Dark Alex's Really Long Post Thread.

[Alex]

There was a photo posted recently from NASA. It had all of the UK covered in snow, except for a little triangle around the place where we llive. I'll see if I can find it andpost it up.

[Alex]

Weather is warm today and somewhat far from the predicted minus double figures predicted. Still it was a very clear sky last night and the ground was still frozen when I went outside so I am guessing the temperature plunged overnight. Can't see a single cloud in the sky.

Played Stewart at Boss Monster & Munchkin last night, had (quite) a few drinks and a good laugh. They came round for breakfast this morning before heading back home. Next time I see him Ash should be here. Wow, in less than two weeks I am going to be a dad.

After Stewart and family headed off I ran a bath for Elizabeth and then me and Kristi went for a nap. She slept, and I just lay there cuddling her. Dagon joined us at some point, so I had her lying with her head on my shoulder while my other hand was scratching the cat behind the ears. There are worse lives to have than the one I've got.

Today is a good day.

[indianasmith]

Glad you're having a good day!

(But your posts are getting shorter an shorter.  Pick it up or change the title of the thread!! LOL)   

[Alex]

K

[Alex]

(Couldn't resist).

[Alex]

Doing a nightshift this week. Other than guard duty, its been a while since I was last on one, something around five years. Looking forward to it. The only time I really enjoyed being on sqn was when I did three months of constant night shifts. Working with Inhumanly Tall Dave, Jim and one other, but I am not sure whom.

Weather is distinctly chiller today, although the predicted freezing winds have not yet appeared. At least however no one has asked to watch 'La La Land' again. I ended up going to bed at around 21:00 just to get away from it. The musicals I like are few and far between, but that one seemed especially bad. Good job I wasn't born in India I guess.

Neither me or Kristi managed to sleep well last night, but we did at least get some. Took me until lunchtime to get Kristi out of bed. Dagon spent the morning running around like a mad thing. Perhaps I should have thrown him into our bedroom and then listened for the stream of curses from Kristi as he bounced around everywhere. Although it is funny when he tries to lie on Kristi's belly and the baby moves and kicks him off.

Tempted to take a game in with me tonight. Perhaps I should teach the office to play Magic? Suspect I'll take a book in just in case it's all quiet. I can see IT Dave as playing pure blue and Jim, I think would be a red / green mix. He likes Pokemon so he might just be interested in M:TG.

The house is much quieter today than yesterday and will be a bit quieter again tomorrow. Its nice having my family visiting, but I also like having time to just me and the wife. Since this will be our last week like that I plan on enjoying every moment of it, although they are going to back up again pretty damn soon. I have suggested they just leave their suitcases here instead of lugging them back down the road only to turn around and come back up again carrying them again.

Fighting the urge to go to the shop and get some Irn Bru. The sun is streaming through the window although I know if I go outside that illusion of a nice day is going to very quickly evaporate. But I like to get out the house and see some sunlight each day and if I wait until I am going to work it is going to be dark. Plenty of flying going on today, so hopefully there won't be much in the way of night flying. There isn't a lot between our office and the runway and you get to hear the roar of the engines to say the least.

Just got word that Martin is coming over. I guess that means I should get properly dressed instead of lounging about in my PJ's until I have to get ready for work like I had planned. No idea how I managed to end up with so many Canadian friends, but for some reason I do. Normally I've managed to offend people by now and scared them off, but Canadians seem particularly hard to offend.

Outside my family, no one in my current circle of friends has known me for more than 15 years, although part of that is me moving around so much. Mind you, before I got married I was getting a security check done and the government couldn't find any proof  I existed on their basic checks. Given I've been working for them for 17 1/2 years you'd think that would have helped there, but I'd to bring in extra proof that I was really real. This isn't the first time I've came up against this issue, when I was nine I found out that all my medical records for before then had been lost. Nowadays I have a credit card and so on, so I'd imagine I am much less off the grid as I used to be.

And hopefully this post is long enough to satisfy Indy. ;)

If not I am sure I can expand on it later for him.

[Trevor]

Apologiesthisthreadistooshort 

[Alex]

You lot are just never bloody happy. 

[indianasmith]

Much better! Back to form.

[Alex]

Last nights shift when well as these things go. Work mates were a bit jealous because Kristi had sent me in a chicken wrapped in bacon thing for dinner, while well they had things like soup. I wonder if it will be like the Falklands where I will be asked to tell her not to send me stuff as it upsets other people whose wife's don't treat them as well.

Yeah, well they know where they can stick that one. While I was at work Dagon decided to sit on Kristi's lap. Little s**t won't do that for me. I called him a traitor and a member of the rebel alliance, but apparently he was unimpressed with this.

