Watched some of the coverage of the Sxxxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx Hong Kong Marathon today. The race organizers and the media kept reminding us it attracted over 40,000 runners. Wow. I didn't know so many people run in Hong Kong!

Wow. I was right. Many participants were not runners and reading from a runners forum it was obvious that "real" runners were deeply frustrated, AGAIN, by the lousy organization, the boring route, and more importantly not able to perform well cos they were boxed in and blocked by thousands upon thousands of slow runners/joggers/walkers/wankers some who even stop to take pictures whilst munching on bananas.

Of the 40,000 participants, the vast majority are in the 10K races (I think only 2,000 ran the full marathon correct me if I'm wrong I am too lazy to verify this information hell I can't even remember how I got this figure into my head it's possible that I dreamt it -- the news just on says 6,000 ran the full marathon, not a reliable source though cos it also says 97% of the participants ran all three races??? what the fuck?? well that's ATV World News for you pop kids). Now, I am not much of a runner but even I know that there are dozens of 10Ks held in this town every year. None of these other races attract nearly as many participants.

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here, apart from stating the obvious. The bleeding obvious.

Maybe it's just me being envious of all these dedicated souls who are disciplined enough to have dragged their asses out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to get ready for the 10K race. Maybe I'm just jealous of these dedicated and no doubt very fortunate souls who got to participate in "one of the greatest sporting events in Hong Kong history" etc etc. It's bleeding obvious, innit. Small minded female and her bleeding sour grapes!

And now onto more interesting matters. I'm drinking a from a bottle of port that a colleague got from the university's annual new year party luck draw. In the Dept lunch last week he brought it with him, left it on the table in an attempt to get rid of it. Well you know me I've always had a problem of saying no to free booze so I brought it back with me. Opened it last night, had a wee sip, it was terribly sweet. Had some more just now and a closer look at the bottle tells me this port is from Australia! Call me a prejudiced bastard but hell, the rate things are going, China will be the next biggest port exporter in the world.