NYC

No, not the Big Apple but a condition known as New Year Cramp which I suffered this lunchtime whilst at the gym during my first session back after the festive season. Full with unfamiliar faces to the regular hardcore gym-nuts who were there before the overindulging began for Christmas etc, there was much red-faced exertion going on. Was doing fine with my usual stint on the cross-trainer (ski) machine followed by a punt on the rowing machine but a last-minute pang of guilt pushed me to try a kilometre on the running machine which eventually proved a feat beyond my legs (now more accustomed to being propped up on a sofa than pounding on a treadmill) which succumbed to NYC. Have New Year resolve to get as fit as I was when I ran the London Marathon (2001 & 2003) though I have no plans to run it this year despite yearly sequence dictating I should (one year on, one year off) - my last marathon could literally be my last marathon, though I do think three is a nice round number (and the magic number according to De La Soul).

There was supposed to be a national three minutes of silence today to commemorate the dead after the Asian Tsunami disaster. Our building's frontdesk sent a message through the tannoy to all the offices to remind everybody just before midday. I'm all for respecting the dead but wonder why this disaster warrants a three minute silence whilst others are just one minute, such as that for Memorial Day to commemorate those who died during the two World Wars, the Twin Towers terrorist attack and the Hillsborough Football disaster etc. Who decides these things, I always thought one minute was standard? Just a random thought.

This disaster is so far-reaching in terms of the nations directly affected not just in terms of the indigenous people of those countries directly devastated by the wave but tourists as well. The news scenes convey pure nightmare scenarios of injured people lying about makeshift, under-equipped hospitals and people looking for missing relatives and friends. My brother has been travelling SE Asia and was in Bangkok on his way to Cambodia when the disaster happened and so was lucky not to be caught up in it.

Whilst some First World countries (eg USA, Japan) have had their share, it seems the Third World suffers a disproportionate amount of natural disasters. They have definitely got it all against them. If the First World can exploit these countries to their own economic ends, they should be first in line to aid them when catastrophes occur. Sadly, it takes some kind of disaster like this to unite countries in humanitarian causes as opposed to warring with each other for a change and even then it's only temporary.