A difficult shave

20 September - Decided to shave today for the first time since Christmas Eve. It would have to be the longest I've gone without any attempt to curb the growth of hair follicles coming out of my face. Although I did have a two (or was it three) month record of staying away from a close shave whilst travelling I was still using my then functional beard trimmer, which has sadly given up the ghost of life these past three weeks. My mighty beard, whilst not of Peter Phelps in Ned Kelly stature, was pretty goddamn thick and I had to go throw two razors to actually get rid of it all. The razor would just slide over the clumps of hair, especially around the chin, them being too big to fit between the gaps on the triple bladed sword of Antar-Khan. Whilst there are definite advantages in letting the beard grow long enough to provide a grip that will pull the hair far enough out of the follicle so that when it is cut it what is left is completely under the surface there is a point where it can get too long to be conquered by conventional weapons. Nonetheless it was a close shave with no nicks and I'm certainly feeling the cold Vancouver breeze now that it's gone. Last night's lack of sleep resulted in a rather late wakeup and it wasn't until 1pm when I finally made it out the back gates not that I really had any specific plans to go anywhere. A few more movies have arrived at the local cinemas that have piqued my interest but truth be told I'm really suffering a bit of movie fatigue. I'm also suffering printed word fatigue, the result of last night's insomnia was me plowing through Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat, an examination of horizontal economic relationships and how the globalisation is now inevitable. He writes a bit too much like Bill Bryson for my liking (he has too many "wonderful friends" to back up his conclusions) and it did have the unfortunate effect of scaring me into thinking that I should return to the IT industry before I get completely left behind by my six months going on one year (or maybe more) sabbatical. Basically, I'm getting a hunger for some physical activity. If I return to biking on Monday that should restore some of my vigour but I want to get a bit of variety in and it will still be a while before I can risk anything that requires the use of my dwindling guns.
Went downtown to do some library exchanges and went to the Cambie for a beer where I bumped into the Brickyard crowd who have migrated there (the bike and live music friendly brickyard has shut down and is due to be reincarnated as a 'sports bar') and then went out to Kitsilano where I met Dimitri for a chat and a beer or two. Got chatting with the drummer-singer for the pub's band who was very fond of Australia and dedicated his favourite Australian song to the Australian traveller in the crod (it might have been me) - it was Crowded House Everywhere You Go ... fool.