In for a Pound....

Fear not, this isn't going to be some bitchy post about how the dollar is generally faring so badly these days, and that it's a pain for me (and indeed other Americans) if i have to leave the country 'cause all our wages are frankly worth squat when you convert them. Oh, no. I'll probably save that for another day. Instead, you'll be treated to a bitchy post about pounds, kilograms and other weights that they seem to interchange randomly. Not that it's a problem for me so much - hell, let's face it in the UK, we're hardly renowned for keeping things simple when it comes to weights and measures and we delighted in fighting the EU (successfully in the end) when they tried to get us to convert everything from price per oz/lb to price per kg. 'Cause, y'know, that was REALLY going to happen. Anyways, i'm fully aware that a lb is 454g and that there are 2.2lb per kg etc. etc. It's just that it gives me a headache trying to do the mental arithmetic sometimes and, as a scientist and in need of my brain and head most days, it can be something of a hindrance. On top of that, when i spend most of my days experimentally banging my head against a brick wall, the last thing i want to have to do is start calculating weights at the gym.

Yep, the gym - the cause for all this lbs to kg to whatever-the-hell madness. Last week they decided to wheel out a lot of shiny new weights for us all to use - not a bad thing, by any stretch of the imagination. Alas, in a fit of slight oversight, they chose to replace all the previous KG weights, with those in lbs. Now, i wouldn't grumble so much if the lb weights matched up exactly with kg amounts to at least compensate for it, but they couldn't even do that. Thus, we have 45 lbs (approx. 20kg), 35 lbs (a little over 15kg), 25 lbs (somewhat over 10kg) and then going down to 10lbs (4.5kg), 5lbs (2.3kg) and so on. Now, i know what some of you are thinking - what's a couple of lbs/kg here and there gonna matter in the long run? Well, when you're holding a heavy bar of weights over your head wishing that those couple of extra kgs would just go away, you tell me if it's going to matter or not. Either way, shiny new weights = good - just get kg ones next time.