Tag Archives: Update

Self-pity doesn’t burn calories

(no, this isn’t the seven songs meme I owe on. That’ll come. Be patient my child.).

I’ve spent most of the last week in bed, in pain cause by a bunch of malignant viruses (and I believe this is the technical term for what they were doing) running up and down the length of my body setting off miniature shotguns with precise aim and intent. These nefarious negligible entities kept my eating very, very modest — my most attentive readers will remember that I have been attempting in some way to reduce my weight and improve my fitness — but, I’ve discovered, despite not really eating for a week Wii Fit tells me I’ve only lost about one pound. One pound!

This is going to take approximately forever, even once my activity consists of more than lying around, groaning melodramatically occasionally to impress the empty room, feeling sorry for myself and making occasional trips to Boots and The Doctor to obtain more magical pharmaceuticals*.

Ah well. Onwards and upwards. Hopefully be well enough for squash next week, and am back to work on Monday too so calorific burn rates will doubtless shoot through the roof.

*For reference: anti-nausea medication == awesome. Industrial grade cough mixture == awesome. Nurofen == magic. Rehydration sachets == taste of ground up dirt.

Lotsa reading and some Wii

I’m not even going to apologise, this time, for my latest bout of ignoring this blog. It’s been busy. Let’s leave it at that. Slap me in person, if you like.

I’ve spent my down time doing fun things – reading through the back catalogue of Robert Charles Wilson (following the excellent recommendations of Tom and Simon via Twitter), as well as the new Alistair Reynolds, the Sebastian Darke childrens’ books, the new Iain M Banks, and will soon be starting the Mike Carey (of Lucifer and Constantine fame) novels. I’ve got to this place where self-indulgence involves reading mountains of sci-fi and fantasy and its significantly healthier than pigging out on McDonalds so I’m running with it.

Have also been playing more of the new ‘Fire Emblem’ game on Wii than I’d like. This is a mediocre version of the brilliant GBA game that takes absolutely no advantage of the Wii control scheme and seems to have been scripted by a monkey prone to bouts of hysteria. The plot just keeps extending itself in explicable turns in order to cope with the fact that the game needs more missions to have justified its sticker price.

More excitingly, Wii Fit arrived last Monday and I’ve used it about 6 times, gaining some impressive and some not-so-impressive scores. It’s all part of my motivation to get fit, which has also seen me play squash for the first time in four years (admittedly only for 10 minutes, but, y’know…). Wii Fit also entertained about a dozen friends at the first BBQ of the season this weekend (mmm, chickan).

So, I’m busy, and I’m doing interesting things, and if you’d like to know what I’m up to find me on Twitter and Facebook as that’s where my social media output is going for the moment (book reviews on Visual Bookshelf, movie reviews on Flixster, random observations on life on Twitter).

Share and enjoy, people. Share and enjoy.

Out in Africa

I’m off on holidays tomorrow – Tunisia – for a much needed break. Will not be very connected for the week, so please do contain your desire to speak to me until the 20th. Expect pictures and anecdotes on my return.

Recommendations on what to do whilst I’m there on a comment / email before 2pm tomorrow please ;-)

Have a good one, all.

A bad time to go quiet

My blog traffic spiked up in the last few weeks and then… I fell silent. Parents are visiting, job is busy and life has generally been unforgiving. Promise more will follow, erm, in late April, after I get back from the holiday we have planned for Tunisia.

Very exciting!

Hope y’all are well.

Also, my BBQ turned up yesterday. It is a Weber Q220, which I understand are the Mac Daddies of affordable gas BBQs, and I can’t wait to get grilling.

Traditional Christmas

Just returned from a wonderful, traditional English Christmas (with a lovely Danish family, oddly enough). Christmas on the Browns was vast, endless fun involving much eating, some playing (Wii and the Uno-esque Danish card game, Ourtzen, amongst others) and lots of head-stroking with Dylan, the family dog.

And, can I just say: Christmas Hams Are Awesome.

Good intentions

Had such good intentions today. Was going to blog about everything — in the world. As it is, have watched too much My Name is Earl, done too many household chores, and purposelessly upgraded WordPress and am now just knackered.

Next week — more follow through. I am resolved. Have a good week, everyone.

A fun holiday weekend…

Had a fantastic long weekend on the Isle of Wight with Amanda. Photos on Flickr. It doesn’t take as many words as the last post to explain why it was so wonderful (Amanda = awesome, Isle of Wight = has many old people, but is still awesome)… but fun is usually more straightforward than fact.

Stayed at a lovely B&B in Shanklin (Foxhills – website here), drove all over the Island at whim (well, Amanda drove)… ate much tasty food, walked long, beautiful walks, ate Pepperami sandwiches and made use of the spa, even dropped in at the local cinema where we saw Neil Gaiman’s Stardust… You gotta love British country holidays…

Sad about the rugby, though, eh?