The protruding nail is hammered down

Or is it the squeaky wheel that gets the oil? Who knows which is the most appropriate idiom to apply this week? Not I, so I've been distracting myself with other activities:

• Went for a 26 k run today, with a malfunctioning GPS unit. It's not had troubles before with retaining a signal - this time it didn't bother either telling me where I was, or what my heart rate was. Probably for the best - took me 2:35 to do 26k, which is way off pace. Perhaps sleeping in till 10 and then staggering out with only Harpers magazine and a bowl of muesli in me wasn't the best prep.


• Didn't go to Minskworld - but that leaves the estimable treat of visiting one of the world's two based-on-a-Russian-warship theme parks available for slightly later in the year - say at Chinese New Year, unless I'm hiding out in Seattle from people dressed up as unconvincing lions or somesuch


• Created an advert on Facebook for Diet Croydon. If you live in Birmingham, Cardiff or London you may see this in the next five days:

Diet Croydon is the novel for everyone who ever grew up somewhere not-so-great: a rom comedy of mistaken identity, nihilism and kebabs

Mind you, I've only decided to spend a dollar a day on it, so heaven knows if it will get any visibility. Plus the offical website isn't ready yet (hurry up Mr Toby!)

• Created an itinerary for Hong Kong so that when my parents arrive in less than two months, they will already have some idea of what they'll do every day. Cunningly, I've chosen at least half the things on the list to be things I haven't done yet either, so I can disclaim any responsiblity if they don't enjoy themselves. Can I get away with that?


• Been a good boy and tidied up and done the washing up, put all my laundry into a bag to take to the laundrette tomorrow, and packed my case for Seattle next week, so it won't be hanging over me like the Luggage of Damocles. This won't actually save me any time - it will just give me the opportunity to be complacent and accidentally get drunk this week. Damn you, preparation!

I still have to write up my stand-up material (partly just to get rid of the scads of paper that litter the flat at the moment - I'm beginning to realise that I now have enough material that I should arrange it for future reference and rehearsal, and it would be best for me to do that by having each bit on a separate sheet of paper that I can annotate before performances / test timings on / modify the order, whereas a moleskin notebook, whilst being good for jotting down ideas, is the enemy of developing coherent flow.

And I have to eat dinner, buy breakfast for tomorrow, watch Pineapple Express, email Bazza and go through prioritisations and review material for tomorrow's career discussion. What of this will fall off the wagon? Should I eat some soup? Will this cure all ills?

At some point, I'm going to write up what really made an impression on me in 2008. All I can think to say right now is the Irresistable Inheritance of Wilberforce. There has to be more than that though...

Here's this week's photo of the week. Could do with more traffic. I was going to make a self-portrait of it here, but perhaps next time...