Quote of the moment:
I HATE everything about you, why do I love you???? says:
mebbe my browser is showing me a cached copy of it or something....
Hulk: I died in my dreams, what's that supposed to mean? says:
lol
I HATE everything about you, why do I love you???? says:
hahhaa are u impressed at my technical knowledge
I just thought everyone should have a chance to be amazed at Podgy's technical expertise. All rude comments welcome :D
Quote of the moment: "I died in my dreams, what's that supposed to mean?"
Ahem. I know I just went to read Le Count again, but I have an urge to type... so here is my version of a Podgy "THIS SONG/BAND/ALBUM/SINGER IS SO AWESOME" rant type thing... Much like a Prillo "THAT BLOKE WAS SO FIT" rant, really! :P
Anway: THE RASMUS. I'm sure you've heard the name before... The first single from the album "Dead Letters" was "In The Shadows"... as in:
I've been watching, I've been waiting
In the shadows for my time
I've been searching, I've been living
For tomorrows all my life
That's quite a pr0 song itself, but compared to some of the other stuff on the album, tis distinctly second rate. For example, the opening song, "First Day Of My Life", is t3h r0x0r:
I feel like I'm stoned, I wanna be alone, just for a while, unknown,
Weeks on the road, a long way from home, to shut up the phone,
And you say I'll heal you I'll always be yours
And you say I'll kill you if I do something wrong
Still feels like the first time
To stand here by your side
Together regardless
We'll walk through the darkness
Still feels like the first day of my life
I particularly like the "Together regardless, We'll walk through the darkness" couplet... Also we have the rather spankingly good "Funeral Song", including the lovely couplet I quoted at the start:
I died in my dreams
What's that supposed to mean?
At this point I have to thank Paddy... if it were not for driving to his house and back last Tuesday night, watching the lightning and listening to this r0x0r album, I might never have bought it... and it r0x0rs. Ummm, that's about it. I'm nub at this rant stuff, I'd better leave it to the pr0s... :P
Quote of the moment: BCC, with a B in Maths
That's what I need, it seems... to scrape myself into Cardiff/Bath next year... Have emails from both admissions tutors confirming it, so now I just need to get my arse in gear and sort my maths out... tis a relief to know I don't need to touch Chemistry or Physics again... :D
Hopefully I shall be off to a "Crammer" soon, like start of September time, and I shall do oodles of maths, more maths and only maths (I wish I could watch Podgy's expression when she reads this) :D Then hopefully I can take my maths exams in January, or maybe even November, and bugger off and do something useful/worthwhile... Perhaps go somewhere hot and work for a well project or something... burn off the podge... or my mum found a leaflet while we were on holiday, about restoring the Droitwich canal... Again, Civ. Eng. related... Anyway, tres ambitious thinking at the moment! TBH I never really considered taking a gap year, I was always planning on going to Uni straight away, getting on with life, because with a 4 year course plus a year's training at Sandhurst (fingers crossed) I'll have a while still til I actually start doing something... But now that I do have hopefully at lest 6 months free, I'm amusing myself by pondering the possibilities...
Other news: My (my mum's) car, newly back from having the rear something or other fixed, which got cracked when I reversed into a wheely bin (as well as the window), has a new battle scar: Vince, a touch worse for wear on Friday night, didnt manage to push the garage door up properly, and it dropped on the bonnet as I drove in... OOOPS.
Also: Having read "Sleepers" while canal-tripping, in which the kid's favourite book is the Count of Monte Cristo (by Alexandre Dumas, also author of "The Three Musketeers"), guess what I'm now reading... tis HUGE... the size of Harry Potter 5, but in 8 point text (I think). Anyway, tis tiny text and very thin paper, being a Penguin Classic of the £1 variety... I started it this morning and, in between emailing Universities and watching the olympics, have reached page 127... of 1078... so about 1/8th of the way, if my D-grade maths can hack that... It's apperently the first unabridged translation (from the original french) for 150 years, because the Victorians didn't like the opium induced sexual fantasies and other delights, and edited them out... Lol... Tis actually a pro book, even though there's barely any of that anyway :P
Did anyone appart from me see the Olympic womens Volleyball quarterfinal today? Russia vs South Korea... Korea getting owned might have had something to do with the tallest Korean being something like 5ft10, and the tallest Russian, Gamova (obvious pun from the commentator: can you guess it?) being 6ft8... stick thin, walked like a Giraffe... and scored one third of the total team points... Good enough for Jim?! :p
I will prepare a Canal Trip narrative when I can be arsed... which isn't now, because I'm going back to my book :p
Quote of the moment: "I'm sorry to tell you that..."
