Main Menu

Alex's even longer post thread.

Started by Alex, March 19, 2020, 10:14:15 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Alex

We do our best. People keep telling me that seeing Ash's smile cheers them up so I've been making an effort to post pictures on FB semi-regularly of him. Found out yesterday my iphone will make videos of pictures of people and tried uploading one of him yesterday, but it wasn't getting online for some reason.

Life continues under the lockdown. Mentioned about the post Kristi does nightly updating the community on services that are available and discovered that the office all read it. They were surprised to find out it was her writing it for the community council.

I wonder if any people who were sent home from non-essential jobs are having a crisis about being deemed non-essential? So many humans do seem to just be here to do things because there are so damn many of us. That isn't meant as a criticism of those people, just a random wondering things will bring on a wave of the equivalent of mid-life crises or not. Something to wait and see in the future I guess.

QuoteManiacs of WW2

Lauri Törni (Larry Thorne).

During the battles at Lake Ladoga, Törni took part in the destruction of the encircled Soviet divisions in Lemetti.

His performance during these engagements was noticed by his commanders, and toward the end of the war, he was assigned to officer training where he was commissioned a Vänrikki (2nd lieutenant) in the reserves. After the Winter War, in June 1941, Törni went to Vienna, Austria for seven weeks of training with the Waffen-SS, and returned to Finland in July; as a Finnish officer, the Germans recognized him as an Untersturmführer. Most of Törni's reputation was based on his successful actions in the Continuation War (1941–44) between the Soviet Union and Finland. In 1943 a unit informally named Detachment Törni was created under his command. This was an infantry unit that penetrated deep behind enemy lines and soon enjoyed a reputation on both sides of the front for its combat effectiveness. One of Törni's men was future President of Finland Mauno Koivisto. Koivisto served in a reconnaissance company under Törni's command during the Battle of Ilomantsi, which was the final Finnish-Soviet engagement of the Continuation War during July and August 1944. Törni's unit inflicted such heavy casualties on Soviet units that the Soviet Army placed a bounty on his head of 3,000,000 Finnish marks. He was decorated with the Mannerheim Cross on 9 July 1944.

The September 1944 Moscow Armistice required Finland to remove German troops from its territory, resulting in the Lapland War; during this period, much of the Finnish Army was demobilized, including Törni, leaving him unemployed in November 1944. In January 1945, he was recruited by a pro-German resistance movement in Finland and left for saboteur training in Germany, and to organize resistance in case Finland was occupied by the Soviet Union. The training was prematurely ended in March, but as Törni could not secure transportation to Finland, he joined a German unit to fight Soviet troops near Schwerin, Germany. He surrendered to British troops in the last stages of World War II and eventually returned to Finland in June 1945 after escaping a British POW camp in Lübeck, Germany.

As his family had been evacuated from Karelia, Törni sought to rejoin them in Helsinki but was arrested by Valpo, the Finnish state police. After escaping, he was arrested a second time in April 1946, and tried for treason for having joined the German Army. After a trial from October to November, he received a 6-year sentence in January 1947. Imprisoned at the Turku provincial prison, Törni escaped in June, but was recaptured and sent to the Riihimäki State Prison. Finnish President Juho Paasikivi granted him a pardon in December 1948.

Törni then travelled on board a Swedish cargo ship as one of the crew. While it was in the Gulf of Mexico he jumped overboard and swam to shore, claiming political asylum. He was granted a permit of residence.

Törni joined the US Army in 1954 under the provisions of the Lodge-Philbin Act and adopted the name Larry Thorne. In the US Army, he was befriended by a group of Finnish-American officers who came to be known as "Marttinen's Men" (Marttisen miehet).

