I've always been worried when I look back at events over the past few years and realise that in fact they happened much further in the past than I thought. Both TI and AC were as surprised as I was that it was eight years ago that we went skiing but perhaps this is a good thing. If I've really packed in as much stuff in the intervening time as I think I have yet my memory of those events are as if they happened last year, that seems like a good thing to me. I hope that in another forty years time, I can look back on all the things I've done as if they've only just
happened. Perhaps life going past so fast just means that memories are still fresh, that don't seem so bad. Indeed the cycling holidays we went on seem like just a year or so ago. Strange that I can still feel the burn of Shap Fell in my calves even though it was over half a decade ago that we struggled up there in the freezing cold and pouring rain. It was four and a half years ago that we were in Prague and mid September 2001 the world turned temporarily on its head, strange times were had and phone calls were made that will live on as legend, yet I can still remember sitting in the hotel room as the air-raid sirens sounded, the TV went black and some unknown force took over every station, like it was last week. Anyway, all I'm saying is that I shall think more positively that these memories are still almost as fresh as when they were made, I guess it means that this stuff is all worth doing as it really does
stay with me and builds who I am.

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On a completely different note, something hit me yesterday as I was chatting to a friend on msn. I was asked if I had a myspace site, and the answer was that I didn't know, I couldn't remember. I'm now so diffused throughout the aethernet, so diluted in cyberspace by being registered with a thousand different usernames, passwords, e-mail addresses, likes and dislikes, forum comments, program registrations that I don't know where I am in the web anymore. The web has become the sticky trap that confuses and paralyses its prey that its name suggests. This is a problem and I can only see it getting worse. Yesterday I spent half an hour registering with another site called couchsurfing. A great idea whereby people from around the world offer their couch to fellow travelers and in return get free accommodation throughout the world. You're under no obligation to host anyone but instantly have a new network of contacts, verifiable by other couchsurfers around the world...but this site is not the point. The point is that again, I was putting in all my information, coming up with a new and slightly different persona from the other thousand I have floating around somewhere in 1s and 0s. Surely we'll all fade into a strange superposition of
disconnected registrations unless somehow we can centralise. Alarm bells ring as the idea of putting all your information in one place raises spectres of identity theft, big brother control, insurance set-ups etc. but I feel I'm becoming more and more spread over the world where I have far less control over my information because I've now put it in so many places that I can't even remember who knows what. What should be done about this? Any ideas, I'm intrigued.

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On a positive note, I'm over the food poisoning, back on solids and after a short week, ready to go exploring this weekend. There are musings of an excellent DJ being in the city but will see. I plan on making up for my lost two days so may go in search of some of the many galleries in Beijing. Photos I hope will follow.