It's a worry. Especially as I have agreed (in a characteristically feeble attempt to augment my Mr Muscle physique) to attend yet another Body Pump. It's the only exercise class in West London where you can simultaneously heave hefty weights and relive the pain that was Drop Dead Gorgeous by Republica...

The trip is organised by Footloose (see here for details) and costs £1200 - she'll take any offers over £300. If you're interested get in touch.

Sigh.

Apropos of nothing, here's a very pretty tag graph of my weblog, minor9th.com, made with HTML graph. All the different coloured blobs represent different types of html tag and their nestings:

blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags

Not the neatest thing I've ever seen, but it's definitely interesting.

Things which have been floating my boat recently, and which should be at least entering your general pond:

• Google Calendar - I especially love the way it integrates with GMail - when emails with events come in, GMail provides a link to add it directly to the calendar. Look out, Outlook (OK, I'll hand myself in to the Pun Police)
• Belleville Rendez-vous - wonderfully diverting, mind-expanding and wholly endearing piece of animation. I'm not the only one who loves it - Metacritic: 91, IMDB: 7.7.
• 
  Kate Rusby - she's been loved for a few years in Pearson Towers but I only saw her live last week at The Big Ask Live at Koko (VIP ticket very generously supplied by Stephen, who won a pair over at Friends Of The Earth). Also great to see Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood playing some new Radiohead material (I have very high hopes for the new album) as well as a good chunk of the downright awesome classics. It's been 6 years since I last saw Radiohead. Shows how poor I am, I guess.
• Being a hermit (did I mention this already? Hiding under the duvet and chomping an easter egg whilst watching Miles and Anna arguing is just excellent)
• This Life - for all its dodgy acting, annoying (arty) shaky camerawork, persistent references to the 90s and the odd laughable computer, it's still compelling drama. Thank goodness for the DVD.
• Soil and Pimp - giant Japanese jazz artists with so much energy you wonder exactly what the pimp has been feeding them.
• 
  Ginglik - this tiny little club is surely the dictionary definition of intimate. At The Big Secret on a Wednesday it's all sofas, drapes and the Wand Of Silence - waved at noisemakers by Amity the host - as she presides over an evening of live music from carefully selected up-and-coming singer/songwriters. Inspiring stuff.

And now off to the pub in search of a much-needed Corona at dusk. I think it should definitely be late spring all year round.

Altogether a very successful and relaxing weekend. Hurrah!

Woman 1: I'm can't decide what to do about John when I'm away. I think I should get him some ready meals...
Woman 2: Hmm...
Woman 1: Should I get him Finest?
Woman 2: ... No.
Woman 1: No, I don't think so either.

I'm beginning to think that my perfect job would be to collect perfectly random statistics for myself that I could attempt to palm off to other people for some amount of money. For example:

• How much did all the hair belonging to the UK population weigh in 1985?
• How often have I used the word 'obligatory'?
• Actually, what is the average length of all the words I spoke today? How does this compare to my peers? Am I (as I fear), an ineloquent bafoon?
• How much did all the hair belonging to the UK population weigh in 1986?
• How many cups of tea are enjoyed between 9.30 and 11am (my favourite time for tea)? Update: thanks to the fascinating tea.co.uk, which estimates that the nation drinks a whopping 165 million cups of tea every day, I estimate that between those hours, roughly 12 million cups are slurped.
• How likely am I to know someone who has matched at least 5 numbers in the National Lottery? (I still think the whole thing is a complete scam - no-one really wins more than a tenner)
• On what day, precisely, did marketing people adopt 'Web 2.0' as a phrase to bandy around as though it sounded like a good thing?
• How many people have skipped through Mrs Bartolozzi on Kate Bush's Aerial when she started screeching #Washing Machiiiiiine?
• How many people started singing #Tuuuumble Dryer (this is definitely a number greater than 0)
• Has the weight of all the hair attached to the UK population ever exceeded that of their pets?

If anyone can hazard guesses at any of these, I'll be really grateful. Oh and you should definitely give Sine Love by Trademark a whirl, it's a beautiful track.

I'm going to have to save a little before I can afford something spangly and new, and moreover I didn't want to lose him entirely.

Sniffle.

Update: I've also broken my wooden window blinds quite spectacularly this morning. I am teh clumsy. I'd take a picture, but alas...

New York was, as expected, a bewildering feast for my naive senses. I snapped (hello flickr), caught up (hey Bart & Chris!) and ate as much as I could (hello belly). The most difficult thing of all to comprehend initially was that this city which I've seen so much of on the big and small screen is real and actually functions; all those impossibly tall buildings have people bustling around in them. I guess these feelings are the inverse of the stereotypical "How quaint!" often heard from American tourists over here.

It being our first time in the big apple, we mostly stuck to the core (groan) tourist sights, though relished visits to the wonderful Grounded coffee house in Greenwich Village, Cup in Astoria and John's Pizza in the West Village (the latter two came well recommended from our wonderous host Bart). The views from atop the Rockefeller Centre, on Brooklyn Bridge and the Staten Island ferry were truly breathtaking - and all the more rewarding because there was so much to recognise. Photos, none of which do justice to the wonderment beheld, will be on flickr very soon.

Less loved was the Subway, which often felt to me like a dirtier, wildly confusing and less friendly version of the Budapest Metro (where they play a little tune when the doors open). It's not very friendly to newcomers, but we just about sussed it out (though we did occasionally half-expect to end up plunging into Hudson Bay...)

I'd go back in a second. The people, the sights, the sounds, the smells (hmm, perhaps not the smells), the buzz and the weather - which jumped from being below freezing to 22°C in just 5 days - make it a really bizarre and fascinating place. Hopefully it won't be ridiculously long before I get the chance to pay another visit. Thanks to all who gave us tips on what to see and do - our sore feet are testament to the fact that we packed in pretty much all we could, and apologies for the big fan-boy-stylee post. It just had to be done.