OK, a slightly misleading title, so for all you worried readers, fear not! I am not in pain, well… not for myself.  Granted, I’ve just managed to go to the gym not only twice in the same year but twice in the same week (actually 2 days in a row!)  My fitness regime took a nosedive last year, I allowed myself a month off in November and then through a mixture of workload and the final few months of my Gran’s life, I never seemed to manage to get back into the swing of things.  Every other day saw me vow that, “I’ll go tomorrow” tomorrow, tomorrow… it never comes!  Well, the combination of watching the money drain from my bank account and the kilos creeping onto my waistline have given me the kick up the arse I need and so this week I returned to the place I used to call my second home.  The worrying thing is I sat down and realised this was my third visit in 7 months and my how the energy levels have dropped!  The weights I could lift now seem a  distant memory but I guess that is actually a good thing as it motivates me more, to just return to the level of fitness I was at only 7 months ago…

Anyway, the pain is not a result of physical exertion, although ask me again tomorrow when I wake up!  No, I was listening to the Rangers vs Zenit St Petersburg match which rangers lost 2-0.  To be honest it sounded like yet another dull match but I’m not sure if that’s because listening to radio commentary is just dull, or Rangers are just dull.  I’m a neutral supporter I guess, probably if I was forced to choose a side I’d plump for Rangers as they are the team I grew up with everyone around me supporting but to be honest the whole religious nonsense puts me off both Rangers and Celtic out of principal.  Tonight however I viewed it as good for Scottish football, seldom do you hear of a Scottish team reaching the final of such an important tournament and I noticed while at the gym that the national news made a big deal of the 100,000 Rangers fans who had travelled to Manchester to watch the match in pubs and open aired venues.  here’s hoping they behave themselves in defeat.

Mind you, English readers should be comforted to know that some Scottish fans do not hate English teams alone, whilst listening to Radio 2 this morning the presenter was wishing Rangers good luck as a British team and suddenly there were texts flying in from Celtic fans wishing luck for the Russians.

So, it is for the fans of both Scottish football and Rangers who I feel the pain for, the Rangers fans more-so as I suspect they will be in more physical pain tomorrow with the hangovers they have getting over tonight!

In other news, the sun has been shining in old London town however that is expected to end tomorrow.. typical!  I’m off now to catch up on Hereos, it’s taken me months to get around to trying the 2nd series and after the first couple, which I found slow, it’s picking up again so at least my insomnia can be put to good use

Oh, and I started cutting the hedge and was amazed to find there was daylight outside, the only problem is it highlights the fact that I really need to wash the windows!

OK, I thought I’d come back to the election for London mayor now that the results have been announced, take note Zimbabwe, it really doesn’t take a month to count the ballot papers, not unless you’re filling them in as you go

The first thing that struck me when I checked the BBC website was the statistics, I’m no mathematician but after crunching some numbers I couldn’t make sense of what they were saying… When I added up all the 1st preference votes I got 2,415,958 and could clearly see that Boris’s total of 1,043,761 was not 42.48% it was 43.20%, likewise Ken’s share was not 36.38% but 36.99% Hmmm… I started to wonder if perhaps Bob Mugabe had been involved in the count after all!

So, ever the sleuth, I tried some detective work as either numbers were wrong or my calculator was fucked I mean heaven forbid the BBC should get it wrong?!

My sleuthing took me over to LondonElects.org.uk Well, I figured where else would you look but the ‘official’ site?? And there it all started to make sense… What the BBC hadn’t detailed was the actual number of votes cast, which included those spoilt papers I mentioned in my earlier post.

