BOOK CLUB - The Vesuvius Club

Synopsis
Edwardian London. It is a world that seems familiar to us: Hansom cabs rattling through fog-choked streets, gin-swelling aesthetes rubbing shoulders with movers and shakers of British Imperial grandeur. And beneath the confident facade, naturally, an underworld of sinister Tongs, crazed anarchists, murder, and seething vice. So much for the familiar picture of comforting Victoriana. But this is the world of Lucifer Box and nothing is quite as it first appears. Lucifer Box is the most fashionable portrait painter of his day: trading bon mots with the best of them and ruthlessly exploiting his talent and dandified beauty to enter every level of this intriguing society. From his elegant townhouse at Number 9 Downing Street (well, someone has to live there...) to his vast studio in Chelsea, from the snow-choked streets of Tsarist St petersburg to the sun-bleached hotels of Mentone, life is one long, dazzling party. Of course, leading a double life is terribly fashionable and Lucifer Box is not to be outdone. For what Box's fashionable circle would never believe is that their witty, cheerfully bisexual friend is also a secret agent...

Thoughts
Well it was a bit of a mixed bag really I thought it was OK, I thought the beginning of the book was really good, I liked the characters, thought the use of flowery language was good and generally liked the descriptions of Edwardian England. It was just the end was a bt disappointing as it just went off on one and I couldn't be arsed to join it.

Ailsa felt even more that way she absolutely loved the beginning thought it was going to be a cool kind of murder mystery and then all of a sudden they just revealed everything and she was really disappointed.

Mandy enjoyed the book she didn't try to analyse it to much, took the book for what is was and enjoyed from start to finish

Barry, Andy and Emma similarly though good start bad end.

Matty after thoroughly evaluating the book and careful consideration thought it was S***

Colonels Abroad - Grinner and Liz

New Zealand is everything we want and more, we're having an absolutely amazing time of it here.

We're by Lake Taupo on the north island at the moment and have never really been interested in doing any of the extreme activities, but there must be something in the air here as I just decided suddenly that I had to forget about being petrified of doing stuff like that, and just get on with it!! Liz wasn't really up for it, but another couple where we're staying were, so we all did it this morning, leaving Liz on the ground waving us goodbye. It's hard to describe just how fantastic an experience it was, anyone who's done it will know what I mean, I've had the biggest grin for hours and it's not going anywhere! I went the whole hog and paid extra for another guy to jump out with us who filmed it for DVD, and took a load of photos. Although I looked green on the plane before we jumped, within a couple of seconds I'd forgotten about all that and the acceleration for a 45 second freefall was literally breathtaking, I can strongly recommend it - it's a fantastic experience.

Since leaving Liz's friend Sarah's in Auckland last week we've been travelling around the north island by bus. It's been full of surprises everywhere, it's not so hyped up here like other places so there's never disappointments, just lots of pleasant suprises. On tuesday we went for a walk to a waterfall, it went alongside a river - very deep but clear water to the riverbed, never had any desire to swim in a river but we have been here, then we came across a thermal stream where we sat by hot springs - it was basically a free jacuzzi!! All very unexpected which made it even better. We've also seen boiling mud and hot geysers spewing from the ground. We really had no idea there was so much volcanic activity here.

Yesterday was another major highlight - the Tongariro Crossing, a 17km walk up a volcano and across the surface then down the otherside. Didn't know too much about it before we got here, but it was undoubtably the best long walk we've ever had!! Lots of climbing, a baron landscape, incredible views of surrounding volcanoes and mountains, more hot springs and turquoise lakes - although it took 7 hours it absolutely flew by.

We're off to the South Island next week where we've hired a car for 4 weeks, everyone says the South Island is better than the North - hard to believe how but we're very excited about finding out for ourselves!!!

MATCH REPORT by Andy Clyde - Athletico Cowley - Back on Track

ACFC 4 vs 0 Pie Eaters
Goals: Ali x2,Maz x2

League Table
Sponsors: 'The Marsh Harrier'

Just what the football doctor ordered: a good win and a chance to bring our goal difference back above zero. Having said that, this wasn't the hardest match we've ever had but you can only beat the team that you're playing.

We started well and in the first minute sliced them apart with some slick passing. It was a gentle workout, luckily with no subs, but allowed us some quality on pitch bonding. By then end of the match, we were controlling the match, soaking up their pressure and hitting on the break. A couple of the goals were fine counter-attacks consisting of few passes.

