krisalis

Violence. Wedding. Mass murder. Shooting. Revenge. Hospital. Violence. Revenge. Knife fight. Gun shot. Revenge. Japan. Big swords. Violence. Anime. Revenge. Blood. Lots and lots of blood, everywhere. Spraying blood. Spurting blood. Severed heads. Severed arms. Revenge. Severed legs. Blood. More blood. Revenge. Big swords. Revenge. Blood. No ending. To be continued, with yet more blood. Revenge.

We went to the cinema last night.

Can you guess what film we saw?

Hallowe’en Friday Five:

1. What was your first Halloween costume? I’m not entirely certain. The first costume I can remember was a clown outfit I wore when I was in kindergarten. My mum made my clown suit, and my sister Billie had one too.

2. What was your best costume and why? Headless horseman. It was cool (actually, it was quite warm, which is a bonus when you are guising in the west of Scotland!). I wore green velvet knickerbocker-esque trousers on my lower half, with the waistband pulled high up my body and secured with a belt around my ribs, and a man’s white shirt on my upper body. The shoulders of the shirt were supported by a frame structure made from wire coat hangers, which I wore on my head. I could see out through the openings between the button holes in the chest area of the shirt. It looked pretty good. The best part was the dismembered mannequin’s head, which I carried under my arm. I wonder where my mum got that from? Anyway – it was spooky and unique, and I liked it. It was different to all of my friends.

3. Did you ever play a trick on someone who didn’t give you a treat? Nope. I’m a wuss. I didn’t want to get in trouble with the neighbours.

4. Do you have any Halloween traditions? (ie: Family pumpkin carving, special dinner before trick or treating, etc.) Nope. Not really. Well, unless you count “eating so much junk food that you feel ill” a tradition, and I haven’t done that for many, many years.

5. Share your favorite scary story…real or legend! I don’t have a favourite scary story. I pretty much avoid all scariness whenever possible. I don’t understand the attraction of horror films and haunted houses.

Amongst numerous factoids of varying levels of importance and interest contained within the wonderous book that is ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything‘, I recently learned that in 1781, German-born musician William Herschel became the first person in the modern era to discover a planet.

Herschel apparently wanted to call the plant “George”, after the British monarch, George III. Sadly, Herschel was overruled, and instead the planet was named Uranus.

Now, I’m sure English-speaking kids the world over have sniggered at some point or another at the pronunciation of “Your-anus”, and whilst I agree that it would be a shame to rob mankind of this cheap thrill, I still think it would be pretty cool to have a planet called George.

I think the next planet we find should be called George. Or maybe Fred. Or Arthur.

Photos from the weekend in Bintan.

Last week, Mark and I were treated to a delicious feast of a dinner in honour of Canadian Thankgiving, which is traditionally celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada.

We had pumpkin soup, cornbread, turkey with the works, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, mashed cauliflower and gorgeous home-made stuffing. This was followed by the most amazingly rich maple syrup cheesecake known to mankind.

No food is featured in the photos I took – I suspect I was too busy stuffing my face to take pictures during the meal. But trust me, the food was amazing, the company was wonderful and for these things and many others, I am truly thankful.

Check out this “brain-wracking, soul-sucking, time-wasting beeatch of a quiz” that Kris has posted.

You can download the spreadsheet from her post and see whether you can match the little pictures to the band/pop-stars/muscians/ tv personalities they represent.

Warning: do not scroll too far down the page if you’re planning on doing the quiz on your own steam! Note: it’s pretty UK-centric, and disturbingly addictive.

Currently up to 78 out of 95…

Enjoy!

Mark and I spent our long weekend at a beach resort in Bintan. It was lovely.

Amongst other things, we spent our weekend swimming in the sea, lazing in the shade with a few good books, sailing on a little catamaran, paddling on a kayak, playing tennis, paddling in the swimming pool, eating, drinking and eating some more.

I read I Capture The Castle, and Artemis Fowl – both books were entertaining, enjoyable and easy reads. I plan to get my mitts on the follow up Artemis Fowl books shortly.

We slapped on the high-factor sunscreen and wore hats and sunglasses to waylay the nastier side effects of beach time for the pigmentally impaired. My nose is pink, and the tops of my feet are sore, but the rest of me is mostly OK.

We watched some of the weekend’s rugby offerings, as Australia tore Namibia into tiny little pieces and France racked up quite a score against Scotland.

We sheltered from the rain with a bottle of wine and played scrabble until an afternoon storm passed by. We ate thick slices of raisin bread dunked in delicious coffee for breakfast. We drank bacardi and coke on a balcony overlooking the ocean before dinner.

It was so good to get out of Singapore for a couple of days – to see big sky and open spaces. I slept well last night – tired out from the sea, sand and sun. Long weekends rock.

Mon- Wed 20-22 Oct - nothing and nada. Thurs 22 Oct - Run, 40 min. Distance: about 7km. Feeling: OK. Fri 23 Oct – Played tennis, went sailing on a catamaran. Does sailing count as exercise? Sat 24 Oct – About an hour and a half of tennis, a body pump aerobics class, half an hour of kayaking in the sea and some sailing. Fun, fun, fun. Sun 25 Oct – About an hour of tennis, half an hour of kayaking in the sea, and some stretching to relieve pain induced by body pump class.

Overall: Not great on the running front, but feeling a bit more motivated to pick up and soldier on this week. Last week, I was ready to throw the towel in completely.

Awww. Labradogs.

I don’t particularly like seeing the dogs dressed up, but I do love the expressions on their little doggie faces. They look pretty happy.

They say, “Hey, yeah, we can do this. For a little while. ‘Cause we’re gonna get some yummy treats soon. Right? We like food. We like a good scratch behind the ears, and a rub on the tum. We are such good dogs. Yessir. See how we sit? In formation too. Aren’t we good? And aren’t we handsome? Can we move now? How about now? We can smell those treats….C’mon, just say the word. We’re ready.“

After every flight, pilots fill out a form called a gripe sheet, which conveys to the mechanics problems encountered with the aircraft during the flight that need repair or correction. The mechanics read and correct the problem, and then respond in writing on the lower half of the form what remedial action was taken, and the pilot reviews the gripe sheets before the next flight.

Never let it be said that ground crews and engineers lack a sense of humor. Here are some logged maintenance complaints and problems as submitted by Qantas pilots and the solution recorded by maintenance engineers.

“P” = The problem logged by the pilot.. “S” = The solution and action taken by the engineers.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement. S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough. S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit. S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield. S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent. S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear. S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud. S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick. S: That’s what they’re there for.

P: IFF inoperative. S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield. S: Suspect you’re right.

P: Number 3 engine missing. S: Engine number 3 found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny. S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums. S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit. S: Cat installed.

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer. S: Took hammer away from midget

Have a good weekend!