Author Archives: Steve Morley

A normal Manchester guy with interests in Strongman, Fitness and Geekery.

Ex-Police Car Insurance Tips

KP10NXY Vauxhall Astra

KP10NXY Vauxhall Astra

I have had a nightmare getting insurance for my last car, I no longer have the car since Ex Police Car Specialist in Manchester who sold it me, basically sold me a lemon and were dicks about the Consumer Rights Act, more on that another time. Lesson learned, if a dealer won’t, or can’t take credit card, I’d walk away.

I’d already started writing this article, and figured it contained some useful information for others buying ex-Police cars from honest dealers. So I went ahead and posted it anyway. 

Almost ALL the main comparisons websites didn’t carry my car’s Trim and Spec (Astra Special 1.3 CDTI) hell most of them couldn’t even find my number plate (KP10 NXY).  When I visited the main dealer (Bristol Street Motors), they put my number plate in and were sure it weren’t a real car plate.

I don’t think a single one of the the big boy comparison sites got it right straight off the bat, and only Mustard.co.uk off the top my head found it at all, I think Asda were able to manually look it up.  The story were the same with most of the major direct insurance companies, only a handful actually found the car.

Average Quotes

KP10 NXY Barebones

KP10 NXY Barebones

Most my pre-purchase quotes were around £800-1000 on a provisional license, and around £1,800-2,400 on a full license. I decided given my previous experience hunting quotes that I would tweak the options a little using the many accounts I had made until I found the best combination. 

There were some outside the above range quotes, my biggest quote were around £5,000 with a £3,000 Compulsory Excess but with some fiddling and jigging, I managed to find an Excellent Deal.

Top Tip: Make a second account with a fake name, who lives nearby (same postal code range, same age, date of birth, job etc, but diff email). The reason for this is, insurance companys record EVERY quote you make. If you test the price for parked on the road, then try parked on the driveway and its cheaper.  If your car is broken into it, and it were on the road but you choose on the drive they can cry about it and refuse to cover it. Experiment with a fake account but very very similar details. Remember don’t enter your drivers license number on this accounts 😉 

Now if you have an Ex-Police Car this list will save you a heap of time as it gives you an order to work again, an save you a heap of time. 

Insurance Companies Break Down

Its set out in order of most useful down to shocking and couldn’t help at all. I’m going to have a little rant about Hastings Direct and a Kudos to the company I chose in the end, but here’s the run down. Good Luck!

Detected The Trim AND All Engine Sizes
This means they had the make, model, trim and its selection of engine sizes (1.3, 1.7, 2.0).
Admiral (and Bell, Elephant), More Than, Asda, Mustard and Tesco Bank.

Had The Trim but Not All Engine Sizes
These were unable to detect the reg plate, but manually did have the make, model, trim but usually only the 1.7 engine size, not the other two. If you have the 1.3 of the bigger engine, no point trying these.
Zurich, Liverpool Victoria, uSwitch, Go Skippy, Swinton Insurance, Co-Operative Bank, Kwik-Fit Insurance, Quote Me Happy, Swift Cover, Diamond and John Lewis.

Had Car but Unable to Quote or Didn’t Do Online Quotes.
I can’t say don’t try these, only that you need to phone them or them phone you, but were too much hassle.
TheAA and Allianz

Comparison Sites Failed Catastrophically
Confused, Compare The Market, Money Supermarket and Go Compare,

Didn’t Have The Trim FULLSTOP!
Hastings Direct, 1st Central, RAC, Direct Line, AXA, eSure, Churchill, Endsleigh, Sainsburys, Adrian Flux, Post Office, Marks and Spencer, NatWest, Prudential and Privilege.

As you can see I literally spent hours upon hours trying to find a bargain, and I found one in the end, just not the one I expected before I purchased the car. 

Hastings Direct Sucks

Hastings Direct Logo

Hastings inDirect Logo

I’m giving Hastings Direct a special mention / kick because this were the company I really wanted to go with, their Hastings Direct Premier Insurance ticked all my boxes. The key fact were I was assured that provisional drivers could earn no claims bonus with them. I were quoted around £700 as a provisional, and then up to £2,100 the day I pass the test. I would have to pro-rata this, since I intended on passing in about 6 months at the time (September 2016), my first year would cost me £1400. This £1400 would be made up from 6 months as a provisional and 6 months as a qualified driver, the break down is below for completeness.

