Recently I've been going through a definite resurgence of my fascination with World War II. Its an unquenchable curiosity and interest I've had since I was old enough to sit up straight and watch "The World at War" on Sunday evenings after supper. I was mesmerised from the opening credits to the end.
I have a few decent war movies, all WWII related (except Black Hawk Down) and occasionally dig them out and coo over them, like a miser shining the gold he keeps under the floorboards. Last week I loaded Saving Pvt Ryan onto my PSP and watched it end to end in episodes:- on the train, during lunch, train home etc. This week I dusted off my copy of Band of Brothers -the book- and have been poring over this. Playing games like BF 1942, Forgotten Hope & Company of Heroes has been enriched too!
I'm enjoying it so much that I'm going to buy myself the boxed set and take a day off work next month to watch it end to end. Just me, the Dog, some beer and pretzels, the surround sound cranked up and the sub woofer tweaked for extra explosiveness. I can't wait.
It would have been nice to do it on the 6th (the 62nd anniversary of D-Day) but I'll have to hold out for an extra week or so.
(adjusts soapbox)
You know, you look at the men and women of that era and what they did,their selflessness and, well, their great big brass balls and you have to sit and wonder about what the fuck's gone wrong during the intervening 60 years to have led to the generation of common scum we're saddled with these days. I think it's timeI wrote to the PM (whichever crony it is today) to unveil the benefits-driven compulsory euthanasia scheme I've drawn up.
Hurrah for sunshine!! After weeks of dismally bleak skies and yo-yo temperatures we're finally getting some sun today.
So it was off to the park for a bit of a stroll - I reckon it's about 2 - 2 1/2 miles around the path.
The little dog had a ball, leaping into muddy puddles, eating flies, racing through the long grass and sniffing anything remotely faeces-like. At least he didn't roll in any this time.
We sauntered more sedately than his frenetic to and fro'ing... we boldly decided to hit the gym hard yesterday morning and are paying the price today.
I'm glad I did - it gave me a chance to sweat out the effects of the large quantity of scotch, red wine and sambucca that I chucked down my gullet on Friday night. There's nothing quite like corporate funded entertainment to encourage a bit of alcholic gluttony :)
Posted by Mark ::
13:48 ::
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Thursday, May 10, 2007
's alive
Crikey, I hadn't realised how long its been since I blogged. My birthday's come and gone without even a mention in passing. I've joined a new gym. lost weight. need to buy new clothes. weather's crap.
This year I decided to do something different for my birthday... I arranged a day's paintballing for myself, Mrs FG and a hadnful of friends down in Sevenoaks. Amazingly, we found it easily enough and stood around waiting for it to officially open, all the while staring at the horde of feral kids pouring from soccer-mom wagons and assorted vans. Fortunately.. or unfortunately.. we didn't get to shoot the little muppets and had to be content with regular sized muppets.
We sweated. We dived for cover, rolled in dirt, leopard crawled, said Fuck a lot, gained some interesting bruises and just generally had a fun but utterly exhausting day. After a pint and some nosh at the oh-so-genteel pub a couple of miles away, where we were politely glared at for *shock* *gasp* laughing and talking merrily, we headed home where I personally crashed out on the couch for a couple of hours. good fun- but dangerously expensive if you have an itchy trigger finger :)
I've given up on the kickboxing classes... I have t-shirts older than 90% of the students and well, they irritate me. Their form is horrendous and the discipline is tragically mediocre and no one seems to care! But.. I have now enrolled at The Real Fight Club, an old school boxing gym a block or two from the office.
Let me tell you this- boxing is gruelling, exhausting work. And thats without even getting into the ring to spar. The required fitness level is absurdly high and let me tell you something - its not easy. Theres a mountain of stuff for me to learn- no easy ride this one. It's great.
Sad as it is, theres not much other news. Work grinds on, the only carrot being the legend of a decent bonus in September. By all accounts it should be juicy- we're a good few million squidders ahead of budget and are adding to the surplus monthly. But then, I am but a lowly serf still, so we see what kind of crumb falls from the master's table this year.
