Members' News

I almost ran straight out and jumped off our 5th-floor balcony the other day, after having to explain to someone what the millennium bug was. "Well, you know, before the year 2000, ..." - Ah, no, I'll start again : "You know, just after the dinosaurs disappeared, and men began to walk on 2 feet, there was the year 2000. You must have been about 10 at the time." :frown:

I got my British Nursing licenced through yesterday,yay

Hehehe Kat that's priceless, that one.

Congratulations, Sunna. Are you planning on moving to UK? I though you were living in Iceland, why would anyone ever want to leave that place?

Well done Sunna.

Well my mum and dad got home late last night and I still have a pile of ironing to do. My big brother is now a commisond Teritoral Army officer. Dont worry he wont go to Iraq or anywhere like that hes batalion is strictly UK missons. This means that when the UK Army is really strched he will be called in to do there job if they have to go to Iraq. That doesn't take the worry off my mind though as my Cousin who is the USA Army is in Iraq at the moment. He's a year older than me but I still worry about him. I have a very bissy week ahead of me at work not looking forward to it as my new boyfriend works at the same place and he has nothing to do this week as his team is out on work place ment at the moment. He works for the princess trust and with him not having anything to do I know hes going to be in my hair.

going off to do some ironing so see you latter

Plane-arium! Doesn't anyone watch South park anymore?

Don't worry peapod my sister's in the airforce and HAS gone to Iraq. Staying at home is as boring as hell according to her as she's more likely to be run over by a car that anything she has to do for work purposes.

As of Friday evening Dave and I decided to get married. The conversation went something like this...

Me: Some joke about someone dying holding their breath waiting for Dave and i to get married

Dave: I consider buying a house together a bigger commitment than getting married

Me: It's a good way to get people to buy stuff for the house

Dave: Well I haven't had any better offers in the last 4 years and obviously neither have you. We could do this on the cheap

Me: So does that mean we're actually getting married now? How the hell did we end up here?

Dave: Yes lets get married...and I'm not sure

So as you can see it was well romantic and fulfilled every little girl's dream of the love-laden proposal... but the comment about not having any better offers will come in handy for arguments and stories for years to come

Gratz Spiky
I must show my wife that conversation - she thought my proposal was not really up to the mark. Even after I pointed out that diamonds are old fashioned and a ring made out of a twisty is new, incorporating technology from this century and such like.

Congrats Spiky!

The proposal could have been worse though. My sister-in-law loves telling the story about when she came home and my brother started yelling her name from inside the bathroom. She went to the door and asked what he wanted and apparently there was a slow rustle of a newspaper and finally he just said "Want to get married?"


I went to a Jackie Greene concert last night and I'm still blown away. The man has an unbelievable amount of talent. During one song he was simultaneously playing an organ, a piano, and a harmonica. The show was amazing. Look him up

Reg's grandfather died this morning, about 2 months ago we found out he had terminal lung cancer that had spread all over, so we were expecting it sooner or later, but still, as we were planning on going to see them this weekend Reg is sad that he didn't get to see him before... :sad: We're off to join his family and help with all the organising, I just hope his grandmother doesn't do anything stupid... He was 83, 60 years of marriage. Not a bad score I guess.

Thank you Kapten.No,not exactly moving there,at least not right away.I'm planning on working in Edinburgh next year for a few months and I'll take it from there.

Almost exactly the same route as I did (San Fransisco->Los Angeles->San Diego ->Death Valley ->Las Vegas->Grand Canyon->The park with the big Redwoods) but we took 5 weeks.

Enjoy.

Don't forget: The House always wins.

::hugs Katcal and Reg:: :frown:

Way to go, Spike-woman! Now try to hold on to your respective sanities as the wedding-planning goes underway! :smile: And oh, I got proposed to in pretty much the same fashion! Thankfully, no toilets were involved (As far as I know!)

Hugs to Katcal and Reg. My boyfriend lost his granfarther a couple of weeks ago. I know what it's like.

