FRIDAY SOAPBOXES

I woke up early this morning. I used the time to come up with a theory about money and wealth-creation, which isn't very interesting and is probably just obvious to anyone who's bothered enough to think about it.

It's another beautiful Friday. The developers ambled off to the pub without me at lunchtime so I just ended up wandering round the lake again.

The geese were out - Egyptian and Canadian. I braved it and crouched down to take photographs of them pecking at the grass. One of them raised its head and cocked it like a compsognathus or dilophosaur or something, straight from Jurassic Park. Did Spielberg study birds to model the way his CGI dinosaurs would move? That would fit.

When I'd finished dinosaur watching, I headed back inside to find four of my colleagues dressed as characters from Alice in Wonderland, collecting for their charity soapbox race. The Cheshire Cat looked at me grumpily.

It turns out that on Sunday they will be throwing themselves down the annual Redbull Soapbox Race in a makeshift rabbit made out of old wood and bicycle tyres. There's a sweepstake based on how far down the track they'll get before the rabbit disintegrates.

They did initially ask me to write some Victorian poetry for them, but in the end, my silly nonsense poems about 'hurtling and skirtling' weren't really needed.

It's ever so British, isn't it? Like those people who build their own planes out of cardboard boxes and jump off a pier. We all cheer when they flap and fail into the ocean in a hilarious belly flop. I think it's almost expected that the 'clockwork rabbit' will not survive with Alice and the Mad Hatter intact. I fear the worst.

Maybe I will write down my thoughts about economics - it's such a difficult subject to talk about though: I always feel like I've just walked into a room of clever people with bow-ties and sparkling wine. I fear them looking back at me blankly, or just laughing at my uninformed viewpoint.

Then again, I'm also afraid of geese aren't I? ... and I managed to get close enough to photograph them today.