Life lately has been good if tiring.  On Saturday, there was a karate day course at Whitinch, so I took myself along, and after a fun but hard day, came away with my green belt, which was awesome, as I hadn't been expecting a grading.

On Sunday I headed to the climbing wall for some bouldering.  This provided the arm aching yang to the leg aching yin of the karate from the previous day.  Now my arms AND legs were achey, so my body was once again in balance :-D

This weekend will be a lot more relaxing as I head to the floatation tank on Saturday, then later that evening, we're having a couple of friends over for some Hallowe'en horror movies and a meal.

I need to chill a bit more and let my body recover :-)

There's a bit of a stushie going on about tonights appearance ot the BNP's Nick Griffin on the BBC's Question Time tonight.  Now, much as I'm NOT a supporter of the BNP, they ARE a legally elected party, and as such are entitled to airtime in the same way other parties are.

The anti-fascist lobby are trying to deny legally elected MP's their freedom of speech.  What irks me is that in doing so, they are in themselves being fascist.  Don't they see the irony, or is it a case of conveniently ignoring hte fact becuse it suits them. 

You can't cry "Freedom of speech" and they deny it to others.  I'm sorry that that smacks of fascism.  It 's the price you have to pay for living in a democracy, so ANL and AFA and all the others, you'll just have to suck it up.  What would you call the police if they tried to stop you protesting?  Exactly.  Grow up.

The weekend was pretty good.  A mixture of socialising and slobbing.

On Friday night after karate, I headed to a farewell party in a bar, for a couple of friends who are moving to Manchester.  It was good seeing them before they go, but I headed home after a couple of drinks, as it wasn't the sort of pub I usually go into.  Very much a "straight from the office" type crowd, and although the bar was nice, I can't be arsed with loud dance music that I have to shout over.  Not ideal for chatting to folk before they head down south.

When I got home I discovered that K had invested in a nice new shiny HD TV.  By the time I was home however, I was clutching a kebab, so the chances of attempting to set it up were nil. 

Saturday morning, and it was a case of up first thing to set up the new telly, and what a dawdle it was.  It's awesome.  Nearly gave myself a hernia getting the old crt telly up the stair though.  I'm for taking it to the recycling centre, as it's taking up far too much space.
That evening we met up with Steve and Dawn who were up from London, and headed to Nanakusa for dinner, followed by drinks in the Bon Accord.  All in all a nice day.

Sunday was slobbing day.  While K went skating, I vegged in front of the tv, and copied the first 3 episodes of FlashForward and the first 2 of True Blood, off the pvr onto dvd.  Later when K got back, we watched Coraline, which was pretty damn good.

The cycling is back on track next week.  Yesterday, I picked up a rather awesome 5 led Cat Eye front light, and a track pump.  The pump is pretty amazing, a couple of strokes and the tyre is solid, way better than banging away with a mini pump.  There's a built in pressure guage as well, so no messing about swapping between pump and guage.  Well worth the £20 it cost.

This week I have mostly NOT been cycling. This is because my fron light is playing up, and cuts out when I go over a bump. Bizzarely it doesn't cut back in when I hit another bump, so it's time to bite the bullet and get an led light for the front.

I've been back to the climbing wall twice this week. First time in about a year, and OMG it hurts. My arms were burning, I've blisters on my fingers, and my intercorstal muscles are screaming at me. But you know what ? I loved every pain filled minute, now, where do I buy callouses, or do I have to make my own?

Feeling really anti-social today. I'm supposed to be heading out tonight to the Glasgow SF meet-up, but I really don't think I'm wanting company at the moment. If I do go for a drink tonight, it'll be one on the way home, where I can sit with a paper and NOT feel oblidged to interact with anyone.

Hope this passes soon, could be a problem when it comes to having a social life !

This morning it was a bit on the nippy side when I left the house to cycle to work. For the first time, there was frost on the cars. It was nice though. Still managed to use shorts, but I don't think the day's far off when the running leggings will be worn under the shorts. I reckon this is the way to go, as if they get wet, they dry really quickly, so for a commute to/from work, they'll be ideal.

I was going to stick my cheapo camera in the rucksack today in case I saw any photo opertunities, but the batteries were dead and I'd no AAA's in the house. that's the only problem with this camera, it takes two AAA's, so the battery life is pretty poor. Fortunately we have a decent one, and I'll use the camera in my phone instead for any random commute pics. It's actually better than the cheapo camera anyway.