m listening to. Now it just so happens that there are two podcasts based on TV shows I love that are coming to or have come to their end. This means I can cut these out. But back to the politics.

I listen to so much and hoover it into my ears, that there are times I can’t keep up and I start to feel like I’m behind. So immediately I looked at my list of politics podcasts and cut out the two that I always leave until last. As I leave them and listen to others over them, I figured they could go. I haven’t missed them. So that’s four podcasts down, still lots to go. I’ll be assessing in the coming weeks to see if I can get rid of some more.

And I’ve been missing music! Granted I’m too old now for new artists. There are times I catch BBC Radio 1 and I just realise I’m so out of date with what is heard as good new music nowadays. But I found that because of the podcasts and their overwhelming pressure I would be listening to them instead of music and therefore my head wasn’t switching off. I’m overstimulating my brain and constantly asking it to think, even when I play video games. They’re a good chance for me to switch off and there I am listening to podcasts and asking my brain to constantly whir round.

Whilst I was cleaning my house over the weekend I listened to an old album by Matchbox 20, an alternative rock band from the USA. Loved it. Sang and bopped round my house whilst cleaning up. So down with podcasts and up with listening to some music. I mean I’ll still keep listening to the politics podcasts because I can’t help myself, but I’ll be adding more music back into my life just for the sheer why the fuck not of it.