Alex's even longer post thread.

[lester1/2jr]

Anyone ever read Jerusalem 1913? https://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-1913-Origins-Arab-Israeli-Conflict/dp/0143113283

Basically Jews and Arabs were living side by side until suddenly tons of Europeans starting to come in and eventually world super powers decided the land was theirs (the Jewish immigrants).

Believe me, I understand the significance of Israel to Jewish people: that's why it's a conflict!

[Alex]

We have a full-on storm happening (or as they'd say round here (It's blawin a hoolie). Parts of Lossiemouth (down by the harbour) may need to be evacuated. Safe where we are though.

Maybe I should post is full-blown Scots. See how long it takes anyone to translate it? If you want an example, try reading Trainspotting. Took me a while to read that one. Had to translate everything as I read it. Hate to think how non-natives must handle it.

Mibbies aye, mibbies naw. I dinnae ken if fowk cud manage ti keep up wi the lingo. Lots o' loons and quines what urny local widna' be able to follow it. They'd aw end up glakit and needing a guid boosie. Ra polis wid be hinken they wur half jaked like. Hud a bit o' a swallie and ended up pished. Git telt ti shut their geggy or end up slapped in the rinagate furra night. Aye well, its hoachin' tonight and I feel scunnered.

[chefzombie]

close enough to my bestie's welsh that i know it. shall i translate, or not? probably more fun if i don't, lol!c

[Alex]

If you feel you can, then go ahead. I don't think I made it too difficult.

[Alex]

Went out for a long walk today. Several hours worth of it. Kristi was upset that I didn't spend the day with her, but I need to get exercise in (I need to lose a few decimal points of a BMI, nothing major) and with her having volunteered to work every day of Ash's holiday, I haven't had a chance to do any exercise at all.

Anyway, I had a decent workout. Started at around 09:30 and didn't stop until 17:00ish, doing up as many hills as possible. Back to work in the morning. I need to head to bed soon. We stayed up later than I'd meant to last night. The TV show I was watching, was good, but not that good. I just hadn't looked at the time until I discovered it was past midnight. I went up into the hills despite a very heavy mist. Going out into the wilds without as much as a compass was a bit silly, but it would be hard to get completely lost from civilisation. Out of sight of it for maybe half an hour tops.

I'd heard of a shop selling Kristi's favourite ornaments (by Jim Shore) and went to investigate that. What I found wasn't Jim Shore. I think the word of it was horrific. If Disney had been made by Dr Frankenstien you might have got something along these lines. Oh well, I just ordered something online for her.

I really need to stop buying her presents for Yule.

[Alex]

My resolution to have breakfast when I am on day shift is holding. Two days in a row, which is an improvement. Done my weapons handlng still test today, doubtless there are many more to follow until I end up sick to the back teeth of them.

Too late.

I wonder how the world outside is going. I am going g through another I don't care about the news phase. They seem to be coming more and more often. Guessing we still have two newsworthy wars going on and many that aren't considered headline stuff.

Bumped into Mark today. He is much happier now Karl has gone. Shame those two couldn't get on with each other but friendship and management do not often make good bedfellows. Plus, well Mark is nuts. Karl is doing well in his new job. I hope his promotion gives him what he is looking for.

 When I was in Inverness yesterday I passed the takeaway owned by the father of one of my ex's. I was idily tempted to go.order food, see if she was working there and it she recognised me. Letting sleeping dogs lie won over though, even if I doubted that she'd know me. Hell, I suspect I wouldn't spot her either. I think she'd have put on a lot of weight over the years because well she struck me as that kind of person. Doesn't make her had or anything. I just suspect she was bound for a lifelong struggle with her weight and diets. Plus she was a good cook. Guess she'll be hitting 40 or just past it. I am sure her birthday was in december. Hmm, never before realised how many of my ex's had birthdays that month. Well at least Kristi is different. Hers is in January.

Still another 3 1/2 hours to go. Looks like I might get to complete a whole day shift without someone going sick and me having to cover nights.

[Alex]

Well my weekend starts in around 75 minutes and lasts until tuesday.

I can't wait. :) I have the excitement of ooh let's see. Well I pick up my new glasses tomorrow, and then I get to go with Kristi to the doctors to see if they can get the glass out of her arm that the medics stateside missed. That's twice out of two uses of the US healthcare system that they've messed up. We've agreed that on future visits, unless it something urgent we will just wait until we are back in the UK for treatment.

The days when Kristi did not want to use any healthcare outside the US are long gone. When we first got married, she'd said if she got pregnant she wanted to fly back to the US to give birth. Her view on that changed quite a lot.

Taking Ash to a Samhain festival on Saturday. When he gets a bit older I'll teach him about its true nature, but for now he can enjoy the dressing up and the sweets. Then again, there are a lot of religious festivals he'll need to learn the truth about since the Christian will steal any holiday that isn't nailed down  and burn anyone that is. Still, maybe bailing things down is the problem and we should nail them up instead. That does seem to be their bag.

Remember when weekends used to be just fun and excitement? To be honest not really for me. The jobs I had, well any night could be and often was a party night. I just didn't care to indulge them quite to the same degree as my workmates. I'd certainly drink plenty of alcohol, but I never cared for the drugs scene and not knowing where you were when you woke up is fun to think back on, but not always at the time. Besides there were other ways us of having fun that overindulging could put a real crimp in...

I think tomorrow I'll indulge in the positively Baccanial pleasures of lying in bed until maybe 07:00, might even push the boat out and have some toasted cheese.

*sigh*

I miss the excitement of going off on random adventures. Sure I got stabbed a few times and whatnot, but I survived, even if I don't quite have the full range of movement in one arm. It made some kickass memories.