Finished just after midnight, got home and caught up on the posts here before heading to bed a bit before 1am as I was starting to feel tired. This however very rapidly disappeared just as soon as my head hit the pillow and my brain went "BING!" time to be awake. Cheers for that.

As the night went on a number of things became apparent. One was under the quilt was incredibly warm, but outside of it the temperature felt below freezing. I had sweat lashing off me and soaking the bedclothes. I decided to get up, change the quilt for a lighter blanket and turn the thermostat up. This is when the second thing became apparent. I am currently having a gout attack in my knees, elbows and hip. This is much more painful in the wee small hours than during the day. I was having extreme problems bending my knee joints, so I decided screw this walking like an old man s**t, I am going to force my joints to do what I want them to do. Being in a lot of pain already and not quite fully awake my next move was to tumble down the stairs.

But hey, by happy coincidence that landed me just where the thermostat is. Every cloud right?

Got up early to see the parental unit off home along with my sister. Depending on what we get from today's hospital appointment they should be back up next week. Because my mum is a pensioner she has a bus pass and it only costs her 50p (around 37 cents I guess) to make any bus journey no matter how long. My little sister being handicapped has a similar pass so she gets to travel for free so its not expensive for them to pop over to the other side of the country to visit. Anyway, after that I had to go see my mental health nurse. I am getting signed off them. He thanked me for being a model patient and doing all the things they asked me to do. Got a review on the Thursday where they'll look at my meds, but the recommendation is to start bringing me off them in three or four months. I'll be happy with that. Means I can get fully upgraded and be deployable again. Not that I want to be deployed, but I feel if you can't be then you are taking the money for stuff you can't actually do and it doesn't quite sit well with me.

Me and IT Dave were discussing the joys of our job with getting that little bit older. Playing around with guns and doing contact drills etc sounds great when you tell someone about it, but when you've had to lie in a cold muddy puddle for six hours where you are tempted to pee yourself just so you can feel some warmth for a few seconds it isn't quite as glamorous. Certainly not when your body is in pain for the next few days with it either. Lots of fun up until your mid 30's but after that it looses some of it's charm. Besides have you ever had someone shoot at you? I remember my first time well. Me and a friend were on guard duty. He was in a Sanger (a light unarmoured one man bunker), while I was outside when the shot rang out. I hit the ground very well aware that since I had heard the shot, if it had been on target I'd already have been hit. Officially our ROE said only fire back at confirmed targets and I couldn't see anyone in the trees, but I fired some rounds in the general direction of some suspicious looking shrubbery (this was also the day I would later get into trouble for suggesting the Geneva Convention was more a set of guidelines than actual rules) just to show hey I have a gun too. There were no more incoming rounds after that. My Oppo in the Sanger radioed in for QRF to come reinforce us and when he got there he was trying to point out the direction the enemy had been in, but it is hard to see where someone is pointing when they are inside a bunker and you are outside.

Made me laugh anyway. And if you can keep your sense of humour while you are being shot at, then what else can life throw at you that is going to upset you?

Thing is, even with all the training and the best will in the world you never know how you are going to react until the time comes. And just because you make the right (or wrong) decision one time, doesn't mean that you'll do it the same way next time. Fight or flight is a strange unpredicatable beast for most people.

I guess from the news recently there are some people who are very aware of this right now.

[Trevor]

Stilltooshort 

[Alex]

I am going to cut and paste a copy of War & Peace (in Russian) and then ask questions on it Trevor just to make sure you have read it all. 

[Trevor]

I am going to cut and paste a copy of War & Peace (in Russian) and then ask questions on it Trevor just to make sure you have read it all. 

HEEEELLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!! *

* I read one or two chapters in high school and saw the movie 

[Alex]

To Ash.

I promise that I you will never have to go hungry while I decide to play a computer game rather than go get a job, or to make you wait for food because I am playing a game.
I promise that you will never have to live in fear of me coming home drunk, angry and violent.
I promise to remember that since me and your mother decided to create a life, that we owe you, and not the other way round.
I promise to let you make your own choices and pick your own path, although I hope to help guide you and give you the moral framework to make these choices. You are not however a clone of us, or someone to be made to live our dreams through.
I promise to do my best to always be there for you, to help you and support you until you are old enough not to need this from me any more.
I promise to sometimes say "No" to you, just because a child has to know that he can't always have everything he wants.
I promise to try and appreciate every moment with you, even if there are some times when I don't want to change a dirty nappy or clean up after you.
I promise that no job will ever be more important to me than spending time with you.
I promise to keep embarrassing baby photographs of you to show to future girl/boy friends.
I promise that if you misbehave I will always care enough to give you into trouble for it.
I promise not to send you to bed just because I want peace and quiet.

[ER]

Alex, that is really, really, really beautiful, and Ash will be a lucky little boy.

(But keep up such beautiful posts and we're going to have to rename you Bright Alex.)