Monthly archive: March 2009

Good morning Bob, originally uploaded by bitful.

Our cactus only gets watered during British Summer Time (once a week). It's been thriving for about 5 years now, not bad for a cheap Ikea plant.

So every year in the last Sunday in March we put the clocks forward and water Bob (that's what we call it, no idea why), then make yawning noises and pretend it's Bob waking up after months of hibernation.

This year we followed the yawning with expressions of surprise and spatial disorientation, because the new (larger) sofa made us move Bob while it was sleeping.

I'm 42, Stuart is 39, and I hope we will be just as silly in thirty years' time.

Here are the websites I bookmarked into my del.icio.us account over the past seven days:

• How to disable visual voicemail on the iPhone for UK users – The Watchmaker Project
  'Dial 1760 to disable your voicemail service altogether [...] When you get home, call 1750 to switch your voicemail service back on'
• HOW TO: Manage Multiple Social Media Profiles
  'keeping up a consistent image across the web and keeping your content fresh is vital to good business and strong relationships. With a little upfront effort, the task of maintaining multiple profiles can be less tedious, freeing up time to better connect with other people.'
• How to give yourself Britney's 'If You Seek Amy' hair…
  …because you never know when it will be handy

1. Jodrell Bank is not a bank.
2. Belarus is the only European country to carry out executions.
3. The vocals on Michael Gray's The Weekend and De Souza's Guilty are both from the same woman (Shena)
4. It is possible (but unadvisable) to lose 30 pounds in 24 hours (as in weight, not money).
5. You can be 'debaptised' from the Catholic Church, but not from the Church of England because it does not regard baptism as a sign of membership.
6. The number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships is commonly approximated to 150 (Dunbar's number).
7. The iPhone is not big in Japan.

Parkinson's law states that

'work expands to fill the time available'.

With that in mind, when you set yourself a goal it is useful to pick a date that is realistically achievable, but not too comfortable.

This is why when I decided I wanted to run a 10-mile race (never having run longer than 10 kilometres), I gave myself four weeks to train up to that distance (including the Christmas break).

As a result, I ran twice during my short Christmas break (and discovered a beautiful trail around some artificial lakes near Stuart's parents in Staffordshire).

Unfortunately, I was wearing trainers that were inappropriate for a countryside run, ended up injuring my right foot and could not take part in the Tadworth Ten 2009 10 mile race in early January.

Sounds more like Sod's law than Parkinson's law. But my last training run was 10 miles. Success.

Anyway, lessons learnt:

1. Do not save money on running shoes. I now wear a pair of Asics GT-2140 worth 85 pounds. You do not need to spend as much, I did because my foot demanded it.
2. If even just one element of your run is new, go easy, be it type of surface, location, gear or climate.
3. If you leave it alone, it will go away. I went to see a doctor just to make sure it wasn't anything serious, and a little over two months afterwards my foot was fine again. I had, however, to stop running for the whole period.

Gay roller disco, originally uploaded by bitful.

Renaissance Rooms, Miles Street, London first Wednesday of the month.