World Cup and paintball 12/06/2006
And another week starts. Hit the pool again and cracked out another good hour. I do seem to find swimming more palatable than the notion of hitting the gym. I'm still knackered afterwards and just like the running machine can find it tedious but at least once committed to a length you know if you don't carry on you might drown, which is highly motivational. Did some journaling on Tuesday but became a little de-motivated and didn't finish it.
Seemed to spend a fair chunk of time sourcing equipment to improve my enjoyment of the forthcoming paintballing. Was looking round at army surplus stuff and face masks. Came across this wicked site in America for a company called Ops Gear equipment. You gotta love the Americans and how into things they get. This company offer all manner of wicked military kit such as clothing, throats mic's, helmuts, laser sights etc. They also produce these mouldings to go over the Tippman paintball guns that can make them then look like popular assault rifles which then are directly fed from gas in a back pack. They also have various outfits under team roles like a team leader or sniper that look so awesome. They produce this sniper rifle and whole outfit which looks so cool. Ok this might make me sound weird and strange with an unhealthy passion but lets face it, people who do paintball are effectively playing war / soldiers. If you are going to play war then you might as well embrace it and run with your childhood dreams. Anyway ordered a camo jacket and some gloves.
No gym on Wednesday due to a strange pain in my right knee. I honestly felt guilty that I was letting myself down and that this would be a start of the collapsing of my health drive. It made sense not to go as I wouldn't want to push it with the paintball on Sunday but even so I still felt bad. Ordered a couple of excellent JT masks. We wanted to get these to prevent fogging which I regularly seem to suffer from at paintball and also the thought of putting my mouth half an inch from where someone elses has been is never a plus of paintballing. These babies have double glazed lensing to prevent the fog and are also lighter and tighter. Decided to get one for my bro as a surprise.
They arrived on Thursday and were great. When I got home that night after listening to Armin I got my brother to come up. Like the child I am I got him to wait in the other room while I put my gear on. Black boots that a work colleague had leant me, camo combat trousers, camo jacket, scrim scarf, green woollen hat, fingerless mitts and the mask. As I called him in I dropped the main tune from Rambo:First Blood part II for added impact. He was impressed and to be fair so was I. I got him to comment on the mask before producing the one I'd bought for him. He was pleased and wore it for some time to get used to the comfort while we discussed endless scenarios and tactics for the games.
A work colleague has challenged me to a month long weight loss task. He wants to lose weight as well and we both weighed ourselves in the office to get down the starting weight. It's going to be a percentage thing as opposed to the amount of pounds which is fairer. My starting weight was 13 stone 8.75 lbs. I'm quite motivated for it. I know I need to lose a bit so it's a handy vehicle to encourage me to do it plus his goading statement of "Are you ready for a whooping, you fat bitch" should keep me true in those weaker moments. The World cup started today which I've been looking forward. I always particularly enjoy watching the other games. You do get to see a real showcase of talent and determination. As for England naturally I'm patriotic but I do think our egotistical, vain, over paid stars are motivated more for personal glory than doing it for the country which is a shame. I also find our arrogance quite frustrating. Almost as if no other team there wants to win the title. Yes we have some real stars but they rarely play as a team and as someone recently said to me it's better to have a champion team than a team of champions.
Anyway thankfully the BBC are running their games live on broadband so was able to watch the first game which was Germany vs Costa Rica. I always think it's a good sign if there are a good few goals in the first match and it ended up 4-2 to Germany. The new football seems to fly through the air with real pace and has a tendency to swerve producing some real belter 'roy of the rovers' type goals. Managed to get the journal part of my site onto blogger.com which in turn meant I could put it onto blogexplosion which I hope might generate so more readers.
Demonstrated my commitment to the weight thing when got fish'n'chips that night and I made do with about a 5th of my brothers piece of cod and about a quarter of his chips. Needless to say the very fact that I denied myself the chance to pig out on them meant they tasted even better.
