A number of investigations

Hi everyone,

Last email I invited people to unsubscribe. I know I may not technically be a mailing list, and I didn’t have to ask, but I did, out of the goodness of my heart. But someone abused that goodness, someone abused my trust. They unsubscribed. That person is no longer with us. Be warned.

Not really. Well someone did really unsubscribe, but I won’t really
disappear any of you, except in the sense that you won’t appear on my email address list anymore if you don‘t want to, despite the internets best attempts, loosing an online identity still doesn’t result in immediate and painful death in the “real world”.

Anyway. I hope I’ve learnt my lesson. I thought I could get away with the last email which even admitted in it’s own title “Short and Sweet” that it was a little light on the literary or content merit and devoid of particular interest. I thought that in an age of Big Brother and mobile phones and blog sites that people resolutely refuse to read on a regular basis, that I could subsist on such drivel for a few weeks.

The shame of my poor judgement- I beg your forgiveness please. No more unsubscribers OK?

And will move swiftly on to more interesting pastures,

I had my precious bike stolen! I’d been paying off a quite smart Specialized Rockhopper (A type of bike) through a friend when it was mercilessly snatched away. I was at a publisher function in a park, and double locked my bike to a bike lock place. I was never more than 10 metres away but the thieving blighters still had away with it. Not all of it mind. I still have a front tyre, and the Halfords shackle lock I was using to secure it. The frame and back tyre, including the more expensive Specialized lock, were lifted.

Gutted. Anyone who knows me knows I was very excited when talking about, thinking of, and riding my bike (in fact my girlfriend remains a prime suspect in it’s disappearance). I was really fed up to loose it, especially because I’m still paying for it throughout July.

Anyway, not to be put down I bought a pair of jogging trainers and ran to work for a week. This 7 mile round trip was made possible through sheer bloody mindedness rather than any particular sporting prowess. I simply refuse to give in to paying bus fairs, whilst at the same time I’m too intrinsically decent to sneak on the buses without paying. That leaves me with a pair of tight running shorts, a bottle of Talcum Powder (don’t ask what it’s for…)and a pair of trainers.

Camilla thinks this is weird but I've logged my run on a website, which you can access through the links on my blog (www.therealword.blogspot.com) I just wanted to make the blog as interactive and entertaining as possible (in case anybody ever visits or reads it). Of course if you live nearby you are welcome to use the route yourself, although you will see that the traffic is high, the air pollution is bad and the scenery non- existant. It's not much of a run.

So apart from becoming as obssessed with jogging at least as qucikly as I became obsessed with cycling, the other thing I've been doing is some research into two fields: Art and Science. I read an article in the Metro that Carsten Holler (he's the artist that put slides in the Tate Modern) was doing an experiment where he gives people glasses to turn their vision upside down for 8 days). But I didn't think it would work, and got some scientists to deal with my questions online. Once a broad spectrum of scientists had responded I took my research and sent it to the Manchester Mueseum that are hosting the exhibtion, and it's PR company. No response just yet, but to learn more about this fascinating subject you should check out the recent posts on the www.therealword.blogspot.com (anyone spot a trend occuring here?)

One last thing I mentioned a while ago about a crazy landlord in Lewisham, and how he got drunk and left notes around for us... and then I met a publisher whose friend was writing a book on the subject of crazy notes left by flatmates. Well. I didn't make this version of her book (although if it sells well I might make the sequel) but I am going to be on her website when it works properly (which is in about a week). If you've had any odd note experiences from flatmates you should put them on here: www.flatmatesanonymous.com (also available as link on www.therealword.blogspot.com).
Anyway. Hope that was OK for all of you- a good one no? Certainly not worth unsubscribing over.