So, today was the big one... resultus dayus... and, as expected, mine were not great. CCD, with the D in maths. Rather poo, in fact. Had I scraped a C in maths, I might have held onto an offer, admittedly reduced to BEng from MEng, but as it is, no chance...
So, clearing: Swansea - tiny chance, Plymouth - can go, that's about it from decent places... Plymouth suffers in the tables cos of having no research, but it owns in the teaching marks (23/24) so I'm considering it...
Otherwise, it's resit time... Definitely Maths, maybe the other two as well, it depends on what the admissions tutors from Bath and Cardiff say they'd require from me next year... So it's all a bit up-in-the-air at the moment...
I don't want to rush into any place I can get, cos I want to be able to check out the Uni first and all... So I dont know if I will do anything through clearing this year... Plus now that it's open again, the possibility of heading off somewhere for a bit does sound quite pr0... Doing a gap tutor stint, or something... tis a bit late, I know, but I could maybe go for 6 months after Christmas or something... Dunno... Another possibility is working for a while to earn some money for a Parachuting course... tis apparently about £800 for a pro one in the states (not including flights)... Tis a week long, but cos of the clear skies and steady winds (unlike in Britain) you can jump pretty much all the time, and do something like 20 jumps in that week... freefall... getting onto skydiving stuff by the end of the week, all the steering yourself in the air bit before pulling the ripcord... sounds like an ownage trip...
Speaking of ownage, today was actually quite pro... Had lunch at the 3 horseshoes (including chips with sweet and sour sauce - awesome combo) then hit Cineworld, saw Pete Vernon's awesome, Toploader style, big, fuzzy, almost fro like hair, watched "I, Robot" which was pr0 apart from the coporate advertising bits, and the unneccessary messiah sideline subplot... Never-the-less, a pr0 film... Then we hit KFC (and I betrayed Podgy's anti MacDonalds passion to get a Big Mac next door) and took it home to Kaz's house... I'd like to point out that Harry went around the roundabout twice, twice... :p Once on the way to KFC, ffs, and again going to Kaz's house... Which was pr0, in particular the chair which would fit one Will, or Kaz and Tirzah together... Lol... Cable Guy was t3h r0x0r, as was scanning the channels and finding filth on all 3 non BBC ones... Call in the Daily Mail, surely!
That's about it for now... I'll FOAGTB :D
Quote of the moment: Definitive proof that our Cookie Monster has gone where no Cookie Monster has gone before.
Now the promised links:
Vomit Comet (http://vomitcomet.pratt.duke.edu/)
To see pictures of the Cookie-Monster in Micro-gravity (currently on the Blogger "blogs we've noticed" list) click here. And I thought parachuting looked cool...
Will Thorne - the original (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUthorne.htm)
Mr William Thorne: Unionist, Communist, Labour MP... Something for Big Willy to aspire to.
My Former Blog (http://supersizewithcoke.blogspot.com/)
I changed the template on here as a trial: would my dear readers prefer this template to the Sainsburys style current one?! Votes please...
Quote of the moment: Ban this sock filth!
Lo chaps... not much up since last night... Am currently conversing with the Prill-meister, a rare occurence... Or should I say Prill-mistress? Don't get TOO excited at that thought, please... :P
Today, went over to Grandparents to attack their hedge... the first phase was executed with particularly venerable shears, (dating from about 1920), which made it more of a brute force and ignorance exercise than anything else... This was followed by the second wave, cavalry mounted on aluminium stepladders... Then the victory was completed by the halberdiers, wielding a particularly fine pole and hook branch lopping device... How handy...
I then got a phonecall demanding transport to Chelmsford by Victoria (to meet Poppy Chenivix-Trench)... this had been priorly agreed, but the departure time was not made sufficiently clear to me... I thought I needed to pick her up from our house at 6, she needed to be in Chelmsford at 5.45... Cue mad rush around, scooping up cuttings and mad rushes to the bonfire heap wwith the wheelbarrow... Then being pressed to take my fee, which has inflated to £9 (a 29% inflation in one week - not bad!), and shooting off home in the car. On the way I left a nice squealing mark on the roundabout at the end of our road, then arrived and waited ten minutes while Madam finished preparing...
