101.1 – TTD No. 66 Take Part in a Flash Mob

I've just heard on the London news that the police are considering banning Flash mobs in the capital, that's just ridiculous. Some commuters were upset that they were late home from work because a flash mob, that happens once in a blue moon, held them up.
The commuters that complained happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and couldn't see the funny side. Well I'd like to see them try and ban them as it'd invoke Flash Mob protesting. Then the powers that be would have even bigger, but all too brief, angry mobs on their hands.

A is for Armageddon

Now I'm on a big push to get the Armageddon book finished and then I can have a little break before the next big project takes over. I reckon i'll have finished the A book by the end of March after a colossal 4 years in the planning ... here's to only 4 more weeks ...

Happy Darwin Day!

Darwin was born 200 years ago today. Thanks to the D-man for making sense of the world. Try this for a bit of fun ... Devolve Me!

In the old days, Today used to be known as St. Frankenstein's day but that was changed due to ethical reasons. Here's a chance to time travel and see what you'd have had in store for you back to the 70's ...

101.1 TTD 39 Go to the Dogs / 101.2 TTD 98 - Drive Something

Stag Do's are a great place to complete the Things To Do in the books. On previous Stag Do's I've done Archery, Rally Car Driving, Horse Racing, Clay pigeon shooting, Paintballing, all of which can be levered into helping me complete a Thing To Do ... more or less. The latest Stag Do, this weekend, was Karting and Greyhound racing.

I'd never done karting on large outdoor track before and anything other than last would be fine. There was still snow and patches of ice dotted around but on the whole the course was pretty clear and I thought I'd misheard when the instructor said 75 laps, but that is what he had planned for us.

I picked car 11 of 11 racers and we set off. After a lap or two of staying in formation the race started and these little carts could pick up a decent amount of speed. After a few laps my visor had steamed up and the sun was going down right in my line of vision on the straight and a few laps later a tried to avoid a spill in front of me and ended up plowing right into the snow just off the track. But I was stuck. No-one came to my rescue, even though the instructions were to sit and wait until an official spots you, So I forced myself back onto the track. By this time I was already two laps behind and most definately last. So I just had to put my foot down and although I took a few more spins off the track I managed to make back the two of the three laps I'd lost, due to a few other spills on the way. Our hands were frozen even through the gloves, our butts still ache but we loved it.

So results time came, read out in reverse order ... I wasn't last, or 10th (although the Stag was). or 9th ... I was 6th which I felt was pretty decent and a great comeback. and the more I thought about it, IF I hadn't come off, IF I had gone faster, IF I'd have started in a different position etc etc ... I worked out I would have been FIRST. I need a rematch!

MY RESULTS:
Kart 11 - 74 Laps - Best Lap: 59 in 32.077secs - Top speed: 78.6 - Av speed: 86.1 (Results didn't say wether the speeds were kph or mph - I'm hoping mph, I suspect kph) Track: Surbition Raceway - Track record - 24.46 secs - Track length: 700m

As for going to the Dogs
I spent a lot and won little. I've been to the Dogs before and my fuzzy logic last time came up trumps and I won big but this time I lost large. My logic of backing lane two is as good as logic as any when you see the form of the dogs (as it seems that they've all come in each place, 1-6, over the last 6 races. My logic could have come good (although it would have if I'd picked Dog 3 every time) ... The only time I did win, the odds were against me and I got back less than I'd put on - never back a dog before the odds come up! But it was good fun, the beer may have clouded my judgement and the 1p burger may not have helped but it was good fun.

101.1 - TTD No. 100 - Reach 100 years of Age

Happy 70th Birthday Dad - only thirty years to go!

Happy Day

This photo was taken by my friend Simon Warren on his way to work -
Snow makes you happy - it's official.

London is closed

Londoners woke up to a Dickensian London this morning. I've lived in London for 13 years and this is the heaviest snow I've seen in the capital. London hardly ever gets snow due to the heat bubble that is generated by the capital but it had a bit today. On the way home from swimming this morning, I took a slight detour to do a bit of London snow sightseeing.

I picked up Helen and we took in the sights: St. Paul's, Shakespeare's Globe, Millennium Bridge, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, the Bank of England, Bunhill fields (The resting place of William Blake), The Gerkin, Monument, The Tower of London, The Tate Modern ... We also saw Snowmen that had been built in the middle of the road, A man on skis, A woman dragging a sled, I took a few snowballs from buisinessmen and sent some back in their direction, everyone had a camera and we didn't see one single bus in 2 hours ... so it looks like everyone has an unofficially day off on a day when London has been offically cancelled.

This should come under a new Thing To Do - Be a tourist in your home town – in London we're really spoilt.