Provisional Driver: £58.33 per month multiplied by 6 months = £350.
Qualified Driver: £175 per month multiplied by 6 months = £1050

On the same phone call I confirmed the Provisional NCB, I were told the fact the insurance couldn’t find my actual trim, but the Reg Plate returned the Exclusiv Spec, which had the correct transmission, engine size, bhp, etc I were told “We’ll be able to cover you, we’ll just need to add the ‘special’ name to your policy.”, so I worked on the basis of this being accurate and would be plain sailing.

I regrettably bought the wreck of a car, I get an estimated delivery date, all I need to do now is call to get my car insured. This is where it all went to hell. On this second call, I were told “Underwriters don’t speak to customers directly, sorry nothing we can do to help, its not something we do”, they wouldn’t even ask the underwriters or whoever themselves or pass me to someone who could.

F*#k You very much Hastings, I spent 2 weeks thinking I had it all planned and were ready to roll before you kicked the stool from under my feet.

Tesco Rocks

Ask MID (Motor Insurance Database)

Ask MID (Motor Insurance Database)

Since I kicked Hastings in the nards, I thought I would give Tesco a special mention. In the end it were them which saved the day. A provisional license holder, parking the car on the road, on a 2010 Astra Special 1.3 CDTi and the quote was a mouthwatering £540.

A whole £160 less than Hastings Direct, which I thought were a good deal.

I nearly snapped their arm off before they changed their mind, an off I went happily insured… so I thought.

The day the care were delivered, I’m sat in the gym, cooling down before a shower. I thought I’d tax the vehicle it showed me the link for Motor Insurance Database (MID) and suggested you check the insurance status before you pay. When I did this, it came up with the wrong trim. It showed Vauxhall Astra Exclusiv CDTi (see right), which meant technically my insurance were invalid. 

Tesco definitely showed the correct spec and trim searching with my number plate, and it still does right now. I checked my quote emails, and confirmation emails and they all matched up saying Astra Special. I checked my documents, and blow me if it didn’t say Exclusiv on the certificate of insurance, GRRRR. 

Tesco Insurance Correction Letter

Insurance Correction Letter

I phoned Tesco Insurance up, which has a UK Landline phone number (01332093098), the advisor on the phone checked all my quote references, and said it shows Exclusiv on their side. He checked it on MyCarCheck and it showed as Astra Special, and he checked Tesco’s customer site and agreed it said Special. So assured me now I had notified them I were fully insured until its sorted and safe to drive. I would need to send in documentary evidence of the cars specification, and the quotes saying special so they could add it to the system.

At this point I were expecting a repeat of the Hastings Fiasco and finding I had no insurance. I emailed in photo’s of the documents, the Tesco quotes, Tesco emails and everything else, and waited nearly a week before a letter arrived from Tesco.

This letter (see left) basically confirmed although the MID says Exclusiv, Tesco has added a note on their systems to ensure the correct model is insured and I’m legal. 

This is effectively what Hastings Indirect had promised they would do, so I have no idea why they couldn’t do it, but kudos to Tesco for actually sorting it out. 

The Bottom Line

If you’re buying an Ex-Police car, Tesco, Admiral (Bell/Elephant), More Than, Asda and Mustard are the top pics, given mustards best price promise, it should be a no brainer. Earlier I mentioned their lowest price promise, and as best I can find, this is provided by Adrian Flux who usually are the go to for modified cars. If I had added a DTUK or other tuning box along with a K n N air filter etc, I’d have probably tried them, so maybe worth a look.

I also found it dropped the price by about 20% by adding an experienced named driver, in my case my poor old Mother were added as a Named Driver, this dropped the insurance about £100 for me. So adding a more experience driver, may save you big money, just use one with no convictions, no accidents, no points, basically a clean license.

 

KP10NXY Car image by Cobalt271, who has a hell of a collection of service vehicle images. He also has quite a bit of information about the cars usage, due to the stream of images. If you’re considering a car which appears in his images, a polite message via Flickr may be invaluable.