OK, I feel a little guilty for subjecting you all to such a grumbling entry so, ever the politician, I hope to offer you a little something that will allow you to leave the blog thinking good things

Lovefilm has an offer running at the moment for their PAYG DVD rental scheme. Signup now and get entered into a competition to win a limited edition Toshiba HD TV worth £1,000. Unlike their regular scheme, you are not bound by any contract, you simply pay for a number of rentals up-front and once you’ve rented them that’s you done. handy for people like me who think there are fuck all films worth watching but every now and then think, “Hmm… that looks good” Now you have the best of both worlds and with rentals starting from only £1.76 it’s a small price to pay and don’t forget that shiny big TV on offer.. oh and did I mention that you also get 2 rentals free if you sign up now??

ps/ This is a seperate division from their ‘normal’ rental scheme, so even if you are already a member of that, you can sign up to the PAYG scheme and still be in with a chance to win the TV!

…to bring you a comment or two on London’s Mayoral election.

If you live outside of London, other than the suburbs and even then, only if you are a commuter, the elections for London mayor are probably of no interest to you whatsoever, some might say rightly so.  I would probably be one of them.

Let’s get things straight, I believe in the power of voting, I believe it is wrong to not vote and then sit back harping on about how rubbish so-and-so [insert name of winning candidate here] is.  If you don’t exercise your right to vote you have no cause to complain. In my eyes, you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Checking the BBC website for news of the results a few things struck me.  The first made me chuckle quite heartily.  It stated there would be a delay in announcing the results because there had been a huge increase in voter turnout… a whopping 45% had chosen to vote.  Now, fuck me sideways and call me Jesus, but 45% is less than half and half of something is really nothing.  So besides people creaming their pants at the thought of 45% of Londoners getting up from the TV or crack pipe, or both, long enough to vote the other factor that struck me was everyone whinging that it looks like Boris Johnstone will win… Oooo how everyone hates the blonde haired, ‘dimwit’.  I wonder if the predictions of a Conservative win would be true is there had been a 100% turnout of voters?

OK, I may have exaggerated slightly with my heading, the song states it’s money that does the trick, but after spending the day assembling a desk from Ikea and ‘tidying’ up, I can’t help but think that organisation would have been top of the list if we weren’t all so broke!

Putting the desk together was the easy part, it arrived around 11.30 so it was time for a ‘nice’ cup of tea as I went through the parts and made sure all the screws were there, nothing worse than getting half-way through and discovering you’re missing a vital screw! As it was there was actually an extra screw in the pack, I hoped I didn’t need it and I didn’t. All in all it took just under 4 hours to assemble everything, which included time to pause and have a bacon sandwich and yet another ‘nice’ cup of tea Then the real work began, so much paper, so much clutter a veritable spaghetti junction of wires and cables but eventually it all started to slot into place. Truth be told, I still have a lot of sorting out to do but the back of the camel has been broken and tomorrow is more about paperwork than anything else.

I listened to the Radio Scotland on-line to catch the Rangers vs Fiorentina match, Rangers eventually won on penalties and head to the final of the UEFA Cup on the 14 May; it was pretty nerve racking near the end but sounded quite dull for lengthy periods, perhaps it was better to watch but without a TV I couldn’t tell you!

During the match I took the opportunity of getting a nice print for my friend Jennifer’s birthday, I saw that Scott Saw was having a sale of his limited edition prints, I’d previously bought a small print from Scott a few years ago and kept promising myself I would buy more. When I had a look I figured that rather than buy Jen a book, as I had planned, a nice print would be a better choice, after all, she can always buy herself a book and knowing her, she wouldn’t have time to actually sit down and chill long enough to read one! So I emailed Scott and asked him if he’d do me a big favour and have the print mounted and framed rather then him sending it to me, me having it framed and then sent to Jen. Scott very kindly agreed and he sorted me out with a very fair price. I wish I was there to see Jen’s face when she gets the package

The print I chose was titled, “Love”, that’s it above, pretty good isn’t it? I also ordered myself a couple of prints while I was at it, Scott’s currently offering hefty discounts on packages, so it was silly not to treat myself, though I seem to recall saying that when I spent £175 on the desk from Ikea as well as the various other ‘treats’ I’ve bought myself the past few weeks… Guess who won’t be going out for a while?