Having dropped her off in Chelmsford, I came home, bummed around some more, went in to fetch her when ordered. I was told half-past, I got there 27 past... Victoria was there to grab the present she forgot to take in earlier, she went back in, and went to pay up... Meanwhile two traffic wardens are wandering down the road behind me, and I'm parked in a Taxi rank, the only available stopping point... how handy... So she's in the restaurant and someone taps her on the arm and says "Isn't that your brother being spoken to by the police?" (they'd presumably overheard some comment about me waiting outside...)
Fortunately that prompted her to move a bit faster... LOL... Though I'd just been given a couple of minutes for her to get her arse in gear before they actually did anything about it...
Apart from that, have watched the BB eviction, noting that Stu is just like a long-haired hyperactive Jim, and then "Midnight Run", which had Robert DeNiro in, which is always a good sign... It was quite amusant, a 6 or 7 methinks...
And for that very dull entry, I must apologise... G'night!
Quote of the moment: "I am Cornholio! I need TP for my bunghole!"
Taken from "Beavis and Butthead do America", just after the cops surrounding Beavis (I think) who has a chemical weapon in his shorts, ask what his demands are... :D
So, I have returned from my great adventure :p
The weekend was ok... 3 hours in the car to my Gran's... The 21st birthday "party" was civilised affair on the lawn, due to the lack of student friends of my cousin, because they'd mostly gone on holiday... There were in fact 5 of them... plus 4 cousins (including us,), one attatched girlfriend, 6 middle agers (My dad + siblings + spouses) plus 2 wrinklies. Also her brother, aka my cousin Nicholas: scholarship to Cambridge, 1st in History, and his girlfriend Claire, 1st from Oxford. They both work for the home office... Oh, the excitement :p
Having discovered that my supposedly intellectual cousin watches the Hollyoaks Sunday omnibus and reads Heat magazine, we moved onto the expected intelligent conversation... Having discussed immigration policy (Claire's "area") we got around to the differences between French and British colonies, in the past and present. The main difference seems to be that the British were mostly happy to use the existing infrastructure to impose their will, (unless it opposed them). The French however, considered each colony to be part of France itself, and therefore tried to impose the French language, style of goverment, type of justice, etc etc. The result now, though, is that the French are actually much more supportive of their former colonies than the British (so the knowledgable said). Ignoring the cynical view that this is only because they have trade monopolies to protect, in Chad, bordering Sudan, there are plenty of French peacekeeping troops. Perhaps I underestimated the French. However, the likelyhood of them intervening to stop goverment crackdowns on supposed "rebels" is still, I feel slim. But the threat might have been used effectively...
Rob can start reading again now...
Moving on from the political dicotomy, the next morning we headed off into Wales, towards Brecon, to have lunch with a friend of my parents, called Di (as in short for Diane). After another 1 and a half hours, at least, of driving, we arrived, had lunch, went for a walk. We stopped at a bridge, and Di said something about playing Pooh-sticks when we kids were tiny... So I wandered off and found some sticks... Unfortunately, I came last... Ooops! And on the second time, Ben (our dog) swam under the bridge and stole my stick. Grrr :@
On Sunday night, after another 4 hours in the car (oh joy!) we got home, changed, and went to Will's house, with a small detour up the road because his directions were a mite crap... Straight on at the Y junction and first left would have sufficed, because I didn't realise the "two cottages" mentioned were up the other stalk of the Y. Obviously not my fault, of course... :p
Twas quite amusant, watching Will and his dad bicker... And I was very upset at missing Rob's carrying of his team in the cricket :D I hear much fun and frolicing occured after I pissed off home... So I just hope Vicky kept her clothes on :p
Yesterday I filled in my Tesco application form, then cycled to Tescos to see what job to put on the front... Unfortunately they only have part-time vacancies, almost all including week-end stints, not handy seeing as I only have conjugal visits at the weekend... Though I could be a "Grocery Replenishment Engineer" from 23.00 to 08.00... Sounds about right for my awake-time! :D However, as yet I haven't applied for anything, so I might have to inquire at Dunmow Tescos... Jimmy, is there owt going spare?!
