Warning: may contain spoilers

Crikey. I can't remember the last time I was so moved by the near death of a fictional character. Last night, I watched helplessly as Detective Kima Greggs was gunned down during a botched sting operation against the Barksdale crime syndicate. I kind of saw it coming, but at the same time I was willing it not to happen. Even after watching the two would-be assassins move in on the vehicle in which Greggs was waiting along with the hapless Orlando and open fire, I hoped against hope that as Orlando was sitting in the front seat he would have borne the brunt of the assault and Greggs would have been spared. It was a cliffhanger ending, the first time the makers of The Wire had resorted to such a cliché, and the fact that they didn't show her body told me she must have survived. Still, that didn't stop me putting on the next episode and watching for another hour to see how she was, despite the fact that it was well past my normal bedtime.

There was no such drama on Wednesday night when I read in The Game of War about the death of Guy Debord, also the victim of a gun assault, but in his case self-administered. Whatever the circumstances, it's always tragic when someone takes their own life, although it had all been foreshadowed at the start of the book, and an argument made that it was inevitable given Debord's fascination as a youth with the Surrealists, who asked themselves the question, "We live, we die. Where is the function of the will in all that?" and in many cases chose suicide as the answer.

Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since blog began: 78.4km