Old age

Last year, I smoked between 10 and 20 fags a day and could run 3.1 km in 16 mins.

This year, I quit smoking in February and yet can still only run 3.5 km in 19 mins.

Doesn't bode well.

Balls

Joy of joys, Nikeplus has seen fit to upgrade their website in the month or so since I last checked it. For the uninitiated, Nikeplus is the chip thing that plugs into an ipod to measure running distance, calories etc and play you music / motivational American chatter as you jog round. I've always been disapppointed with the amount I could play about with the data once I uploaded it to the ...

Read More »

Sicily day two - Palermo to Enna

03/07/09 - Palermo to Enna

We were up bright and early on our first full day in Sicily, heading back to the airport to pick up our hire car. We hit the jackpot on the model of car we hired and soon were crawling back through the Palermo traffic in a 2 week old white Fiat 500 with a mere 900km on the clock.

I started to think I'd made a grave error bottling it at the rental desk.
'Would you like ...

Read More »

Sicily part one

It's surprising how little of the excitement in my life actually makes it onto the hallowed posts of STTR. For something that is meant, in part, to document this period of my existence, I rarely have the enthusiasm or inclination after an event to launch into grand detailed musings.

Sicily, however, was a trip we had been looking forward to since last December, and we crammed a hella lot into ...

Read More »

Ok Go

I think I've seen a video like this somewhere before, but to have a band doing a choreographed treadmill dance whilst singing their song.... genius.

Final Cut

I told J the other day that this 1998 Brit Flick (starting the 'Brit Pack' at the time - Jude, Sadie, Ray et al) is one of only two films I hadn't previously heard of that turned out to be really good. The other is Glory, a drama about the American Civil War with Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington that I subsequently found out had won Oscars and shit.

Anyway, I've bought Final Cut on DVD ...

Read More »

Back to normality

After what seems like a month, I returned to work today from annual leave. And woah, as if it wasn't a mere 2 hours before I'd started feeling like I never left. There were a few exciting developments though - not least the arrival of a Dyson AirBlade in the toilet. This represents a bit of a radical departure into "high quality fixtures and fittings" for the toilet in question, given that the bogs don't flush properly and the water from the taps sprays all over one's crotch should you stand too close to the sink. It resulted in me going to the toilet about 4 times today though just to try it out. All good for the hygiene in this Swine Flu conscious age, I suppose.

Graduation day

Portsmouth Guildhall. A suitably impressive location to congratulate one of the country's newest Masters of Geohazard Assessment.

God I'm knackered. Too much booze last night catching up with a long lost mate, too much touristy wandering about today and not enough sleep in between. Good, then, that I've got to get up at 6 in the morning to drive to Portsmouth.

It is good actually, given the reason for our trip to the seaside (and presence in our flat of a variety of family members) is the long awaited graduation of J from her Masters. I'll be welling up in my chair, if I'm not snoring and dribbling down the shoulder of the person next to me. Go J! Woot!

Back in Blighty

Woot! Am back from my travels. Now halfway through my hols, preparing for the imminent arrival of J's sister tomorrow and my mum on Wednesday - it's 'the graduation' on Friday.

Sicily was absolutely amazing - I beseech everyone who reads this to visit. I'm not skillful enough with the written word to convey everything we experienced, but I will try over the next few days. But then, it's a bit ...

Read More »

The red eye beckons

As does the linguine, Peroni and volcano.

Yep, back at that "should be asleep by now" moment - our carriage awaits on the 4.08am Clapham-Gatwick express.

This time tomorrow we will no doubt be sleeping fitfully in the heat of a Palermo night. Whether it's any less fitful than the recent days in London remains to be seen, although I believe they have discovered air conditioning in residential areas over there.

Will catch up on our return - would hazard a guess that you won't even notice I'm gone.

Ciao, etc.