Updating the Drop List Download Application

I received an email from someone who wanted to download the output of an MySQL Query from a DropList Database, but it were to use on a windows client. The code snippet series I posted used /n instead of the /r/n, and would require the use of unix2dos, even a simple str_replace, but while looking for a solution on another project I came across Stream Filters, which can be applied in this instance quite elegantly.

I would have gone around the issue by processing the query output before producing the download. However this email weren’t asking for that, so I thought of a different solution, of which I came up with 2 or 3 different ways. I always think of Larry Wall the creator of PERL who once said “Theres always more than one way to do it”, which is nigh on a PERL Mantra but in PHP there are usually half dozen different ways to do it, then a dozen more overkill ways on top. 

I hadn’t really used Stream Filters that much, and only then for handling affiliate feeds which are CSV files. This function’s code is by a chap called Torge, and can be found on this StackOverflow post Fputcvs and New Lines. Bending and fusing the function to this purpose is actually quite elegant… and I like it.  

<?php 
include('../con.sql.php'); 
$today = date("Y-m-d");

class StreamFilterNewlines extends php_user_filter {
    function filter($in, $out, &$consumed, $closing) {
        while ( $bucket = stream_bucket_make_writeable($in) ) {
            $bucket->data = preg_replace('/([^\r])\n/', "$1\r\n", $bucket->data);
            $consumed += $bucket->datalen;
            stream_bucket_append($out, $bucket);
        }
        return PSFS_PASS_ON;
    }
}

$query = "SELECT domain FROM `zonefile` WHERE `dropdate` = '$today';";
$result = mysql_query($query); 
$fp = fopen('php://output', 'w'); 
if ($fp && $result) {     
       stream_filter_register("newlines", "StreamFilterNewlines"); 
       stream_filter_append($fp, "newlines");        
       header('Content-Type: text/csv');
       header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'.$today.'.txt"');
       header('Pragma: no-cache');    
       header('Expires: 0');

       while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {
          fputcsv($fp, array_values($row)); 
       }
die; 
}
?>

The above fusion of Torge’s code and my code creates a windows encoded text file based on the MySQL query output and starts/prompts a download of said file. It could be neatened up, and for public deployment certain needs some bomb proofing. 

How you modify the date / change the query is down to you. I would perhaps use a form with a submit via post with some sanitising, but this works for a simple download todays list script.

Extending The Drop List Application

You could even modify the download aspect and have it write to a file or email the download to you or a client.

In a similar tool, I have something like this which runs on a cron at midnight to create a downloadable file, which also becomes a historic record for the days list. This way multiple people can download the list without the server having to process the MySQL and increase the server load every time.

Before I used a Cron like above, the first user of the day ran the query and subsequent users downloaded the output. The problem were the first user could end up loading it during a critical time or it would take too long. 

I used a simple if…FileName…Exist…PromptDownload…else…RunQuery type switch, ultimately the CRON method is faster and better to maintain, the code above can be modified this way.

.Tel Standardises Domain Use But Nukes Existing Sites

.tel Logo

.tel Logo

There is mini earth quake about to hit the .Tel world, Telnic (.Tel Registry) is removing the restrictions placed on how the .tel domains can be used. More importantly how they are hosted. Currently, all .Tel domain names must point towards a pseudo-website created on Telnic’s platform.

I say platform but its actually just data stored within DNS, so its limited, it has been enhanced since its launch, but its not quite complete.

An example would be Justin.Tel which is using a fairly advanced template. 

I have a few .TEL domains, mostly pronouns and not really keywords or usable names. The one I still use is Morley.TEL. I use it for my family and my own mobile phone email addresses since it originally included contact details on sub domains. steven.morley.tel / mother.morley.tel along with matching email addresses. I moved from the original registrar over to the current one and it wiped out the sites and I never bothered to rebuild. 

I didn’t rebuild because its not effective to use such names. Much like when I owned steve.co and morley.co, almost without exception everyone asks me if I mean morleyco.com or morley.co.uk or something else. I remember buying a 6-series Samsung TV to use for output when editing video in Adobe Premier. I gave the email to John Lewis for a purchase over the phone while stood outside Currys, and they listed it as morleytel.com on the invoice. Perfect example of what happens.

