Three Strikes: Week 40

I've been hammering the hand-bike recently, a machine for upper body toning. My original PB- recorded in August last year- was much higher than the attempt I recently made on returning to it. My guess is that I'd not paid attention to the level of difficulty I'd set the machine to on my first attempt, so I've started the process again at Level 5, and hit a distance much higher than the original from 13 months ago.

Away from the gym I finished reading Dom Joly's The Dark Tourist, a first-hand account of the comedian's tour of the world's most unlikely- and most uncomfortable- holiday destinations. I read a large part of this on a gym workout project (see here). Coming back to the book, I found that the content was quite interesting. After all, where else have you heard of 3-hour North-Korean stage plays or acid-ingesting cocktail barmen in Beirut?

Eventually, though, Joly's excursions take their toll- you get the feeling he's doing these trips to be zany, rather than because of a genuine interest in the countries he visits. Yes, you could go skiing on the segregated slopes of Iran, but why would that be enjoyable? What do you hope to gain from this? Although interesting- and funny- in places, Joly's pompous ramblings and over-wordy phrasing becomes tiresome. Too many sentences started with “It was” followed by an adjective that we can work out for ourselves. Yes, Dom. I'm quite sure that passing a 12-year-old girl “energetically conducting” an orchestra of pioneers on a Pyongyang high street under an enormous poster of Kim Jong Il would be “totally surreal”. I can gauge that from your description.

An interesting book, but Joly's obsession with himself is too evident, something publishers Simon & Schuster should have reigned in to make shorter.

Moving on. Guess how long I have until I'm gracing Ibiza with my awesome presence and stunning dance skills? I'll let the fat woman from Total Recall give you a hint.