It seems that theenforcer 's been being inventive with the truth again lately. Just to set the record straight, here's how our Christmas conversation really went:

"Listen son", I said, "it's about time you bought yourself a house".

"What?!" he exclaimed, and hit me with a disapproving sideways glare. "I don't want a house".

"Son, we are about to enter a new ( Read more... )

I already knew that London hotels are expensive, but I had to stay in one to realise that they're also cheap at the same time. I was booked into a hotel in the financial heart of London, where I arrived late last night. The first thing I noticed was no shampoo. Already suspecting the answer, I went back down to the checkin desk and asked about ( Read more... )

Today I did something that I'm really proud of, and I want to talk about it. Unfortunately, no-one reading this has ever tried to do this before, so you can't really appreciate how hard it is. Nevertheless, I'm going to try to explain what I did and why it's so difficult ( Read more... )

My dropzone is on Lake Erie, and Sunday after jumping we all decided to go to a pier on the lake, which is very close to the DZ. We piled 13 people in a VW van, and made it the short way without being arrested. With our 13 plus several other cars we had 20 or so people walking down to the end of the pier, getting suspicious looks all the way. I ( Read more... )

For the third day in a row, I've overheard people in the elevator at work, complaining about how cold the building is.  I have to agree, as I wear a sweater at work most of the time.  I find it amusing that the building company have been telling us how much energy we're saving by using revolving doors instead of the regular doors, when by ( Read more... )

A couple of nights ago I dreamt that some guy was playing Ravel's Bolero.  If you don't know this song, it starts out quietly with the main melody played by (I think) a clarinet.  The melody gets passed around the orchestra as the rest of the musicians slowly crank up the volume, until by the end it's thundering along.  In my dream, the guy started ( Read more... )

I've been attending a big way camp in Perris California for the past few days.  It culminated with 3 49 way attempts, each from 16,000 feet with oxygen, today.  I was lucky in having one of the best coaches in the world (he's wonmany many  world championships and records in formation skydiving) and the people in the group were good.  We dirt dived ( Read more... )

Life is settling into a routine here.  Get up at 6:30, shower, breakfast, meet at 7:45.  Divide into groups, dirt dive (rehearsing a jump on the ground), board the plane, jump, pack, grab a granola bar and a bottle of water (essential in the desert), debrief, 5 minutes free, then dirt dive again.  Repeat until dusk.  There's barely enough time for ( Read more... )

I was 15 the first time I ever flew in an airplane, an experience which cured me of a phobia I'd had since I was about 5.  My father used to build them, and when I was very little he took me to work.  All I remember of the visit was being frightened by how high the plane was.  I remember walking under the wing and having it tower over me, like it ( Read more... )

Sorry this is late, I've been meaning to post it all week ( Read more... )