.Tel Game Changer

The .Tel game anger is due on 17th March 2017, at this point .Tel owners will be able to use their .tel domains just like any other domain by pointing to any hosting account, using normal pop/imap mail even google apps / wordpress if they so wish. 

Telnic are retaining the option for customers to create the standard and familiar contact pages instead of buying and using your own hosting. Its not all good news though, this massive overhaul means the current system is being resigned to the scrap heap and all existing sites will be erased from existence. 

There are going to be tools to export existing data and recreated it on the new platform, but its not going to be as flexible as the existing platform. The big change will be, the new system will not support sub-domains. Many people have built directory sites on .tel which suited it perfectly. Many of these used sub-domains RepairMen for example, which now face moving to a hosted platform to recreate the sites which will be a huge task. 

Its Not All Doom and Gloom

Its not all gloom for those people, the new platform will go live on 13th February allowing people a shade over a month to test the new platform, work out their next step or source and prepare hosting. Its not perfect but its a bonus and hopefully should be a smooth transition.It

Customer Support will now be provided by Telnic directly too, this is a big one. Its hard work getting support from your registrar on .Tels, most don’t have a clue. The only thing harder than help with .Tels is getting .uk support from GoDaddy. You near enough have to tell them UK really exists, its not like Narnia, and We’re an ally, member of Nato and a country with nearly 11 million domains registered.

Worlds Strongest Man 2016 – The Final

Brian Shaw WSM Trophy Courtesy of WSM.

I have just finished watching Worlds Strongest Man – The Final, I read dozens of reviews and watched various bits of phone video from the actual event a few months back closer to the time it actually happened. 

Nothing compares to watching how close it were, like in the 825lb frame carry, it were a tiny mistake between Szymanski finishing before Bjornsson, or seeing how close Bjornsson came to caving his own head in trying to catch the 24kg kettlebell in from 4m drop. 

I delayed this post a few days, but If you haven’t watched it all yet, Channel 5 has lots of Strongman stuff on demands go there before scrolling down as lots of SPOILERS here, also check out my other posts, Mark Felix Cross Fitter and Worlds Strongest Man back in August, or Eddie Halls Documentary on Netflix or my Christmas Post on Arthur Saxon who is the daddy of strongman. 

The Frame Carry

Eddie Hall didn’t fair well here, I assumed the earlier injury would set the tone but wasn’t the case. He revealed later on in the show that during the frame carry one of his dislocated fingers popped out again. It didn’t seem to have a heap of impact through the event other than obvious swelling.

Laurence Shahlaei overcame so many injuries to come back only to be taken out after a reasonable placement in the first event. This were the only Injury in the final, but about the 3-4 in the heats and final combined.

Frame Carry @ 825lbs (Event 1 of 6)
Event Placement Competitor Name Country Event Score Overall Standing
1 Mateusz Kielszkowski POL 17.69 Seconds 10 pts
2 Konstantine Janashia GEO 22.82 Seconds 9 pts
3 Brian Shaw USA 28.25 Seconds 8 pts
4 Martins Licis USA 41.29 Seconds 7 pts
5 Hafthor Bjornsson ISL 51.29 Seconds 6 pts
6 Grzegorz Szymanski POL 52.93 Seconds 5 pts
7 Laurence Shahlaei GBR 24.3 Meters 4 pts
8 Jean-François Caron CAN 21.1 Meters 3 pts
9 Matjaz Belsak POL 1.30 Meters 2 pts
10 Eddie Hall GBR 0.20 Meters 1 pts

 

The Circus Barbell

Brian Shaw looked as though he simply lost track of time, and may have had 1 more in the tank, Eddie were maxed out I think. Martins I believe should have hit 7 but he like Shaw were just out of time.

Much like the Axel later this event has been made all the harder. The Circus Barbell were a non-rotating barbell. If you have ever used a fixed bar, its so much harder once they start rotating, your wrists just aren’t powerful enough to fight the rotational force. 9/10 for me, its usually 1 side which gives way and recovery is near enough impossible for us normal-ish sized humans. 

