Fetcheveryone Member of the Month

Interview with Diogenes

RRR-CAZ 🇬🇧 asks: Congratulations Diogenes. Given a golden ticket to any sporting event what would you choose to watch ? How are the calfs ?

Diogenes says: Thank you CAZ, the calfs (calves?) are still on a warning, I have to keep a constant eye on them. Of all the great sporting events there are, I think I'd have to choose the football World Cup Final, ideally one where England beat Germany or Brazil. I don't much fancy going to Qatar, so it'll have to be in the one after that.

Maclennane asks: What's your favourite running memory, and why does it involve me?

Diogenes says: Mac, there are many answers to this, some true and others that are complete fabrications. If I think about the ones that involve you I feel a little sick and have to go for a lie down, but I will put myself through these trials for the greater good. In reverse order.

5. Drinking a beer with you in Chandos after VLM 2010. It was my least worst (and last) marathon

4. Being a part the Fetcheveryone Else Team at RNR in 2008. It might have been higher if we had been on the same team.

3. SDW Clique run, sometime in the dim and distant past, racing you back to the Cocking car park (and letting you win) before searching Sussex in vain for a pub that was serving food.

2. Arundel Park 10k (2006?) I don't think we actually met at this race, but you wrote a review of it. It is memorable for me because I ran fast all the way down from the highest part of the course and it was the first time I'd really pushed myself in a race and realised I could run faster for longer than I thought (even if my time was still quite slow because of the uphills in the first half).

1. When you challenged me before the Midhurst 10k and then spent the intervening time eating, drinking and not training whereas I put in some proper effort as I thought I was going to end up being humiliatingly defeated. There is that steep little hill where you turn off the A272 and on the first loop I pushed on up there and left you behind. I ran at least a mile before I dared looked back, the whole time expecting you to ease past and into the distance.

But overall, I'd say my favourite running memory was when as a schoolkid on a field trip I ran from the end of the Worm's Head on the Gower Peninsula back to the car park in full hiking gear. I don't know why I ran it, I just started running for a little bit and then didn't stop. It is my favourite run ever.

Pothunter asks: Congratulations! Who are your sporting and non-sporting heroes?

Diogenes says: My first sporting hero was George Best. When I was little and used to play football with my Dad in the back garden he'd always call me Georgie Best, especially when I fell over. My all-time favourite player was a Palace midfielder called Jerry Murphy, one of the so-called team of the 80s. He was a lazy looking left-footer, I liked to think we looked alike and we both wore our socks rolled down. He was an elegant player and a great passer of the ball. I think I tried to model my game on him, but maybe I was just lazy.

The first sportsman I remember admiring who was actually a hero was the racing driver David Purley. I have a vivid memory about how he risk his life trying to rescue another driver from his burning car while others just watched. This was 1973 when I was 6. That story had a big impact on me. The rest of his life was quite dramatic en.wikipedia.org

My other heroes are quite boring and shared by many, David Bowie and Douglas Adams. Their lives and works are always with me. Many ordinary people lead heroic lives, but these are not the ones that instantly come to mind.

Serendippily asks: I’m so pleased Diogenes When did you first realise you were running for pleasure

Diogenes says: Thank you Dippers, so am I! My initial response was, I don't know, I'll let you know when it happens, but then I remembered my Worm's Head run that I described in my reply to Maclenane, so it's probably that. I think that it's not always so much about the pleasure of the actual run, but the chance to be out running at all is the really pleasurable bit, and I think the enjoyment is always enhanced when running somewhere new, or in extreme conditions, or terrain. Why go around the hill when you can go up it?

Angus Clydesdale asks: Morning. Sun is beating down on Union Park; "Bob Willis" is the dress code. Congratulations on receiving your well-deserved honour.

What are your favourite 3 threads on Fetch, and why?

Diogenes says: Thanks Angus, much appreciated.

I really couldn't pick just 3 because there are so many, so I am just going to go with the ones I'm most likely to be found in:

The Mundane Thread, cause I'm always busy doing nothing
The 700 Thread, for the company and the support and the acceptance even though I've only ever made 700+ twice
The Book Group because I like books, talking about books, and being silly.

pedroscalls asks: Congratulations on a well deserved win, my question is if time and money were no object what race or route would you most like to do?

Diogenes says: Thanks Pedro.

I'm really not much into racing these days, and I have no desire to go travelling around the world to do a race. It's no secret that I have ambitions to complete the South West Coast Path, so that's what I would choose, doing it in one continuous attempt, stopping in B&Bs overnight. I'm doing it virtually right now, but I've slowed down because of injury. I hope that's not an omen for the real attempt.

LindsD asks: Congrats! What is your first musical memory?

Diogenes says: Thanks Linds, and thanks for this question, thinking about it has brought back some great memories.

When I was born, Englebert Humperdinck was number one with Please Release Me so naturally I emerged from the womb singing that song...