With their support, Thorne joined the US Army Special Forces. While in the Special Forces, he taught skiing, survival, mountaineering, and guerrilla tactics. In turn, he attended airborne school, and advanced in rank; attending Officer Candidate School, he was commissioned as a 1st lieutenant in the Signal Corps in 1957.[20] He later received a commission and a promotion to captain in 1960. From 1958–1962 he served in the 10th Special Forces Group in West Germany at Bad Tölz, where he was second in command of a search and recovery mission high in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, which gained him a notable reputation.[21] When he was in Germany, he borrowed a car and briefly visited his relatives in Finland. In an episode of The Big Picture released in 1962 and composed of footage filmed in 1959, Thorne is shown as a lieutenant with the 10th Special Forces Group in the United States Army.

Deploying to South Vietnam in November 1963 to support Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces in the Vietnam War, Thorne and Special Forces Detachment A-734 were stationed in the Tịnh Biên District and assigned to operate Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) encampments at Châu Lăng and later Tịnh Biên.

During a fierce attack on the CIDG camp in Tịnh Biên, he received two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star Medal for valor during the battle. This attack would later be described by author Robin Moore in his book The Green Berets.

Thorne's second tour in Vietnam began in February 1965 with 5th Special Forces Group; he then transferred to Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV–SOG), a classified US special operations unit focusing on unconventional warfare in Vietnam, as a military advisor.

On 18 October 1965, as part of the operation Shining Brass, Thorne was supervising the first clandestine mission to locate Viet Cong turnaround points along the Ho Chi Minh trail and destroy them with airstrikes. Two Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) CH-34 helicopters launched from Kham Duc Special Forces Camp and rendezvoused with a United States Air Force Cessna O-1 Bird Dog Forward Air Controller in inclement weather in a mountainous area of Phước Sơn District, Quảng Nam Province, Vietnam, 25 miles (40 km) from Da Nang. While one CH-34 descended through a gap in the weather to drop off the 6-man team, the command CH-34 carrying Thorne and the O-1 loitered nearby, when the drop helicopter returned above the cloud cover both the CH-34 and the O-1 had disappeared. Rescue teams were unable to locate the crash site. Shortly after his disappearance, Thorne was promoted to the rank of major and posthumously awarded the Legion of Merit and Distinguished Flying Cross.

In 1999, Thorne's remains were found by a Finnish and Joint Task Force-Full Accounting team and repatriated to the United States following a Hanoi Noi Bai International Airport ceremony that included Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Ambassador Pete Peterson.

Formally identified in 2003, his remains were buried on 26 June 2003 at Arlington National Cemetery, section 60, tombstone 8136, along with the RVNAF casualties of the mission recovered at the crash site. He was memorialized on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Panel 02E, Line 126. He was survived only by his fiancée, Marja Kops, who later married another man.

Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

Alex

Got called back into work last night. A mistake had been found and the people investigating it wanted to know if it was our fault or not. I looked into it, and as far as I can find nothing comes down to us.

Or at least me. I don't care about the rest.  :bouncegiggle:

Pretty sure they are safe too though. In fact, I think it is the people who have complained about the mistake that have made it. Boy, is that going to get them when they find out they've screwed themselves. Made a big order of WW2 stuff today. Getting my Brits a 3" Mortar carrier, a Churchill AVRE tank and a truck to carry some infantry. I need to get a few of the last off that list. For Kristi's Americans, I've ordered an HMG, heavy mortar and a LVT(A)-1 37mm AMTANK. Finally, my Japanese are getting some loving with a platoon of Chi-Ha's. Aiming towards playing a tank war scenario, but that mean's not only getting tanks but also having enough vehicles to transport any and all infantry around.

Been wondering about picking up a 3D printer to make my own vehicles. Going to do some research and see if it is practical and if it would save money in the long run. I think what will be the deciding factor will be the cost of the raw materials to make the stuff. If anyone has any experience of using one though feel free to give advice.

Looking forward to having next week off work. I even wanted to book one of my callout days as leave, but my line manager wouldn't let me. He said he'd cover that day.

