The News

I don't have anything more cool to report than this.

"And the crazy lady said yes."

Go Mr and Mrs Trees, King and Queen (of France), God and Goddess!

That said, I will also bore you with some of the details of my life!

Travel:

Have recently returned from a diving trip to Gozo, the



See I was diving! While I was underwater I saw some cool stuff including:



and



(Thanks Arna for the great pics)

We are of to Paris this weekend, sadly not for King Leon's marriage. Never been to Paris. Travel is cool.

Biking:

Have been biking like mad recently Purchased a bike very similar to this one (but with nasty touring front suspension), and have been thrashing it to and from work as a commuting option that a) saves me £8.20 per day if I ride both ways b) gets me fit c) gives me a reason to go to work and a) saves me £8.20! Did I mention that already?

Thus far I've ridden 240miles to work and back, saving a total of £50.40. That is about 20% of the value of the bike. I've lost about 3kgs in about three weeks and have gotten to a point where the time it takes me (approx. 1hr 30mins) is beatable. I managed a 1hr 22mins ride this morning (fastest ride between home and work so far) without really pushing hard. My next goal is to push this towards 1hr 15mins and still maintain the ability to walk and stay awake for a full work day afterwards. Energy levels seem to be recovering with a pita bread and jam before and after, and a bunch of food throughout the day! I'm eating LOTS, but it is still tons cheaper than £8.20 per day!

Made an interesting discovery that climbing shoes make good cycling shoes - light and sturdy (my current climbing shoes are too big for climbing, so this is now a good use for them). Am also too cheap to buy proper cycling shorts so my bum is feeling it.

The ride is pretty cool, 20 miles of almost-sealed 'single track' along the Lea river. I have seen three deer, lots of rabbits and almost got a pigeon as roadkill on Monday! Main problem is that the track is bumpy and has lots of puddles that a) in the recent wet weather make for a very dirty ride and b) will make the route impossible during winter. At that stage I'll have to commute along the road, which after the recent traffic free experiences I've been having, will be a hardship. Still £8.20 per day...

More links

Seems like I can't reference anything on Mr Gibson's blog without have to retract it later!

 

The interest rate hike means that NZ is looking less attractive to return to with a stash of UK pounds.  The losses in translation will be large.  But it is good news for you NZ bound folk, take advantage of the strong NZD and come visit me!

 

Biked into work.  One hour and thirty five minutes to work.  I blame the 'uphill' going against the Lea River flow.  Cause water always flows downhill right?  Certainly felt like a hill at times!

 

And finally, what a fucking stupid idea!  Can't say much more than that.

 

 

Quick Update!

Am waiting for William Gibson's latest novel to arrive in the stores and always keep an eye on his blog just in case any news of interest pops up.  It just did.  That made me think of Pattern Recognition, and how I also read recently that it is not going to be made into a movie just yet contrary to my post about it over a year ago.  Another movie to add to the Quince's I wanna make it wish list I suppose!

 

Am physically tired after the ride yesterday and weirded out about my water intake.  At work I drank 2L of water. I didn't carry water on the ride itself (I have no bottle cage and I didn't want the additional weight on my back) but when I got home I drank another 1.5L H2O and two glasses of OJ.  I thought that this would be plenty of fluids to cover any dehydration from the ride, but I think I was wrong, my head is fuzzy and to be blunt I've peed only dribbles since.  Hmmmn.  Hydration is interesting to me, but that was probably too much information for you!

 

So there you go, I've just blogged about my favorite author and my urinary observations...

 

Stuff

Have been meaning to write more on the pharma industry, but have been preoccupied with mini-adventures that have so far prevented me. In lieu of some thing considered on that front, here is a random smattering of stuff I've been reading, looking at and trying out:

Reading Margret Atwood's Oryx and Crake at the moment and enjoying it for the pessimistic attitude towards technology and the stupid industry I'm in.

Then The Moose linked me to this article saying that most research is false. I've printed that for further bathroom (my new library) reference. Read it.

A colleague at work showed me one of the news article about this, which gave me hope that what some people in the industry do is worthwhile. But then I got depressed about pills; about big pharma business eking out only a couple of months for patients from their profits...

I've mucked around with Facebook and I just have to say that it is a little bit scary no matter what Morgue says! I'm also thinking that the social networking sites like Facebook facilitate a move towards what I have already talked about somewhere (can't remember where) where not only will we tie up far too much importance on computing technology to get 'together' but it will also widen the gap between those with the technology and those without. * searches for what he thinks he wrote a long while back * Ah ha! Here it is!

Anyway pet project number one has been the whole can I get to work and back without relying on public transport. It has involved much oohing and ahhing and a hell of a lot of hand wringing about the distance - something more than 22 miles (I'm still not sure - but suspect an upper maximum would be 25 or 26 miles). Doesn't sound too bad on paper - but realise folks that that is a MARATHON!

Anyway, my lovely girlfriend has been totally supportive about me buying a bike and just trying it out, and what sage advice that has been. The bike has been great for getting around in the city. But I've been too scared, I mean I've deliberated and not tried the work ride... until now!

And I can report that it was a bloody good ride. I forgot how easy it is to chew up distance on a bike when the main enemies to momentum, namely wind and hills, aren't present. And so, door-to-door, it's an one hour and twenty five mins... That's not too bad for a traffic free ride to work especially considering the train is one hour and five mins door to door. The only pain is the time lost in having to change, which I'm gonna have to work on, cause it still feels as if I've come home and hour later than usual.

Anyway, to aid answering how long the work commute is, I've created a My Maps at google maps. I have mapped out part of the route into nifty straight line segments and then worked out a way to grab the coordinates of my markers so that I can calculate the distance between them to add up to a journey total (all this for an error improvement on 4 miles!!!). Of course I will need some math to help me work out how to get the distance from markers A to B to C etc. and from a quick foray into the interweb I suspect it is here, but crap, I just rode 22+ miles and I can't quite get my head around it yet!

That is all for now. I've just had some exercise, can you tell?