Saturday was a bit of a whirl. Up early-ish as needed some bits before seeing the England game. Wanted to get some knee pads from Argos for paintballing but naturally they didn't have them in stock as of course they were an extra item that are only available at Extra stores. Mild anger that I tried to dispel but combined with the heat only seemed to make me snappy. Up to collect a friend encountering dreadful lunchtime traffic that caused the rage to build even further and we managed to make it into our chosen venue with about ten minutes to spare. England scored after about five minutes which then seemed to take the wind out of ones supporting sails. You are used to willing your team on to score but when they score straight away it seems to take that hunger away. Because of our late arrival we found a good spot but it meant the power lead for the projector that was showing the game to at least forty eager fans was running past our feet and even between my brothers, so we were very aware to keep our celebrations restrained. Got chatting to a friendly australian during the second half called Raf (nickname) who was over as part of a long trip and kept us entertained with stories of his job and life.
Followed the game with a trip to Noodle Time which is one of my favourite eateries. The food is cheap and filling, the service quick and clean and I find it hard to fault it. Followed this with a trip to the cinema to see United 93. It was ok. Viewed as a documentary it was very good but as a film I wasn't sure. Maybe it could have done with the added power of actually hearing one of the phone calls made by the relatives from the plane. I know some might think that exploitive but when the film was ramming home the enormity of what happened I think it's hard to top the realness of one of those calls. Despite the annoying chatter and fluster from at least two other parties in the cinema it certainly held my interest. The fact that I can remember what I did on 9/11 so vividly made it fascinating to see what was really going on in air traffic control etc that day. I confess that the emotion of the final five minutes of the film did have me close to tears when witnessing the futile and desperate actions of the passengers. Seeing them struggling with the controls and attempting to remove the guy flying it as the ground raced up towards them had an amazing visceral quality that certainly had an impact on me. Had a quick beer afterwards and as I headed to the toilet was told that I was considered fit by this quite attractive young girl. I was ready to make some quick chat and leave her with a card on my return from the toilet but she had already started chatting to another guy, women eh!
Couldn't sleep at all on Saturday night due to the goddam heat. I had an early start on Sunday but trying to get some hours into the sleep bank was nigh on impossible. Up at 7.00 after a total of about three hours sleep and got ourselves ready for collection. Mate picked us recreating an Arnie-ism by smoking a stubby cigar whilst wearing shades which made us laugh and we headed to Westerham where the paintball was being held.
Good facilities and a couple of nice girls working behind the counter. My hairdresser had arranged the day and we hooked up with him and his mates who were really nice guys. That's the great thing about blokes and paintball in that when you initially meet you can't help but remain in your little groups. Go a couple of games in and start discussing war stories and shared experiences and the barriers come tumbling down. I had a really good time and although very hot during the day you only really noticed it when standing in direct sunlight. Once the game started and despite the layers you only seemed to concentrate on not getting shot rather than worrying about the heat. Everything that I'd bought for the day performed very well, particularly the masks which didn't fog or need continual re-adjusting. The Matterhorn boots were outstanding, supportive and comfortable. The only thing that let me down was the gun which seemed to have intermittent power, a safety switch that couldn't decide when it wanted to be on and a tendency to uncock itself or load two balls at once. It's amazing when you have a mask on how aware you become of your own breathing as it seems a lot louder.
Highlights for me would be the first game where the four of us moved up on the right, flanking the enemy. I was right at the sharp end sweeping round and must have got about four kills which was immensely satisfying. Another was a game in the afternoon when we had to attack a fort that the red team was occupying. I got myself reasonably close but then came under fire and ducked behind these two logs. Two more guys joined me and then a fourth and it must have been comical to see these four guys all squashed up behind this tiny barricade as paint rained down onto it. My final highlight was in the second to last game where we hung back to defend. We set up these wicked positions and then spotted two creeping round behind. The games were unfortunately a little short, 15 minutes, but this allowed for some real cat and mouse stuff as the attackers crept in unaware that at least three of us had clocked him. As one of my mates moved in on the left I saw a gap in the vegetation and took my shot. Got him! His comrade was dispatched a few minutes later by one of the guys who crept off to stalk him. We then turned our attention round as someone did a banzai charge and holed up behind this tree. He must have been in the crossfire of about four of us and a marshall ran over to see if he'd been hit. Amazingly he hadn't (which I think was bullshit because some of them were clearly cheating) so when the marshall stepped back and resumed play we lit him and his cover up like a christmas tree. All too soon the whistle was called which was a real shame as we were dug in like an Alabama tick and I would have enjoyed some more people having a go. Headed home feeling a little tired but oh so enjoying the crisps and water that I'd packed for the return leg.