[Alex]

My current project:



An Amish Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl (think American Football, only made interesting to watch) team.

[Alex]

High tide today.

The car park at the gold course:


The bridge to East Beach:


Where east beach normally is:

[Alex]

It seems that from our last holiday we got a gift that just won't stop giving. Having tried a few things to try and help get the car glass out of Kristi's arm, it now seems like we are down to minor surgery. Pretty much what they are going to do is the same thing they do for removing the birth control stuff they implant under the skin.

Ash is starting to really protest going to school. Had tears in his eyes yesterday. We suspect he has some variety of a cold, and hopefully that's the reason I really felt like keeping him off on Friday, but with both me and Kristi working in the  morning it just wasn't an option. The school did call us and ask us to pick him up early as he seemed tired and wouldn't even play with trains. Him not playing with trains is like me turning down playing in a D&D session, very unusual. Other than being tired, he seems fine. Mind you, when I've had covid my main symptom has been extreme tiredness.

Got my medical later today. Wonder how that will go? Been a long time since a doctor last told me I was physically perfect. That did make me chuckle when she said that.

[Alex]

It is a very autumnal day today. Lots of cold rain and an icy wind.

Such a shame I am stuck in this nice warm office.

Heh heh he heh.

We have a rather uptight lance jack. You can tell he used to be a VAN or something before. Real Wobbly Orange vibes from him. Anyway, he called me to tell me that he'd be late taking over from me. Looking at the cameras outside and all the rain coming down I am not going to complain about that. Two hours and 12 minutes before I get to go home.

In the mean time I can watch all the bad movies I can fit in.😁

[Alex]

After debating about it for quite some time, I've decided to give up on using Firefox. I've been finding too many problems with various websites while using it. I've been using Firefox for about 13 years. It is the browser I met Kristi on. I don't particularly care to use Chrome or Edge. I wonder what other options are out there?

Edge it is until I can be bothered doing some research. Wills and Kate passed through the station today paying a visit to a local (and rather worthwhile) charity to give them a bit of recognition.

There is something else going to be happening that I'd like to talk about but can't. Going on a course and leaving early doors Sunday morning, so I'll miss it. I expect it will be something of a damp squib anyway.

In not entirely unrelated news it seems some pro-Palestinian organisation is planning marches to disrupt Remembrance Sunday events. Yeah, that will turn public sympathy against them and be rather counterproductive.

Taking Ash to a model railway exhibition on Saturday. We are also debating taking him to the fireworks display later that night.

I wonder how many guys at the exhibition will be bald, but have beards? I'd bet money 90%+ of the exhibitors will have this look. I think it is some sort of warning signal to women not to breed with this person, they are too much in love with their hobby.

[Alex]

Urgh. Got to do my station arrivals brief today. I already did one 20 odd years ago. I am sure all that will have changed in that time is the names of the aircraft.

20 minutes of useful information squeezed into 4 hours.

Watching an old film I hadn't heard of before. Daughter of the mind. Isn't bad to be fair.

Yeah swap Tornados and Sea Kings for Typhoons and P8's and it was pretty much the same brief. Grudgingly the glass dug out of her arm today. Despite the pain killers it hurt a lot she said, but at least it is out.

[Alex]

Well, the thought of having someone booking my flights for me sounded great after years of having to do all that for myself for years. The only problem is though that you don't get to pick the times you are leaving at, thus why I am having to get transported to Inverness airport at 04:20 instead of getting the 14:00 flight from Aberdeen on Sunday.

Well at least I have Saturday.

[Alex]

It is official. There is going to be a pro-Palestinian protest at the base on Sunday. Hopefully the currently terrible weather we are having will continue for that, and they can get cold and wet all day long.

Not that I begrudge them, or anyone else the right to protest. I mean go ahead, knock your socks off. Won't change anything. Here is the truth. All the protests I've seen at military bases, they don't really achieve anything. Hell, more than half the time the thing people are protesting about is happening at another base entirely. You want a government to change its policy in some way? Killing soldiers might get you headlines, but politicians do not really care about dead soldiers unless it starts to affect their chances of reelection. Protesting government buildings or blowing them up won't achieve much either to be honest. You really want to effect change, so something that costs really rich people money. The troubles in Northern Ireland went on for how long (and even today haven't entirely gone away, but they are not what they once were) and it really didn't do anything despite an ever rising body count. Hell, it helped British arms manufacturers as they could sell their kit with the combat proven/ battle tested tag on them. A couple of bombs set off in the heart of London's financial district though and pretty quickly after that there is a peace process in place.

Money and politics are so intertwined. Anyone who talks about the military Industrial complex really has missed out totally on how things are ran and why things happen. I've worked for both the military and an arms company. They really do not work hand in hand. We are just another customer to get screwed over and make as much money from possible. The whole military industrial thing suggests a much higher degree of cooperation that just isn't there. It really amazes me how many people are so easily fooled by that notion though. Honestly, it I was told that this particular phrase had been deliberately created to distract folks from seeing how things are really done while at the same time giving them the feeling that they are in the know it really would not surprise me. If it was deliberate then it is a work of genius. After all it is still working how many years later and few people seem to be capable of realising just how wrong it is. Military contracts are awarded more on the basis of 'Well, this company has a factory here. If we give them the contract then the workers will vote for our party's or 'The CEO just made a huge donation to our re-election campaign so we'll give him this contract in return', than they are on the basis of what the military wants or needs.

I know of no better way to tell someone you don't know what you are talking about than to use that phrase and seriously mean it as a thing.

Democracy really is a terrible form of government. I'd like to give a meritocracy a go.