Circus Barbell (Event 2 of 6)
Event Placement Competitor Name Country Event Score Overall Standing
=1 Eddie Hall GBR 8 Reps 10.5 pts
=1 Hafthor Bjornsson ISL 8 Reps 15.5 pts
=2 Konstantine Janashia GEO 7 Reps 16.5 pts
=2 Brian Shaw USA 7 Reps 15.5 pts
5 Martins Licis USA 6 Reps 13 pts
6 Mateusz Kielszkowski POL 5 Reps 15 pts
=7 Matjaz Belsak SLO 4 Reps 5.5 pts
=7 Jean-Francois Caron CAN 4 Reps 6.5 pts
9 Grzegorz Szymanski POL 2 Reps 7 pts
0 Laurence Shahlaei GBR 0 Reps Retired / Injured

 

The Deadlift

This were a fixed Axel style barbell, so much thicker and stronger than a regulation or gym barbell. There were a few of these minor changes which added a new dimension to some of the events. In the Axel Deadlift Brian Show has held the world record since 2013, that is until Eddie Hall destroyed it, only for Brian Shaw to match him immediately after.

The main difference between this type of bar and the normal bars is the thickness and rigidity. The former means your grip and poor Eddies fingers would be pushed to the limit. The Rigidity means there is much less flex in it, which doesn’t sound like a big deal. The result is, you’re taking the full load much lower/earlier in the lift at the hardest part.

It didn’t help that they added a platform to bring the bar to a more standard lifting height. This wouldn’t have helped Brian or Hafthor at all, and even Eddie at 6ft+ wouldn’t have been fun. After JF Caron matched the 2013 Record, the remaining men decided enough at 445kg, their hamstrings were suffering and to avoid injury and save some juice for the last few events they agreed to share the points. 

Deadlift (Event 3 of 6)
Event Placement Competitor Name Country Event Score Overall Standing
=1 Eddie Hall GBR 445 kg 20 pts
=1 Brian Shaw USA 445 kg 25 pts
3 Jean-Francois Caron CAN 435 kg 14.5 pts
=4 Hafthor Bjornsson ISL 420 kg 22 pts
=4 Konstantine Janashia GEO 420 kg 23 pts
=6 Matjaz Belsak SLO 400 kg 10 pts
=6 Martins Licis USA 400 kg 17.5 pts
=8 Mateusz Kielszkowski POL 375 kg 17.5 pts
=8 Grzegorz Szymanski POL 375 kg 9.5 pts
0 Laurence Shahlaei GBR 0 kg Retired / Injured

 

The Plane Pull

Over the years Worlds Strongest Man has pulled locomotive trains, boats, ships, cars, trucks, juggernauts and various planes. This time it were a C130 Hercules Jet cracking the scales at a mammoth 40 Metric Tonnes. 

During the heats, the Truck Pull event were a “mere” 18 Metric tonnes, this bad boy which is used normally to transport Rhinoceros and big game animals and possibly Zyndrunas Savickas 😉 were a beast. When you consider a 18 Tonne Truck would need about 350kg of force to get it moving, you can imagine the forces needed for a 40 tonne plane.

Brian Shaw near enough passed out in his harness and needed to be lowered to the ground. None of them made it the full 25m, I this this maybe the first time none of the competitors have actually finished a pull. this would be most galling for Bjornsson who were so very very close, but once that monster rolls to a stop, no one has the energy to get it moving a second time. 

Plane Pull C130 Hercules @ 40 Tonnes (Event 4 of 6)
Event Placement Competitor Name Country Event Score Overall Standing
1 Hafthor Bjornsson ISL 24.90m 32 pts
2 Brian Shaw USA 24.53m 34 pts
3 Eddie Hall GBR 24.45m 28 pts
4 Konstantine Janashia GEO 24.06m 30 pts
5 Matjaz Belsak SLO 23.55m 16 pts
6 Grzegorz Szymanski POL 23.35m 14.5 pts
7 Martins Licis USA 22.53m 21.5 pts
8 Mateusz Kielszkowski POL 22.14m 20.5 pts
9 Jean-Francois Caron CAN 21.73m 16.5 pts
10 Laurence Shahlaei GBR 0.00m Retired / Injured

 

The Kettlebell Throw

I had seen a little of this in camera phone footage, and read some reports and it were a tense moment when the 24-26kg kettlebell nearly fell on Hafthors head as he tried to catch it. Seeing it in full high definition is a “woah” woman, what on earth was the mountain thinking, ain’t most measter put out your caved in head back together here.

