Animals VI: an emasculated lion

What a week. It commenced with Matt and AC's wedding out in Paris - a very cool couple and a great party, which was only slightly cut short by the knowledge that I had to fly to Chicago the next day for the start of a marketing trip. This saw me go to Madison, Austin, Houston, New York and Boston. Non-work highlights included catching up with Kiddo, Jill and their daughter Emily (Chicago), Shindles (Boston) and eating possibly the best burger that I've ever had (at JG Melon in NYC). I hate coming home from Boston as the flight time is so short but I managed about 5 hours kip before returning via brunch at the Walms' in St Margarets.

Running again. It seems like ages since I last took to the streets and I'd almost forgotten what to do. It's also got cold since my last proper foray, the Marathon du Médoc in mid-September. I took things easy yesterday with a quick 6-miler to test out my tendons. I was full of paranoia as I started out (past what was apparently some filming for the next series of Ashes to Ashes on my street) and I was conscious of every tiny twinge in my right foot. Amazingly all seemed fine so I ran another 6 miles today, again without any reaction so far. The main problem is I'm clearly much less fit than I was 5 weeks ago and my calves feel pretty tight, but it's great that I appear to be OK, having bottled the steroid injection because I'm a big scaredy-cat.

The lion is at the far point of these rather short runs, on the South side of Westminster Bridge. When you start to delve into these things, they always have amazing histories - the sculpture is made out of fake stone and was originally painted red when it stood on the site of an old brewery that made way for the Festival Hall. He was apparently 'modified' when he was moved to his new location, as he was rather too well-endowed for the sensibilities of the day, poor chap.