Open Diary entry for 17/06/06 Saturday Sagacity…. (un-bloody likely!) We’ve got the United States playing Italy tonight which should be enjoyable. The US were a bit blown away by the Bouncing Czechs in their first game, but should have enough to offer The Azzuri a bit of a test. I hope it is better than Mexico’s laboured display against the industrious Angola last night. Special menus for lunch and supper today with various national dishes from various teams – I asked if there was a Scottish dish but that only prompted a look of pitying contempt….. I was going to tell the chef that we have actually already won a trophy this summer, but I could see it would not have registered. And so I am soldiering on at work with some really heroic paperwork shuffling, and a few practical tasks out and about the decks…busy busy busy. Assisted in the Helicrew at the end of yesterday’s shift. The Copter had a female pilot. We were hanging around a wee while as she hovered carefully over the deck before landing. The ladies always take a wee bit longer with their parking! ( KF dons his safety hat to avoid lobbed objects) Today’s visit to the treadmill saw me get changed into my shorts, vest and running shoes, switch the machine on , trot about 100mtrs and say ‘to hell with it’. A rest day is needed methinks. Thanks go to Equanimous ( esperanta, as was) for pointing me in the direction of Gordon Livingston, who seems to be quite a sane and thoughtful writer. I’ve been on to Mr Amazon and have whistled up a couple of his books. Oh, and while I was on I lalso ordered CDs of The Who Live at Leeds, Bruce Springsteen’s Pete Seeger album and the new John Fogerty / Creedence Best of Collection. And a replacement Finepix digital camera. Don’t tell Mrs F just yet ,eh? Right-oh, I suppose I’d better go and hi-jack a suitably iconic picture off google images to create a space on Flickr to post this dribble up….some more paperwork drudgery… and phone Mrs Fitlike to bring a little ray of sunshine into her day….

I dropped by Second Wind Running Store (www.secondwindrunningstore.com) and copped these running shoes. I was assisted by Neville, the marketing manager of the store, and he advised me to settle for a pair that's ideal for stability since he noticed that i'm quite flat-footed. He took out 5 pairs and told me to run at the treadmill using each pair and find out what i like the most. I settled for the "Asics Gel Kayano 16" for road running. It's simply the best running shoes i have ever tried. Well, it should be... it's priced quite high at P8,500.00... but damn, it feels really, really good. The second pair i got was the New Balance 749 which i will use for trail running and biking. It's quite light and very comfortable. It retails for P3,995.00. Now, let's RUN!!!