December

[El Gordo]

It's a great disappointment to me too -- I was due to meet up with the great Sweder in London tonight for the very final Richard Bacon show, but the elements have ambushed us. I'm indebted to Sweder for inviting me, and such a shame that the pleasure cannot be fullly consummated.

It's a bizarre situation. We are not allowed to tell you why it would have been such a Special experience. You have to be a listener to the show to truly understand the constraints. If people see this message before midnight GMT tonight, they can tune in, or catch it on the web. No more than that can be said at this time. But I will say that it's been an honour and a privilege to have shared this year-long experience with certain others here in the UK, and around the globe. It proved to me that it is still possible to be mildly anarchic in the middle of it all.

Beyond that, my lips are sealed.

4 miles for me today. Slow too, but I didn't care. To run through rural England in ankle-deep snow, in December sunshine, is to know that you have triumphed in the lottery of life.