h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It seems like every time I sit down to write a journal entry these days I have so much to cover. I keep saying that I ought to write more often, but I find I’m too busy. Unfortunately, being busy means I have a lot to write about too. Oh well, here goes with another epic.

As I said, the weekend before last my girlfriend was away and as predicted it was pretty quiet. I got a bit drunk on the Friday night (it had been a while) and spent the day on Saturday sitting in the sun in the park with a friend from University. On Saturday evening, for the first time in living memory my two housemates and I were all at home so we had a nice house meal and drank a crate of beer. I was feeling a bit unhealthy on Sunday morning so I went for a fast run to clear out the cobwebs and in the evening my girlfriend got back to Bath so I watched the Canadian Grand Prix with her.

After a lazy weekend I felt pretty refreshed, but had another busy week to wear me out again. On Wednesday morning one of my good friends had his viva. He passed of course, so we went out for lunch with him and then a few drinks and then a curry and then more drinks we had a good night and the new doctor is now off on holiday enjoying himself. It’s always nice when someone else passes, but lately it’s become kind of scary watching other people go through their viva exams and disappear out into the wide world. I feel like every one that goes brings me a step closer to my own.

I didn’t get drunk on Wednesday night because on Thursday evening I had another 5K race in Corsham. It was more or less the same route as the race I ran there on the 19th May. There was a slight extension to the course where we had to run around a roundabout in the road instead of straight across it because they’d just replanted the flower beds and it was also a good deal more windy than the last time I ran it, so I was quite pleased to have run almost exactly the same time 17:06. This time I finished fourth, but the first place guy was simply incredible and in a class of his own so I didn’t feel too bad about it.

On Friday night my girlfriend and I went to the cinema. We saw Sin City at the Little Theatre Cinema I haven’t been to the movies for quite a while so it felt like something of a treat. The film was good too. I’m not familiar with Frank Miller’s comics, but I could appreciate the comic book style. It was a very dark film and extremely violent, but much like with the Kill Bill films the violence is so over the top that it often just washes over you. It’s a bit like laughing when Jerry hits Tom with a frying pan.

On Saturday morning the weather looked so great that my girlfriend and I decided to go out for the day so we took a drive out to Cheddar (about forty-five minutes from Bath) and spent the afternoon wandering around eating cheese and sampling cider in various shops there. Before we drove back we had a cream tea in Derrick’s tea shop and ended up buying some fancy Champagne jam from them. Suitably loaded down with various goodies we headed back to Bath.

We made a stop on the way back at a little village called Compton Dando and I had a pint in The Compton pub. The reason for this diversion was because The Compton was at about the 5K mark of the Pensford 10K back in May and running past there that Saturday I really wanted a drink. So we returned at a more leisurely pace and enjoyed a cool pint of lager in the sun. Tired out after a busy day, on Saturday night we had a quiet night in with some good food and another movie and went to bed early.

We got out of bed early on Sunday (well early for a Sunday anyway) and had a walk into town. We got tickets for a free showing of La Haine, again, at the Little Theatre Cinema. La Haine is a black and white French language film (obviously) about rioting and gang violence in Paris in the 90s. I’d not seen it before, but had heard really good things about it. I really enjoyed it; it made me laugh at times, but it really messed with my head as well and after a rather heavy ending it was something of a relief to emerge into the bright colours of sunny Bath.

After the movie my girlfriend and I had a picnic by the river and spent the afternoon sitting in the park enjoying the sunshine, reading and listening to the brass band that was playing there. We got home in time for the US Grand Prix looking forward to lazing around and watching a good race, but were disappointed when the Michelin teams all pulled out and we were treated to a seventy-three laps of tedium (of which I actually watched only about half a dozen) while the six remaining Bridgestone cars paraded round in a ridiculous parody of a race. I don’t know ultimately whose fault this was, but as far as I understand it Michelin brought the wrong tyres and refused to guarantee the safety of their teams if they raced. The eventual result of this cock-up was that Ferrari coasted to an easy victory and Michael Schumacher leapt to a comfortable third place in the Drivers’ Championship. Who can blame Ferrari and the other Bridgestone teams for capitalizing? I’m not saying that the other seven teams should be able to demand rule changes whenever it suits them, but for the sake of the sport surely some agreement could have been reached? Nonetheless the worst consequence of this debacle will surely be the loss of credibility that the sport will suffer and the possibility of Formula 1 being expelled from North America in future years.

Yesterday there was another viva in the department so we went out for drinks and curry again and had another late night. It’s only Tuesday and I’m already looking forward to the weekend. I think I must be getting old. I’m not sure what’s happening this weekend just yet. I might be going to Cambridge to visit one of my girlfriend’s friends and her new baby and also catch up with a mate of mine who’s living there as well. On the other hand if I stay in Bath there’s a 10 mile trail race in Warminster Forest which looks like it might be a good laugh.

Right I guess I’d better sign off at that. I said it would be another marathon entry and so it’s turned out to be.