I cried.

I waited 8 years for a night like last night. 8 years. And I cried, and I was happy, and proud. It was what Gore's campaign always should have been. Intellectual without being too aloof from normal people. Based on hope rather than fear, and conducted in a way that respects the intelligence of the electorate.

And it worked. Now to the actual hard work. I'm so thrilled to be able to see what happens now.

Athletics benchmarks

Having come back from the 1500 meter inter-college Cambridge running competition, I learnt I still need to do some more distance running work, although I happily avoided last place. My 20 min rowing distance (4200 meters) and 1500m running time (6:30) are left here to make me have to train to improve them before mentioning them again.

My new club membership

I started rowing yesterday, in what was in fact a moderately insane day. My arms burnt while on the river, I then spent the day doing administrative law, then a solid hour of aerobics (easily the hardest part) and lastly another jogging session. By the end of this year I will either be incredibly fit or dead...

Random Georgian Engrish fail

Wandering through a Georgian supermarket, and this turned up. Fail, especially for a German-owned chain.

The Russian Embassy protest

The anti-Russia protest is exciting in a way little UK protest is. A line of police is standing in front of the Russian embassy, and outside are 2-300 clearly pissed off Georgians. Lots of flags, lots of chants of Sakashvelo (Georgia) and mobile phones taking pictures.

It's a bit later and around 1000 people are here. More flags and the protest has spilled onto the street. The 4 lane highway is now 1.5, and since every car is beeping it's impossible to tell who's happy and who simply wants to get home. Some blonde ho Nati knows keeps doing interviews, and I was also on Ossetian TV. Lines of people are holding hands, and an enterprising type is giving out candles for everyone to hold in front of the media. I smell the sweet sweet smell of PR.

There's now got to be 2-3000 people, and we are walking back to town behind a giant Georgian flag. This feels like it will last all night but we're off home.

Evening news insanity

I am at a Mexican resturant in Georgia. The food was cooked by someone who clearly had once seen Mexican food in a film but had no further clues. It's appalling.

The news is insane. Georgian troops have made a huge push into Ossetia, and the Russians don't appear to be doing anything but falling back to the tunnel that comes through the mountains. Misha Saakashvili just appeared on TV with a big smile on his face and said "we control ALL areas of South Ossetia" in Georgian. I think that looking like you are gloating over Russia's defeat is a sure way to make this a lot more serious, it's not a smart move at all. Russians armoured troops are moving over the border, and part of me suspects that the Russians have just fallen back to a bridgehead. I think Georgia is about to get it's ass kicked, and it's surprising that Misha can't see he just made it impossible to avoid. He has just absolutely forced Russia to have to act or be humiliated and have their new president publicly politically castrated on the Russian evening TV bulletins.

There's a protest up at the Russian Embassy on TV and we are going now. It's only going to get bigger.

Oh, random bonus...we saw a picture of the bombing we missed in Gori (it's the pic attached to this post).

War formal now

I'm sitting in our Tbilisi apartment watching the news, and it is apparent it has all kicked off. The Georgian and Russian troops are in contact, and Georgian and Ossettian TV are going nuts. IMO they'll just get bombed a bit and keep mainly the same lines, Russia has a new president who needs to look tough.