Nepal clock – revised

Countdown To Nepal

Nepal here we come in 52825 minutes…

Very excited about my forthcoming sabbatical which will take me to the Himalyas in Nepal (assuming they stop bombing and shooting people in Katmandu) and then on to Southern India for some hard earned R&R. To help me through these dark February days, I have set up a clock to countdown to when we get on the plane. Self indulgent, but fun.

Blindworm Peak to host All England Championships

Found a very amusing tube map of London, with every station name changed into an anagram. I am very pleased to be living in Blindworm Peak (Wimbledon), though not sure the name will catch on with the tennis chaps. Flesh Studio, just one stop up on the district line, may warrant a visit soon.

Settling in to WordPress

Mmmmm. Everything is different here at WordPress. It’s a bit weird being away from the comfort blanket of Google’s blogger but already noticing some cool things. The ability to import all my postings from blogger in just a few seconds (via the “import” menu) was very useful too.

Nike 10km run result

I ran the Nike 10km on Sunday and finished in 45:33, which left me in 2083rd place out of around 32,000. You can see a picture of me finishing here. I have to say it was a really enjoyable event and very well organised. It sounds corny, but the fact taht people had sponsored me really kept me going as well – so thanks to all.

Video ipod on its way?

Looks like Apple are due to announce something big again today – rumours are that it’s a new video ipod.

Nice people give to Zambia

People amaze me sometimes. I have previously posted about the project Hannah and I are involved with to bring help to vulnerable children in a village in Zambia . Well Hannah has now gone out to help with the project in Zambia. First amazing person. Then, at the last minute, we decided to try and raise a little money to pay for some essential supplies for the children (the original round of fund-raising has almost run out). When I say last minute, I mean the day before Hannah went. We emailed everyone we knew and asked for donations and sponsorship (I’m doing the Nike 10km on Sunday). In one day we raise well over £700. I think that is amazing, particularly when we are all supposed to be suffering from compassion fatigue this week. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed and I’ll post more on how the money is used in a few weeks.

Fun with Jonathan Ross

I went to the Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on Thursday last week (it’s pre-recorded!) which was a huge amount of fun. Amazed at how funny the guy is in real life (I’ve always found him a bit smarmy on TV). He was a consummate professional, extremely crude and rude and kept us enteratined between the filmed bits he had to do. Sharon Osborne was on talking about her new book and said that she’d spilled the beans on every nook and crannie of her life. Interestingly, when asked why he had never written an autobiography, Bob Hoskins (a guest later in the show with a lot more interesting tales) said “because then I’d have no stories left to tell at partys – everyone would say ‘yeah, yeah, Bob, we’ve already read that one in your book’”.

Coming to a phone near you

Just when you thought they couldn’t squeeze any more onto a mobile phone, Mobile TV has arrived. Yes – you will soon be able to watch live TV on your phone – Mark Halper from Time magazine has written an interesting article about UK operator O2’s recently launched trial service in Oxford. But will anyone want to watch TV on a tiny screen? And will the batteries last long enough? This remains to be seen.

Iran-Iraq war kicks off 25 years ago today

I notice that today marks the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war which lasted 6 years and killed 400,000 people. The BBC reported at the time that “the rise in hostilities comes after Iraq tore up a 1975 border agreement with Iran over sovereignty of the Shatt al-Arab waterway…Western diplomats believe Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is seeking to take advantage of the post-revolution turmoil in Iran to seize control of the waterway and other territory handed over to Tehran as part of the 1975 agreement.”

The reason I’m blogging about this is because I met Mohammed last weekend – the guy from Iran that my wife mentors as part of the timebank scheme, and it really got me thinking. We were talking about how his life has changed and he said he remembered, as a young boy, living in a prosperous Iran and mixing with lots of Western foreigners (he lived in the richer southern oil region). Then he witnessed the Islamic revolution in Iran and went on to fight in the Iran-Iraq war for two years. He fled the country fearing persecution and now lives in the UK, where he struggles to find work despite being a qualified nurse. What an extraordinary life he has led. I told him to write a book.