Sounds great that doesn't it? Thing is that he doesn't know my job and if something goes wrong he'll need to call me and I plan on being drunk early doors that particular day.
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

Alex

Went into work today expecting a fairly easy day as things had been slow this week.

Boy was I wrong.

Emails that had been sent yesterday at lunchtime with work for me didn't turn up until today, other work came in and our software suite wasn't working. When I tried to access Office it constantly froze up, none of the printers were coming online, my boss wanted some extra stuff doing... Normally on a Friday, we finish at 15:00. At 18:00 I turned the computer off, said I'd had enough and went home.

I've had four beers now and I am feeling like beer cans do not hold enough beers.
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

Alex

In the last job I had before the one I am currently in, I was working in a factory. Initially, my contract was from mid-November until December. I figured it was a decent enough wage and I could do it to get money for presents. Over the first few weeks, they figured out who the good workers were and got rid of the others. Those who were leftover ended up having their contracts extended and the job lasted until 2 weeks before I was due to join up in early July.

I still remember the faces of the people I worked with, although mostly their names have been lost to the mists of time. There was the one guy I nicknamed the Mongolian Horseman, for no other reason than to see if people would call him it. They did. I worked beside all sorts of people from ex-soldiers, guys with university degrees, ex-R.A.F. policemen, junkies and more. We were all temp workers for an employment agency, while the people who worked in the factory already worked directly for the company. I don't know if you have ever worked in that kind of situation, but there is always a degree of enmity from some of the permanent staff towards the temps. We get a higher wage, but we don't get other benefits like sick or holiday pay. There was only one woman who had that attitude towards us in this particular place, and she was a loudmouth who wasn't afraid to voice her opinions so everyone could hear.

Mostly we ignored her. She'd say we were all lazy. Now, this woman was heavily overweight, while at this time I was up early in the morning to run a couple of miles, then cycle 7 miles to work, do a 12-hour shift and cycle home. I doubt she could have kept up with me for 10 seconds. Anyway, our shifts started and finished at different times from the permanent staff and we had different breaks. She was always accusing us of taking too long on our breaks and so on, which was bull. One particular break the permanent staff got happened to be at the same time as the end of our shift (our shifts rotated on a 2 week 12-hour cycle whereas they had a three-week 8-hour rotation), so I suggested to the guy I was working beside that we play a bit of a trick on her. We had a loud conversation about going off for our break, not mentioning it was really our home time and off we went.

Of course, when we didn't come back, she ran off to complain to one of the supervisors saying that we'd taken a longer break than we were allowed and been a bit humiliated when after shouting loudly enough for the entire factory floor to hear what she thought of us being told that we had completed our shift and went home on time. One of the other permanent staff told us the next day that she'd been livid about it, but for the remainder of my time working there, I never heard another word from that fat, bloated, b***h.

Of course, as with everywhere else, I've worked, the factory closed down after I'd quit. I occasionally wonder where she ended up. I suspect a lifetime of minimum wage jobs followed by an early death. Maybe she is still kicking around and done well for herself. Just one of those things I will know though for sure.
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

chefzombie

my entire banguet team except for the captain was made up of long term temps, they ROCKED! and nobody got to mistreat them that was a regular company worker. i p**sed off ALOT a cafeteria people who came in for extra shifts, needless to say.
don't EVEN...EVER!

Alex

#65
Warning, this is going to be an extremely geeky post about WW2 stuff and wargaming. It is more just somewhere to put down a vague notion of a game I will most likely not get to play.

The set of WW2 rules we play (Bolt Action), is designed as primarily an infantry based game. You might have a tank in your force, but it is the grunts that really do the work. It does, however, have a variant called 'Tank Wars'.

So, this is for my British force since I have the most variety of vehicles for them out of the assorted armies we have. There are too many vehicles to put into one platoon, so I've split them between two, a light and a heavy platoon.

1st  Platoon (Light).

