Finally

Today the One who (if not for turkey) might have been your Christmas dinner got up to put the finishing touches to something that started a few months ago - a little journey to keep fit as the months turned colder and darker. Thankfully, the heavens made it easier by removing much of the fog that had enveloped Hoghaven over the past few days, as well as pumping a bit more fahrenheit into the atmosphere. Unlike the previous day, where it had made the mistake of being more overwrapped than a trick present, this time the pig was lightly wrapped in a single layer of thermal foil, and simmered at 40F for 35:42 minutes and 5 miles.

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50 runs done before X'mas. The next phase of fitness for me will be from January to the end of March - I've subdivided it like this because it follows the academic term over here. I'm not going to worry so much about getting runs in, but pay a bit more attention to stretching and weights, particularly the former. From past experience I can get by from September to December with the most minimal of stretching, but it's from January to start of April that I'm likely to do something funny to myself that's largely due to tension in the back and hamstrings and lack of stretching. I also hope to run for longer - I've only gone past 5 miles once in the past few months - but I won't hesitate to substitute a run with some indoor workouts especially when it gets really cold.

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House-hunting has not been all that successful so far. We've not yet found the perfect compromise between location, size, and price. The line from most estate agents is that December is a quiet time of year, not many people are selling because they don't want to move before X'mas. But some agents have told us this is the busiest December ever, and they have had more queries and properties on sale than they've ever had. People will say anything.

Wifey likes to remind me on occasion that she gets weird reactions from people when using my surname than when she goes by her maiden name. Of course, this has resurfaced a fair bit these past few weeks while we've been on the phone with various estate agents. My surname is pretty rare - from where I came from, the number of people registered in the phone directory with that surname take up about half a column. Over in England, it's non-existent, even though it's a Chinese surname that - when Anglicized - becomes an English adjective. 95% of people I've met always ask me to spell my surname - as if they can't believe they heard correctly - and make some smart aleck comment about it. But my family name's cool. And there are actually worse - well, I think they are - Anglicized Chinese surnames than that. We counted.

1) Aw
2) Hee
3) Chin
4) Loo
5) Wee
6) Er
7) Hung
8) Fu
9) Low
10) Pok
11) Boo
12) Ho
13) Kok
14) Tit
15) Fok
16) Thong

I'm not making these up - these are real surnames. I wouldn't want to be Mr ______ (any of the last five). Which do you think are the worst?

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I'll see you on the other side of the year. Happy Christmas!