Alex's even longer post thread.

[Alex]

In work by myself today. The manager is off sick while my co-worker is on leave, spending time with her wife before she goes off to the south Atlantic for a few months.

With no work to do, I might as well not be here though.

As long as I get paid for it though, I do not care.

I see Russia is pulling 60-year-old tanks out of storage (keeping old vehicles in storage is not an unusual practice) and sending them into combat. Either Ukrainian forces have nothing to fight armoured vehicles with and they can afford to send in antique relics into battle, or the Russians lack enough modern fighting systems and are pulling them out of being mothballed out of desperation. Armoured vehicles would be something of a moot point of the Russians were able to use their airpower effectively. Still, they are having some success in the Donbas region now. I wonder if they'll try just to land grab there and claim victory. A somewhat reduced goal from their initial plan of occupying the entire country for 10-15 years to de-nazify it.

With it being the queen's 70th year on the throne, we are having parades and a beacon lighting on the beach on Thursday (and I'll no doubt be shouting "GONDOR CALLS FOR AID!"). Marches and stuff on the weekend. I've managed to avoid taking part in those, but Kristi tends to like this kind of stuff, so if she wants, I'll go along and watch with her. Assuming Ash is feeling well anyway. He clearly wasn't quite himself last night, and then this morning he was throwing up. If he is still ill come Thursday night, then I'll stay home and Kristi can go do the thing.

Not 100% myself. I am finding myself running to the toilet quite a lot. I'd go sick, but everyone else in the office is off too.

[Alex]

3 months short of when the old one broke, the new bridge to Lossiemouth east beach was finally opened today. The local great and good (not my term for them), gathered. There were speeches and a local school pipe band marched the first people to cross it, over to the eastern sands.

They actually sounded pretty good for a bunch of high school kids.

There were four speeches, two of which were mercifully short, one was of moderate length and one went on so long I just zoned out for a bit. Ash wanted to hold my hand and would not let me let go of him, which saved me from clapping for people who had just bored me by talking too much. I caught that the new bridge had cost £1.8 million. Seems a lot for a fairly short bridge, but that kind of engineering isn't my forte. Maybe they had to strengthen the harbour where they've placed it. Next week the builders return, but this time they are taking down the old wooden one. It was built in 1908 and survived the last 40 or 50 years despite the lack of any maintenance (arguments between different authorities about who should be responsible for it) being carried out on it. That is (or was) a well-made bridge in my opinion. I wonder how long the new one will last? The next big project should be the sea wall, which according to a survey carried out on it a few years back was due to last until about now. If it collapses then it opens up that part of the beach to heavy erosion that would destroy the beach and start eating into one of the three old villages that now make up Lossiemouth (Lossiemouth, Hythe and Sea Town), not to mention taking out the shiny new bridge in the process.

It is a local government thing though, so no doubt nothing will happen until it one particular time that all government institutions tend to act at.

When it is just slightly too damn late.

Ash is keeping food down today, although we aren't going to give him any dairy just to be on the safe side since that tends to be a bit rougher on people's stomachs. He still isn't his normal self though. Hoping he is fully recovered by the weekend.

I am getting to listen to my choice of music today. Stuck on my horror-themed playlist and I can just spend the day rocking out.

One of the few bad things about living in Lossiemouth is the lack of somewhere to go listen to good live music. I do miss going to concerts more regularly. Then again, most of the people I'd like to go see live have the slight disadvantage of being dead.

Selfish pricks.

I bet the east beach is a mess by the end of the day. What a shock for the animals who live there and have been blessedly free of human interference in their habitat. Now we'll have people who go there to enjoy nature and just dump their litter on it. Just another way the human race seems to be severely f**ked up as a species.

Even more selfish pricks.

Still, we have a beach cleaning day coming up and a lot of people from the local community do go and clear the beach of rubbish. Got to find the good where you can.

[Alex]

Sometimes I am really surprised at how well Kristi has coped with moving not just countries, but continents. I thought by the time I was leaving the mob she'd be demanding we moved back to her home.

