Nerd for hire.

You could say that I was never properly introduced to computers. At school we shared one between three and the other boys seemed to know them much better, negotiating them as they would girls at the school disco. As such, I hung back, dreading my turn. We'd bump teeth, I thought, step on each others toes.


It wasn't until my dad brought one home unannounced from God-knows-where (probably the same place he got my mountain bike or the VCR) that we got know one another. The Amstrad PC-1640 sat on the dining room table, eating actual floppy disks; sometimes it took two to get going and you had to pull a latch down over its mouth so it didn't spit them out.

My dad had no idea how to use it, but somehow it fell for my lines and showed me a rudimentary Paint programme and eventually a Bruce Lee video game, which I amazingly accepted as playable.



A year or so later, my uncle handed down his old Windows 3.1 laptop. And while I was initially impressed with its mobility, the feeling soon evaporated when he explained the battery and the power cable were both faulty. It still worked, mind you, but only when you kept your foot on its power cable.

So while I couldn't take it into school, I could swap its not-so-floppy disks with my friends. I traded a 'perfectly playable' Bruce Lee video game for some pixelated photos of Gillian Anderson, which loaded on my laptop's greyscale screen, one line at a time, coming into focus to reveal a frowning FBI agent in a trouser suit.

Today is the last day of Movember, an annual month-long moustache-growing charity event to raise funds and awareness for men's health issues.

Now, I may not be the best ambassador for men's health: having fallen through the cracks of the NHS, I've not been to the doctor in over two years and I don't know if this growth is normal, but - hey! - I signed up anyway, and have spent the month growing a moustache in the name of charidee.

But it nearly didn't happen. Movember rules state 'Mo Bros' must start the month clean shaven, which I did, using the only shaving paraphernalia I could find in the flat - a bottle of Herbal Essence and Brooky Wook's lady shave.

I'd kept a full-beard for over two years, had thrown out my own shaver and was a little bit worried about what I would find underneath the facial hair. Would there be spots, I wondered. Or a tan line?

There were neither, thank God, but as I chipped away at two years of beard and the little bits of biscuit I found in there I started to think back to the first time I shaved.

While I'm keeping one now for charity, it's not technically the first time I've had a moustache. Like so many Asian boys it came early - I was perhaps 10 - and like so many Asian mothers mine was reluctant for me to shave it off and enter puberty.

I did the summer before starting "big school", but it kept coming back, each time thicker and faster. It meant that I left one institution looking like Frida Kahlo and entered another looking like an Ofsted inspector with a 3.30pm shadow. Teachers clutched their lesson plans nervously as I walked the halls. I was an 11-year-old man-child, ravaged by puberty, bones flung in all directions; I was stretched to six feet, sinewy muscle just covering the expanse of my growth; my voice an imperceptible pitch, miming its way through three years of school choir - a music teacher unable to harmonise my low growl with the soprano of my classmates.

I must have imagined that the feeling of awkwardness would pass as I grew into my body and became a man but, in truth, I don't think it ever has. I'm just as awkward now with my moustache, as I was at 11 years old without one.

"Oh, this is not a look I'm nurturing, by the way," I said in an effort to explain away my moustache to a conference delegate last week, gesticulating awkwardly at my own face. "I'm doing it for charity."

"You're doing Movember too?" Another delegate asked, joining us, and pointing at his own moustache.

"Oh," the first said, laughing so hard her name badge popped off. "I thought you meant your glasses!"

***

One man dies every hour of prostate cancer in the UK - more than 35,000 will be diagnosed this year! It's the most common kind of cancer here.

Movember is now in its third year and, to date, has achieved some pretty amazing results, working alongside The Prostate Cancer Charity. You can find out more at: http://uk.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs.

And look back over my progress at: http://uk.movember.com/mospace/248626 and - please! - it's not too late to make a donation.

I may be losing my moustache tomorrow, but I'm keeping these glasses forever.

I was squeezing into an old pair of trousers when I first realised that I'd gained weight. In fact, it was the third pair I'd tried to squeeze into that day. I thought they too had 'shrunk in the wash,' along with my shirts, my jacket and my... watch.

Adjusting its strap, I thought to myself that it was time to lose some weight. The hips don't lie, as they say, and neither do the scales. As I stood on them, the needle swung wildly to the right and I watched as my toes slowly disappeared beneath the girth of my belly.

What was next to vanish? I shuddered (and wobbled a little bit) at the thought. And how did I let myself go?

I've been working from home for about four years. And while there are advantages, like not having to commute, it does completely negate the need to exercise. When I was living in Shrewsbury, at least, I'd walk to meetings. Then I moved to London, where I lived in Kilburn, where you had to move quickly or else get mugged. But now that I'm in Hackney with Brooky Wook I don't even have to travel to see her. She comes home after work to find me sprawled on the sofa, deep in a bag of crisps, like an actual coach potato.

But standing on the scales, as I was, eating crisps, I realised that if I couldn't change my diet I was going to have to do some exercise. And while I might not be tightening my belt, I am tightening the purse strings, so I worked out that buying a Wii Fit was cheaper than buying a good pair of running shoes. Not only that, but it would overcome any awkwardness I'd feel at running with the Olympic hopefuls in Victoria Park. Plus, if there's anything that's going to get me into exercise it's technology, right?

So now, when Brooky Wook comes home, she finds me off the couch, out of that crisp packet and onto the Balance Board, swinging my hips around an imaginary hula-hoop, punching the shit out of thin air or hitting the negligible slopes of our front room. I don't know if she's any less disturbed.

But, while I might look more 'bunny boiler' than 'gym bunny', I am actually losing weight! 4 lbs, to be precise. And I've got Brooky Wook involved too. The healthy competition has me determined to reach my ideal weight even quicker. Unfortunately that competition has already closed. The Wii Fit tells Brooker that according to her BMI if she gets any thinner she'll be dangerously underweight. So, soon I'll have the added challenge of trying to lose the pounds while my girlfriend tries to gain them.

Stepping off the Balance Board tonight however it looks like I've beaten her at her own game, having gained the 4 lbs that I had just yesterday lost. It makes me wonder how heavy my clothes are! Maybe tomorrow, when she comes home, she'll find me naked atop the Board, lunging at the TV - not necessarily fitter, but having lost weight, all the same. And at least I won't need to buy new trousers.

• Wii Fit