Lies, damned lies and statistics!

It is true that yesterday's blog, contained statistics which, whilst accurate, may not have been a great deal of help in solving for some, what is a very real problem. For that, I apologise. But that is the problem with statistics.

For example, it is a reasonably well known fact that "1 in 5 of the world's population is Chinese", so that if you are a family of 4, then you each know where (and how tall) you stand, whereas if you are in a family of 5...!

Well, who is it?

I have cousins in America, and one of the families consists of Ang, Gabs, Phil, Jamie & and 斯蒂夫! Clearly, well statistically, one of them is Chinese, but I'm not quite sure which one...possibly Phil!

That is the problem with statistics. They rarely prove anything, but they are presented as though they prove everything.

Recently the London Evening Standard's "statistical offering" was:-

"...£40 a mile on the Tube...it's cheaper to fly to New York..."

Clearly, given that I travel on the Tube for 260 days a year, and for a journey that is most probably 4 miles each way, if the latter statistic is true, my annual season ticket would be £83,000 on top of the cost of getting to London.

Whilst expensive, it is somewhat less than this cost!

And then, on the opposite page to the above article there was an an article under the heading of: -

"Greenpeace fury over jet's US flight with just five people"

Apparently, an American Airlines flight from Chicago to Heathrow flew 5,000 miles with just 5 passengers on board, using 22,000 gallons of fuel, at a "real"cost of about £22k per passenger.

So with all of this statistical hogwash and angst at the cost of getting from A to B one thing is clear, both statistically and in reality. Thousands of people across the world will travel thousands of miles as part of the various Trailwalker challenges, and each mile walked will not cost them anything, but will raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for worthwhile causes! 

Overcoming your fears

Whilst the picture below - "Night of the Living Gingerbread" is a little bit creepy, it hopefully won't scare any but the most timid of souls.


However, there are other "fears" that may be more pertinent to some of those taking part in the Trailwalker UK event.

For some, it is the fear of the dark, that concerns them more than the challenge itself....whilst those that don't understand and who don't share the fear, simply say "...you should have grown out of that, you're an adult!"

But what do they know? I prefer to consider the statistical evidence.

So let's have a look at the facts.

1. It is generally accepted that to become an expert at anything - you need to practice for approximately 10,000 hours.
2. 10,000 hours equates to 36 million seconds.
3. There are approximately 31.5 million seconds in a year.
4. The average human blinks 15 times every minute
5. The average blink lasts one third of a second
6. The average human sleeps for 6 hours a night

Therefore, by applying the above statistics it can be shown that in an average year the average human spends 550 (waking, daylight) hours in the dark - when they are blinking, and presumably NOT being afraid!

To accumulate 10,000 hours of such 'fear-free' behaviour, takes 18 years.

So, what do you know? They were right. If you are over 18 years old you should simply be able to tell yourself that you cannot be afraid of the dark - because you have quite simply put in the hours...

...blinkin' obvious really.

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Be careful what you wish for!

There have been times in recent weeks when after a period of [what I call] exercise (e.g. lifting a pint of beer, raising my legs whilst someone hoovers underneath them etc etc) my body starts to ache and I wonder whether I'll ever get fit enough for the 2011 #Trailwalker UK Event. It is at times like this that I occasionally think, "...I wish I was as fit as when I was 18/19 years old."

Well yesterday, whilst at work, when reading an email I wondered why certain key words appeared to be missing from the body of the text, only to quickly realise that they weren't, it was just that I couldn't see them!

I was starting to have my first migraine headache in about 31/32 years - the last one being when I was about 18/19 years old - which I have just now slept off.

However, I am left with a head so fuzzy that it feels as though I have been at an all night party*. But I haven't...unless I've also started sleepwalking!

So, as I say "...be careful what you wish for!"

This is similar to the story of the married couple, both 60 years old, who were celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. During their party a fairy appeared, congratulated them and granted them one wish each. The wife wanted to travel around the world. The fairy waved her wand and POOF - the wife had tickets in her hand for a world cruise.

Next, the fairy asked the husband what he wanted. He said, "I wish I had a wife 30 years younger than me." So the fairy picked up her wand and POOF - the husband was 90!

I believe that that is actually a true story...

* N.B. -  if you had an all night party last night and some groaning 50 year old guy, wearing only his P-J's & holding his head, managed to gate-crash it, please let me know via this blog.

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The challenge...

Now I would imagine that most of you are either car drivers or if not, users of public transport. If you are, then there may well have been a time when you considered leaving the car/bus and walking instead - especially when your planned journey was a short one.

So what would be an acceptable distance to walk? One mile? Two? Four or more?

Well, our challenge is slightly more than the equivalent of a walk into town..actually it is considerably more!

Our challenge is to walk 100km, non-stop, in under 30 hours (we're actually hoping to do it in less than 20!) and over the course of the route over the South Downs will climb the equivalent of Mount Snowdon and Ben Nevis - combined!

We will also be looking to raise vast sums of money for Oxfam at the same time as part of the 2011 Trailwalker UK Challenge!

We will be charting our progress via this Blog, Twitter, Facebook etc, etc and would be extremely grateful if you could share this information with as many people as you can. Our fund-raising account can be found at the following link: -

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/OTHAFA

Location:Station Way,Crawley,United Kingdom