Step Away From The Muffin!

My body mass indicator says I am officially overweight. Another couple of decimals and I’d be obese. That was a bit of a surprise really; I knew I was carrying some extra weight around my stomach, but it didn’t (and indeed doesn’t!) look that bad. So there’s a bit of extra commitment to my resolution to be less of a fair-weather cyclist.

Apart from that the health-check I had this afternoon indicated I was generally in fine shape, so I’m feeling fairly good.

Today (independent of the health-check) I bought a new pair of cycling shoes and a new pair of pedals for my bike. The old pair of trainers I’ve been wearing whilst riding for the last three years are pretty much falling apart now and I’ve been thinking of getting cleats for a while. Being physically connected to the bike means you get more efficient pedalling; you can get energy from pulling your leg up as well as pushing down and your feet can’t slip off.

The new system does take some getting used to though so, after fitting all the bits when I got home, I spent half an hour just riding up and down the street practising clipping my feet in and out of the pedals to make sure I’ve got the hang of it. (Watch this space for news of my hospitalisation during the commute tomorrow morning!)

Work has rather been taken over by the preparation for new printers. We are replacing all the printers in the London Office this week (starting tomorrow actually) but when I arranged the date I overlooked the fact that one of the Helpdesk guys was on a training course, hence we’re rather short-staffed and I’ve had to do a lot of the preparation work myself. Grrr.

I also need to get on the phone to a couple of other travel agents tomorrow to compare itineraries and prices for Egypt. We had invited a variety of friends along on the trip but so far Ping is the only one who can make it – I guess he does have a lot of time on his hands – but it’s a shame as it’s going to be such a fantastic experience and I’d love to share that kind of thing with friends; I’ve done so much travelling alone in my life, I suppose now I’m trying to make up for it! Ah, well.

Finally, on a lighter note, my thanks once again to Gay-Dad for pointing me in the direction of some entertainment. Betty Bowers styles herself as ‘America’s Best Christian’ on her satirical website and she has done a delightful review of the new Da Vinci Code movie. It’s sufficiently tongue-in-cheek that even Republicans and Catholics (who both get a bit of a bashing) should enjoy it.