Other times you hear just how many gun rampages go on over there, or we hear about something with a medical bill or student debt that is beyond what they can pay and I guess I can understand why she doesn't want to a bit more. I just heard about a shooting in a hospital, although only through the FB posts of some American friends. A mere four people being shot doesn't seem to be worthy of notice in the news over here compared to the ones that reach higher numbers.

When I was a kid the US was sold to us as the land of opportunity, where (as long as you were born there) anyone could become president and if you worked hard, you'd make it. Now I increasingly meet people who have left it for a better life in Europe and more chances to make it. I wonder what happened to change it all?

The Amber turd/Johnny Depp trial malarky is over for the moment. I wonder what people will pick next for their fix of celebrity gossip? I must confess to having watched some of the footage myself, mostly of people analyzing the body language of the various witnesses and whatnot.

Managed to avoid all the jubilee stuff today. Kristi has come down with the DV bug that has been going around. Ash had it earlier in the week. I am expecting to have it tomorrow as that means I can have a day sick, then 48 hours quarantine off work and still go back to work as per normal come Monday. We had planned on going to the beacon lighting down the beach, but with Kristi throwing up constantly, and me having no real interest in going otherwise I doubt me and Ash will be going ourselves. Starts in about half an hour with peaches and singing.

I can't imagine not shouting the Gondor line if I was to go.

[Alex]

With CM Punk (their heavyweight champion), Scorpio Sky (TNT champion), Brian Danielson and Jeff Hardy all injured, I guess AEW might have to pull back a bit on their programs. Mind you, I do have to say that what they are putting on certainly makes for a better product than anything I'd seen on WWE before I stopped watching that a year or two ago. The last thing of theirs I saw was the first night of a two-part Wrestlemania. We'd paid for the whole thing but after watching the first night, we had no interest in catching the second night.

We've spend a lot of time on the beach this week, and we all have a tan. I've been trying to make Kristi wear sun cream to avoid getting burned.

[Alex]

I think the worst thing about the jubilee was the nickname it got. I mean seriously, the Platty Jubes sounds like a nasty testicle infection or something.

We did go down to the beach on Sunday morning for a community picnic. We had bands and choirs from the 3 local schools. I'd put sun cream on my exposed parts. Managed to get a bit of sunburn underneath my teeshirt though.

Ash has a hospital appointment in Aberdeen tomorrow, so I've taken time off work and we will go up and stay in the city tonight. We'll meet up with my sister-in-law for breakfast and then head off to see the doctors. The last few times we've taken him, they were impressed enough with his progress that they no longer think surgery will be required. When we first took him, they said we could try physio with him, but it would end up he'd need an op most likely. Guess we managed to beat the odds with him there.

I read Mick Foley's daughter is selling pictures of herself on OnlyFans to pay medical bills. Sheesh. Glad that isn't something we have to worry about. I still haven't forgiven Mick Foley personally for Mick Foley's Christmas. Hmm, now there is a topic for discussion on this forum. The most traumatic cinematic experience you have ever had. Mine eyes still have not recovered. I can look at the aftermath of a battlefield without shedding a tear, but that naked fat man doing the calendar gives me the shudders just thinking about it.

[Alex]

Oh, been meaning to put these up for a while. Visited a distillery recently, so took some photos.


This is just the on site storage. Think they said they keep something like 100,000 litres here, but can go up to 150.







Next time we visit I'll try and remember to take a few more.

[Trevor]

I think the worst thing about the jubilee was the nickname it got. I mean seriously, the Platty Jubes sounds like a nasty testicle infection or something.

Had one of those once 

[Alex]

Ash's appointment went fine. An overnighter in a hotel just for a 30-minute consultation. He didn't get to bed until about 20:00 by the time we got there, then woke up sometime after midnight. Kristi wouldn't let me settle him down, she insisted she was going to do it and kept interrupting me or just blocking me from putting him to bed. So I just lay there and let her get on with her thing until she got too tired to try any more about 5 am. It then took me less than 20 minutes to get him to sleep. Pretty sure I could have got him to sleep any time after about 3. Hopefully, the next time we have this situation she'll actually let me talk him down and get him back asleep.

