Beer has made me fitter. Yep, you heard right...

A few months back I was out with a few ex-colleagues on one of our semi-regular 'half day with a view to some day time drinking' excursions.  We had been drinking since 1pm. The time was now about 7 or 8pm. Ish. Needless to say, by this point I had consumed a few drinks.

Then one of the guys who is also a member of Livingston Round Table said something along the lines of:
"Andy, do ye wanna cycle from Glasgow to Edinburgh to for charity?"
Apparently I replied "Yeah sure, why not?"

A couple of weeks later, I was reminded that I had now committed to cycling 51 miles for charity, as part of the annual event Pedal for Scotland. I had a challenge on my hands.

A new bike and a couple of months later, all of my training rides so far cumulatively add up to 160 miles. If I'm honest, I'm a little chuffed with that. So you could say that I've improved my fitness because of the amount of beer I had that night!

There are a good few of us from Livingston Round Table who are doing the challenge, and we're all raising funds for the wonderful charity Round Table Children's Wish. We've donated a little money to them before, but hopefully we can make more of a difference this time around.


Anyway, here's a link to our JustGiving page. Any donation you can offer, no matter how large or small, would be greatly appreciated.

Now I'm just hoping for sun on the 11th September...

My despair at the car industry

I realised recently that there aren't many sexy cars on the roads.

Let me explain. I bought a car recently, and the two criteria I had were a bit of oomph and a bit of space. In that order. It's entirely possible that I thought way too much about the whole buying process - I even had a spreadsheet - but that's not what this post is about.

As part of the buying process I spent a ridiculous amount of my time looking at the other cars around me on the roads. I had no problem at all finding cars which meet my criteria, but I had much more of a challenge on my hands trying to find a car which I desire.

The only car I have found thus far which gives the 'ohmygodiwantthatcar' response happens to be the Lamborghini Aventador. Well, any sports car if I'm honest, but the Lambo will always be at the top of the list. The only problem is that I haven't won the lottery, so back in the real world affordability is a consideration.

So as part of my research phase I came up with a few cars that are aesthetically appealing. But have you noticed that they all look the same? Then as soon as a car comes out which looks different from the rest of the herd, the rest of the big names are copying it. Don't you think that if you squint a bit, a Renault Megane looks a little like a Volkswagen Scirocco, which in turn looks a lot like the latest Vauxhall Astra? I don't want a car that's exactly the same as absolutely everything else on the road, I want something different!

Then my rant brings me onto colour. Black, white, or a thousand shades of grey. Some of the greys even make a passable attempt at passing themselves off as being silver. Wait a minute, there's another colour... navy blue! Yeuch. I thought Ford were on to something when they brought out the new version of the focus, but the loud colours never really took off. It's a big turnaround from Henry Ford's original vision, but it's hardly changed the world.

So after reaching the conclusion that 99.9% of cars on the roads are boring, I came up with an idea. What this world needs is a cross between the practicality and affordability of a big family car, and the stunning good looks of a sports car.

Actually, sod the practicality bit. I just want a Lamborghini that I can afford.

Wait a minute, if everyone could afford it, would it still be desirable? I dunno, but it would sure as hell be prettier than most of the other cars out there.


(For the record, I bought a silver mondeo)