Command vehicle.
Humber Scout Car. Pintle-mounted LMG. Veteran. 108 points.
Bit risky putting my commander in a light tank, but I am going with a theme of fast and mobile for this force and it seems to fit. Besides, it looks cool. And if it was cool enough for J.O.E. in 'A Bridge To Far' then it is cool enough for me. I'd have this starting off the table, coming on later is a flanking manoeuvre and looking to suppress the enemy infantry accompanies by the Wasp ad the Cromwell. Someone commanding this force is going to have plenty of experience, so I am making him a veteran.

Mandatory vehicle 1.
Mortar Carrier. Inexperienced. 64 points.
A Bren Carrier converted to a self-propelled artillery vehicle with a 3" mortar mounted on it. This can move quickly enough to provide fire support where required. Mortars are inaccurate weapons and cannot be relied on, but if one is firing at a unit, then the unit is going to move fast rather than risk it zeroing in on them. I can use this to relieve pressure on any strategic locations. 3" mortars are not normally front line weapons, so I've made this crew inexperienced. I am not going to use this one as a flanking unit though. I want it on the table the whole game, popping shots off every turn.

Mandatory vehicle 2.
Wasp.. Regular. 100 points.
Another Bren (or Universal) Carrier variant, this time with a flame thrower built-in. Flame throwers are terrifying weapons and any crew caught using one are normally executed out of hand, Geneva convention rules be damned. Having this turn up on my opponents flank should cause him a bit of consternation.

Optional vehicle 1.
Cromwell tank. Medium anti-tank gun, 2 MMGs. Veteran 246 points.
The first decent British tank of the war, with armour and a weapon roughly equivalent to a Sherman or Panzer IV, but much, much faster (they were powered by aircraft engines. There is a story of 3 of these tanks being caught by surprise by a larger enemy force and being able to escape by driving at full speed and doing a Dukes of Hazard leap over a canal. Boy, that would have been something to see). The gun on this is a medium anti-tank weapon, so it will be good against normal vehicles and similar tanks but will struggle to penetrate the front armour of the German big cats. These tanks saw a lot of use as reconnaissance a lot towards the end of the war having the speed to go ahead of the main forces as well as having more firepower and protection than most such units should it get into trouble.

Optional vehicle 2. LRDG Armed Truck. 2 MMG. Veteran 54 points.
These improvised armed trucks were used by the Long Range Desert Group on their raids deep into enemy territory during the desert war and provided a little bit of fire support to the lightly armed raiders. The machine guns aren't going to penetrate armour but are going to help keep peoples heads down.

Mechanised Infantry.
Jeep. Unarmed. Inexperienced. 17 points.
1st Lieutenant plus 2 men. Sub-machine guns. 116 points.
A zippy little fire support/assault section able to quickly move to any threatened sections of the table and lend close fire support.

5x Bren (Universal) Carriers. 2 LMG's. 350 points.
4x Five Man Regular Infantry (Mid/Late War). Rifles & Anti-Tank Grenades. 240 points.
Forward Observer (Artillery).
The most widely manufactured fighting vehicle in history (I think over 100,000 of these were made). At the start of WW2 Britain led the way in the mechanisation of its army. This is a fairly small vehicle and can only carry 5 men, but counts as a recce vehicle (which means it has a special ability to retreat. The Italians should have bought this). I can use these to run up the battlefield and either deploy a small squad or keep the troops inside and have them fire off the two LMG's (if the troop's exit, the driver can only fire one gun). Since if I am using this army, my enemy is also going to be fielding a load of vehicles I've given the troops anti-tank grenades so they have a chance of destroying any enemy vehicles bothering them. The Forward Observer can call his arty strike and then just an LMG for the rest of the game giving me a very mobile fire support unit.

The idea with 1st Platoon is that they are the ones charging up the table, taking the fight to the enemy, or preferably, grabbing secure locations with some cover and forcing the enemy to take the fight to them. While it has a lot of light firepower they'd have problems dealing with heavier armour. That is where 2nd Platoon comes in.

