Fear and hatred...

Well, I heeded last night's advice and left my running jacket at home for tonight's run, only to get soaked to the skin by the downpours of rain and the spray from traffic on the roads. To be honest, I quite liked it; that blissful feeling of feedom, of madness and of joy knowing that you can't get any wetter. I'd like to take this opportunity to personally thank the driver of the tanker who took such pleasure in driving so close to the gutter over the A4232 bridge across the Bay that he sent a wall of water over everyone he passed (including me). Despite this, I ran 4.01 km in 22'10" at an average pace of 5'31"/km.

We had a conversation in work today about phobias. It got me thinking as I ran tonight. I realised that I don't really have any phobias. Yes, there are many things I'm not too keen on and some things I actively dislike but I don't think anything falls into that special fear and hatred, cold sweat category. I admit that I don't like spiders very much and whilst I don't really want to go anywhere near them, I'm more than capable of brushing them into a mug and throwing them out through the kitchen window.

One colleague admitted to a phobia of whales. She said that she'd had nightmares where she's been swimming and felt something brush past her in the water only to discover that it was a Blue Whale. Another colleague has a phobia of Star-nosed Moles. I didn't know what a Star-nosed Mole was until he explained. Not the cuddliest of animals but (said in a Texan accent) "they's all God's creatures". I once worked with a woman who had a phobia of Quavers. Strange. Here's a list of phobias - how many can you tick?

Of course, these phobias are all very silly and inconsequential when compared to the fear and hatred felt and dished out on a casual basis by some people. I read today of the murder on the weekend of Stuart Walker whose partially clothed, beaten and charred remains were found by Strathclyde Police on the weekend. Police are not ruling this out as a homophobic attack. Following the attack, a Jay Miller (pictured, should anyone spot him in the street and wish to discuss his homophobia with him face to face) used Twitter to post a string of homophobic abuse about the attack under the profile @mabsmiller. His tweets included, "Better dead now than infecting people with #Aids," and "Bet when they put you out you was like a frazzle!"

It's frightening to think that fear and hatred to this degree still exists in the UK.