April 2006 Archives

If you've ever read any of the genre of "Men's Fitness" magazines, you'll recall that there are usually articles showing how a former slob has managed to turn themselves into a bronzed adonis of fitness, usually by ditching the burgers and kebabs, and slaving away at the gym 5 days a week. Personally, I've been suspicious of the authenticity of the articles in these magazines ever since the magazine Men's Health did a "review" of various online clothes shopping sites, notoriously publishing an article about how good boo.com were at delivering on time -- 4 months before they launched. [ and I should know, I was the technical manager at their ISP, unfortunately ].

Even more laughable are the set of advertisements advertised in various magazines for the "Body for Life" fitness challenge, which show obviously fraudulent before and after photographs. (Well I have no proof that they are fraudulent, but really, you'd have to have the intelligence of a vacuum cleaner to believe their authenticity).

In the spring of 2004 I eschewed the use of my Car in favour of a bike, and finally two years later as hamgray mentioned, did a Charity Ride for nofear.org, where we zoomed across East Anglia, covering 200 miles in 4 long^H^H^H^H short days.

So I present a photograph of me as a motorist, and one after my conversion to cycling:

Another American-owned Cambridge company has been laying people off in the last few days as well. Seeing the trend it would be wise to tread lightly where American corporations are concerned since they seem only concerned with profitability and employing people in "outsourcing" nations.

The big question this raises in my mind is, looking at all the empty offices in Cambridge, is the Silicon Fen boom at an end? And, was there ever a boom? Most of the companies I see operating are biotech or gene-sequencing companies, and soon the developing nations will cotton on to the fact that they can offer cheaper "resourcing" to these same business areas.

Or, if you want to look at it positively, now is a good time to create a start-up company in IT in Cambridge, there are plenty of people looking for new employment as we speak. I'm sure their rates are competitive, got to pay that mortgage!

Oh well, back to planting my vegetables... (Non-GM of course!)

As Voltaire once wrote:

Tais-toi, et cultive ton jardin!

In the picture is Hamgray and Chenapan on the infamous Nofear charity cycle ride.

We raised £18.72p for the "Childrens' Cheese Addiction Fund", unfortunately Hall blew the money whilst we were posing for this photo in Southwold sneaking into the cheese shop behind us. All we had left to show for it was a few crumbs of Finnish juustoleipa and a piece of used wrapping cloth.

Usually in the morning when commuting to work on the train I am listening to my Ipod, but due to a combination of being off work for several weeks and losing my Ipod charger I ended up having nothing to aurally shelter me from the monotonous and boring conversations on the train.

What a surprise today though, getting on the train at Newmarket and sitting right behind me was a middle aged man, with what can only be described as a somewhat seedy and furtive appearance, striking up a conversation with a young teenager who was already on the train By the time we'd arrived at Cambridge, he attempted to get the boy's telephone number but failing at this had instead offered to give the boy his number.

Whilst one would like to assume that the furtive gentleman had only pure and unsullied motives for striking up conversation with someone barely a third of his age, the way in which he appeared to be attempting to gain the trust of the youth, coupled with the insistence in swapping telephone numbers really shocked me. For those that know me, that is quite an achievement.

The British Transport Police were very happy to take a statement from me, and in fact delayed my onward journey by almost 40 minutes by their detailed questioning on the matter.

The "bobby" in question told me that the way these people work is to start out small, and get more daring as time goes on, and eventually get so brazen at their attempts that they make mistakes and get caught.

Whether this man was trying to groom the child for nefarious activities or just having an innocent conversation is now for the police to investigate, and not for me to judge.

I was interested to hear that the police have finally caught the serial masterbater who travelled on the train from Saffron Walden. The stories that never get in the paper eh?