2nd Platoon (Heavy).

Command Vehicle.
Churchill Tank Mk VII. Medium anti-tank gun, 2 MMG's. Regular. 435 points.
The Churchill is a beast. It was huge and very heavily armoured but had the disadvantage of being slow (it was designed to travel at the same speed as the infantry it would be accompanying) and lacking a gun to match its armour. It was well-liked by its crews and between the length of the machine and its engine it could deal with terrain that many of its contemporaries simply could not handle, which was especially useful in the fighting in Italy. It counts as a super-heavy tank and can thus shrug off most threats to it. It is debated wither the Churchill this tank was named after was the legendary Prime Minister or an earlier military leader.

Mandatory vehicle 1.Churchill AVRE. Heavy Howitzer, 2 MMG's. Regular. 290 points.
The engineering variant of the Churchill, this was designed to breach beach defences and other hardpoints. It fired a massive 18kg shell which travelled slowly enough to be seen and was nicknamed the Flying Dustbin. The armour on this is slightly lighter than the VII and the howitzer can only fire at short range, but what it hits, it destroys.

Mandatory vehicle 2.Sherman Firefly. Super-Heavy Anti-Tank Gun. 1 MMG. Veteran 345 points.
American doctrine said that tanks were for infantry support. Where American tanks encountered enemy tanks the idea was you would back off, call in Tank Destroyers and then let them deal with the threat. A lovely idea in practice, however, if aren't able to either get away or call in reinforcements then you have a problem. I don't consider that to have been a bad decision though, it was kind of dictated by the supply lines across the Atlantic and what was available. The British, however, decided to take what was arguable the best pure anti-tank gun of the war (the 17 pounder), and stick it into the turret of some of its Sherman's thus giving them some tank killing power of their own. Initially, every troop of 3 Sherman's would have one Firefly, but as more become available this altered to a 2 in 4 ratio. Sherman's were not popular with their crews being vulnerable to catching fire easily. They were nicknamed Ronsons (because they lit up first time, every time), but they had the advantage of being available in large numbers and were easily repairable (accounts of tanks being fixed up with patches welded over holes in the tank, and the Shermans then been given a new crew without the bloodstains from the previous crew being cleaned up are not uncommon) which when you are fighting a war on that scale is what was needed. Anyway, my Firefly will sit back and use its range to pick off opposing heavy tanks. Or any vehicle really. There isn't anything anyone can field at this time that doesn't need to fear that gun. I would imagine the most experienced crews possible would have been assigned this tank, so I've made the crew veteran.

Optional vehicle 1. LRDG Armed Truck. 1 MMG, 1 light anti-tank gun. Veteran. 94 points.
I've opted to switch out the second MMG on this one for a little bit of an anti-armour capability

Quad Tractor.. Inexperienced. 15 points.
QF-17-Pdr. Super-heavy anti-tank gun. Veteran. 288 points.
The Quad was an artillery tow that looked like a heavily armoured vehicle but wasn't. It is powerful enough to tow by second big tank killer, the QF-17. This is the same gun as was put in the Sherman Firefly and had been developed during the campaign in North Africa to deal with the next generation of heavily armoured German tanks. This will be towed to a good firing position on the first turn of the game and then used to pick off anything that dares show itself. I expect it to more be an area denial weapon as no one is going to want to risk being shot at by this and it isn't very mobile.

2*15cwt Truck. Inexperienced. 25 points.
2*Eight Man Regular Infantry (Mid/Late War). Rifles, LMG.
A couple of larger infantry units to provide a bit more staying power and a bit extra firepower just in case.
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

Alex

Well, Boris has been really playing up his time with Covid-19. He's been saying how the doctors were giving him a 50/50 chance and so on. Can't help but think he is playing it up for the publicity since while he was sick it was made clear that he didn't require a ventilator. Not a medical expert though so I'll confess I could be, being harsh there. His government has been putting a spin on the numbers of PPE equipment delivered though. They were claiming a billion assets have been delivered, but they've started counting things like cleaning sprays, and individual gloves rather than pairs.

