Terracotta Army

With the tiling complete on the loft and a lick of paint applied I cleaned the brushes and spent Saturday afternoon flying my radio controlled plane. The wind was to little to strong for comfort and trying to land in a cross wind tends to focus the mind with visions of wrecked model. It was however immensely enjoyable though now that I have enough confident at attempt various aerobatic maneuvers.

It is currently pouring with rain - doesn't augur well for cycling to work tomorrow. Monday is my no "no park" day so no option but to cycle and with the loss of daylight savings it is sure to be dark when I leave work. Rain is bad, cold is bad, windy is bad, dark is bad - all four together is horrible.

Today we went to see the exhibition on the Terracotta Army at the British Museum. Sophie took a friend along and they spent the morning following various activities in the Ancient Egypt section. The Terracotta Army exhibit itself was very impressive. It includes a dozen or so the soldiers placed above the reading room of the museum. We did leave wondering why the Chinese haven't opened the tomb itself, or if indeed they have but what they found was ... well nothing.

Old friends

This weekend we met up with some old friends we haven't seen in a long time.

We traveled down to Devon early Sunday morning and stopped to stretch next to Stonehenge.



We stayed here, in a beautiful cottage with Sheep grazing outside.





This is as heated as the Croquet got - makes a change from the Rugby on Saturday night.


Yes they can rip your stomach out



We went on walks during which small children learnt that gum boot fill with water when walking in deep water.


It was a really enjoyable weekend.

Black Sheep

Annalise and I went to see two movies last week, in addition to the vagina monologues. The first was "Black Sheep" - a New Zealand movie with mutant sheep. Think "Shaun of the Dead" but replace the zombies with sheep. I have always suspected that Sheep could turn bad and savage people.

The second movie was Ratatouille - this was supposed to be a family outing but both Stephen and Emily bailed on us. It was nice watching Sophie enjoy it and seeing Paris again - even if it was through the eyes and nose of a rat.

Monologues

We saw the vagina monologues together in the end.

It was interesting being one of four other men in an audience of around 400.

Glad I saw it - to be recommended and lots less cringe making and angry than I expected.

The monologues

So Annalise is going to see the Vagina Monologues tomorrow night with some friends. I am gutted and hurt that I am not invited.

It's a one night showing so no chance of going to see it on another night and the idea of going by myself just cries out "desperate and looking to meet women".

So the best I can hope for is a second hand account, and one filtered through a woman's perspective. No scope for intelligent, open minded discussion there then!

Would I have interpreted the collective work as a "blast of hatred against men and heterosexuality" or something more revealing of the what is means to be a woman?

Will they censor the line "Is was a good rape"?

Will those monologues dealing with violence and oppression outweigh those dealing with loving relationships (both heterosexual and lesbian).

But no it seems the absence of a vagina means that I'll never know the answers to these questions.

Oh did I mention that I am gutted and hurt ......

Theory of tiling and everything

While attempting to arrange the jigsaw constituted by the tiles on the bathroom floor I came to the realization that none of the truly great works of human endeavor have been tiled. Not the pyramids of Egypt, not Stonehenge, not the giant cathedrals of the middle ages.

There is a reason, it is almost an impossible task. Didn't tiles fall from the space shuttle - the modern equivalent of these historical feats. How arrogant NASA was to believe that they could succeed where everyone else has failed.

I have a theory, not yet provable but I'm sure it is just a matter to time before others find supporting evident that Qin Shi Huangdi actually commissioned a large area tiled in terracotta tiles but his subjects pleaded with him, "no anything but tiles, give us another task". And so they ended up building an entire army of Terracotta warriors, a much easier feat and something his enemies probably mocked him for afterwards

Also during the construction of Stonehenge the Druids originally asked for a paved area, made with Italian tiles - as even in these times the best tiles came from Italy, with good drainage where they could relax, read and catch up on the latest advances in herbal medicine. Again the impossibility of the task would have soon led to them giving up and instead dragging lumps of rock from hundreds of miles away.

I call this the theory of "Anything but not tiling". I believe this has been a great shaper of our history. Entire populations have fled when rulers have required them to tile and foolish kings and queens been overthrown over this issue.