Today was not a very good day... woke up about half one, feeling t3h cr4p50r... The excessive exercise of le cyclisme, perhaps... Anyway, spent most of the day either watching tv or reading in bed... Was dragged out on another cycle by my dear mother, after which felt tres dead... On the plus side, watched a tres bon film tonight, called "The Experiment"(German, with subtitles). It centres on a psycolocial project involving a group of volunteers, who are divided into Prisoners and Guards. They have to play out their respective roles in a mockup prison, all watched by the cameras of the scientists. Obviously they go from amicability into conflict, then brutal control by the guards leading to an eventual riot and escape... The coincidence that the tall, blond ones are mostly Guards becomes gradually apparent as they start to dominate their colleagues (including an Elvis impersonator :p), and the Nazi imagery is further perpetuated by the main character, a Prisoner, is no more than average height, dark haired, and called Tarik... Overall, slightly overobvious, but very tense, and quite brutal... 8/10 :D
(Marks for the psuedo-critic in the comments, please :D)
A couple of final mentions:
1. I was looking at the Bath website last week, for details of Freshers Week etc etc... Couldn't find any, but was looking on the clubs list to find the OTC page, and also spotted the RPS club... I must have been feeling especially dozy, because I clicked on it expecting a gamers page (as in RTS or Real Time Strategy for Podgy etc :p). But no... tis the Bath student Rock Paper Scissors Club page, complete with tactics, club rules, competitions, matches vs other universities... Methinks me shall join! Lol... Well, on the off-chance I get into Bath, that is :D
2. Inspired by Podge's drugs rant... Something ironic: FARC, the Marxist rebels in Colombia, are supposedly fighting to free people from oppression, let the poor break out of the slums and be equal, etc etc. And their main source of funding is Cocaine... Made by peasants they keep like slaves, and which enslaves the minds of people in both their own country, and across the world. And many of those are the poor, the slum/ghetto-dwellers.
At least that was only a short paragraph to skip, right Rob? :D
Aufwiedersehen, chaps!
Mmmkay. Will's metamorphosis into Koel continues apace. Tis time for Will's, probably rather uninformed, views on the crisis in the Sudan.
As I understand it, the situation is basically this:
The government and majority of the population of the Sudan are mostly Muslim Arabs, living in the centre and north of the country. In the south live the "black-african" Christians. It's one of those superb ex-British empire countries, lines on a map encompassing a minimum of two tribes/religions, who dont want to share. Kind of reminiscient of Iraq, with the Sunni Arabs, the Shi'ite Arabs, and the Kurds. All Muslim, but all different. In the Sudan, the divisions are even more sharp.
Now, as far as I know, the story goes: Government is draining the southern region of Dafur of resources etc, favouring the north in all development etc. Rebel/resistance movement arises among the southerners, they object via bombing some local goverment places, that sort of thing. The central goverment then moves in with, apparently, not just loosely grouped arab militias, but also planes, ie military backup. They let the militias rape, kill, burn and pillage their way through Dafur, and when the "rebels" fight back, the military is on hand to suppress them.
Now, all this burning and killing pushes a wave of homeless people in front of it towards the border. They're grouped in vast refugee camps, little food, no sanitation. Aid is held up, confiscated, rerouted by the central goverment. As the crisis in the camps deepens, the charities step up their appeals, Colin Powell and Kofi Annan tour the camps, go to the capital. And what do they say? Rein in the militias, or we will impose UN sanctions upon you.
Sounding familiar again? Yup, it happened to Iraq too... Now, the validity of the evidence for the Iraq war is one thing, but was it a good thing? Hundreds may die a week now - Thousands were then - It's a good thing... However, no lesson seems to have been learned. Sanctions do squat. See Koel's blog for an impassioned view on sanctions. What's the major problem here? That the Arab militias are burning the villages, etc etc. Will increasing Aid to the camps and threatening sanctions change that? Unlikely. What needs to be done? Well now, we seem a little overstretched. While the goverment can spend 5 million on an advertising campaign promoting "common-sense advice" on terror attacks (Common-sense: obvious to the people who have the sense to read the pamphlet, those who don't, won't.), they can't pay to keep soldiers. And what is needed in the Sudan? An injection of soldiers in UN light blue berets and helmets, in a swathe between the two section of Sudan. A no entry zone, anyone crossing may be fired upon. Isolate the problem, return the people to their villages. The crops may have been burned and their livestock driven off, but at least they'll have shelter and better sanitation and water suplies than in refugee camps 100,000 strong. A very simplistic view of a complicated problem, but it needs doing.