Ten minute snooze on the sofa, followed by beans on toast (well to the side of course) and a bath and we finished the weekend strong with some drinks and the pictures. Amazingly all the pubs seemed empty even though it was still lovely and warm and one can only assume that the mid saturday England game the day before had burnt people out and everyone else was at a multitude of family BBQ's. We saw the Poseidon remake which was extremely poor. It's amazing how much story and character was crammed into the original compared to this vacuous trash. The opening CGI shots of the boat were really bad as where some of the blue screen work when it was obvious the actors weren't in the great hall. I do find it incredible that in the age of next gen consoles that some of the piss poor CGI in films gets through. What was worse than the effects though were the oh so shallow, bland, paper thin characters. Richard Dreyfus who only let on that he was gay just as the camera pans round revealing his diamond stud earing, the intentionally obnoxious Kevin Dillon whose only purpose is to die after proclaiming how 'lucky' he was, utterly irrelevant and ham fisted character development in the middle of set pieces and an oh so annoying kid who just wanders off and get trapped with no explanation of how and why. How poor. I always read about test audiences and what scores they give. Who are these test audiences, are they alive, have they ever seen a movie before, is there an imbecility criteria to pass before admission. Oh well, it was something to do.
It seemed even hotter that night and my efforts to sleep where even more in vain. My bedroom is west facing so receives the full blast of the setting sun which naturally heats my room up and I worked out that it is only cool enough to sleep in once the sun has gone all the way round the earth and coming up in the East! I ended up grabbing two hours on the floor of the living room which is east facing and thus bearable before returning to my room at around 4.30am for a final couple of hours in my bed.
Seemed to spend a fair chunk of time sourcing equipment to improve my enjoyment of the forthcoming paintballing. Was looking round at army surplus stuff and face masks. Came across this wicked site in America for a company called Ops Gear equipment. You gotta love the Americans and how into things they get. This company offer all manner of wicked military kit such as clothing, throats mic's, helmuts, laser sights etc. They also produce these mouldings to go over the Tippman paintball guns that can make them then look like popular assault rifles which then are directly fed from gas in a back pack. They also have various outfits under team roles like a team leader or sniper that look so awesome. They produce this sniper rifle and whole outfit which looks so cool. Ok this might make me sound weird and strange with an unhealthy passion but lets face it, people who do paintball are effectively playing war / soldiers. If you are going to play war then you might as well embrace it and run with your childhood dreams. Anyway ordered a camo jacket and some gloves.
No gym on Wednesday due to a strange pain in my right knee. I honestly felt guilty that I was letting myself down and that this would be a start of the collapsing of my health drive. It made sense not to go as I wouldn't want to push it with the paintball on Sunday but even so I still felt bad. Ordered a couple of excellent JT masks. We wanted to get these to prevent fogging which I regularly seem to suffer from at paintball and also the thought of putting my mouth half an inch from where someone elses has been is never a plus of paintballing. These babies have double glazed lensing to prevent the fog and are also lighter and tighter. Decided to get one for my bro as a surprise.
They arrived on Thursday and were great. When I got home that night after listening to Armin I got my brother to come up. Like the child I am I got him to wait in the other room while I put my gear on. Black boots that a work colleague had leant me, camo combat trousers, camo jacket, scrim scarf, green woollen hat, fingerless mitts and the mask. As I called him in I dropped the main tune from Rambo:First Blood part II for added impact. He was impressed and to be fair so was I. I got him to comment on the mask before producing the one I'd bought for him. He was pleased and wore it for some time to get used to the comfort while we discussed endless scenarios and tactics for the games.