Congrats Spiky, that sound like a realy wird coversation. I just hope when I get engaded that it doesnt go like that.

Well week 4 of my new job and my feet are about to fall off. I had to run up the flight of stairs at work about 20 times today. I cant wait untill September as I'm going on holiday.

I got some realy great news today as well. I got nomanated by my work placement as Job finder of the year through Learndirect and I'm on the shortlist. The awards ceromony is on the 5th September and my mum is going with me. I don't mind if I don't get it just being on the sort list is enugh for me. I've overcame so much in my life to get a job. I love living in Scotland I think that if I didn't move here I wouldnt have be able to acheve all that I have.

Congratulations Spiky. It'll be a great story to break the ice at dinner parties (or barbecues).


So sorry to hear about Reg's grandfather Kat. It's always a shock, even when it's expected.


Peapod. Running up and down stairs is meant to be good for you - tones the leg muscles and builds lung capacity.


I'm just back from doing Tai Chi on the seafront at Deal. We actually had a nice sunny evening.

Sorry to here about Reg's pop Kat. it's always bad when the expected happens and the grief is mixed with relief that the pain is over. My pop is dying painfully, but he keeps hanging in there. We're kind of sitting on tenterhooks because we constantly expect him not to make the next big event and he seems so unhappy. So my commiserations and i hope Reg is OK.

Congratulations Spikey! Sounds quite like how my sisters husband proposed – to her, obviously…

And Congratulations Sunna!

Katkal, I’m very sorry to hear about Reg’s Grandfather.

Hsing, I think that this is Wedding Year. My sister, three of my cousins and 8 people from work have tied, or are tying the knot this year. It’s turning out to be an expensive year…

Oh yeah, and I have my driving test tomorrow. I'm so screwed....

::hangs head in dispair and wishes she'd studied the rules of the road a bit more carefully...::

Mazekin just remember rule number 1: Don't hit anything!

Everything after that is unnecessarily complex.

Well plans are moving along for the wedding. it will be on September 8th so there's no rest for the wicked in organising this puppy. Oh and my mum's turned into the bitch from hell and has declared that she's not coming because it is being held at my Dad's house even though I checked with her beforehand to see if she had an issue with it. its a good thing this is a basic BBQ with no frills number otherwise I'd be going insane.

Kat i'm sorry for your loss. My Grandma fell and hurt her back a couple of weeks ago, she is now in a nursing home and hasn't been eating properly. She wants to go back home but she is 92 and it is hard to think she will.
Spiky that sounds a bit like what Jon and I did, I sure hope your marriage is a lot better then ours. Just remember that the wedding should be the way you and your man want it not the way the wedding industry wants it.
Peapod_J good job and a good boyfriend? Doing quite well for yourself aren't you? I'm glad.
this place has been busy. I have been busy with extra work(that should be down to a minimum with alll the new hires lately) and guys and karaoke. It has been a very good summer. I reconnected with a friend from highschool, just in time for him to be moving to California, I went to his hang out on Saturday and had to share him with a new guy"friend", that was sort of weird. The guy was very nice to me, he even knows some of my cousins and likes them, so I really liked meetng him too, but it wasn't exactly how I had pictured an evening reconnecting with a highschool buddy. I have also tentatively begun "seeing" a fella. if you want to check him out he's on my myspace top friends list. Thor's Love Child is a very fun guy. I'm off to the Legion for karaoke now,have fun.

I passed my driving test! Yeeehawwwh! Only...um, a couple...of faults, but I still passed! Look out world, I'm licenced to drive! Pedestrians, stay on the path. That is not a threat, that's a warning.

Well home from work and I thought I would drop a line. Spiky your weeding sounds great and its the saterday I come back from holiday.

well I went for lunch at my normal time of 12 today with Jody my boyfriend (yes a girls name but he is a he) we got back at 12:30 as I only get 30 minutes for my luch because it means I can finish at 4:30 insted of 5. Well Jody went home at 1:30 and of couse he had to pick on me. He said "Have fun for the next 3 hours" I could have killed him.

