Other stuff

Since last we spoke (well, since last I spoke and you rolled over and looked at me through half-glazed eyes like I was a shame shag or something) things have been, for the most part, super fu-fu. Me and Clubbie have been getting on like a house on fire, and I've actually been going out for drives simply because I want to go for a drive. I haven't done that in *years*. I'd driven 120 miles after only two days of ownership. And - BONUS - Clubbie is super frugal; I was sat in traffic on my way to work yesterday and it was amazing to just hear the engine cut out and know that I wasn't wasting a single drop of my precious, precious petrol. In my Cooper S I'd sit in traffic and literally watch the petrol gauge drop while I cried a little inside. I just hit 210 miles on my way home tonight - the point at which I'd have to go fill up my old one - and I've still got half a tankful left. I told Sparky Ma the other night that I think Clubbie could be my favourite Mini so far.

Anyway, it's not all been Mini adventures over the last few days - some other stuff has happened too!

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It had to happen. I've gone cold turkey, and drawn a line under it; I am no longer Gilwhoring. Having started watching Gilmore Girls last August when E4 was halfway through the third season, I've come full circle and caught up with where I began. Well, actually I carried on a little bit further than where I began, which seems to indicate that I'm a little bit addicted. Addicted and incensed, because E4 have not only been editing some episodes VERY BADLY by loping off the pre-credits teaser, but they also just missed out the season three finale completely! Outrageous! Anyway, I've gone cold turkey because I think if I didn't I'd just keep watching it forever and ever until the end of time, and it will actually be quite nice to reclaim an hour each day when I'd usually be found watching it.

I'll miss my daily dose of Stars Hollow shenanigans, and will probably cave massively and end up buying the the first three seasons on DVD at some point (tragically, that's all that's been released over here) in the near future.

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As if I'd ever forget, I was reminded that a certain person (and I use that term in the loosest possible sense) who I've been unfortunate enough to have dealings with in my life is even more morally and creatively bankrupt than I originally thought they were. There's a special place in hell for people like this.

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I went for a run last night, and for reasons too ridiculous to go into here, I ended up doing the longest run I've ever done; so long, in fact, that the voice of Lance Armstrong emanated from my Nike+ kit through my iPod to congratumalate me. Thanks Lance. Anyway, when I got home and uploaded my data, my little Nike+ Mini Me dude (the leaping chappy over there on the right-hand side) went totally mentalist (more so than usual).

This is all very well, you'd think, but, um, he's wrong. I don't feel amazing; well, actually I do a bit. Everything but my right leg from the knee down feels just great. And WTF is a 'runometer'? He totally made that up, didn't he?

Where were we? Oh yeah, right leg. OK, so to be honest I've been feeling a little twinge in it for a few weeks now; nothing serious, just what feels like muscle pain. I've tried resting it for a bit, but it sort of kicks back in - rather subtly - after I've been for a run. It was a bit more twingy than usual last night, so I rubbed a bit of ibuprofen gel on it and went to bed. It was still a bit achy at work today, which led me to-

OK, let me pause there: can I just say that I get really annoyed when people self-diagnose things on the tinternet. As great as the tinternet is, I suspect it's responsible for a vast increase in the number of hypercondriacts out there, and that is not a good thing, because hypercondriacts are really annoying and generally need a slap.

Anyway, I Googled several variations of the words 'leg,' 'pain,' 'running,' and 'ouch' which resulted in me spending several minutes reading up on stress fractures. Stress fractures, let me tell you, are not good things to have, especially when you've been running the best you've ever run and are really looking forward to this year's Dysart Dash, and, potentially, the Grim Challenge in December. Having read about them, though, I can't get rid of the nagging feeling … for the time being, I'm going to go on the assumption that it's just muscle fatigue, but if it carries on much longer I might go pay the doctor a visit. Hopefully he won't make me get nekkid or something.

Oh, and do you know what one of the treatments for stress fractures is? Those ridiculously massive boot things. I inwardly laughed at some woman on the street who was wearing one of those the other day. This is clearly some kind of payback. DAMN YOU KARMA!

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For some reason I've decided that I need to listen to all the unlistened to songs in my iTunes library. I've actually been striving to do this since the beginning of the year, but I've only just decided that I need to share my OCD tendencies with you. To be honest it's going rather well, and I've filled in vast swathes of unlistened to tracks simply by ruthlessly skipping through any that I have listened to while I'm sitting at my computer. Along the way I've found some true gems, and rather tragically, the occasional turd. My mission has not been helped, however, by the fact that I added a load more songs to my library last Thursday night in anticipation of Clubbie's iPhone/iPod integration, but on the plus side, all the songs I now listen to on my journey to and from work get saved in my library and the gaps are slowly but surely getting plugged. This whole in-car iPhone thing is also going to have an interesting effect on my top 25 listened-to tracks … I might have to post them up if anyone's interested…

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Oh, and if I may be allowed to return to the subject of Clubbie once more, I picked up my new rubber car mats today, which look awesome, even if they did come with exceedingly and unnecessarily complex instructions. I mean, whatever happened to:

1. Take carpet mats out of car.

2. Place new rubber mats in car.

3. Drive car.

I'm going to be worried that I installed them incorrectly for at least the next two weeks. On the plus side, it's been such a lovely day that I drove home with my awesome twin panoramic sunroof open, although the pleasure I derived from the glorious weather was somewhat counterbalanced by my paranoia that a bird was going to poo in the hole. I mean, there is precedent…