Dean took his turn in goal and dealt with everything that came his way, partly a testament to the way we defended all through the team.

Perhaps the weakest aspect of the game is that at 3/4 nil up late on, we could have settled down on the ball and killed the game. Of course, we should always be looking for more goals but by playing a patient game we may have worn them down more and found more gaps to exploit.

COME ON THE COWLEY!!!!!!

UK will match Gates vaccines cash, says Brown

I spend all this time having a pop at Bill Gates and he turns around and starts trying to be a nice bloke. It still doesn't excuse Windows but at least he is thinking a bit more than his $5.5 Billion fortune.

I have worked out that although I think the Microsoft are bunch of manipulative sods and that the Apple Operating System is better than Windows, I still think there is something about Apple which makes me think they are far worse. Microsoft just messes up one bit of kit in your house, but Apple is the software, it is the kit, it is you mp3 player and you know thats just the start. I-Tunes on your PC asks you if you want it to be your default player, you say no and it does it anyway, it also doesn't work for any other MP3 player. Whenever you launch anything you know somewhere Apple is in the background checking you out (at least with Microsoft we all know they checking us out, with Apple everyone thinks the sun shines out of there arse and they wouldn't do anything like that).

Just because they make cool stuff doesn't make any less evil. I will put it this way Microsoft are your evil dictator they don't pretend to be anything else but Apple they are your child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, they offer you sweets and pretend to me all sweetness and light, but they still giving you a sever rogering.

Wasn't a masive 2Pac fan but this I would say is probably my favourite rao tune ever. The lyrics are profound and also the elements in which he talks about his own mortality is quite mad

2PAC - Changes

[1]
Come on come on
I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myself
is life worth living should I blast myself?
I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm black
my stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch
Cops give a damn about a negro
pull the trigger kill a nigga he's a hero
Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares
one less hungry mouth on the welfare
First ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothers
give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each other
It's time to fight back that's what Huey said
2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead
I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere
unless we share with each other
We gotta start makin' changes
learn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangers
and that's how it's supposed to be
How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me?
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids
but things changed, and that's the way it is

[Bridge w/ changing ad libs]
Come on come on
That's just the way it is
Things'll never be the same
That's just the way it is
aww yeah
[Repeat]

[2]
I see no changes all I see is racist faces
misplaced hate makes disgrace to races
We under I wonder what it takes to make this
one better place, let's erase the wasted
Take the evil out the people they'll be acting right
'cause both black and white is smokin' crack tonight
and only time we chill is when we kill each other
it takes skill to be real, time to heal each other
And although it seems heaven sent
We ain't ready, to see a black President, uhh
It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact
the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks
But some things will never change
try to show another way but you stayin' in the dope game
Now tell me what's a mother to do
bein' real don't appeal to the brother in you
You gotta operate the easy way
"I made a G today" But you made it in a sleazy way
sellin' crack to the kid. " I gotta get paid,"
Well hey, well that's the way it is

[Bridge]

[Talking:]
We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive.

[3]
And still I see no changes can't a brother get a little peace
It's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East
Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs
so the police can bother me
And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do
But now I'm back with the blacks givin' it back to you
Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up,
crack you up and pimp slap you up
You gotta learn to hold ya own
they get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone
But tell the cops they can't touch this
I don't trust this when they try to rush I bust this
That's the sound of my tool you say it ain't cool
my mama didn't raise no fool
And as long as I stay black I gotta stay strapped
& I never get to lay back
'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the pay backs
some buck that I roughed up way back
comin' back after all these years
rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat that's the way it is uhh

Google gears up for a free-phone challenge to BT


For some time I have been using a program called Skype which enables you to talk to people over the internet instead of using a landline. It is really cool if you want to talk to someone in another country as everything is free and it has good sound to it!!!

It looks as if the big boys are taking note and want a slice of the action. OH Joy, that means in the near future, you will be talking to a mate, having a serious converstion about the meaning of life and a Bugger (spelling mistake intentional) King advert will all of a sudden disconnect you until its finished it audio and video presentation about how it is really good for you and that they use only real cows.

I have made a promise to myself never to buy any product that has popped up an advert from fricking nowhere when I am trying to surf.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind



I watched this movie yesterday and needed to write something about it.