It will likely be the tiling of the White house lawns that is the downfall of George Bush, not the fiasco of Iraq, his stupidity or his arrogance. Although who except the arrogant would commission such a thing in the first place.

I've been thinking a tiles a lot recently ...

Three dead squirrels

Cyclists tend to be pushed to the margins of the road. It seems that we share this thin, precarious sliver of road surface with squirrels who no longer scurry, gamble and play - largely, in fact entirely, because they are very dead.

Today I came across three such individuals, two while heading north and one while heading south. Time of deaths - sometime between Friday afternoon and this morning. I could be more precise but I'd have to enroll on a course in pathology and then perform multiple autopsies - so let's just leave it as sometime this weekend.

What is up ? Is there inter cine gang warfare amongst these squirrels ? Is it the blue tongue disease getting into the squirrel population ? Perhaps the foot and mouth from the Surrey area has jumped species ? Bird flu ? Or is it simply a case of panic pre-winter nut collection leading to reckless and careless behavior,

Inquiring minds want to know!

This weekend

I laid zero tiles although I did do some painting and skirting fitting. Why is it the the tiles look the best in the one orientation requiring the most cutting ?
Bled a little due to sawed finger.
Flew one new radio controlled plane.

Landed above plane a little roughly requiring a later 5 minute patch-up

Spent several hours at the beach

Found a tennis ball

Lost a tennis ball



Soaked up some sun



Had a lazy lunch in a beautiful cottage built AD 1536.

Watched some rugby, yes finally watched some TV.

The rest of the weekend's pictures here

New plane ready to fly

Almost ready to fly tomorrow if the weather is good.

This afternoon I have

1. Test run the previously crashed engine
2. Setup throws all controls
   
3. Configured computer mixing for flaps/airolin
4. Placed tx and rx on to charge over night
   

Still need to

1. check centre of gravity
2. Make/buy bung for fuel tubing (currently using a large nail)
   

Fastest time to work

33 minutes - fastest time since moving 5 minutes further away from work. Also thrashed the bus on the way home this afternoon.

Testosterone ?

Further evidence for lack of testosterone

On Sunday Annalise and I visited the bridge where Winnie the Pooh played Pooh sticks.

This is the bridge

No I felt no desire to race, let along win, by dropping said Pooh sticks in slow moving current - how sad is that.

Has anything happened in the last two months?

On July 02 I posted about how we had lost TV reception with the erection of scaffolding behind our house. Well the enforced experiment is coming to an end. This Thursday the scaffolding will be removed and once again our satellite dish will have an un-obscured line of sight with the appropriate geo-synchronous satellite.

This will be almost exactly two months without seeing a single TV picture. Has anything happened in the world in these last two months?

It brings to mind the movie Goodbye Lenin

Now should the kids be re-introduced to the medium slowly, can they overdose on it or will they even notice if I don't tell them?

Looking for Testosterone

Strange things have been happening to me

1. The other day on riding home from work I decided to take "the scenic route", along the north down through some National Trust property. What is more - I lingered, taking in the view of Surrey country side enjoying the solitude and feeling the wind wiping up the hill-side. I noticed the birds, greeted the odd dog walker and otherwise behaved in a totally uncharacteristic manner. Typically my trips to and from work are competitive affairs, either improving on my own time, beating the bus or luring unsuspecting cars into a wedge opportunity in a narrow lane around an old church.
2. I have a heightened sense of smell. The other day I could smell the odorless moisturizer Annalise was wearing. This in addition the almost constant smell of "what might be coffee." (See my post regarding pending insanity)
3. I am sick and tired of the upstairs tiling - I honesty think I would sooner be part of a sewing circle.
4. If I shut my eyes during my shower each morning, after my cycle into work, I can believe that I am washing my hair in the Amazon rain-forest, in the purest of water surrounded by butterflies and orchids.
   

This all begs the questions:

1. Do I have an Estrogen/Testosterone imbalance ?
2. Am I turning into a collaborative woman and eschewing mindless competitiveness ?
3. Will I be wearing roses and perfume shortly ?
4. Should any of this worry me ?
5. If I am turning into a woman - will I be a lesbian ?
6. Who does one turn to for help and will they take "excuse me but I can now smell things and I don't compete with buses" seriously.