A badger of little brain

A while back, I worked out that while the average person can (apparently) hold about seven things in their head at a time, I can do five or six. I'm quick but not parallel. This occasionally manifests in wacky ways - intense focus on sinlge projects which drops when I'm distracted, and my fetish for fishbone diagrams in team meetings, for example. And today, ordering coffee:

"A large skinny fairtrade latte please. Heh! I remembered it all!"
"Is that to drink in or to go?"
"D'oh!"

There are just so many coffee options. Large, medium or small (really bucket, large or sensible)? fairtrade or less-bitter-but-rainforest-violating-regular? Cappucino, latte, americano, espresso? Full-fat or skinny? Syrup? Daf, decaf, half-caf? Sprinkles? In or out? Good or evil? Aiee!

The trick for us five-carders is to conflate the standard options. A largeskinnylatte is one just thing; fairtrade to go. Lovely, that's just three things to remember, so I can hold onto "mother's day card" without having to move my lips.

Steaming coachhorses, and a kit list

Once upon a time there was a BBC drama - a Dickens or Austen or the like. The Doctor had to be fetched from town in a storm. Out they went, driving the horses hell for leather, got the Doctor and returned him to the house in time to save the Squire or birth the Baby or whatever. And the horses, two big dark brutes, were led into the stabled covered in foam and given buckets of bran mash and a vigorous curry-combing by the Lad.

Just been for a run in the rain. I am now, officially, steaming - all across the shoulders. And I am a Clydesdale-weight, in tri standards.

Can I have my bucket of food and boy, please?

Random list: Running Kit:

• Shoes Saucony Grid 3D motion control.  Laces cut short and lace-lock toggles used for tri transition.  Nice and light even when soaked.
  
• Socks Twin Skin double-skin running socks.  Worth every penny, massively reduce blisters and chafing.
• Shorts Spanky new Sugoi Piston tri shorts.  As long as regular bike shorts but lower on the waist, with a thin pad and a couple of gel/key pockets.  Very well-behaved when soaked.  They're the tight, compression-style of lycra which I love - my big heavy thighs alternate between relaxed-and-flobbly and tight-as-tree-trunks and that's a lot of snappy flobble.  Compression lycra stabilises that, smooths out my stride, reduces fatigue and just feels nice.
• Singlet Nike dri-fit vest.  The black one.
• Bandana These work better for me than hats.  And they're cheap.  And you can get ones with skulls on.  And I look like Hulk Hogan's fat cousin Bob.
• Tunes Cheapy MP3 with Philips waterproof hooky headphones.  Sweat, rainstorms, they're indestructible.
  
• Timing Just a midrange Casio watch refitted onto a velcro strap so it will fit over winter gloves and  handlebars as well as wrists.