Decided to order to new desktop last night. The laptop I've been using really doesn't cut it for what I need it to do. Next month I can look at adding a 3D printer.

Have you seen the Lego-style video the Chinese have put out criticising the US governments Covid response? Read a bit about it, but I haven't bothered watching it.

Ended up getting a free Indian meal tonight. One of the local restaurants has been making free meals for people struggling with money. Normally they give a day or two's notice and that gives the team distributing the food time to assign it to the correct people, but today they just turned up with 50 meals and the volunteers couldn't find enough people to give the food to at short notice, so we ended up being given three of them. If it wasn't for the fact the food would have been binned I'd feel bad about it.

Ok, I am lying there, I wouldn't feel bad at all, but I'd be aware that I should.

Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

ER

Quote from: Alex on May 04, 2020, 11:34:05 AM
Well, Boris has been really playing up his time with Covid-19. He's been saying how the doctors were giving him a 50/50 chance and so on. Can't help but think he is playing it up for the publicity since while he was sick it was made clear that he didn't require a ventilator. Not a medical expert though so I'll confess I could be, being harsh there. His government has been putting a spin on the numbers of PPE equipment delivered though. They were claiming a billion assets have been delivered, but they've started counting things like cleaning sprays, and individual gloves rather than pairs.

Decided to order to new desktop last night. The laptop I've been using really doesn't cut it for what I need it to do. Next month I can look at adding a 3D printer.

Have you seen the Lego-style video the Chinese have put out criticising the US governments Covid response? Read a bit about it, but I haven't bothered watching it.

Ended up getting a free Indian meal tonight. One of the local restaurants has been making free meals for people struggling with money. Normally they give a day or two's notice and that gives the team distributing the food time to assign it to the correct people, but today they just turned up with 50 meals and the volunteers couldn't find enough people to give the food to at short notice, so we ended up being given three of them. If it wasn't for the fact the food would have been binned I'd feel bad about it.

Ok, I am lying there, I wouldn't feel bad at all, but I'd be aware that I should.



You openly serve your nation, therefore your nation owes you. Take whatever those you defend offer you. Others who do less would have taken it without a qualm.
What does not kill me makes me stranger.

Alex

Well, today I got a message from Terry at work asking me to call him when I had a minute. Even though the text said it was nothing bad, I still always worry about these things.

I've been applying for various posts in the hope of remaining at Lossiemouth for the remainder of my career and so far I'd been turned down for them for various reasons. It doesn't help that they are short of people who are trained to do my job and the posts I've been applying for are what are called "off-trade" so manning have been saying "Nope, he can't be released from his trade to do this job." That is what happened with the job I really wanted, which would have involved a move down to Glasgow.

I miss being able to jump on a train to Glasgow and go shopping there. Although not as much since The Dragon & George (my favourite D&D type store) closed down. I was always pretty sure that the guy who ran it, Tom was in fact an avatar of Nyarlathotep. Especially because he always denied it.

Anyway, the phone call was because Terry had received word on the last job I had applied for. He told me about the message he had been sent as to the success or failure of my application. Bearing in mind that this was pretty much my last chance to remain at Lossiemouth where I have been based my entire career or have to move elsewhere, it is pretty important to us. Especially Kristi who wants to remain in Lossiemouth, and if I am entirely honest I don't want Ash growing up with an English accent. Besides, there are a lot of advantages to being north of the border (since Scotland got its own parliament, the land border has moved south as some towns in the border region have asked to move under Scottish jurisdiction so they must be doing something right).

Having some beers now, to either celebrate or commiserate. I am not going to say which just because I think Barri will want to know the answer.