Those hopes are pretty low level though.

Met up with my sister-in-law and her eldest for breakfast and had a wander around a few shops. Didn't find anything that interested me, but Kristi and Ash managed to get loads (she did buy me a Jaws tee-shirt. Right now I am a walking advertisement for 70s movies blockbusters.

I got an early Father's Day present today. A Nostromo baseball cap. I've been wearing it since it arrived.

Tonight I am going to relax by painting up a Panther tank in the same camo scheme as the one I saw down at Bovington. Handily I have numerous photos to use as a reference.

Maybe I should get an additional Panther and paint it pink...

[Alex]

So last night's D&D group reached the end of the particular campaign we'd been playing (The Lost Mines of Phardelver, the name might be misspelt, but it sounds something like that).

We teamed up with a group led by some Dark Elfs to take out a Beholder guarding something called the Spellforge. While we weren't 100% sure what the forge does, or how to use it. It is legendary and has the word 'spell' in its name. This was enough for my wizard to get obsessed with getting access to it. We walked into the final room and immediately, the Beholder downed one of our party, taking our warlock out for the entire fight. It was an epic fight, but we just about had it dead when our 'allies' turned on us, and we then had to finish off the (nearly dead) beholder and fight them at the same time. We killed all the minions off, and were just left facing their leader. Had him nearly dead, when he ripped off an amulet that was holding back a curse on him. Removing the amulet, transformed him into a thing called a Drider, so we then had to fight that.

I died once during the fight, but thanks to a special ability I can use once per day, I got better and jumped right back in, but eventually, we got the bastard down. Everyone stood exhausted (in-game and in real life. We played later than our normal finish time), but victorious. My character walked up to the Spell Forge and stared into its depths, then turned around to the rest of the group and declared:

"YOU FOOLS! YOU HAVE BROUGHT ME TO ALL THE POWER I NEED TO DESTROY THIS WORLD!"

His body swelled up, leathery wings sprouting from his back, horns growing from his forehead as he took on the form of a massive demon.

Fortunately for the rest of the party, this was just Juan having a joke and he had cast an illusionary spell on himself. Fortunately for Juan (as he was rather badly injured), none of the rest of the party attacked him for it.

I think that fight might be the first time I've game up against a Beholder in tabletop. Fought them in D&D computer games a few times. Only two of the spells I cast the entire fight actually had any effect. One was a healing spell on one of the more seriously wounded party members, and the other did cause one of our opponents to lose his ability to attack us for a round. I did more damage with my damn spear. I am seriously considering taking levels in some sort of combat class as Juan quite often seems to end up in melee. Since he has anger management issues, I am thinking about going for a level in barbarian. Would just be a single level though.

[Alex]

When I first took my current job, it was sold to me as a computer programming job with a side order of making maps up, a couple of times a month.

The higher-up management located at another base thought all we did was the occasional maps and wanted to close us down. When they actually found out what we did, they got a shock. They came up to see us in action and after seeing what we do and how we do it, declared we were the gold standard and what we did was how it should be done everywhere.

A week after that, we were told they are taking all the other stuff off us and all we will do will be the map-making side of things. Doesn't take Nostradamus to figure out what the next step is. Making flight maps occupy about a week's worth of time per four weeks. What are we going to do with the all the time that we are sitting at work? Well, we can visit the gym as much as we want now. Work from home is an option, do courses, and write stuff here. Because my post has changed so much from what I went for, we are entitled to look for a new post, rather than completing a 3-year tour. With around a year left though, in my career, I am not sure it is worth even trying to look. Nowhere is going to want someone who as soon as he is trained up enough to be useful, is going to walk out the door.

