Austin is so weird...

...that even the transvestites can get pregnant. Well, I suppose that's a ways off biologically speaking but the one that I met on the bus the other day must have had a prosthetic bump or a very convincing pot belly. Either way, it was far more convincing than his/her boobs which were about a foot apart, saggy and with seemingly permanent erect nipples. He/she asked me to sign his/her petition as he/she was trying to get into the election for some sort of state government. The bus driver told him/her off for 'soliciting' me on public transport. He/she then had a discussion with the bus driver about the meaning of solicitation and then got off the bus.

It was all rather amusing, just like many a bus journey in Austin since the majority of people who use public transport are either 'weird' or 'poor' or both. But a town needs characters like the guy/gal I met. I remember the crazy man in Salisbury who used to ride his bike around the market square no handed. Of course Salisbury is far too upper class and white to approve of such fun so he was moved on. Then there was the guy in Nottingham who used to play random 'tunes' on a kids xylophone. I think he did eventually learn 'happy birthday' and 'we wish you a merry Christmas'. Perhaps he was working on the proving theory that eventually a group of chimps would write the bible if given keyboards. And in Austin we have Leslie who even ran for mayor. He/she has a frightening resemblance to Billy Connolly and I include a photo for you.

Texas Christmas

Christmas was a little different this year. I spent it away from home for the first time in my life. There was no alcohol. There was James Bond though. My family were great and managed to get gifts and cards to me in plenty of time and I was very touched buy them all. Rebecca's family made me feel very welcome as always and we had a great time enjoying the country life. I came back with 2 rabbits, 12 quail, and a 3lb Bass.

I just slow cooked one of the rabbits in the crock pot for 8 hours with some potatoes, onions, carrots, rosemary, bay leaves, red wine and water after having rubbed salt, pepper and garlic into the meat the night before. I gotta tell you that was some tasty bunny!

One of the hardest things this year was not being able to meet up with all my mates in Nottigham for my birthday which has been a tradition for many years now. Most of them did manage to meet up without me though and I chatted with them on the phone which was nice and made it seem more like a normal birthday.

I guess the conclusion is that I have wonderful friends and family. And sometimes the World gets to feeling a little smaller.

Thanks y'all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Cross-fit

A friend of mine has introduced me to a fitness website called crossfit. There is a work out posted each day in the style of a blog. The work outs are short and use minimal equipment and can be tailored to any level of fitness by changing the exercises slightly or using less weight etc. Most work outs last 15-20 minutes and many would be ideal whilst watching TV. I recommend you try it out.

Today I did last Saturday's work out with push ups instead of pull ups. It entailed doing 1 in the 1st minute 2 in the 2nd etc until you could not complete the number within the corresponding minute. I managed 15 minutes plus 9 in the 16th making a total of 129. I thought that sounded ok until I saw that people had been doing over 200 pull ups!!! I'm not sure I could manage 2!

Takes a little getting used to

I don't remember it being like this last year but the weather has been crazy this year. In September we were expecting a hurricane but ended up with a scorching hot dust-bowl of a weekend. I've been swimming outside and catching some sun in December. But this week really took the biscuit. On Saturday night I was outside partying until after 4am in shorts and a short sleeved shirt yet yesterday afternoon whilst I was driving home at 4pm the moisture in the air was freezing on my windscreen! This morning it's still well below freezing and the University is closed. Most of the schools seem to be closed too along with many businesses. Quite amazing.

Lost

I got lost in the music of Keane on the way home from Nasty's. This promted a 'deep and meaningful'. Unfortunately this was with myself. Is this is a product of age or geography? I was going to pontificate with you but by the time the computer booted up the moment was...