Victoria Pendleton's photo shoot for this month's Esquire.

My sweet lord. And to think she could probably crush me like a grape.

I often wonder why a woman like her does a shoot like that. The money couldn't be that good, she's probably sponsored up the wazoo... she might even feel cheap later

And yes, I am very old before my time

She might, but then again, she might enjoy looking back at the shoot later, being glad she did it while she had the chance.
It's no worse than what she wears at the track. Maybe she's just enjoying the limelight while she can. Who knows?

Surely she's not wearing fishnets on the track?

No, but what she's wearing is skin tight lycra, which is not much better in that sense. Mind you, she doesn't exactly look the same person after a race as in those photos. Takes a lot out of you..

I suspect the photoshoot is the lesser part of it, There's a very long and very interesting interview that goes with it. It's very revealing in the other sense about why she is who she is and why she's retiring (short version - she blew it very badly in team politics terms). If you publish that much of a piece -it's like five pages of fairly dense text - you need a photoshoot to break it up. And Esquire does those kinds of photos. And, to a degree, it probably is also an ego thing. I remember reading another interview she did after the first 'glammed up' shoot she did where she said she wasn't initially going to do it and one of her friends said to her "Don't be an idiot, they'll make you look fantastic".The bare fact is very few women have the services of professional makeup artists, a large designer wardrobe and a photographer whose job is to make them look amazing at any point in their life. As the prof says, at some point in her life she may look back at some of the photos she did and think 'you know, I was actually pretty special'. That's something you'd be a fool to pass up. And, to be honest, the article does make it sound like she's a pretty insecure person off the track...

There's actually one photo in the mag that isn't on that page I linked to. It's entirely tasteful and, frankly, it's a photo pretty much any actress in hollywood wouldn't look as good in. If you told virtually any woman on earth "d'you want someone to take a photo of you that makes you look this good", you'd be trampled in the stampede.

Jon

I do understand that mindset, but then you could wind up thinking 'I'm SO old now' too. Just depends on the person I spose.

Ok so a servo worker was a victim of armed robbery with a knife.

Now the serious side of this story has been dealt with, enjoy the humorous side.

Buxom Bandit

Weapons of mass distraction.

Only in Oz!

No, wait. That could probably happen in the US too.

Somebody on the tube yesterday was rocking a RIM Playbook.

Muse's official Olympics song sounds like something The Darkness made as a B-side, now that I've heard it in full:

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_ur ... EkWI&gl=GB

I'm actually really irritated with a lot at the moment, feeling a bit cabin-fevery due to the weather, loads needs to be done around the garden and paddock and I was REALLY hoping the weekend will give us a chance to do some of it. Not.Going.To.Happen!

This is not helping my overall irritation with myself, my family, my work life and my health.

Does.Not.Want

On the weather front, my grass is too overgrown and my herb garden has been decimated by slugs, I'm not normally one to complain about the weather, but this is doing my head in.