Wednesday 28 February 2007

1 Very good reason to travel.

There are many, many good reasons to travel. This video is one of the best reasons I have seen yet. I'm not posting it as an anti-American video because I think America, and Americans, are great. I'm posting this as an anti 'stupid, ignorant people who still are allowed to vote' video. I don't know if it is hilarious or scary. Probably both...

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Sunday 25 February 2007

89

"Have I got my Mojo back?"
That's the question I ask myself, excited, as I extend and extend and extend my Christmas Day run. I keep running. I don't look for excuses to shirk, to cut corners, to come home early. My legs feel good, my lungs are bellowing powerfully and it feels great to have time to run again.
2007 ended in a rather manic rush; my publisher continually pushing back the publication date for
, the late nights of frantic editing becoming later and later and the early mornings pushing ever closer back towards the end of the late nights. So the training suffered. I had to give up my plan to do the MdS as hard and fast as I possibly could. I came up with a new plan - to just try to finish the thing, to push myself hard, but not to expect a great position.
But now I am free. The calendar is empty, the New Year's resolution to "be less busy" bodes well for more time out in the sunshine and the rain, drinking it all in, and looking for excuses to run further, not excuses to come home.

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Friday 16 February 2007

10 More Random Acts of Kindness

1. Send a nice text message to a random phone number.
2. Make coffee for your receptionist.
3. Get a handful of organ donor cards and hand them out.
4. Buy an extra Sunday paper and shove it through someone's door.
5. Turn your Walkman down on the train.
6. Plant a tree.
7. Wash your neighbour's car.
8. Text someone goodnight.
9. Tidy the office kitchen.
10. Wish a telemarketer good luck.


With thanks to
for the tips!

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Thursday 15 February 2007

How much electricity are you using?

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Here is a great gadget for tracking how much energy you are using. The wireless meter tells you, in a stark 'pence per hour' and 'CO2 per hour' how much you are using. Turn the lights on and the meter jumps. Turn the kettle on and it leaps. It is a fabulous eye-opening tool. No more cups of tea for me!
Available at Better Generation.
This sort of technology is far preferable to simply offsetting carbon output which is a system that suggests that emitting carbon is actually an acceptable thing to do, so long as you atone for it afterwards. A neat explanation of this is this website which allows you to offset romantic infidelity indiscretions...

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Thirty-five seconds to go...

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I was writing my book yesterday, a chapter about sailing out of Colombia through the gorgeous San Blas archipelago. It was 2003 and in Australia the Rugby World Cup final was underway. I frantically twiddled at the boat's shortwave radio, desperately trying to tune into the Rugby. Paradise is no place to be at times like that.
I realised that I still had not watched the match and so I rented the DVD. I sat yesterday on the train, entranced. I was a nervous wreck, I wanted to cheer and shout and urge the team on. By the end of the match I was blubbing as if the match was yesterday. Staggering. Well done, boys!

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Friday 9 February 2007

Why I'm not a teacher...

Before deciding to cycle round the world I trained to be a teacher. Here are a few good reasons why I chose to get on my bike instead...

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