5 kilo.

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels, right? I beg to differ. I haven't been physically unwell continuously for a week, errr, ever. At least as far as my memory stretches back. This week i have spent the majority - no hyperbole - of the time between 1am and 6am up, in pain, vomiting and as of 4.30am this morning having diarrhoea. Yeah, yeah, it's probably just a bug. Well, i do what i do for a living and i know that, but this is getting pretty damn tiresome. In 6 days i have lost 5 kilos. That weight loss would have served me well at this weekends VC Moulin ride - 200km of beautiful roads and hills organised by the DS. I ain't no Schleck, but hauling 84 kilos over a big hill is a lot easier than 89 kilos. Power to weight ratios. Power to wait? Hmmm...i really wanted to be there and i am looking forward to photos and reports.

Of course, despite the mockery of a review by the surgical team at the hospital that had me taking my own leave of the ward, i will get better. And of course, in reality, this is trivial- a mere blip on an otherwise healthy and blessed existence, but i'm tired, y'know?

Coincidentally, i was reminded of Fast Boy Ezra's blog somehow the other day. You want to read about fortitude in the face of ill health, an insightful and inspiring comment on life's curve balls, then i suggest paying attention to his blog.

In the meantime, i am enjoying the dying stages of the tour, i'd really like to see Cadel in yellow. There are few riders in the tour that work as hard, as consistently, as him and i believe in him. Unlike Bertie. As brash as Cavendish is, i also strongly want to see him retain the green jersey. He is a showman, über talented, yes - a loudmouth, but so exciting to watch.

Shaggy leaves for the Colorado trail race soon. Many years ago now, we sat around a camp fire in Wales, on a bike/rave weekend Chipps organised (where we met at a service station in north england with no idea where we were all headed and convoyed to a pub with grounds that allowed us to ride, drink beer and chill for a weekend). An inspired idea - thanks Chipps!

Late, late in the night shaggy and myself regaled 2 local lads of our complicated and entirely fabricated tales of solo and ultra-minimalist adventures across the world. How we funded our adventures based off a double bladed scalpel design and had married each others sisters. At the time, it was almost a battle of wits to see how one of us responded to the others opening gambit: for example... "so Jon, tell them about that time we were on top of Denali in a storm, with our bikes and we had to call in the choppers...?"

Course, the ironic thing is shaggy is doing his damnedest to turn fantasy into reality - and with a great deal of success. I wish him tail winds and fine, blue skies.

Yesterday, i watched the film Fair Game. It is not as good as it could have been, but it is *well* worth viewing and then it is well worth reading around the reality the film was based on. Yet another sickening inditement of what governments are capable of when they want to find means to an end. Also a great performance by Sean Penn.

Ok. Have a good weekend. Hopefully the next entry will be a little more dynamic.