I nearly missed my lift in to work this moring as I was so tired. Cant wait untill my day of on the 6th. I get to have a lie in.

My new book will be coming soon so I look forward to that but I cant read it untill I've read the 2 books before it which haven't been dispaced yet. So I will just have to wait.

Mazekin congrats I'm still learning havent had a leson since I started my new job.

Well done Mazekin, Now the learning starts.

Thanks to all, as you said, even when it's expected, it's still painful, and I can't remember who said it so well (spiky ?) but yes, the relief that it's over is a weird part to handle. It went really fast, a couple of months ago he wint in to hospital for a pain in his back, and came out with the news that it was bad lung cancer that had spread everywhere and was eating his vertebrae... Nice.
But beyond the actual mourning was the fact that we had to put up with Reg's Family From Hell™. You really would not believe half of the stuff, and the bits you could believe would give you nightmares. Some people are just too weird for words. Think the Addams Family on drugs.

Also, we lost another friend of the family after more or less the same story, hurt his back falling off his tractor, went in for an x-ray, came out with a verdict of massive cancer, and died shortly afterwards. He was a nice guy, and among other things he wrote the screenplays for DangerMouse, and also he loved Pterry, so hey, here's to him...

Karaoke was fun,but I was tired for the safety meeting today for a certain reason... this afternoon I fell asleep in my chair for about three hours, a senior moment if there ever was one, when I woke up I wrote an email to a friend I met at CONvergence, he hosts Kruschenko's, a sort of grown up gathering spot they set up at most of the sf conventions in the 'cities. I took a break before I sent it and called my sister, she told me about the 35W bridge collapsing today, the last time I drove over that bridge I was taking that friend home from the con. As I was watching the coverage they were talking to the Minneapolis Fire Chief. I thought he looked familiar and then I learned his name and I realized why he looked familiar. I graduated highschool with him. Apparently there is nothing else happening in the world today, at least that is the way it was looking on my TV. Those pictures are awfully scary I do admit.

Huh? What did I miss?!

Look for a thread called extras (sorry I can't work out how to link it)

I hope you're going to give more details than that Mal. We want to hear all about it.

Oh cool, just saw it. Yep, we definitely want some more info Mal, unless you movie stars are bound by contract or something

nah Mal's just turned into a Hollywood starlet, so I'll expect him to be arrested any day now for drink driving and the possession of strange white powdery substances... the life of fame and fortune isn't all its cracked up to be.

Now now, I'm sure any true member of this board, starlet or not, would not be caught dead carrying washing powder... **shudders**

So, Mal, you do realise we all now officially hate you both so much, right ?

**crys silently because life is so unfair**

And I got to run around in circles like madwoman, holding a giant turnip.

There, you did it again... I was just about over it and you said giant turnip. Damn you both ! :biggrin:

It's not really that giant. Closer to a normal-sized turnip.

Giant turnip. Makes you sound like Baldric from Blackadder.

Oh well yeah, of course, playiong down the size of the turnip is soooo gonna make me feel better... **sulks** :biggrin:

So far I haven't heard that anyone I personally know was involved in the Bridge collapse. The footage so far doesn't really show how big a deal this is for the cities. It just doesn't seem on video like the eightlane freeway that it was. It just doesn't mean Minneapolis and St. Paul either, it also affects everyone who routinely makes the trip into down town fron almost any suburb. Traffic has been awful just from the construction this summer now that that Highway is severed it will be a night mare almost continually until a new bridge is built which will take at least a couple of years. The thing is this isn't even the bridge they thought was in the worst shape, I'm afraid they are going to have to be doing a lot of scrambling to rectify this problem before more bridges come crashing down. Small ironies keep cropping up, hind sight just works way better then foresight

Just finished a week of being a care assistant for a special needs play scheme, that was fun. Now we've got a spanish person in the house as part of a... well trip thingy.... its about the orchestra my girlfriend is in, their spanish counterpart are staying here for five days. We're going to London tommorow which i'm not to interested in and Alton towers on monday which should be brilliant.