The basic plot is Joel (Jim Carrey) discovers that his girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had her memories of their crazy relationship erased. Out of desperation, he contracts the inventor of the process, Dr. Howard Mierzwaik (Tom Wilkinson), to have Clementine removed from his memory. But as Joel's memories progressively disappear, he begins to rediscover their earlier passion. From deep within the recesses of his brain, Joel attempts to escape the procedure. As Dr. Mierzwiak and his crew (Kristen Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood) chase him through the maze of his memories, it's clear that Joel just can't get her out of his head.

It touched me more deeply than I can remember a film doing. Jim Carey who before watching this movie I thought sucked, was truly brilliant. Why does a person who showed this much talent play such shitty roles normally.

Between the two characters, I saw two different people with a need for each other far bigger than any collective memories, this need becomes the catalyst for Joel's struggle while having his memories erased. While watching the film I felt helpless watching these two people fighting to keep ‘each other alive’ in Joel memories. When such strong feelings of pain, sadness, laughter and joy come from watching a TV screen then you know something truly magic has been created.

There were two quotes in the film that I want to write down here.

From ‘Eloisa to Abelard’ by Alexander Pope
How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd

From 'Beyond Good and Evil' by Friedrich Nietzsche
Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders

MATCH REPORT by Andy Clyde - Athletico Cowley: And We're Off

ACFC 1(0) - (3)4 Brierty and Turner
Goals: Dave H

League Table
Sponsors: 'The Marsh Harrier'

Well, not the best of starts to the new season! But we wouldn't be Athletico Cowley if it didn't take us a game or two to get into our stride. There were some mitigating factors last night; we were light on defence and midfield, no goalkeeper, and Tom and Maz were coming off the back of illness. We started slowly as usual and were totally off the pace. As a result we were quickly 2-0 down having given the oppostion far too much space and not got our passing into gear. Slowly we started to find our feet but two errors by me in goal, one either side of half time, meant that we were well and truly sunk.

One of the good points of last night is that we stuck at it. On the whole, we can take heart from the fact that we more than matched them in the second half and but for some rusty shooting and poor goalkeeping could have pulled it back more. Word has it that Brierty and Turner have been unbeaten for two seasons and given a couple of weeks with a full squad I believe we can match them and could beat them.
All in all, our usual slow start but there's no reason to be downhearted.

COME ON THE COWLEY!!!!!!

Colonels Abroad - Grinner and Liz

We're staying in Auckland at the moment with some friends at Mission Bay.
We're off tomorrow on a 2 month jaunt around both islands, can't wait to get going as our first impressions of NZ have been great - it seems less commercial than Australia, a bit cheaper and generally more our cup of tea! We left Australia a bit earlier than expected, but still had lots of fun since we last wrote. We left Sydney after NYE and made our way up to Brisbane. Highlight being Byron Bay where Liz did a surf lesson and was very proud of herself (she picked it up very quickly, and was best in the class of course!). After a couple of days in a hot and sweaty Brisbane we flew over to Auckland.

We're taking a bus around the North Island to Rotorua, Taupo, Tongariro etc then we've hired a car for 4 weeks to do South Island right down to the Glaciers and Fiordlands. Hopefully we'll find some beautiful places off the beaten track - if anyone's been here and can recommend stuff then please let us know..
Our trip is absolutely flying by, and we're loving every minute

NEW WORDS FOR 2005 - Essential additions for the workplace vocabulary:
BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything,and then leaves.
ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.
SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.
CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.
PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.
MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.
SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.
STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.
XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.
IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The O.J. trials were a prime example.
PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
DIVGENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls,subdivisions.
OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake.
WOOFYS: Well Off Older Folks.
CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously farting while passing thru a cube farm, then enjoying the sounds of dismay and disgust; leads to PRAIRIE DOGGING.

Colonels Abroad - Grinner and Liz

Hello everyone

We're in Sydney at the mo - just enjoyed a fantastic new year, right up there as one of the best. Met up with Dave and Kate, took a couple of ice-boxes and a picnic up to Macqueries point (a park overlooking Opera House and Harbour Bridge etc). It took us an hour to queue to get in to the place as it was no BYO and they were checking for people smuggling any drinks in. We cunningly poured 2 bottle of bubbly in to a sprite bottle and some other 'soft drinks bottles' and sneaked our way through past the doziest looking security guard, which was well worth it as there were over 50,000 people in the park and the bar queues were enormous! We got there at 3pm and sat around in the sunshine until the fireworks, there was a fantastic atmosphere around the place and Liz nearly went 'pop' when the fireworks started - you know how excited she gets!!