What's the problem? Well, as Michael, and sometimes Michael's Friend Bob will tell us, the vast majority of the available troops of the US and UK are commited to Iraq and Afghanistan. We don't have the reserves to deal with it. So what is required? Well, we know the French and Germans can't stomach a war, but they may need to stomach peacekeeping. Either that, or the UN can try appealing to China... I hear they have the largest standing army in the world... But somehow, I think not :D
Well, that's my ranting over for now... I hope Podgy is proud of me :D I'm off to the Welsh Border again over the weekend, for my cousin's 21st at the grandparental house... a BBQ mit Bier... sound familiar? That's Saturday night, so I might be back in time for Will T's similar event on Sunday, parents, traffic and dropping off girlfriends at the station allowing... Ah yes: she is accompanying us, and thus having to meet most of my dad's side of the family in the process... Sympathy and condolences would probably be appreciated :D
Quote of the moment:
Sitting on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I'm just sitting on the dock of the bay
Wasting time
That's me at the moment...
Last night, I wasn't particularly hardcore... Watched "The Three Musketeers" from about 4am til 6am, with the dawn chorus blending into the sounds of the dishwasher... then headed to bed. Woke up about half one, went downstairs in my dressing gown, watched "The Four Musketeers" while I ate... Today I opted for breakfast, just for variety, because yesterday I went straight to lunch... Since then, read the second half of "A Line in the Sand" by Gerald Seymour... About an Iranian hitman, sent to kill a Brit who spied on a missile plant when he sold them manufacturing machines... And the CIA want to use him as bait, so they can capture the hitman, trace his hierachy and how the order was passed down from the goverment, and have a reason to go to war with Iran... Quite apt really, though it was written about 5 years ago, I think...
By the way, this entry doesn't have an actual point, it'll probably just be a load of ponderings, so ignore it if you cba!
Anyway... I noticed when I logged on that there were 3 other people online on my messenger contact list... Rob, Jimmy and Rosie... the same ones who'd been on last night... So I was thinking, what's up with that? Where's everyone else, and why are they online? But I cba to ponder it further, because I haven't really got a clue what people are doing... Perhaps it's just that we're the only ones without anything else to do... Plus Will T is perhaps still banned from the computer :p
(Will leaves blog for a while... and returns...)
Have been looking at the Tesco online application thing... It sux0rs a bit, because you can't apply direct to Tesco's, you have to go onto a thing called "People bank", hence no facility to say "I want to apply to THIS store for THIS job", just pick your industry, then some job headings, but since working in a coffee shop isnt inherently a retail thing, it's not in that section... Grrr... Plus, do you reckon they'd take someone on as shop-security for just a month?... Hmm... That'd be great fun, wandering around looking suspiciously at everyone, especially Jim's mum, the most obvious of shop-lifting suspects... :p
(Will goes to have supper, returns an hour later to find Vicky has nabbed the computer while he was doing the washing up. After nagging for 10 minutes, he gets back on...)
Lo again. Hmmm... Had a thrilling discussion over supper, along the lines of:
"Turn the TV off, we can have a family conversation"
"But we'll only argue, as usual"
"No we won't, now turn it off"
"I rest my case"
Mmm. Families. Great, aren't they.
So, I started this at 6.37, according to the counter under the entry box, and it's now 21.21... I'm doing well, aren't I?!
Hmmm... What else did I mean to comment on?
1. Anna's failure to update since the port scooner entry... Absolutely disgraceful, I reckon!
2. Anna's mate Alex. More specifically, the fact that he's had a blog since October 2002... I feel so new! Eeek! However, despite TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY posts, he's only written 21,000 words, so Podge and Prillo still own in that respect.
3. I'm going to go watch "Black Rain" at 10... Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia... Should be good... if not, I'll switch over to "The Hunt for Red October", which I have seen ages ago, and do have somewhere on video anyway... After that, will probably be time for "Return of the Musketeers"... W00t w00t! Speaking of which, when does ROTK: Extended Edition come out, and are we having a full length trilogy watching special?!