A work colleague has challenged me to a month long weight loss task. He wants to lose weight as well and we both weighed ourselves in the office to get down the starting weight. It's going to be a percentage thing as opposed to the amount of pounds which is fairer. My starting weight was 13 stone 8.75 lbs. I'm quite motivated for it. I know I need to lose a bit so it's a handy vehicle to encourage me to do it plus his goading statement of "Are you ready for a whooping, you fat bitch" should keep me true in those weaker moments. The World cup started today which I've been looking forward. I always particularly enjoy watching the other games. You do get to see a real showcase of talent and determination. As for England naturally I'm patriotic but I do think our egotistical, vain, over paid stars are motivated more for personal glory than doing it for the country which is a shame. I also find our arrogance quite frustrating. Almost as if no other team there wants to win the title. Yes we have some real stars but they rarely play as a team and as someone recently said to me it's better to have a champion team than a team of champions.
Anyway thankfully the BBC are running their games live on broadband so was able to watch the first game which was Germany vs Costa Rica. I always think it's a good sign if there are a good few goals in the first match and it ended up 4-2 to Germany. The new football seems to fly through the air with real pace and has a tendency to swerve producing some real belter 'roy of the rovers' type goals. Managed to get the journal part of my site onto blogger.com which in turn meant I could put it onto blogexplosion which I hope might generate so more readers.
Demonstrated my commitment to the weight thing when got fish'n'chips that night and I made do with about a 5th of my brothers piece of cod and about a quarter of his chips. Needless to say the very fact that I denied myself the chance to pig out on them meant they tasted even better.
Saturday was a bit of a whirl. Up early-ish as needed some bits before seeing the England game. Wanted to get some knee pads from Argos for paintballing but naturally they didn't have them in stock as of course they were an extra item that are only available at Extra stores. Mild anger that I tried to dispel but combined with the heat only seemed to make me snappy. Up to collect a friend encountering dreadful lunchtime traffic that caused the rage to build even further and we managed to make it into our chosen venue with about ten minutes to spare. England scored after about five minutes which then seemed to take the wind out of ones supporting sails. You are used to willing your team on to score but when they score straight away it seems to take that hunger away. Because of our late arrival we found a good spot but it meant the power lead for the projector that was showing the game to at least forty eager fans was running past our feet and even between my brothers, so we were very aware to keep our celebrations restrained. Got chatting to a friendly australian during the second half called Raf (nickname) who was over as part of a long trip and kept us entertained with stories of his job and life.
Followed the game with a trip to Noodle Time which is one of my favourite eateries. The food is cheap and filling, the service quick and clean and I find it hard to fault it. Followed this with a trip to the cinema to see United 93. It was ok. Viewed as a documentary it was very good but as a film I wasn't sure. Maybe it could have done with the added power of actually hearing one of the phone calls made by the relatives from the plane. I know some might think that exploitive but when the film was ramming home the enormity of what happened I think it's hard to top the realness of one of those calls. Despite the annoying chatter and fluster from at least two other parties in the cinema it certainly held my interest. The fact that I can remember what I did on 9/11 so vividly made it fascinating to see what was really going on in air traffic control etc that day. I confess that the emotion of the final five minutes of the film did have me close to tears when witnessing the futile and desperate actions of the passengers. Seeing them struggling with the controls and attempting to remove the guy flying it as the ground raced up towards them had an amazing visceral quality that certainly had an impact on me. Had a quick beer afterwards and as I headed to the toilet was told that I was considered fit by this quite attractive young girl. I was ready to make some quick chat and leave her with a card on my return from the toilet but she had already started chatting to another guy, women eh!
Couldn't sleep at all on Saturday night due to the goddam heat. I had an early start on Sunday but trying to get some hours into the sleep bank was nigh on impossible. Up at 7.00 after a total of about three hours sleep and got ourselves ready for collection. Mate picked us recreating an Arnie-ism by smoking a stubby cigar whilst wearing shades which made us laugh and we headed to Westerham where the paintball was being held.
