Had a nice Saturday wondering aimlessly around London. That, and buying random shit that I probably don’t need have become my favorite things to do on short weekends. Followed closely by downloading movies & PSP games.

I’m off for a week. Ranges. New weapons. Will probably shoot myself in the foot.
It’s bloody far away. 3hr drive. Glad I downloaded some more games for the PSPgo.

Listening to: Sliimy – Wake Up

A friend of mine showed me this youtube channel: soldier come dancing. Squaddies can’t dance

The first video is by 1st Battalion REME. I was out in Canada with this lot:

And 1 Mercian, whose video is by far the best:

Just got back from a bit of virtual training.

Wasn’t as fun as I had expected. Sounded fun at first. A big video game/simulator. But the army somehow made it boring. It made Goldeneye 007 look like Crysis 2. Bad times.

Watching: Jamie’s American Road Trip

Turns out that a real P226 is way more fun than a cheap airsoft one ^_^ And strangely, easier to use.

I’m away again until Friday, playing a big video game made boring by the army.

last time I packed a giant black deployment holdall because I thought I’d be out there all week. Now I know I’ll only be there until Friday afternoon, so I’ve squeezed everything into my maxpedition condor II with my sleeping bag attached to the bottom

The phone signal there is rubbish so there’s no point in me taking my laptop. Will just have to try get online on my phone

*flashforward quote

Listening to: M.I.A – Paper Planes

playing with new weapon systems. today was mpmg
& ugl, tomorrow I get to play with a sig sauer p226. happy days.

Watching: The Maiden Heist

One of the many great things about being in the army is the not knowing.

Take today for instance, I’ve been told that I’m going away for a week on “exercise”. But it’s not a proper exercise. It’s indoors. On computers or summat. I don’t know where it is, where we’ll be staying or how long exactly for. We may or may not be coming back tomorrow night and then going back again. I don’t know what to bring or what to bring it in. I don’t even know if I’ll be on a bed or if I should take a roll matt.

No one knows. I got all of that ^ info from asking other people, who each have small snippets of info, but are also pretty much clueless.

Will we have access to mains? How will I charge my phone? Do I need to bring an AA charger?

I have total OCD when it comes to packing bags, so this is doing my head in. I’ve gotten showered and changed 3hrs early.

Listening to: Avril Lavigne – Mobile

Couldn’t spend any longer on camp, so when I woke up I had a bacon sandwich and drove straight home. The roads were much clearer than they would’ve been had I driven home Friday night. There was one crash on the A40, which made me drive a bit slower the rest of the way. Not because of traffic, but because I didn’t want to end up facing the wrong way in the fast lane like that guy did.

Went for an awesome walk through Hyde Park. It lead to Oxford Street. Which, being payday, lead to my cashcard getting worn out.

There are too many nice things in Selfridges. I found a giant translucent spork. Don’t know why you’d need one, but I’m determined to find a use for it. I refrained from buying the titanium one. Starting to think I got it the wrong way around.

Listening to: Reel Big Fish – Slow Down

Ok I’ve changed my mind. I don’t like staying indoors 24/7, it is boring. I’ve lost interest in video games, I’ve watched all the good movies I own and I’m starting to go a bit insane (see last post about buying a gun). My head hurts from looking at screens all day. My TV reception has disappeared. I just want to go out and go for a walk. Surely the fresh air would do me some good? I may sneak out later. After work. Someone may pop in to see how I am doing. It’d be bad if I wasn’t here.

My flu buddy has kinda lost interest. The cook house is bad enough – but when you have someone else going for you and the staff refuse to let you take away proper meals, the quality of food goes down a lot.

Getting a bit fed up with sharing a room. It’s not that I don’t like the person with whom I am sharing, it’s just that I’d rather have my own space. Having to worry about how loud you have your music/TV and how late/early it’s polite to have it on. I have headphones… but still.

When I was bedded down, I was given a “fit to return” sheet that is “to be completed at the conclusion of seven days following a diagnosis by every patient with Flu like symptoms who has been certified unfit to work“. It has a list of flu symptoms, next to each of which is a “Yes/No”. Under that it says, “If the answer to any of the above questions is YES contact your medical centre for a further sick chit. This form must be returned to your practice once you are fit“.

“at the conclusion of seven days following a diagnosis“… so on Monday? My sick chit was only for 5 days. What if we have work on Sunday? Which I think we do (ranges).
“If the answer to any of the above questions is YES contact your medical centre for a further sick chit” … one of the symptoms is “runny nose”. Surely you can’t stay of work for a runny nose?

“If the answers to all the above questions are NO this form needs to be handed to your CO as confirmation that you are fit to return to work“.

Seems a bit extreme.

All the procedures put in place for someone with swine flu seem a bit silly.

I want to go to London with a camera packed with a roll of B&W film, take photos and develop them in a dark room.

My mind is in a strange place atm.

Listening to: Amanda Palmer – Runs In The Family

to get back on a skateboard.

On her way out of the block this morning, a friend asked, “are you bored yet?”. “Yeah”, I replied. ‘Twas a total lie. I’m not bored. Not in the slightest. At work I get bored. Here, with the internet, magazines, television, books, video games, a hard drive full of movies, music and TV shows, how can I possibly get bored?

Last night I played Little Big Planet until 1am. I’ve not had the chance to play my PS3 much since I’ve bought it. Now I’m on a mission to make up for lost time. A friend brought round a copy of Halo 3: ODST this morning ^_^ Weee.

I’ve mastered the art of cooking bacon in a microwave. ‘Cause I can’t leave the block to go get my george foreman out of my car.

My parents have opened a beauty salon in the Philippines. It’s next to a gun shop. The guy in the gun shop claims to be able to make any pistol you can find in the nearby mall for cheap. Don’t think I would trust some filipino in a workshop to make my pistol.

When/if I go there this christmas, I’m going to the mall to get a pistol. There’s two shops in the local mall that sell firearms. One of them even has it’s own firing range in the mall.

My uncle knows a guy who works at the local prison who says I can use the firing range there.

This christmas is gonna be explosive.

Listening to: The Weakerthans – Pamphleteer

Spend such a long time in this army issue bed is doing my back in.

The showers in this block suck ass. all five upstairs are broken in some way. The baths have no locks on the doors. Bit unnerving in a block full of lesbians.

People aren’t allowed to smoke in the block anymore. Well they weren’t allowed to before, but everyone did anyway. Now they’re being given a smoking area outside. Yay.

Why do people type like this? I don’t understand.

I’m going to go watch Paranormal Activity now. Apparently it’s so scary that there’s a 76% chance you’ll shit yourself watching it. We’ll see.

Listening to: Eels – Ordinary Man