4. Apparently Rob's got film quotes in his latest cartoon... Hang on... Yes, he was... IMPRESSIVE... :D And while I'm at it: Rob m8, you tempt me to PMSL... Is that complimentary enough?!
5. Having read everyones blogs (I think) in the last 24hrs, it actually seems like I'm comparatively prolific at the moment... Yikes... Scary... And what's worse, at least Podgy's rambles have a point at the end, no matter how long winded... (sorry to continue the rudeness, I enjoy them whatever :D) Mine, on the other hand, particularly this one, don't even have that... Tis "My Thoughts" in pure, unadulterated (just better phrased) form... Rather depressing (for me) how inane they are!
Anyway, I shall bum off and do something even less useful, aka fiddle with my blog template...
Spanx for reading...
Quote of the moment: "Oh yeah, I'm going on a major healthy-eating bash... I ate an apple today of my own accord" - Podgy
Super-mega-turbo-family-fun-size-lol-a-thon!
In other news, Will was shocked today by the generosity of his ancestors (the ones who are still alive, that is :D). More on that story later, after another extract from the saga of the first bit of Will's summer holiday:
Chapter Five: In which Will has a lie in...
Seeing as he cba to go back out onto the training area after the end of exercise, when we dropped off the OTC in camp, Major Christmas was unavailable to deliver me either. So I got to spend the night alone in the huge pig shed style barrack block... And was only woken in the morning when the cadets got back :D
That day was spent doing some signals stuff with a Sergeant who called everyone "Youse", and in the afternoon, a joyous time practising for the competition on Friday. Did the assault course in the muppet group of people who werent doing it in the comp, and cba to jump the water jump so walked through it... then had a shooting practice, then Tug of War... etc etc...
In the evening, a pair of pipers from a scots school were having a practise in a corner of the camp beyond the range... til a mob of Felsted types turned up and 3 yr 10 started mooning at them in time to the music :D
Chapter Six: In which Will proves he is a fat bastard
So, competition day. Our first event was at 9.30. So naturally, when the girls turned up at 6.45 to go breakfast (all in drill stuff already, as they were all in the drill squad for the competition), the boys were still in bed... Cue an entertaining scene as the aforementioned three yr 10 displayed their "Morning Glories" to Sarah Bolton when she came in yelling... :D For those of you failing to comprehend, that means the large bulges in the middle of their sheets... :D
As far as the competiton went: Drill - we won, w00t w00t, (yawn yawn :p), everything else, didnt do outstandingly, apart from the Tug-of-War, which we were owning in, but we got knocked out: there were 3 teams in our heat who each beat everyone else and one of the other two: We beat Brentwood, and only lost to Strathallen because two people slipped when we were hauling them back easily... but we got knocked out because one school had put out an all-girl team for the ToW to save their good blokes for the other things, and we, for a laugh, had lost the first of 3 pulls to them deliberately... So Brentwood won and Strathallen came second... but pfft, not like I was le bothered, just meant I could piss off and go to sleep :D Also, at the tug-of-war I was asked by the SSI (Senior staff instructor) from a school in the other heat if I could put on a Light Infantry beret and pull for them... I said wrong generation, my dad was in 1LI (1st Battalion, Light Infantry), he asked his name, and it turned out my dad was his platoon commander when he first joined the army... which was quite k3wl... :D
After that, the "pillage" party got into full swing... and I definately owned, coming away with a total of 6 garments of clothing with embroidered crests, and one Oakham brassard... Also, the older Oakham peeps remembered Joules as "that RAF guy who glowered the whole time." Lol.
Chapter Seven: In which Will goes home
So, next morning we're up at 5.30 to pack and clean out the billet... On the bus at 7.30, though I had to hop off and retrieve our "contingent cricket bat" as bought by Eggers on the way up... The bus was tres swanky, flatscreen TV and Dvd player with a case-full to choose from... So we watched Tomb-Raider, Finding Nemo and a couple of others I think, on the way down... We also drove right past the camp where we were last summer, and saw some other poor muppets doing the lovely up-hill assault course... Got back, got some very scared looks from the people staying in the school when we all hopped off the bus with rifles... Cleaned the rifles one last time, then put them in the armoury and had a final parade in "jeans order"(sigh). Then headed home... I stopped to beg the photo of me cuddling a sniper rifle off the pin-board though, which was nice. :D
End of the CCF Camp bit...
