1. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at the age of 18.
2. The 'Free Public Wifi' that comes up on my iPhone all the time (and that I cannot connect to) is a technical quirk in the way wireless connections work.
3. J.K. Rowling has not got a middle name. The publishers feared that boys would not take seriously the adventures of a wizard written by a woman and suggested Joanne Rowling should use her initials instead. K is for Kathleen, J.K. Rowling's paternal grandmother.
4. People applying for a visa to travel to Russia for longer than three months are required to provide an HIV certificate.
5. Flickr started as a roleplaying game called Game Neverending.
6. An estimated 90,000 birds each year are killed in New York City as a result of striking glass-fronted buildings.
   
7. Netflix does not track employees' holiday - they can take as much as they want.
   

1. Italian TV cut gay scenes from Brokeback Mountain (old story from 2008). Protesters: 'Decision reflects creeping homophobia'. Network claims censored version shown by mistake.
2. Andrew Ridgeley (The half of Wham! who can still drive in a straight line) lives with his partner Keren Woodward (Bananarama).
3. Every position of Rubik's Cube can be solved in twenty moves or fewer.
4. The Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego has a word for 'A look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one wants to start. The word is mamihlapinatapai.
5. You can have nested labels in Gmail.
   
6. Stoozing is the practice of making cash by cleverly manipulating credit cards to take advantage of interest free credit for new customers.
7. Jonathan Ross' wife is a screenwriter and is collaborating on X-Men: First Class.

Yes, I did get caught in the rain while running before, but no, I had never before willingly laced up my trainers while it was chucking it outside.

But as it has been raining for what feels like forever, and I needed to train, I thought I'd give it a go and went for a very quick 2 miles to Big Ben and back (I am lucky enough to live in central London).

I passed a few other runners - or rather, they passed me, I am still dealing with the slowness of carrying two extra stone of body weight on what is already a thick frame. Yeah, I'm slow.

And all these other runners, they looked so tough. Not the casual joggers I usually meet, these were hardened backpack-wearing ninjas that no wimpy little rainfall could stop. Respect. The backpack were probably full of bricks.

For about twenty minutes I was one of them, pushing through step after step, careless and focussed on the sound of my steps and my breath, for once not drowned out by my running playlist at full volume. I was an Invincible zen master.

I think I'll do this again soon. But if the rain stopped for the upcoming long weekend, I'd be happier.

A few weeks ago we were invited by two friends to a curry making lesson at Recipease. It was a present for Stuart's 40th birthday and our friends were kind enough to extend the experience to me.

It's a Jamie Oliver-branded thing (apparently the recipes are approved by Jamie's team, i.e. he has little to do with it personally) but thankfully at no point was there any product placement or pressure to purchase anything.

I had fun, made a killer Thai green curry and learnt the following in the process:

1. if you wash your hands with cold water first, you can get rid of onion/garlic smells
2. a teaspoon is the perfect tool to scoop seeds out of chili peppers
3. a teaspoon is the perfect tool to scrape the skin off ginger without also removing the juiciest part which is just underneath the skin
4. lemongrass grows very easily anywhere, you just need to plant a stalk - do it in a vase and not in your garden because it grows like a weed and takes over
5. a wet kitchen towel under a chopping board stops it from slipping
6. the easiest way to remove the stem from kaffir lime leaves is by folding them shiny side in and then peeling the stem off
7. using a mortar and pestle is a great way to pound away stress - my curry paste was so well ground that it looked like guacamole!

3 people so far. How many by tomorrow morning at 8 when it goes on sale?

Sent from my iPhone

I removed the links to photos after each paragraph because they are
pointing to our home server and designed to be private and temporary.
I may add them when I upload some photos to Flickr. If I ever get
round to doing that.

Over to Stuart then:

> Hello,
>
> We got back from Scotland yesterday and we’re off to France tomorrow
> . Here are the photos so far!
>
> We were up there for a wedding after which we spent a couple of days
> touring round Scotland.
>
> We were at Anstruther for the wedding and then drive up to St Andrews.
>
> We stopped there for a quick look around but were then driving over
> to Loch Ard where we had a room for the night.
>
> We checked out the following morning and drove to Loch Lomond and
> then walked to the top of Ben Lomond – about the same height as Snow
> don.
>
> Its very true what they say about the Midges in Scotland.
>
> After that we drove back to Edinburgh where we went round Edingburgh
> castle and Holyrood Palace (Queens official residence in Scotland)
> on the first evening and all of the following day.
>
> On our final morning we popped down to see the Royal Yacht Britannia.
>
> Before flying home to London City Airport (Right in the centre of
> London).
>
> Stuart.

A few days ago I ranted (that's what the internet was created for, right?) about American Express failing to record that I had changed my mind and closing my account.

I also tweeted about it, and shortly afterwards Alex from @AskAmex_UK sent me a reply saying they are concerned about what happened. We direct messaged about it and arranged for her to call me on the phone. It turned out that AmEx saw in their records that in the end I had decided to keep the account open, but that on the same day someone closed it, possibly because of some crossed communications.

Alex offered to send me a cheque or credit another bank account for the cashback I had lost when the account closed, plus an extra 10 pounds. No strings attached, no need to reopen an account with them. I was very impressed: the whole process was friendly, responsible, thorough and personable. It almost made me want to take out another American Express card (but am sticking to my original motivation which was to cut on the number of financial institutions I use).

All the stale old companies that lazily and reluctantly dragged themselves on to Twitter because that's where you have to be, but have no idea how to use it, should watch American Express and learn. They get it, and get it right.

American Express 'forgot' not to close my account and so I've lost almost thirty pounds worth of cashback.

I wanted to cancel my card (I don't need so many cards, also American Express charge you if you don't use it at least once a year) so I emailed them asking them to do so.

A few days afterward a customer representative called me to confirm and mentioned that I had almost thirty pounds worth of cashback (the reason why I'd got the card in the first place, they have a very good cashback plan that pay you cash for every pound you spend in any retailer). They said the money was due to be paid to me around July/August, and I'd lose it if I cancelled my card.

So I said OK, let's leave the account open, please forget I ever asked you to cancel my card, I'll think about closing it after I get my money thank you very much.

The other day I got a letter from AmEx saying my card is cancelled. I called them just now and they confirmed that my account is closed and I lost the right to the cashback money I had accumulated.

Of course, they have no trace of me speaking to any of their staff to keep the account open so there's nothing I can do. Grrr.

UPDATE 10 JUNE 2010: American Express totally gets Twitter... and sets things right with me