It’s been a busy few days.

On Thursday and Friday I took part in a two day offsite (basically a really long meeting where we talk about strategic company stuff). It played havoc with my writing schedule but on Thursday evening we were treated to a visit from  retired NHL player, Trevor Linden.

Linden played for the Vancouver Canucks and is probably their most loved player. He’s renowned for being an all round great guy and true to form he was very friendly, happily signing autographs and chatting with us after his speech.

Saturday was race day. I took part in the 25th Annual Summerfast 10k race around Stanley Park. Ann wasn’t running, she ran a solo race last weekend, so I was on my own for this one.

The Summerfast 10k start line

It was a fantastic event with beautiful clear skies and a great atmosphere. There’s a cap of 500 runners for the race so it’s relatively small. I started a little bit too far back in the pack so it was somewhat crowded and the pace was slower than I’d have liked during the early part of the race but from 2km onwards the field had spread out and I was able to settle into a nice rhythm.

I finished in 51 minues 31 seconds which was a massive 5 seconds quicker than my previous best. I’ll take that – the last 10km race I did was at the end of our marathon training so I was peaking. I’m just beginning the next round of training so I don’t have quite the same level of fitness yet.

Every event provides post-race snacks for the runners and Summerfast is no exception. What is unusual is that the food is mostly home baked. And delicious. There were cookies, brownies, cakes, cookies, various types of loaf, fruit and more cookies. Even better I won a new Timex watch as a door prize so I went home very happy.

Post race snacks

After a quick shower and some food we headed out to the cinema to see Pacific Rim. Reviews of this seem to be mixed and that was our experience as well. Ann enjoyed it, I enjoyed it less. I struggled to get past the plot holes and the (in my opinion) atrocious dialogue. I did like the idea of black market trading of monster body parts though.

It’s not a terrible film by any means and the action sequences are incredible but it felt to me like a straight to video science fiction movie with a ridiculous special effects budget. I was left wondering whether the cheesiness was deliberate but it was hard to tell. Oh, and if you do watch it, keep an eye out for the bravest seagulls on the planet.

After the film, I squeezed in a few hundred words on The Ghost Smuggler before we headed out to try a new (to us) burger joint  – Romers. It turns out their wonderful dishes are both delicious and nutritious and we’ll be heading back at some point.

Finally, to cap off a busy few days, Ann and I spent the evening at a Peter Murphy gig at the Rickshaw Theatre. Murphy is best known for being the lead singer of 80’s goth band – Bauhaus. A band that just happens to be one of our favourites.

Peter Murphy is a singer songwriter in his own right but to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Bauhaus’ first gig (we got into them late, honest) he’s put together a band and is touring with a show comprised purely of Bauhaus tracks. Which means sad old goths like me are in heaven.

Peter Murphy

We’ve seen Peter Murphy play live before and he’s great. They played virtually all of Bauhaus’ classic tracks including my all time favourite and we left the gig tired, but happy.

Despite being very busy, I’ve settled into a nice writing rhythm recently and I managed to crank out a little over 3,800 words on The Ghost Smuggler this week plus a few notes on a new flash piece about merfolk that I’m going to use as a palate cleanser once I’ve finished this first draft. With a bit of luck, I’ll break the 60,000 word mark on The Ghost Smuggler in the next day or two.

All in all, a very successful week.

[“In the Flat Fields” by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 22 July 2013]