Such a shame that he missed that throw and knocked his stride, I believe he could have scored the full 10 pts and possibly put Shaw off his game with the manic behaviour and display of power to take the top spot.

Kettlebell Throw 20kg-30kg (Event 5 of 6)
Event Placement Competitor Name Country Event Score Overall Standing
1 Brian Shaw USA 6 Bells / 34.97 Seconds 44 pts
2 Hafthor Bjornsson ISL 6 Bells / 40.22 Seconds 41 pts
3 Jean-Francois Caron CAN 5 Bells / 31.88 Seconds 24.5 pts
4 Eddie Hall GBR 5 Bells / 56.92 Seconds 35 pts
5 Konstantine Janashia GEO 5 Bells / 59.50 Seconds 36 pts
6 Grzegorz Szymanski POL 4 Bells / 22.78 Seconds 19.5 pts
7 Mateusz Kielszkowski POL 4 Bells / 34.28 Seconds 24.5 pts
8 Matjaz Belsak SLO 3 Bells / 49.61 Seconds 19.0 pts
9 Martins Licis USA 0 Bells / 60.00 Seconds 21.5 pts
10 Laurence Shahlaei GBR 0 Bells / 0 Seconds Retired / Injured

 

The Atlas Stones

Much like the heats, the final event were The Stones. All 9 men showed good strength, but a few were let down by technique. I think Szymanski and Janashia will improve with time, and Kielszkowski may have to sacrifice some of that speed for a little more power. Licis did really well here, in Strongman terms he were weeks behind Eddie, but with honing his technique I see sub-30 seconds in his future. I can also see Atlas Stones in the fields of his farm where there used to be bales of hay.

It were a bit annoying as they didn’t show the times Bjornsson and Shaw achieved so I timed them myself 3 or 4 times and I went with the highest time. They were buckets ahead of the nearest competitor. 

Atlas Stones 210kg Max (Event 6 of 6)
Event Placement Competitor Name Country Event Score Final Placement
1 Hafthor Bjornsson ISL 5 Stones / 26.95 Seconds 51 pts
2 Brian Shaw USA 5 Stones / 27.83 Seconds 53 pts
3 Eddie Hall GBR 5 Stones / 29.68 Seconds 43 pts
4 Martins Licis USA 5 Stones / 34.80 Seconds 28.5 pts
5 Grzegorz Szymanski POL 4 Stones / 24.19 Seconds 25.5 pts
6 Jean-Francois Caron CAN 4 Stones / 29.79 Seconds 29.5 pts
7 Konstantine Janashia GEO 4 Stones / 29.92 Seconds 40 pts
8 Mateusz Kielszkowski POL 4 Stones / 32.38 Seconds 27.5 pts
9 Matjaz Belsak SLO 4 Stones / 37.12 Seconds 21 pts
10 Laurence Shahlaei GBR 0.00 Retired / Injured

 

The Final Standings

Seeing these final scores, the Kettlebell Toss could have been the game changer to knock Shaw down and give Bjornsson his first win. I get the feeling The Mountain will be less Viking and more Berzerker Warrior over this, and be playing it over and over in his head.

Had it gone Hafthors way, I think the most likely outcome would have been a draw, had Eddie pushed a 450-455 on the deadlift, and Hafthor not fowled up the kettlebells, this would have been a very different ending. 

Final Standings
Event Placement Competitor Name Country Final Score
1 Brian Shaw USA 53 pts
2 Hafthor Bjornsson ISL 51 pts
3 Eddie Hall GBR 43 pts
4 Konstantine Janashia GEO 40 pts
5 Jean-Francois Caron CAN 29.5 pts
6 Martins Licis USA 28.5 pts
7 Mateusz Kielszkowski POL 27.5 pts
8 Grzegorz Szymanski POL 25.5 pts
9 Matjaz Belsak SLO 21 pts
10 Laurence Shahlaei GBR 4 pts

 

Worlds Strongest Man 2017

Next year, if Janashia, Licis and trhe Polish Duo of Kielszkowski and Szymanski work on their technique and keep developing, 2017 will be an interesting year and the old guard of Shaw, Bjornsson, Zydrunas (assuming he returns) and Hall maybe in for a dust up. 

