Operation Don't Get Fatter
Failure. Gained about 4 pounds in 3 weeks what with Italy, Xmas and visiting the parents. Not too unexpected: unpleasant to feel my belly wobbling when I break into a run again though. Should be able to lose it in a month or so if I concentrate.

Really needed the break from healthiness though: it was beginning to do my head in.

LHusiBeers, Saturday Jan 6th, Anchor, 6 PM
Or if you're a serious drinker, turn up earlier and save us wimps a table.

What I'm Reading
Started reading Pandora's Star and "Judas Unchained" by Peter F. Hamilton: old school space opera.

I think the reason I liked his "Night's Dawn" trilogy more than his other stuff is that I had the advantage of reading the books out of order. He has a horrible tendency to start his huge books with hundreds and hundreds of pages of scene-setting, where nothing actually happens but you're introduced to vast cast of nearly indistinguishable characters, and things are explained to you in the style of If all stories were written like science fiction stories.

Especially when the female characters are introduced, the prose is almost embarrassing to read.

For an arms dealer, Rachael Lancier wasn't inconspicuous. She wore a bright scarlet dress with a low front. Long chestnut hair was arranged in an elaborate wave, with small luminescent stars glimmering among the strands. Her rejuvenation had returned her to her early twenties, when she was very attractive.
...
The Chief Investigator's thick raven hair had been brushed straight so that it hung well below her shoulder blades. She always allowed it to sweep in front of her face, partially obscuring her features. Given her notoriety that was understandable. But when she did use a hand to brush those strands aside men would look up from their desks and stare, not just because of the legend she was. The Human Structure Foundation on Huxley's Haven which had so carefully developed her genome had selected a mix of Filipino and European genes as a baseline, giving her a natural beauty which was utterly beguiling. A rejuvenation five years previously made it look as if she was now in her early twenties.
...
She was wearing a bikini top and some tight shorts, showing off a trim, tanned teenage body. 'Hi, I'm Amanda.'
...
Liz took a while in their bathroom getting ready for bed. She had a shower and used some of the smaller, more expensive bottles of scent, dabbing the chilly drops on her skin and massaging them in until the flesh seemed to glow. Then she took out the special cream silk lingerie that she knew Mark really liked. Her jet-black hair was combed out until it hung loosely down below her shoulders. Then she put on her gold gown, carefully arranging it so it was almost falling open at the front.
...
April Gallar Halgarth was sitting on the settee, looking as woebegone as if she'd just been told her parents had undergone complete bodyloss. Even dressed in baggy green jeans and a crumpled old russet T-shirt, she was quite beautiful. A tall twenty-year-old with smooth light-ebony skin, thick wavy hair, and sweet features that belonged on an even younger face.
...
Mellanie was standing silhouetted in the light from the lounge, her auburn hair dried and straightened so it fell down her back, the tiny dress exposing vast amounts of toned young flesh.

Fortunately things get better later on, when he assumes you're up to speed on women's hair and starts blowing shit up.