Sibling Rivalry

I'm struggling to keep my eyes open today, this is not entirely unheard of on a Monday morning, but today I feel a little more justified. I spent Friday Saturday and Sunday at Hohne Military base and only flew back into the UK at 11pm last night.

My "little" brother William is a recently commissioned 2nd Lieutenant and it was him I went to see in Germany. I was attending his pre-deployment ball... He along with other members of his regiment will deploy in Afghanistan in late March and will complete 1 7 month tour.

I can honestly say I have never met a group of young men and women I trust so implicitly with my safety and I was reminded of the below quote by George Orwell.

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men (and women) stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

As Army Medical Services members, these "rough" men and women also heal the wounded and contribute to the moral core of the mission in Afghanistan. I am proud to have met them and wish them well.

Getting in shape

Having decided in January that I was going to get fit, I appear to have managed absolutely no exercise what so ever. I used to be an avid distance runner as a younger man and ran some decent times but it has now been nearly a year since I went running and probably 18 months since I competed. So... the plan is to start tonight and to run 3 times a week even if it is cold and wet! Time to man up really.

On a lighter note I actually searched for a photo of me doing anything sporting but the closest I could get was a shot of me playing hockey. I'm not very good at it but it is good exercise. The problem with the photo is that I am holding a pint in one hand and the stick in the other... oh well!

Couldn't really write this post without mentioning the running club that my mums mates set up, you can check it out at the below...
http://www.freewebs.com/spinkhill_striders/photoalbum.htm

Fancy dress ideas

Monday again!! Having spent the weekend in somewhat unproductive fashion I find myself back in work and looking forward to a week that should hold some interesting challenges (more on those later in the week.)

I have a bit of an extracurricular challenge as well... This weekend is Astons Fairy Tale Ball (FTB)! I need costume ideas that meet 2 criteria:

1. The outfit must be cheap and easy to create

2. The outfit must not make me look like a total cretin

Since I will be travelling up with my good friend ball it would be nice but not essential if whatever it is comes in pairs.

Useless email

Since I am still technically a student this year I try to check my university inbox every couple of days just to make sure nothing too exciting is happening... I went on just now to find 17 emails, this is not too unusual but today like everyday it annoyed me. This is because I deleted all 17 without ever opening them! I have never asked to hear from any of these people regarding optometry lectures or missing USB sticks. I happily subscribe to an excellent blog by Seth Godin
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/which-comes-first-the-product-or-the-marketing.html

I get emails regarding the blog and I am delighted with them but why can't I unsubscribe to university emails and why is it so hard for them to create groups for different subjects?

Snow fall and Standstill

As someone who has travelled to a number of different countries I am always amazed by Britain’s inaptitude when dealing with snow fall... I am aware of the hard work and commitment shown by public servants and the emergency services, but in comparison to the USA and other countries in the EU Britain seems to deal badly with what should be a mild inconvenience. The "standstill" outside my house for large periods of yesterday evening made me wonder, what is the cost of snow? and how it can be offset?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7866294.stm

Snow, shoes and a fall

Bit of a shock when I opened the curtains this morning... the entire garden is to quote a song "a winter wonderland," unfortunatley walking prooves more difficult than usual and I wonder if the person responsible for designing my work shoes likes disney as I slide around like bambi on ice... An undignified fall later and I see that at least school children haven't changed, I'd like to say I saw the funny side straight away, but that would be untrue! On the plus side the snowballs they decided would make my journey more pleasent were largely off target. An interesting portent for the rest of the week perhaps.