Running socks and skipping ropes

OK, been busy so it's been quiet in here for a little while. But following the piece a few weeks ago on my attempted lifestyle change I can confirm that around half a stone has vanished in three weeks with a belt notch being tightened on my suit yesterday. No, it didn't hurt and yes, I know leather stretches so this probably wasn't a whole "notch" in real terms.

The exercising I mentioned - using a skipping rope - hasn't gone quite so well. I've been testing some socks from Runbreeze and can confirm that if you find ankle socks/trainer liners comfortable they certainly do the job of cushioning your foot and keeping you cool just as you'd hope.

I've been using a digital skipping rope (pictured) from Kettler. I can confirm that this does the job - counts the time you've been working out, tells you about the calories you've been burning, or at least it did until I let my daughter loose on it. It came back with the display dead, I have no idea why, she couldn't have run out the battery that quickly.

Nonetheless it's still fine as a skipping rope, albeit one with a lighter cord than many people will be used to so you have to work harder to get it over your head. This is where the other component comes into play; you know, the unco-ordinated, immovable heavy lump attempting to skip for the first time in forty years when he wasn't particularly good at it anyway. I tend to last about two minutes before getting tangled up, so if I'm honest the 'cardio fix' running alongside the calorie reduction hasn't gone quite to plan. I will persist.

Still, three weeks, half a stone. I'm not at all distressed at that so far.

Related posts: Attempting a lifestyle change

Pocket squares for charity

Here's a nice idea. Car manufacturer Alfa Romeo (don't look at me, can't afford one) is issuing some pocket squares. The proceeds go to Heart Research UK.

Now, my dad died of a heart attack when he was not far from my own age (2 years in it) and that is my justification for spending £45 on three of the things. My favourite is the one designed by actor Tom Ellis - him off Miranda - and I also like the one by Peter Jones (pictured) and bought the PPQ one too because I wanted something in black and white.

The idea is that you show your support and knowledge of heart conditions by wearing one. I can't help but feel this is a bit of a cop-out; I'd rather think about looking pretty reasonable because I'm wearing one and giving a donation as separate things.

Pocket squares are odd. When I started wearing them my wife said I was looking a little too dandified. I thought more people were wearing them than she thought, and now they're just about everywhere. The trick is to wear them toning with rather than exactly matching your tie, otherwise they look like you've bought a job lot.

These Alfa Romeo editions are nicely designed, competitively priced (check Ralph Lauren or something for an equally good look and watch yourself paying double) and in a good cause. Click here to have a look at all six, find out about the designers including the aforementioned, Olympians and actual designers, and do buy one.

Attempting a lifestyle change

OK, it's like this. I'm heading towards 'can no longer claim I'm in my mid-forties' territory, and my dad died when he was 49. I don't smoke so I'm not that worried - much - but I'm aware that my weight, for example, is not my best friend.

So, having started to get into better habits thanks to the Fitbit I bought a couple of months ago I'm looking into other areas for permanent change. This Horizon programme, which you can watch until someone who owns the copyright takes it off YouTube, certainly offers food for thought:




It's 50 mins or so long but worth a look. I've also received a pair of sports socks which I'll be testing for this blog and have been promised a digital skipping rope on test, too.

I will let you know how I get on. At the moment I'm wearing 38in waist jeans from Wizard with a certain abdominal overhang (that's claret-gut to most). By Christmas I'd like a considerably flatter stomach and to be getting comfortably into 34in.

Why am I doing it this way? Because a couple of weeks ago I had the house to myself a few days. I thought, right, I can do something about this. I can go to the gym because there's no distraction, nobody to remind me that the lawn needs mowing or something, nothing to get in the way.

And work being work, I didn't. I just couldn't find the time. This tells me that my lifestyle needs changing urgently; if you can't look after yourself, Clapperton, you're going to go the same way as your father. My brother was 14 when our dad died; I'm not going to voluntarily leave my daughter at the same point in our life. But I have to work.

So, 15 mins skipping in the garden before a shower involves no travelling time, no real inconvenience, just getting up marginally earlier. And cutting down to 600 calories two days a week involves very little in the way of interfering with work appointments and soforth - I should be able to fit perfectly happily around other people, they won't notice.

With a bit of luck it'll cost me a fortune at the tailor because everything will need taking in.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes - announcing this in public is intended to help encourage others to do something similar where they need to, but also to embarrass me into keeping it up. I can't tell you guys I'm going to lose weight and then not do so. I'll let you know how it goes.

