it's not that bad after all

so sajid actually got his visa today! apparently it was his swiss professor's rather frank conversation with embassy officials that sped the process up from a month to just over the weekend. it's kind of like 1 hour photo developing. sometimes when you went to pick up a roll they hadn't even started being developed, and yet still managed to be ready in less than 5 minutes. thank goodness for digital cameras.

in the final weeks of preparation for the sola relay next weekend, greg and i went for a 14km 'time trial' this afternoon. (i get to do the nice looking 14km 5th leg in the microbiology institute's team) the idea was to get a feel for pushing the pace, since it's been too long since either of us had raced. ouch. the first 5km was fun in just under 20min, we eased up a bit through the middle, and tried to bring it home strongly. i felt rather pathetic finishing up a very marginal hill, but 57:50's not so bad. put me in a proper race situation next weekend and i'll eat the miles up :)