I’ve recently started going for runs as a means to quash boredom as well as to get fit. Once you get into a routine it’s actually rather addictive, but no amount of good intentions is enough to really motivate me. What is a good motivator though, is monetary investment. I think I’ve spent a few hundred pounds on running apparel and equipment, so with that money invested i’m officially not allowed to quit. Quite frankly, all of my purchases were necessary. My running arsenal of choice comprises of: Sansa 8gb Clip Mp3 Player, Sennheiser PMX80 Sport Headphones, Garmin Forerunner 50 Watch with Heart Rate Monitor and Footpod, Nike Free 5.0 V4 running shoes, and various other Nike running clothing (as well as a backup pair of running shoes).

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Just because I’m free of the tyranny of needing to actually do things (note: work), it doesn’t mean you don’t have important things to do that you’d rather be distracted from. And what better form of distraction is talking to complete strangers on the intertubes?

Hell, it’s the last bastion of the old adage that is ‘ASL’.

So if you’re bored, go make friends with strangers without the risk of aggrevating your knife-wound allergies.

As a reward for volunteer work we do for Arsenal Football Club, a bunch of us were invited to have a friendly match at the Emirates Stadium. Known across England for having the best playing surface of any football club, this was a fantastic opportunity. One day after a Premier League game was played on the pitch, it was again back to being completely pristine. It’s a sad thought that I’ll likely never get the chance to play on such an amazing surface.

We also had the chance to meet former Arsenal legends Ray Parlour and Martin Keown, who were also our ‘coaches’ for the day. Though my team lost 1-0 it was a great day out, and a most excellent reward for both my volunteering, and for getting my dissertation handed in on time earlier in the day. Clearly the photographs of the match weren’t taken by me, I haven’t quite perfected my teleportation technique yet. For the sake of internet anonymity let’s call the photographer my good friend ‘Sandwich’.