Exciting times ahead. 

Mark Felix Cross Fit and Worlds Strongest Man

Mark Felix Body Power 2014

Mark Felix Body Power 2014

When you think of CrossFit pretty much the last thing you would associate with it, would be Strongman. Personally I don’t think the 2 mesh well, while they are not exactly polar opposites they are not complimentary of each other at all. Earlier this year I heard about a World Class Strongman doing Cross Fit, I expected to lumbering beast clumsily throwing themselves about like the proverbial bull in a china shop.

I was tagged in a post on facebook and discovered it were none other than Mark Felix, yeah the 50 year old Blackburn based Plasterer. Yeah 50 years old, dudes clearly found the fountain of youth, along with Odd Haugen they are proving Arnies “Old but not Obsolete” is a solid point. He’s looking spectacular for an old man of 50.

A little later in the year I ran into Kaz (Bill Kazmaier) and got a quick 5 to 10 minute interview with him. After a little fanboi action, where I was telling him I enjoy his commentary and the colour he adds as a man who were there in the early days, competed with the legends of my childhood and broken records himself (deadlift world record holder at 400kg).

Bill Kazmaier at Body Power 2016

Bill Kazmaier at Body Power 2016

Once I were finished :P, I mentioned that a month of so earlier I’d heard of this CrossFitting Strongman and that I had found it were Mark Felix. Kaz seemed equally surprised that a strongman, yet alone Mark Felix were doing it. I suggested it would be interesting to see if the speed and explosive power Mark would gain would come at a cost, the cost being Strength. He were a little non-committal but I did kinda put him on the spot.

The mini-interview were published elsewhere so I can’t put too much about it here. 

Not longer afterwards, a few Days I think. I ran into Mark Felix, I only got a few minutes to talk to him due to other commitments I had. He seemed confident that CrossFit can sit alongside Strongman and it would not have a negative effect on Worlds Strongest Man in just a few months time.

Wayne Worthington at BodyPower CNP Challenge

Wayne Worthington at BodyPower

What I did get to witness were his phenomenal grip in action, CNP along with Glenn “The Daddy” Ross were doing a Grip Challenge, it were basically a pinch grip using a rotating bar handle which were thicker than a can of coke. Only 1-2 people had lifted the heaviest plate which I believe were 90kg.

Lots of people were hooking the bar to get the 50kg-75kg up, but Mark did it in true pinch form. Brutal!. I also noticed compared to 2012, and 2014 (above) where lost alot of mass, in 2016 he seemed to have toned up a lot, the power shelf (stomach) near enough completely gone, he were looking good.

I didn’t get a picture of him doing it, but I borrowed this picture of Wayne Worthington who I spoke to about the challenge at the time. I think the weights were 50-75-75kg, not many made it past the 50kg.

I’ve just watched his group on the Worlds Strongest Man 2o16 and you can see its clearly reduced his raw power and overall mass. Sure he were faster than most others, his endurance were crazy especially on the Hercules hold, I think he could have easily taken the world record had he been aware he were just 11 seconds away.  I say “just” 11 seconds like it doesn’t seem much but 11 seconds may as well be 11 days under these circumstances. 

X-Ray of Broken Leg

X-Ray of Broken Leg

I’d say when legend like Mark with best part of a year of CrossFit under his belt… erm kilt produces one of his weakest shows, I say weakest as he still performed well just lacking maximum power. I do think if he goes back to maximum effort and keeps the crossfit ticking he’ll get some major speed like the Polish Speedster Mateusz Kielszkowski.

Its time to concede that CrossFit and their methods are good for toning up, gaining speed and weight loss but I’d say this almost proves that CrossFit doesn’t make for a Strongman looking for maximum power. Not to mention almost everyone I know who does more than casual crossfit has major injuries and broken bones. 

What I did notice were a little interview with Martins Licis where he said he were a farmer and saw WSM going farming moves, and thought he could do that, hes a farmer. He reminded me of Mark Westaby who were a strongman in the late 2000s, his trademark were crushing apples and basically walked out of the farm in to the arena. 

Along with Konstantin Janashia, Mateusz Kielszkowski and Martins Licis we have some big talent coming through from 2016.  