After that, got home, went and picked up the Childs from Bishops Stortford station, brought her home, unpacked kit, put out dirty stuff. Next day, packed stuff for parachuting, went to Chelmsford station with parent and the Childs, got dropped off, then parent dropped her off at the other station. Got to Andover station, picked up with most of the guys in the course in a pair of 4-ton trucks, (that's the flatbed ones with the canvas over the back), went to the Officers Mess at RA Larkhill. Very smart, as you'd expect. Huge dining room, own bar, etc etc... Sharing a room with a guy called Owen Larson who was in my section on the leadership course I did last summer. Next morning, went to the Airfield in 4-tonners, did morning's jump training in daft oranges jumpsuits (aka guantanemo suits, as we named them), then at lunch: There's a problem. For the first jump, you need 1.5 times the normal canopy for your weight. So although they had parachutes rated up to 300lbs, I'm over 200 so I was buggered... I'd have had to be 14.5 stone... OOOPS. The muppetous Captain who organised the course had even told the other guy over the limit that he'd be fine, cos no-one told her about the first jump rule... (She wasnt a parachutist, just a normal Artillery Officer...) So I came home the next day... bit shite really, but never mind, c'est la vie! But I will never be under 15 stone again in my life, unless I get starved in some Arabic prison... it's unlikely I'll be under 16... So pfft!
That's about it for the epic saga... Since then, I've just been bumming around at home, doing a bit of hedge-trimming, stuff like that... watching videos, playing PD on the N64, playing AOE II: the Age of Conquerors on me aged desktop vs me sister on her laptop... because this stupid piece of junk doen't have a serial port! So, as Rob said, pretty much... :D Havent persuaded her into cossacks yet though, but if Jim or anyone else wants to try then they can get their bums over here... :D
As I mentioned earlier, but forgot until I published and viewed, I need to mention today... Or more specifically, that I drove into Felsted (I was feeling too lazy to cycle) and cut my grandparents grass. Didn't take me long, maybe an hour, hour and a half at the most, and for this I was given coke + chocolate biscuits (ie all the incentive + reward I need) and also the princely sum of £7.00! My grand-rents 120><012! Lol... Speaking of which, was discussing his coffee shop employment in Tescos with Jimmy earlier tonight, or indeed this morning, and since he had to do absolutely nothing except fill in the form in order to get a job at Tescos, I think I might have a go... I have at least 4 weeks after the exam results week that I can work solidly for... (I'm canal tripping the week before that...). The only prob is that Jimmy's presumably working in Dunmow Tescos, whereas I would prefer Great Notley, as it's a 3 minute cycle... So he should drive to Great Notley and work there instead! :D Though we agreed my talents would be better suited to the butchers counter... :) Anyways, a plan to consider...
Meanwhile, that should have pushed me nicely over the 10,000 word mark... Go me! I know Podge is on about 80,000 and Prillo about 50,000 words, but I've been asleep half that time dammit! So the obstinate "Average Posts per Week" thing remains on 1... But I have 9 recent ones, apparently, though I don't know how they work that out... I suppose in the last month, because there were a few in the last week of term... Anyway! Enough of the Podgy style rambling!
That's about it from me... To finish, I have some lolage material from the KWS website... This is what Anna can look forward to...
Introduction
KWS cattle team is a co-curricular activity available to all students years 7 to 12. KWS has actively been involved in stud cattle and steer shows for over twenty years.Our studs consist of a long standing Shorthorn stud which has been successful at many shows over the years and recently Angus Stud has been established to compliment our commercial herd of Angus breeders.Students in the team learn all aspects of preparing stud cattle for shows. It enables our boys and girls the opportunity to develop nurturing skills involved with grooming, daily feeding and watering. This develops responsible practice for students in the team.Our aim is to give the opportunity to all students who would like to gain a knowledge of cattle husbandry and showing.
:D
I'm off to watch "The Three Musketeers"... the classic with Oliver Reed, Michael York, Charlton Heston, Faye Dunaway and Spike Milligan... W00t w00t... and maybe after that, "The Four Musketeers"... the second half of the original one long film, which the director chopped into two rather than have to cut it extensively... And maybe even after that, "The Return of the Musketeers", which does exactly what it says on the tin. :p
G'night, childs!