Good facilities and a couple of nice girls working behind the counter. My hairdresser had arranged the day and we hooked up with him and his mates who were really nice guys. That's the great thing about blokes and paintball in that when you initially meet you can't help but remain in your little groups. Go a couple of games in and start discussing war stories and shared experiences and the barriers come tumbling down. I had a really good time and although very hot during the day you only really noticed it when standing in direct sunlight. Once the game started and despite the layers you only seemed to concentrate on not getting shot rather than worrying about the heat. Everything that I'd bought for the day performed very well, particularly the masks which didn't fog or need continual re-adjusting. The Matterhorn boots were outstanding, supportive and comfortable. The only thing that let me down was the gun which seemed to have intermittent power, a safety switch that couldn't decide when it wanted to be on and a tendency to uncock itself or load two balls at once. It's amazing when you have a mask on how aware you become of your own breathing as it seems a lot louder.
Highlights for me would be the first game where the four of us moved up on the right, flanking the enemy. I was right at the sharp end sweeping round and must have got about four kills which was immensely satisfying. Another was a game in the afternoon when we had to attack a fort that the red team was occupying. I got myself reasonably close but then came under fire and ducked behind these two logs. Two more guys joined me and then a fourth and it must have been comical to see these four guys all squashed up behind this tiny barricade as paint rained down onto it. My final highlight was in the second to last game where we hung back to defend. We set up these wicked positions and then spotted two creeping round behind. The games were unfortunately a little short, 15 minutes, but this allowed for some real cat and mouse stuff as the attackers crept in unaware that at least three of us had clocked him. As one of my mates moved in on the left I saw a gap in the vegetation and took my shot. Got him! His comrade was dispatched a few minutes later by one of the guys who crept off to stalk him. We then turned our attention round as someone did a banzai charge and holed up behind this tree. He must have been in the crossfire of about four of us and a marshall ran over to see if he'd been hit. Amazingly he hadn't (which I think was bullshit because some of them were clearly cheating) so when the marshall stepped back and resumed play we lit him and his cover up like a christmas tree. All too soon the whistle was called which was a real shame as we were dug in like an Alabama tick and I would have enjoyed some more people having a go. Headed home feeling a little tired but oh so enjoying the crisps and water that I'd packed for the return leg.
Ten minute snooze on the sofa, followed by beans on toast (well to the side of course) and a bath and we finished the weekend strong with some drinks and the pictures. Amazingly all the pubs seemed empty even though it was still lovely and warm and one can only assume that the mid saturday England game the day before had burnt people out and everyone else was at a multitude of family BBQ's. We saw the Poseidon remake which was extremely poor. It's amazing how much story and character was crammed into the original compared to this vacuous trash. The opening CGI shots of the boat were really bad as where some of the blue screen work when it was obvious the actors weren't in the great hall. I do find it incredible that in the age of next gen consoles that some of the piss poor CGI in films gets through. What was worse than the effects though were the oh so shallow, bland, paper thin characters. Richard Dreyfus who only let on that he was gay just as the camera pans round revealing his diamond stud earing, the intentionally obnoxious Kevin Dillon whose only purpose is to die after proclaiming how 'lucky' he was, utterly irrelevant and ham fisted character development in the middle of set pieces and an oh so annoying kid who just wanders off and get trapped with no explanation of how and why. How poor. I always read about test audiences and what scores they give. Who are these test audiences, are they alive, have they ever seen a movie before, is there an imbecility criteria to pass before admission. Oh well, it was something to do.
It seemed even hotter that night and my efforts to sleep where even more in vain. My bedroom is west facing so receives the full blast of the setting sun which naturally heats my room up and I worked out that it is only cool enough to sleep in once the sun has gone all the way round the earth and coming up in the East! I ended up grabbing two hours on the floor of the living room which is east facing and thus bearable before returning to my room at around 4.30am for a final couple of hours in my bed.
posted by payne by name at 6:42 pm
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