The whole “customer care” domino effect is quite fascinating, if you greet someone in a shop pleasantly, actually give them a service and perhaps use their name once in a while, they leave feeling happier and maybe it even changes them on a deeper level. Why? It’s powerful stuff in this day and age because it is so rare!

Here’s the kicker - it doesn’t take the governement, or huge corporations to make a change in the “customer-care” world….next time YOU go to a shop, and the person servicing you (you know what I mean!! you dirty miinded lot!!) is wearing a name tag, instead of blythly taking your bags and leaving; take a small moment out of your day, and thank them personally using their name. It happens so rarely these days (especially in the UK) that you might actually make someones day, you might even change someones life profoundly. Your tiny little effort of saying a personal thank you to this person could mean the difference between another day on anti-depressants or not! I don’t jest! This is powerful stuff, and we ALL - every single one of us have the ability to make this happen. Oh and that’s not all either!!! Once in a while, if you keep doing this you might make one or two new friends? Now it’s one thing to have over a hundred friends on a site like Facebook; but a lot of the time they are just names on a virtual page and aren’t the most tangible of friends (I mean this is in the nicest possible way of course)…but if we all take away this small lesson; our very real and tangible friends could increase, and the whole social healing of the world which I think is desperatley overdue can begin.

I guess the biggest problem we; as individuals have is, we’ve gotten so used to preaching to the big people (governements, media etc…) to lead by example, that we’ve forgotten how to lead the example for ourselves. I don’t know about you? But I’m about ready to grow out of spoon-feeding; and I’m ready to move onto solids =p

I refer of course to a recent Guardian Article which highlights the amazing career of Peter Higgs, who postulated the existance of a particle which if proven to exist would back up his theory about why matter as we know it has mass…

It seems CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is near completion, this will be the largest particle accelerator in the world, and will basically accelerate particles to near the speed of light and collide them with each other….see? Does what it says on the tin! Who said physics was complicated eh…?

Anyhooo - this seems to be the best equipped location to prove or disprove Higg’s hypothesis regarding mass, ironic given CERN’s origional misgivings regarding his work.

This is all rather exciting?! Given that I have grown up in a world changing at exponential rates from microchips, and microwaves to nano-technology and playstation three’s! It’s seems we are reaching the edges of some boundaries that only a few years ago seemed insurmountable. In fact if you check out the pictures of the new CERN accelerator in Switzerland you’d be forgiven for thinking you were looking at the set of the next Star Trek movie!

I await the results of these breathtaking experiments going on with hope and excitement for the future. For those of you wondering where this tangent came from in my blog….I spent a couple of years studying Engineering Physics at university - and whilst I didn’t stay until the end through disolusionment with the course and it’s structure at the time, I remain an interested bystander in the subject.

Rumour has it I may be very close to agreeing a sale price on my house in the UK!! This is like a major jigsaw piece in the puzzle called my life :happy: and to achieve this within 3 months of moving to NZ too….this is well….it’s AWESOME!! not to mention in todays property climate. I’ll be honest I’m not getting the full asking price but it fits all other criteria of paying off my mortgage etc… which is the crucial thing; just hope I can get the ball rolling properly by Friday.

I have the strong urge to go out and party like a party animal! :loopy:

Ok, just finished having a good stretch and a cool down. My intention today was simply to walk out my goal training route and measure my heart rate and time to do so.

The distance covered I have calculated to be approximatley 11km (just over my 10km target distance) from my home to the end of The Esplanade where it meets Hutt road is 5.5km, so there and back - job done!

I don’t even feel nackered either which is a bonus. Based on the readings from my Polar watch, my average heart rate was 125 (being around 89-92 at rest) with a maximum heart rate of 137 depending on the terrain and the crosswinds I faced during my leisurely walk :loopy:

taking into account a pit stop halfway for a rehydrating beverage. It took me about 1 hour and 45 mins to walk 11 km. That’s WALK. I’m aiming to be able to run a 10km run in under 1 hour. If I do it in less than 50 mins I will be extremly pleased with myself!

So, why have a I started off my training like this?

I guess it’s the physics freak deep inside me, I am approaching this whole training and get ready for the race thing as a big experiment if you like, so - now after today I have a baseline. Some data for how long it takes to walk a set distance prior to any training. It will act as my control. So, by the end of 12 weeks I will repeat this exercise and see for example if there is any difference in

a) time taken to complete
b) average heart rate
c) maximum heart
d) at rest heart rate

In theory also after doing the anaerobic exercises suggested in a number of programs I have seen - I ought to be able to cut down my recovery time considerably. Not to mention my wasteline :happy: (assumes a cocky military style stance… “Huuwaaa!!”)