Before that we've been driving from Adelaide to Melbourne - highlight being the Grampians where we walked for miles though the hills and landed on our feet with a lovely cheap apartment. Also the the 'Great Ocean Road' was really nice - incredibly touristy and millions of flies about - but beautiful scenery. Melbourne was probably our favourite city in Australia so far, lots of really classy areas.

Christmas was lovely as we spent it with families (parents of Fran and Leanne) - aussies we've met in the UK, and it was great to get off the tourist trail for a few days. Their house was huge and out in the country an hour from Melbourne - had a lovely pool etc, even had a game of tennis on Christmas day!!

Now we're in Sydney which is a great city - it's huge! Really easy to get about though on ferries and buses, and so many areas to explore - though the weather has been crap the last few days. We're staying bang in the middle of the city in a hostel, it seems that there have been more English than Australians in most places around the country - but Sydney definitely takes the biscuit!! We expected quite a few English here but there are tens of thousands of them. Seems like doing a 'season' in Ayia Napa, Faliraki or Magaluf has become trendy in Sydney - Armies of scousers and other 18-21 year olds in tracksuits and footy shirts knocking around everywhere you look, doing pub crawls and being annoyingly lairy - good job we're not here for the people!!

So we're off to New Zealand in a few days. We've both really enjoyed Australia more than we expected to, but are looking forward to getting off the tourist trail again and back out into the countryside, mountains and other quieter places over there.
Well all the best for 2005, hope everyone has a fantastic year.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIFE

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
   
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
   
3. Follow the three R’s:
   Respect for self,
   Respect for others and
   Responsibility for all your actions.
   
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
   
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
   
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
   
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
   
8. Spend some time alone every day.
   
9. Open arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
   
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
    
11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
    
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
    
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
    
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
    
15. Be gentle with the earth.
    
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
    
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
    
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
    
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Colonels Abroad - Sheppard and Kate

G'day folks, how's it going?

Happy New Year. I hope everyone enjoyed the festive season, and got everything they wanted from Santa.

We've just spent the last 3 weeks in Sydney, in Bondi. Nice. We did lots of cool things while we were there, but also a lot of chilling out, which was definitely
needed after all the dashing about up the east coast. The best activity we did was the bridge climb. Absolutely fantastic! We timed it just right too and the weather was perfect - clear bright sky with the sun setting just as we reached the top. Nice. A big thank you to those who helped to sort it out - a proper thank you will follow when I can sort the photos out.

Another cool thing we did, which I wasn't sure about but as it's based on Kate's favourite film I thought I'd play along, was see the stage version of Dirty Dancing. It was excellent, even if I was 1 of only 10 blokes in the audience!

We went for a day tour up to the blue mountains. This was really good too. We saw lots of wild kangaroos and white cockatoos. Really weird to see the roos just bouncing around in the wild.

Christmas was a bit weird, just like any other day really. We went down the beach, but it was really cloudy and actually a bit chilly. We still managed to get a burger and a hot dog from the blokes having a barby down there, so that was cool. Boxing Day was a bit more like it though, with blazing sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. Nice!

Grinner & Liz turned up just after Christmas, which was cool. Really nice to see some friendly faces. We had a few beers and good chat - nice to talk footy with someone!! Obviously the big do was NYE. We were quite well organised given that it was the Grinner and me - must be something to do with our women folk eh?

Anyway, we got a couple of cool bags, a bag of ice and some soft drinks, wine and spirits. The event was not BYO so we had to pour the rum into the coke and ginger
ale, and put the wine into a sprite bottle. We queued for an hour to get into Mrs Macquaries park at 2pm and were a bit worried because they were searching everyones bags and turning people away with open soft drink bottles! But luckily we got through with no dramas and found a perfect spot directly across from the opera house and the bridge. All we had to do was sit for 7 hours until the first fireworks went off!

Actually it was pretty cool, just sitting playing cards in the sun. Nice. The fireworks were amazing and the atmosphere was brilliant. The whole day was completely wicked and the Grinner and I agreed that after so many years of let downs it was finally a NYE to rival '94 - those who were there will find that hard to believe, but I'm sure the Grinner will back me up and we're already planning 2014! Nice.

Anyway, we're in Adelaide now for a couple of days. We're staying at a nice hostel - thought we'd better give these another go. Looking forward to sampling some wine in the Barossa Valley and travelling the Great Ocean Road.