Yep, it's that well-known celebration day when all the people of English origin remember the Saint George, the patron saint of England, and... do absolutely nothing! Yes, we don't even have a national holiday, which is a bit pants but who cares - I'm sat here doing nothing so fuck the workers and up the English!

Here's a nice Christian symbol just to show that atheists can be proud of a symbol of torture and execution:

Did I mention that the red cross is considered to be offensive to Muslims because they regard it as a symbol of the Crusades? Tough titty.

It's also Shakespeare's birthday, plus he died on this day too. I expect he had just blown out his candles and opened yet another pair of wooly socks from a well-meaning relative and the strain was just too much for him. Bugger.

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Footnote:
Talking of death, I feel like croaking it myself today - I just did 30 km on the exercise bike. That's 18.6 miles in case you're still not up to speed with the metric system (I mix the two anyway - we're the only country which uses both systems at once). Last week I set myself a target of doing 50 miles (80.5 km) in 3 days and that was pretty tough, but imagine my disappointment when I realised that had I done just another 2.5 miles that would have been two full marathons in 3 days. As per Shakespeare... bugger. Oh well, it leaves me another target for some other time.

30 km in a day is a lot, and I did it all on setting 11 (I used to struggle on setting 6!) and is just about my limit for now. I'm still doing the resistance bands but have cut out the leg exercises, for several reasons: they are particularly time consuming, I don't enjoy them at all, and because I do plenty of leg work on the bike. I'm doing this for life, so it's got to be something I keep doing, so anything I hate has to go. I now spend 45 minutes doing exercise bands, whereas before it was taking me way too long - having to do 90 minutes meant that some days I was skipping the bands and doing the bike (hence the 3-day/50-mile thing), which is not good because I want to do both so as to be fit overall.

My weight has gone from 280 pounds (20 stone) when I started, down to 244 pounds (17 stone 6 pounds), and that's 36 pounds in 16 weeks. I seriously can't believe I've stuck at this for 16 weeks. I've had to buy new clothes - 4 inches gone off my waist, my T-shirt size in now L not XL, and unfortunately my leather jacket now looks like it was made for a fat bloke (it was - me!). Amazingly enough, I just have to shift another 12 pounds and I will be 'normal weight' for my height, which is 6'9", although I am ultimately aiming for 16 stone (224 pounds) because that will be 20% of my weight gone! I'm feeling great. Well, great when I recover - at the moment I am completely knackered.

I'm not sure if anyone is reading these exercise things, but it's something to do when I don't have the energy to stand up again! This has precious little to do with religion, but if I can try to stretch a point, it does prove that you don't need God to motivate yourself and change your life. Pictures of Kylie Minogue in her underwear are just as effective, I find!

Up the English, down with the weight!