...I'd love to say it was something really cool, but the first songs I remember are things like Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep by Middle Of The Road that used to be on the radio lots and my mum used to sing along to.



I also have fond memories of this song, Good Morning, Good Morning, as my Mum would sing it when she woke me in the mornings with a cup of tea.



I also have memories of being with my Dad when he bought an album called The Most Of Herman's Hermits. I thought it a very strange name for a band and an album but once I listened to it I liked it a lot.

https:/youtu.be/AuGWNshGM64

westmoors asks: Congratulations. If you could meet anyone, past or present, who would it be and why?

Diogenes says: Thank you Westmoors. That's a really tricky question because I know that when I met them I'd immediately be struck dumb, or make a complete tit of myself. A left-field choice would be my my maternal grandfather who was dead long before I was born. I know little about him except his name and that he originally came from Hull, and my Mum was quite young when he died so doesn't really have any memories of him. I've never even seen a photo. It would be nice to discover a bit about that side of my background.

HappyG(rrr) asks: Hey well done Dio, great win! It wasn't until the Lost Fetchies thread that I realised you were such an ancient (err, sorry, original!) Fetchie. How did you first get into Fetch and what is the best thing about it for you? Congrats again. Keep on keeping on! G

Diogenes says: Thank G, I'm a real bad penny here. I found my way here via the infamous thread created by Peter Pan on RW, and never looked back. The best thing is the people, the community, the friends I have that I've never met. But you knew that, right?

McGoohan asks: You are known as an avid reader and a lover of the South West coast. Imagine you're in Padstow or on Porthmeor Beach with a book and a perfectly chilled non-alcoholic yet tasty drink of your choice. What would be the ideal book for this idyll? And would it be improved with the inclusion of space-pirates?

Diogenes says: McG, that is a good question, but also a very difficult one to answer. In the end I decided that I would go for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy by John Le Carre (real name David Cornwell who lives down on the south coast of Cornwall near Minack). Le Carre is one of my favourite writers and the Smiley/Karla books would be engrossing, tense, and yet comfortingly familiar, especially the bits wherer Smiley is walking the Cornish cliffs, trying to clear his head of all the duplicity.

DrPhleecingD asks: McG asked my question already! So I’ll just say congratulations, you very venerable fetchie!

Diogenes says: Thank you, Fleecy, less of the venerable now I've completed my course of antibiotics.

Nicholls595 asks: Batting Dio! I'd like to ask this question in the same way you sometimes set clues on OTDIFH....

Describe your favourite pastry based meat snack, and explain exactly why the Chough Bakery traditional pasty is so good.

Diogenes says: *bumps gloves*

The thing is, Nico, I really can't do this question justice without revisiting Chough's Bakery and spending at least a week carrying out some thorough research. If I can raise the funds for the trip I'll see if I can get you on the payroll as my research assistant and expert advisor.

Dooogs asks: Congratulations? How do you feel about living in a barrel?

Diogenes says: Thanks, Doogs. On the whole, I am pretty relaxed about being a barrel-dweller. I just roll with it.
It's better than living in a box, in a cardboard box.

Night-owl asks: Congratulations Dio well deserved.
If you could be a character from any book you've read, who would that be

Diogenes says: Hello Owlie, and thank you. There is so much scope in this question! How about Casanova? No, he came to a rather unpleasant end, I believe.

I rather think I am going to end up being someone from the Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Initially I thought of Ford Prefect, bumming his way around the universe, determinedly having a good time at all costs, but then I decided I'd rather be the man in the shack, with his cat, the oblivious ruler of the universe who appears towards the end of The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.

I may well come up with a better answer to this one in the not-so distant future.

Wazelle the Gazelle asks: Nice. Why did you choose Diogenes as your Fetch name?

Diogenes says: Thanks Waz (may I call you Waz?)

I was called that on RW. It's partly ironic in that Diogenes was known for his stoicism, self-denial, and rejection of creature comforts, whereas I'm not. It's also a bad pun on account of my dodgy knees.

northernslowcoach asks: Many congratulations Dio, so pleased you won what are your best memories of Bradford?

Diogenes says: Hey Coachie, thank you so much!

Best memories of Bradford? I'm afraid my answers are probably going to disappoint you. I really should have made more of my year there. I spent most of my time and money drinking lots and eating curry. There were so many great Indian restaurants in Bradford, and the food and beer were very cheap. But I did love the city, it's small enough that you can cover most of it on foot, the architecture and history in the town centre are really interesting, there is the Film & TV museum, and of course you are close to the moors and the dales. I was very glad to be living in Yorkshire. I remember it could also be very cold, I started walking down to the town one day and the bitterest wind sent me straight back home. The snow we had one February hung around for weeks. I only went to Leeds once from Bradford, and that was to watch Crystal Palace beats Leeds Utd - that was a good memory!