Besides, if I am being offered an easy life for the wage I am being paid, why not take it with both hands? After all, if you aren't screwing the government, you can be damn sure they are screwing you. The last dying embers of the more enthusiastic me who used to love this job is screaming at me to find something more productive and be earning my money.

Yeah, I can ignore that little voice if I wish.

Friday night's D&D session was rather fun to run, something that had been missing in recent sessions. The party decided to go after the fence that had robbed them of around 10,000 gold. They found out he also ran a fighting pit, so the party went down there and the barbarian decided to challenge the house champion to a bare-knuckle fight. It was quite a long fight, and in the end, it came down to whoever got the next punch in would KO the other guy.

One of Kristi's cousins is coming over for a 10-day visit starting tomorrow. She (Kristi), is staying with Ash in Aberdeen tonight, then taking the train down to Edinburgh tomorrow to pick her up. Aims for this visit are to pat a highland cow. She is just getting over a divorce. She had planned on spending xmas with new year with us, but US tax laws being what they are, her divorce was going to cost her an extra 5 to 9,000 dollars so she had to delay things a bit. We are on that one busy week a month right now and I can't take the time off to join her.

Whatever floats your boat I guess.

[Alex]

Kristi's cousin arrived safely last night, if somewhat tired after not sleeping for 28 hours. I made her some food and she went off to bed, sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs for her requested Harry Potter experience. I even chucked in Kristi's stuffed owl. Ash seemed equally exhausted and Kristi wasn't far behind. I got a nice quiet night last night.

Today they are off to Johnstone's mill for a tour. It is going to be very hot today and then rain is forecast for the weekend.

She has asked if we can go bungee jumping together. Wow, that is a blast from the past. I've not seen bungee jumping for about 10 years. I have found somewhere that does it, but it isn't local. She also wants white water rafting which is a bit easier to sort out. I've done that before locally.

[Alex]

Carlee and Kristi are off out today so she can finally get around to petting a highland cow. I have suggested to her that if it only has one udder, not to try milking it.

She is a bit naive about life.

Feeling hungry, I should make breakfast except I have no drive to actually do anything but relax for a bit. It is nice just having some peace and quiet in the house. Ash is having a nap. I am expecting him to sleep for a few hours.

[Trevor]

Carlee and Kristi are off out today so she can finally get around to petting a highland cow. I have suggested to her that if it only has one udder, not to try milking it.

She is a bit naive about life.

Feeling hungry, I should make breakfast except I have no drive to actually do anything but relax for a bit. It is nice just having some peace and quiet in the house. Ash is having a nap. I am expecting him to sleep for a few hours.

I'm at work and we have had no electricity here since last Monday but our boss wants us to work 

[Alex]

Carlee and Kristi are off out today so she can finally get around to petting a highland cow. I have suggested to her that if it only has one udder, not to try milking it.

She is a bit naive about life.

Feeling hungry, I should make breakfast except I have no drive to actually do anything but relax for a bit. It is nice just having some peace and quiet in the house. Ash is having a nap. I am expecting him to sleep for a few hours.

I'm at work and we have had no electricity here since last Monday but our boss wants us to work 

I hope you at least have a window for some work. You could always walk out and go home, I mean what are they going to do, fire you?

[Trevor]

Carlee and Kristi are off out today so she can finally get around to petting a highland cow. I have suggested to her that if it only has one udder, not to try milking it.

She is a bit naive about life.

Feeling hungry, I should make breakfast except I have no drive to actually do anything but relax for a bit. It is nice just having some peace and quiet in the house. Ash is having a nap. I am expecting him to sleep for a few hours.

I'm at work and we have had no electricity here since last Monday but our boss wants us to work 

I hope you at least have a window for some work. You could always walk out and go home, I mean what are they going to do, fire you?

I actually told my boss "I have just over 5 months left before I retire: bring it."

Tomorrow I am going to the National Archives building where two of my colleagues are working so that shouldn't be too bad for me. I hope they sort our power out soon: I feel like dropping the National Archivist an email as I know him quite well.