Monthly Archives: December 2005

Moodlog: Dreamy Bliss

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No, it’s not the Ploughman’s from Tesco or the fact I killed the T23’s HDD (another IBM bites the dust at my hands!) and now have a swanky, new, ultra-light IBM X40 laptop in front of me. Ahh.. *sigh*.. no, neither of those.

"-1, feels like -4"

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uk.weather.com says “-1degC, feels like -4degC” in London, but I haven’t done much in the way of exercise for a week, other than lifting beer glasses, cans, bottles, mugs, cups, etc. so I figure I should go out and suffer a little now. Wish me luck!

Well.. that was fscked!!

Not so much a run as a pained flail. 500m in and I had a stitch. This escalated to something worse. It eventually reached the point where I was running so sore, awkward and flustered that I had to walk.

I’ve heard there’s no shame in walking. Well, I feel ashamed having to walk, so what would these “people” know anyway?!

My legs just wouldn’t work properly. It might’ve been the temperature (and no warmup) or the previous week’s abuse but it was a prick of a run and ‘almost’ not worth doing. Almost.

42:59. Thankfully just quicker than the first time.. by a second! :S

I was thinking during the run, while my body failed to operate as I wanted it to, that I’d rather be angry than depressed. This run was making me angry, but I definately prefer it to misery, so I’ll take it. On that note..

Honourable suicide? If a healthy person has no will to live and their death could save someone who was fighting for life – can it be considered an honourable suicide?

Why is euthanasia only for the sick when so many other people take their own lives anyway? They could be organ donors and give life to someone else. Just getting morbid again.. too much Scrubs 🙂 Bed time.

Happy Birthday Picky

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Dinner for Picky’s birthday was great. First, I treated myself to a pint of Abbott’s Ale in the nearby Wetherspoons (pub chain for tightar$es), while waiting for the others to arrive – Hammersmith is on the District Line so it only takes me 30min to get there from work in Richmond.

I can’t rave about Sagar enough. Back to my favourite entree of Samosa having tried “Alu Bonda” on Sheila’s birthday. Going crazy, I tried one of their curries instead of the usual and scrumptious “Dosa” option. It didn’t let me down. “Alu Ghobi” accompanied by a HUGE “poori/puri” (puffed bread thing almost the size of my head!) called a “Batura”. Washed it down with 660ml of Cobra – a light Indian lager.

Also sampled some of Nelsie’s “Tali” options which were also really nice – I might just have to order a Tali next time.. 🙂

My bro is looking at road bikes!

How embarassment. The GT is sitting out in the snow (well, it was almost snow) and I get an email from him, an total non-rider for years, saying he’s looking at Avanti roadies!!! The shame, the shame!! 🙂

SNOW!!!

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Back from Prague now.. It snowed, it snowed, it SNOWED!!!!!

It was even snowing at Stansted Airport when we arrived back in England! (It’s -2degC in London now).

Briefly: Drank loads of Czech beer, ate loads of traditional food (mmm dumplings and goulash..), explored a bunch of beautiful buildings and generally wandered around the lovely city, bought my first scarf, played in the snow (I like snow!), drank loads of Czech beer, bought some souvenirs (something I didn’t do during my bike tour), played with the others (Grant & Sheila, Steve & Nelsie) in our toasty apartment (hehe.. Fur TV!), added two beanies to my growing beanie collection, drank hot mead (18% not 80%), ate sweet twirled thingies, scoured Christmas markets (blue, neon xmas trees?!), took a few photos, watched the Astronomical Clock on the Town Hall do its skeleton dance, collected beer paraphernalia, lost my voice, lost at poker, crossed Charles Bridge and climbed towers, explored Prague Castle, struggled to come up with a background to this, wondered aloud about the clothes worn by the “women of the night” in sub-zero Prague temps (didn’t manage to get a quote after all ;)), tasted carp (much-hated fish in Australia and has nothing to do with the hookers! ;)), drank hot chocolate with rum and whipped cream, bought enamel cat trinkets, lost sleep chewing Sheila’s ear off and again with the Czech beer and running around like a stoopidhead (scored 5quid for walking down the street to buy a Rizek in my yellow smiley-face boxer shorts and a t-shirt – any wonder I have a cold now), stood on the river bank at night after the snowfall and sighed at the beauty of it all, won and lost random games of Rock-Paper-Scissors and Thumb Wars, snatched coasters from many hospoda (pubs), pondered the meaning of life, cured cancer, blah, blah, the usual tourist stuff! 🙂

As always, full report will probably not follow because I’ll be too lazy and/or doing something else, like: Hogmanay. 🙂

Lovely night for it..

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Pity I have no one to do “it” with! 😛

Instead I enjoyed another lovely, South Indian-style meal at Sagar in Hammersmith. This is my favourite Indian restaurant and just happens to be vegetarian.

Dinner here with the household was in honour of Sheila’s birthday (actually tomorrow). Happy Birthday Sheila!! Enjoy the Body Shop mango stuff – I think you just “rub it on your boh-dee!” 😉

Last time I had the wondeful Mysore Masala Dosa with Samosa entree. Tonight I tried the Rava Masala Dosa with Bonda entree. They didn’t disappoint! Yum!

Reviews: www.myhammersmith.co.uk and www.london-eating.co.uk

I told myself I’d go for a run tonight, given that I was missing Spin class, and oddly enough I actually did – full stomach and all. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be and I just _had_ to test the “You CAN’T run after a curry!” premise. I felt heavier than normal (duh!) and didn’t feel like I was moving too well, but this could also be down to the sore legs I had from Monday’s longer run? I didn’t get a stitch, which was nice, and I didn’t spew, but try as I might I couldn’t get a satisfying burp out when I wanted to.

It was 9degC outside with a westerly breeze. Quite a bit warmer than last time I was out and very pleasant. “No arm-warmers” kind-of pleasant. The streets were almost empty at 10pm mid-week which was fine by me. The run itself presented nothing out of the ordinary, I just plodded along from start to end and was pleasantly surprised with a time of 38:19. That’s 5min faster than the first time I did this loop and I’m damn sure I ran before dinner that time! 🙂

I need to drink more water.

Shortest Day of the Year

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“To our ancestors the shortest day (21st December) marked the lowest ebb of the year, but it also marked the day when the sun was reborn, gradually growing in strength to the Midsummer Solstice. Many ancient standing stones, stone circles and other monuments are aligned with the winter sunrise on the 21st of December. The most famous being Newgrange (Been there!) in Ireland, where a finger of sunlight shines along the dark entrance through a narrow aperture above the monument’s entrance.” from: www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk

Also: google answers and bbc.co.uk – solstice science