Ever wondered what an Amazon shop actually looks like?

Ghost Rider.

Just forget about the predictable plot and the cheesey, written-by-a-seven-year-old dialogue. Forget about it all having been done before in Warlock. Forget that it’s thin and forgettable even for a Marvel movie.

Dude! What the fuck has Nicholas Cage done to his head? I’m not talking about the flaming skull — that was actually pretty cool, even if it rendered him monosyllabic and lacking in character. I’m talking about his damn head! When did the guy who played Cameron “Put the bunny back in the box” Poe start mutating into Leonard freaking Nimoy? It was scary. I spent the entire film agog at this bizarre apparition, and the bare torso scene… Nick. Oh Nick. People are not going to be fooled by dry-brushing fake tan over your abs. And the hair? Really. I could forgive Christopher Walken in The Prophecy because it was somehow fitting on an archangel who didn’t give a fuck for talking monkeys, but on you it was just bad hair. Really bad hair.

I should say that I’ve never read any Ghost Rider, so was not left ranting about how inaccurate it was and how the character would never do such a thing. This is a good way to watch Marvel on the big screen. And if you’re going to see it, do go to the cinema: the FX make this movie, and it will be desperately disappointing when confined to a corner of your living room.

A few in-jokes for lovers of old Chuck Norris films and I was left with a strong craving to get the old motorbike out again. Being a sad Marvel fan-girl I felt it was worth the price of admission for the trailer for Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer. The Silver Surfer looked damn hot. And the trailer for the next Spidey movie revelaed it has Venom in it!

Two sub 17 minute 750m swim sessions last week and a fairly decent cycle run, then today I put in a 16:19 750m. How chuffed am I?

All looking good for Tranent and then tonight I have a stupid fecking accident and kick a door frame wearing only socks. I’ve spent the last three hours with my foot wrapped in ice and elevated, it hurts like bejesus and is swollen like someone attached a bicycle pump to my little toe and inflated to 100psi.

I’d already decided to treat Tranent as a training gig rather than a full race owing to recent back injuries and illness, but this looks like I may end up being a DNS.

Not impressed.

I just managed to get a copy of Hardware on R2 DVD from a very nice man on Ebay.

You know what this means, don’t you?

Avatar frenzy!

Not nearly as much fun as a nice, long bike ride, but it’ll have to do.

So much for my plans to go to Dundee tomorrow and ride home. I have a seized lower back and a nasty cold to add to my still rather misshapen broken finger.

So, to cheer myself up, I ordered the Suunto foot pod for my T3. Kewl. For the even more geeky PT obsessives amongst you out there, I should also point out the Suunto Smart Belt. Now you can get real time HR data IN THE POOL!

Speaking of things that are too cool for words, may I direct the noble reader to these Dutch Eco Homes. They are amphibious. Yes, you read that right: amphibious.

Those crazy Dutch! They’re so hip and happening they’ll do themselves a mischief one of these days.

“Which CSI is this one? Which one did we inflict on ourselves last night?”

“Oh, I don’t know. CSI Miami. CSI New York. There are millions of them.”

“CSI Antarctica?”

“CSI Penguin!”

The first scene of what turns out to be CSI New York shows a bar turned into an ice cave. There is a penguin.

I give up.

Well, tea, to be honest.

One of my favourite C+ers, the poster currently known as Toshiake — whom I wish to buy a drink or three at the earliest opportunity — posted the following classic piece:

Dear Sir

When so-called asylum seekers get free haircuts for their swans isn’t it time someone did something about cyclists?

Yesterday I saw a completely invisible cyclist riding backwards with no lights or helmet, drunk, on fire, juggling bubonic plague vials as laser death rays shot out of his lights and blinded passers-by. Dozens lay slain. And they don’t pay road tax.

Yours etc

Colin Apron.

Brilliant stuff. Keep up the good work that man.

I’ve been playing with my camera again.

I took this shot from a colleague’s car while it was sitting in the Glenrothes Morrison’s car park. He’d gone to get some lunch. The crow caught my eye and then I realised how ecclesiastical the lamp appeared against the overcast sky.

The bird stayed there long enough for me to take another shot, which I’ve colourised a little because, as they say in Pimp My Ride: I can.

…unless you come back with an injury.

We did the Chain Walk today with my parents. I slipped on the rock on the first chain while my finger was caught through a loop, and now the end of my finger is black and swollen. Even so, it was a brilliant day out. The one thing that put a bit of a downer on it was the vast amount of litter and trash all over beaches that I remember as being utterly beautiful when I was small.

More on that later. My finger hurts too much to type right now.

While on the team management screen on the aforementioned Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

“There’s Silver Surfer on his board. Maybe he’ll do a Stalefish.”

“Stalefish to Mute Air?”

“Followed by the Worm. Silver Surfer does the Worm.”

“I’d pay to see that.”

Marvel does SSX Tricky. That’s what passes for geekery round here.