I can't imagine anyone else would, but if anyone does have a burning need to know, PM and I'll reply. Unless I don't like you, in which case I won't.
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

chefzombie

my darling butthead, you are far more transparent then you think, at least to SOME of us, lol! congratulations!  :cheers:
don't EVEN...EVER!

Alex

I guess not as much as you might think since I didn't get the job.  :lookingup:
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

Alex

Got woken up this morning sometime after 3 with Ash screaming. Went and got him out of his cot, but couldn't seem to calm him down. It isn't the first time he has woken up like that. We have wondered if he is having night terrors, but it could be any number of things. I was going to get up with him, but he wanted his mum and Kristi ended up having to get out of bed. He did eventually settle down and go back to sleep (and indeed is still currently sleeping as as his mum). It could be he is teething again. He doesn't cry much with that and certainly has never kept us awake all night with it. These days when he wakes up, he insists on having a shower and brushing his teeth.

Means I can get up, have a beer for breakfast and put on my rarely played original pressing of 'Ace of Spades'. I've long wanted a tattoo on my right shoulder. Ever since I got one on my left shoulder in fact. Think I've finally settled on the design. Suspect I'll need to save up for a while though. Getting it done the way I want is going to be expensive.

Decided not to run any more games of D&D until I get my new PC, which is due to be delivered on Monday. Not a top of the range computer like I used to buy, buy
but then again I don't play the kind of online games I used to play any more that need that kind of rig.

Ash is up now. He seems to have stopped his habit of challenging me whenever I tell him not to do something. No doubt there is more of that to come and this is just a temporary respite.

Looking at the news. Money seems determined to get the world moving again regardless of the true cost to come. Meanwhile Spain is seeing a spike in cases of Covid-19 after loosening restrictions. Capitalism really isn't really set up to deal with this kind of thing.

Got my first rebate on ebay. I'd ordered something and the seller said he'd posted it but it never arrived. With everything that is going on I gave them a couple extra weeks for the item to turn up. When I contacted him (or her) I got no reply, so ebay contacted them and got no reply either. Wondering if I should give my first negative feedback now.

Wonder what joys work will have for me on Monday. I have the next step to work out. I am already now overdue moving jobs. On the other hand, moves have been put on hold while Covid is running around so I have no idea when I will move.
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

chefzombie

you really didn't get it? well that just BLOWS. did they tell you why?
don't EVEN...EVER!

Alex

Actually, I did get the job which should mean that I will be finishing my career at Lossiemouth.   :bouncegiggle:

My boss has to decide when he can let me go as we have 4 people from the office all going on deployments or being posting out all at the same time so it might be August before I move.

Went on a nice long walk around Lossiemouth yesterday, including taking Ash down onto the beach for the first time (my first time with him on the beach, Kristi has had him there before). Since no one is playing golf at the moment, we were able to safely cut across the local golf course (there are no trespassing laws in Scotland, but they do have a couple of paths for the public to take across the course anyway, if you don't mind taking the risk of being hit by a stray ball). It occurred to me that a golf course is a huge waste of space used by only a few people. I've heard the line about golf being a waste of a good walk attributed to many different people, but whoever said it first, I agree with them. It would make a great park. We did once come across a bunch of drunk Canadians playing gold at midnight when we were out on one of our late night / early morning walks, back before we had Ash.

Anyway, here are some photos from the walk.


























Spent the night drinking a beg of Werewolf beer all to myself and then this morning a present turned up from my brother. A dozen bottles of beer.
Hail to thyself
For I am my own master
I am my own god
I require no shepherd
For I am no sheep.

chefzombie

deep sigh....WHY do all the men i know and love feel the need to mess with my head? and WHY am i so gullible? but hey, i WAS right, i know you rather well, butthead!  :cheers:
* and yes, i know you all do it because i AM gullible and actually think you're serious occasionally, lol!*
don't EVEN...EVER!