Other than that the only thing thats happend is that i split up with my girlfriend... well then got back together for the rest of the summer later that day. we're going to see how we're doing at the end of the summer then decide whether to carry on. all feels a bit unreal at the moment.

the bad and the good news

Just got onto the web after beeing away for the night.

Well looks like the UK farming industery is in big do-do again. I can't beleve we have foot-and-mouth again I just hope that it doesn't get too bad and that it stays down south. If it comes to Scotland its going to just kill our farms and as the major industry round me is farming its going to hit them badly.

Well im up at the Edinburgh Tatoo with my mum and dad next friday. I'm off on Monday yay.

Me and my boyfriend where talking yesterday and I asked him a realy silly question. I dont know why I asked it it's probably because marrage has been on my mind for a while as its my parents 27th anversary this month. Well I asked this: "Do you ever see us geting marred?" stupid I know but he said he did. This does not mean where engaged though. But it is defnatly on the cards.

But it will give us something to look for in the film so we can spot you.:smile:

I am in Athens on leave. I am counting the days till I come home permanently. The change is doing me so much good, I may nip here again for a Smashing Pumpkins+Kasabian concert in the end of August.

I hope everyone is alright. I am so out of touch with everything. But once I am unemployed again, I will do my best to catch up.

Avgi, I like your avatar! :smile:

Tamyra, this is a bit belated, but I'm really glad you were nowhere near that bridge when it went down!

Mal - any chance the non-British people can see the movie? :wink:

Hooray for unemployment! ?

Thanks Mowgli, me too. I finally finished The Deathly Hallows, I still don't know quite what to think, but it may be because I'm just too fevered to think right now. I get to stay home from work one more day because I'll still be contagious but I have some high powered antibiotics to take and they seem to have helped a little already. I also have a sore throat and body aches and a head ache, so I feel thoroughly yuckky. At least I can't pass this on to any of you.

Sorry to hear about the sickiness Tamyra. Being sick sucks. Hope you feel better soon.

Ze webcomic has finally launched! Huzzah! I am doing the victory dance!
*Dance dance dance*
Now I just have to finish the next page to keep on top of our miniscule backlog! Yay.

In other news, I ordered my new computer today. A Dell Inspiron 1420. I'm excited.
Also, I move back onto University Campus in 15 days. I can't wait to return. I think there's something wrong with me, I WANT to go back to school.
I discovered that I have been assigned Hamlet in both of my English classes this semester.
Joy.
I was also assigned it last semester.
Poor Shakespeare. People only hate him because they have to read the same damn plays OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER.....
I've read all but two of the plays I've been assigned for my Shakespeare class. Fairly generic selections: Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet (twitches) and so on.
But hey, I do love Shakespeare.
I also love the idea of having a room of my own with a lock on the door.
Can't wait for that!

Well last night got some good news. My brothers engaged yay. Finaly after going out with his partner for 2 nearly 3 years they are finaly going to get marred. He was engaged a few years back but they split up. I have a realy good felling about this. As long as I'm not a bridesmade I'll be happy.

I got my new books yesterday as well. There the great manga by Eiichio Oda called One Piece. Well I got volumes 11, 13-15 and I'm nearly finshed volume 15 what can I say im a quick reader of manga. I had already got volume 12 on the friday and read it on the saterday as I was over at my boyfriends that night. Well I'm just waiting for volume 10 which should be coming on monday.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Edinburgh Milatary Tatoo. I'm looking forward to it and I'm hoping I get to leve work early so I can get an earler bus home.

I knew mangas are printed backwards, but I thought that only applied to the individual books, not the series :biggrin:

2 nearly 3 years is nothing its taken Dave and i over 4 to get to the same point. Theres no reason to rush these things. Actually, there's every reason to avoid rushing them... Although the debate we had last night over evolution vs creationism / intelligent design makes me questions why I agreed to make this permanent...