I’m looking forward to watching all these of them, even knowing they didn’t win, the final is up later. 

X-Ray Image Courtesy of Tsu Nimh.

Happy New Year for 2017

WARNING: WALL OF TEXT

Well its a new year, as per usual I have no real resolutions nor plans to create any. The lifestyle changes I made last year which could be considered resolutions. They just happen to start with a new year, or a new month in the case of reducing my sugar intake (July-ish)) and increasing my cardiorespiratory fitness (April-ish). 

I’ve been thinking about what I would like to achieve in 2017, and decided that again no resolutions but more some lifestyle changes and objectives. I debated posting or rather sharing them here since its such a cliché to blog about them, and I’m not sure this blog is the place either.

1, Driving

Top of my list is finally sorting a driving license out. For someone who has owned multiple cars, many number plates and actually understands how a combustion engine works, I don’t actually drive. I’m hoping the fact I passed the theory test with a near perfect score of 49/50 on the Multiple Choice and 67/75 on the hazard perception, that it will be easy to learn the practical part. I have never had a single lesson and managed that. 

I’m so confident that I’ve already booked a practical test for less than a month away, and I still haven’t had a single driving lesson. I really should book some lessons, 2017 will be the year I pass. 

Confidence much.

2, Fun

I’ve been that busy sorting everything else out, I appear to have lost track of actually having fun in every sense of the term. I’m not quite sure how I shall interpret this, but I’m going to try work on it. 

I may actually try the whole date thing, so I have someone to Netflix and chill with. The only Netlix and chill I do, it more AmazonTV and chilled Wild Turkey and Ice Cubes. Amazon and Chill…ed Beverage as I call it.

I need to think of more fun things, not sure I remember how to do that. 

3, Health

Early on in the year I expect I’ll be having potentially major shoulder surgery will will knock out a large part of my health plans for the year. Mostly strength wise, certainly upper body work will be wiped out for many many months. During the rehabilitation I’ll be going back to basics, and hopefully correcting my bad form and enhancing my lifts. Over the years I’ve picked up bad habits “just get it up”, rather than maintain solid form. 

This also gives me an opportunity while working on my recovery and rehab unable to lift much, so I’ll be working on increasing my cardiorespiratory health. I’m going to work on hitting the 100km cycle ride this year (2017) as a target. Maybe aim for 100 miles next year, who knows. Keep the small achievable steps for now. Based on my current efforts that’s about 3 and 1/2 hours of riding with some short breaks added. 

4, Photography

I plan on making time in 2017 to actually do photo-shoots that I want to shoot. Its been a long time since I shot something I actually wanted. Around 5 yrs ago, I approached a friend of mine Beckie Armitt about doing a very dark and twisted Harley Quinn photoshoot. This is long before any dreams of suicide squad existed, had to be 2010 maybe 2011 and certainly before Halloween 2016 became Harleyween. It however got side tracked and things went another way, I recently mention it to her and she said “You should have explained more about what a Harley Quinn was” heh. I have loads of similar plans which could be unique. 

I’d also like to get back to shooting some stock images along side, in the fitness, health, and similar niches. I use about 200 pieces of stock a year, about half is free stock the rest paid for. I should be shooting my own again. 

5, Websites

I not too long ago (March) I consolidated all my blogging here into one blog. It still doesn’t feel right posting some things here, that goes for both private stuff and professional stuff. Some times code based posts feel wrong here, other times personal blogs feel out of place, as do rants and such so I’m curating and censoring myself, which can be sucky. I’m going to work on this. 

I am also changing my operating method, currently I have a few dozen website, I plan to cut this down to 2-3 bigger sites.

Bigger sites will take more work for less return in the short term but the long term potential and return is massively improved. 

The Summery

I don’t know what else to say here, were going to post a year summery but so much has been censored and removed from my blogging it will would look out of place. I also didnt’ get a complete year or blogging. I will post a summery next year, and see how my 5 points above pan out. 

A few days ago someone told me I need to message more when they don’t reply as they read messages when they are unable to reply then forget when they are free heheh, so I’m going to try to message people more without feeling stalker-ish or pushy. I figure this should be here too. 

P.S. I left this post without a picture or any pictures as I don’t really want any reading it 😛 

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