In which I have a brush with fame, eat something unusual and become astonished by London again. Also something surprising.
Twinkies and Mars Bars
After decades of references in television and film, to the point where to my mind they've attained the rank of some kind of Holy Grail of snacks, I've finally had a Twinkie.
If you don't know what they are, picture a chunk of sponge that would fit in your hand, full of cream. Each one is apparently 150 calories and contains 4.5 grams of fat. That's basically all there is to them.
It was okay. My stomach hurt briefly an hour after I'd eaten it.
In other food-related news, over Christmas I had a deep-fried Mars Bar. It was an interesting experience. It was still vaguely the expected shape, but obviously quite melted and unrecognisable inside. It actually tasted quite nice - a strange combination of sweet and savoury - but it was incredibly filling to the point where I struggled to finish it. Feels like one of those things it's worth trying once, but maybe not twice.
Celebrity
I met a prominent politician the other day. Well, I say 'met', actually I glimpsed the back of his head through a doorway. But it almost counts.
It wasn't a particularly big moment for me. But then, I'm not sure it would have been bigger if it had been someone more interesting.
I don't know what you're supposed to say to famous people. Hey, what's it like being on television? We live in a world of so much information sharing that it seems unlikely there's anything you could glean from a celebrity that isn't already all over the internet already.
Fawning over someone because they're well known seems redundant to me, but I don't even have an opening line to get that far.
Upcoming Spider-Man movies
Apparently a tussle has been going on between Marvel and Sony over the ownership of Spider-Man. It's a bit of a shame since Sony's track record for making these films is terrible whereas Marvel's Spider-Man: Homecoming was excellent, and Spider-Man: Far from Home is also pretty good (I'm told).
Hopefully Marvel will be able to continue the character in his current form. I'm particularly looking forward to the next movies.
- Spider-Man: Back Home Again
- Spider-man: Home Run
- Spider-Man: Home Cooking
- Spider-Man: Home Home on the Range
- Spider-Man: No fixed abode
Traffic light density in London
I cycle to work in London on a regular basis and my commute is 2.3 miles long (according to Google). According to Strava my moving time has been around 13 minutes but I reckon the actual time is a lot longer than that due to all the stops at red lights.
Because I'm curious, I decided to count how many traffic lights there are in the space of 2.3 miles. Including pedestrian crossings (which I also stop for) there are 29.
That means there's a potential stop on my commute on average every 127 metres. Or, to put it in simpler terms, one every 26 seconds. That... that can't be right, can it?
London.
This is my 200th article
Oh, and in other news, that. Yep. Two hundred articles. That's a lot. I think. Well, maybe. Anyway.
The headline says it all, really. Not much else to say about that. Well, I might unpack it a bit more in another article. We'll see.