September 2013

[Sweder]

I spent the first day of the new month strapped to a 747-400 from Sydney to Hong Kong. We touched down a tad early, around 5pm. Ordinarily I'd have celebrated by jumping on the train to Wanchai, downing pints like there's no tomorrow whilst soaking up an unending supply of heavy rock covers in Amazonia.

But there is a tomorrow, and within it lies Mount Doom. So I turned left instead of right, making straight for the hotel. Shower, unpack, hit the gym. 50 minutes on a variety of machines (20 minutes on a static bike and 10 on the tready) followed by another shower and room service (no chips). You can see the shine from my halo reflected off Orion's Belt on a clear night.

This is week four of my battle against the bulge. I've shed around 4 kilos, give or take. I have no clue what my body fat percentage is (or was). What matters is, despite a brutal travel schedule and sleep patterns straight out of a Salvador Dali nightmare, I feel pretty chipper. Frustrated, temptation has played her trump card. Wrong Kong offers the chance to wreck yourself in an infinite number of ways. But my hotel has a great gym, good, healthy food and is tucked away on a peninsular 40 minutes from the ultimate heart of darkness. Take that, temptation. It's fat burnin' time ...