Anyway, I don't have much to report except that I'm not sleeping and I have these killer stomach cramps for no apparent reason. I know why I'm not sleeping I'll just have to wait and see if the cramps go away to see if i can ignore them.

Tamyra and Spiky, hope you both feel better soon! :smile: By the way, Spiky, how would you like to be a guinea pig for a new anti-insomnia treatment? A few nights ago, I realized that if I start doing the multiplication table in my head - starting from 1X and working my way up... VERY slowly... it knocks me out somewhere around the 4s... 10s if the situation is really dire!

Hex, I hear ya... if you ever need a brand-new perspective on Hamlet, let me know, I have a copy of it in Czech (don't ask!). One book, many pages, probably 10 vowels all in all.

Oh... and it took Brad and me ten years to get to the same point :wink:. Hopefully that point will survive the next month-and-a-half, during which we have to iron out such all important issues as where to seat those guests who absolutely can't stand a bunch of other guests, because they've dated/roomed with/met each other ONCE in the past :tongue:

My sleeping difficulties tend to go beyond times tables and often involve getting up and watching TV movies till I fall asleep on the couch.

My solution to the seating problem, let people seat themselves then its their own damn fault they're sitting next to people they don't like

I like Spiky's idea. I will use it when I have My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

I don't want to think about seating plans for my brothers wedding. I know my aunt will come over from the USA and the older ants wont have anything to do with her as "she’s nothing to do with us" as they said when we found her. There called the older aunts, as they’re my granddad’s sisters so there my great aunts. Oh and my mums dad wont sit next to my dad's older brother and my dad's sisters wont sit by there older brother as they have fallen out over something last year and it must be big as my aunts don't normally hold a grudge. Then I don’t know about my to-be sister-in-law's family. Oh well let the chaos begin.

Well got out of work an hour early and now just killing time at home. My dads’ having a sleep and my mum is working on her PC.

Kat most of the manga I read is in the original Japanese format unless its from somewhere other than Japan as I have a couple like that. The one manga that you can tell is mirrored (that’s been flipped from left - right to right - left) is Inuyasha it’s so obvious as there was supposed to be an arrow through his heart and it’s on the wrong side. You would have to be stupid to miss that.

Well, clearly they are right, ants are a different species altogether

Actually this whole seating business is not a worry in Indian weddings at all, anyone can sit where they want. Only immediate family are placed at the bride and grooms table, everyone else is on their own. Works much better I think.
My father says that in the old days in villages the entire village was invited to every wedding - no seating arrangement would even be feasible me thinks!

I considered the whole let'em-seat-themselves possibility .. The only danger here is that some guests are currently unaware that others find them murderously intolerable, and I'd rather not they find out the hard way... at least not until after the ceremony, because, as my Mom put it, "once everyone's drunk and dancing, it's not like you can stop people from beating each other up - so don't even try!"

Hmmm, back in Kiev - or at least in the surrounding countryside, - you'd invite the entire village to the wedding as well :smile: I imagine no good wedding went by without at least one drunken fight, and it would all be considered proper and natural.

Lord, this has made me laugh, When i got married we just had family to the church and we just let his side have one side and my side the other. We had a picnic reception at the folks house so I never even thought about who I should seperate from whom. I think the ones who would have been a problem just refused to even show up so I guess that is why my wedding was so much fun. I don't think there were any fights except wth the puffed wheat in the air coditioning of the car.
My cousin and her man want to get married and my family is all so "when are you going to do it?" and he is the one who wants the big wedding with the dance and all and she is the shy one. I told her sister that if she just gets the right dress everything would be just fine and she agreed. I sure hope they work this out, they are so good together.
If I ever do get married again I think I'd do it just about the same way I did it the first time, only with a man who was totally sure he wanted to be marrying me. That is the thing that matters most, the wedding is one day, the memories are wonderful, but the rest of the marriage is what makes them precious memories or sad ones.