Learning from life, death and funny people

I will remember this past week as one in which we said farewell to some great and funny people.

First, Professor Stephen Hawking whose work has transformed our understanding of the universe and our place within it. This is one of his most famous quotes which I love:  

"One of the greatest revelations of the space age has been the perspective it has given us humans on ourselves. When we see the earth from space we see ourselves as a whole. We see the unity not the divisions - it is such a simple image with a compelling message: one planet, one human race.  We are here together and need to live together with tolerance and respect - we must become global citizens. I have been enormously privileged through my work to contribute to our understanding of the universe, but it would be an empty universe indeed if it were not for the people I love and the people who love me. We are time travellers together journeying together into the future, but let’s work together to make that future a place we want to visit."   

Not dissimilar to this other great piece by Carl Sagan - check it out if you've not already seen it - it’s powerful and thought provoking. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g

Apparently Hawking had a mischievous streak as evidenced by his habit of diverting his wheelchair to deliberately run over people’s feet in the corridors of the great university where he worked. How I would have loved to have been one of those people! 

Next there was the Liverpool funny man Ken Dodd who was still performing in front of large crowds well into his 80’s - a really nice man too by all accounts. One of my favourite lines goes something like this:

"What a lovely day for walking round your local supermarket, stroking a customer with your tickling stick and shouting: ‘how’s that for a special offer!’" 

Finally, Sheffield Hallam's very own Danny Porter, MBE whose funeral took place this week and who I paid tribute to in one of my earlier blogs. Danny also had a wicked sense of humour, perhaps best illustrated by the prank he used to play in the university canteen which involved him picking up pieces of flapjack, sticking his finger in them and saying to the member of staff on the till: "Surely you're not going to charge me full price for that?"- apparently they were none the wiser and he always got away with it - brilliant stuff!  

I chose Endcliffe Park this weekend mainly because I felt confident it would go ahead despite the snow - and I was right. On arrival I spotted a strange looking creature who turned out to be Me Marrow, the mascot of the Anthony Nolan Foundation, who was raising awareness of stem cell donation. Me Marrow's minder, Niamh (try saying that after a couple of shandies!) told me that  every 20 minutes someone is the UK is diagnosed with a blood cancer, and for many a stem cell transplant is their last hope of life. By joining the Anthony Nolan register, you could give them hope. You must be between 16 and 30 - once you've joined you stay on the register until you're over 60. You could come up as a match at any time. If you're interested in finding out more, check out their website below.

https://www.anthonynolan.org/

I felt quite good today after a good night's sleep and was going along at a reasonable pace when Ben Heller appeared from nowhere and proceeded to drag me, kicking and screaming (that's me not him!) round the remainder of the course telling me I was on track to break 24 minutes which, unbeknown to him, has been my goal for sometime. I expended a good deal more energy today than normal and pretty much collapsed over the finishing line in a time of, wait for it.....

24.16 - oh well, there's always next time..!

Thanks Ben - it was painful but, in hindsight, fun - perfect preparation for an afternoon of Six Nations rugby!

A bit longer than normal this week - apologies, got a bit carried away. Hope you found it vaguely interesting and amusing though.

Until next time, happy parkruning.

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