A rum thing

Don't look now but I think the sun may be on its way back - in which case there's every chance you'll be looking for a nice long drink. Which is why I'm pretty pleased to have been sent a sample of Bacardi Oakheart (thanks guys).

It's a spiced rum to celebrate 150 years of Bacardi by, well, asking us to buy more rum I suppose. I'm quite fond of rum in spite of being a bit more of a whisky man myself; the spiced rums I always found a bit of a mystery. Why would you buy a rum if you didn't want it to taste of rum?

It's actuallyvery pleasant. Stored in charred oak barrels which lends it an air of vanilla and a bit of smokiness, it's not bad with ice but really comes into its own when it's mixed with something else. Bacardi and Coke drinkers like it a lot; personally I find Coke in most of its forms too cloyingly sweet, but as they say your mileage may vary.

£18 for 75cl. A perfectly pleasant finish to the summer holidays.

Handmade cufflinks

I've been checking my cufflink collection lately and am considering adding something from Corazon Latino. It's a company that sounds Italian but don't be fooled, they're in Wiltshire. They've sent me a pair of the Arion sterling silver model to try out (£95).

The unusual thing about these, and I admit I'd normally look at something closer to the £60 mark, is that the backs are silver as well as the front. This means they won't tarnish unevenly and of course they'll respond well to silver cleaner. Which they'll need to; I have a pair of hammered silver cufflinks with a square design from a woman who makes them locally, and keeping them clean is a bit of a pain to be honest.

The Corazon Latino cufflinks are good for making an impression - slightly on the large side, more for an evening out than for a business meeting. The detail on the fastener at the back is a nice touch as it means they'll look pretty good from both sides, if anyone happens to be looking.

If I'm honest they're a little too big for most of my purposes; if I were buying from this site I'd probably be looking at the Andata design rather than these. But they're solid, hallmarked and come with a silver cleaning cloth - the site is well worth a look.

More summer scents: Terre d'Hermes

As I've mentioned a few times I've done a bit of business travel later. This has given me the chance to try a fair few scents passing through the Duty Free shop and I have to say most of this year's crop are overspiced and obersweetened.

There are exceptions. I've mentioned Jo Malone stuff before now. Another firm favourite is Terre D'Hermes - citrussy but with a bit of woody depth, and less in-you-face than a previous Hermes I'd enjoyed, Vert (later renamed Orange Vert).

£57ish in Duty Free or £75 on the High Street for a fairly modest bottle means this isn't an impulse buy. But it's very good.

Christopher Ward watches move to luxury

Sometimes a company does something brave. Apple made the move into music devices and was a spectacular success. Now watch maker Christopher Ward of London, of whom I've written before, is moving into the £2450 bracket with the C900 single pusher chronograph (pictured). It's a lovely looking watch, I'd have to grant, but what interests me is that the organisation behind it has sold so much on value before.

It was never a question of being a manufacturer of cheapies, you understand. If you need a new watch and want one for under £100 there are plenty around, and Christopher Ward doesn't make them. Their watches, they told me, used quality components and movements and because there were no middle people they'd sell for around a third, maybe a smaller fraction, of the price charged by the competition.

And now we're into £2450. The reasons are as follows - a spokeswoman explained to LifeOver35 that the single 'pusher' to set the stopwatch etc. is costly and that the watches are hand assembled from start to finish in Switzerland. Johannes Jahnke in CW's Swiss atelier (French for 'workshop' and don't let anyone tell you it's anything posher) builds the watch around the Unitas 6497 calibre.

The single pusher is unusual and makes the watch look a great deal less ungainly than most chronographs on the market. The spokeswoman confirmed that this is the most expensive watch the company makes, and indeed a glance at the website confirms this; however, to get this much accuracy and indeed visibility (the window on the back, pictured left, gives you a really full view of a movement designed to show off the moving parts. Click on it for a larger view, it's gorgeous.

I have no reason to doubt Christopher Ward as a company. I've met them, they're nice guys, and no they haven't bribed me by sending me one of these (I do own a C5 automatic from a press launch a few years back). If they say the price reflects the cost and therefore the quality of the new watch I'm sure that's true.

I just think that if I had £2450 to spend on a watch there's a good chance I'd go for something from Omega, Tissot or one of the bigger names instead.

Christopher Ward of London is taking orders from August for mid-October delivery.