Thursday... the happy day!!

Welcome to Thursday. This week in the Posse House...

Questions
Which is your favorite finger and Why? Special thanks to Dr. Mim(Tim) for his very mature response. [Mine is my left thumb because it has one of my favorite scars on it although I don't know how I got it]

Quotes
"People without Goals work for people who have them"
"It's a damn small mind that can only think of one way to spell a word"

Quips
Found this site that I think is responsible for a lot of the funny emails I recieve, it's called Break.com and has some great stuff (it also has some things that you don't really want to see) but on the great list is this fight between a Mongoose and a Cobra!! I loved reading stories about Mongoose(s) when I was a kid- still a kid just bigger now - and so this was pretty cool to find. There is some kind of disclaimer about "no animals were hurt in what was purely a demonstration of how a Mongoose defends itself" Total crap. There is blatantly some kind of awesome club in India with too much time, money, a Mongoose, a Cobra and no fear what-so-ever of animal rights groups on their hands... I salute them! (Also: check out the deer hunting gun on that page)

Quirks
If anyone is a big fan of the Pope, is down the line with their theology or just likes crazy stuff like me check out the Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club.
Their catch phrase is: "Putting the Smackdown on Herecy since 1981"

Query's
I love hearing kids perspective on the world, these kids were asked about marriage...
Finding the right one... You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.- Alan, age 10
Single or Married? It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.- Anita, age 9 ...you heard her, few more like this one and that pesky feminist movement will be no more than a splattered bug on the windscreen of history.
How would things be different if people didn't get married? There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there?- Kelvin, age 8

Quandry's
Damnit! Why did I put so many sections in this post?! It is an "in" joke to say "Questions? Quips? Quotes? Quirks? Query's? Quandry's?" whenever we debrief anything at work... stupidly I decided to use it and then spent the last several hours trying to fill it all. I have a friend Jo who does a weekly email similar in style very well but I may need to work out the kinks. Diploma day was good as usual, England beat Trinidad and Tobago today in another generally uninspiring soccer match. Sven finally played Rooney who didn't do much other than sweat his shirt into a seethrough state in the 30mins he was on the ground, skilled as he is reputed to be I cannot bring myself to like him as a player... I did have some fun this arvo occaisionally cheering for Trinidad and watching the reactions of the English crowd, one kid went on a witch hunt trying to figure out who the traitor was, Beautiful!! The knee is still swollen and a bit sore though I'm getting more mobility and strength, the limp comes and goes depending on how long I've been in the one spot but hopefully this points to a speedier recovery than the last one... I'm praying anyway...

The Jam
These are the lyrics to one of my favourite songs: If I Am by Nine Days

So you're standin on the ledge - It looks like you might fall - Its so far down - Or maybe you were - thinkin about jumpin - Now you could have it all - If you learned a little patience - For though - I cannot fly - I'm not content to crawl - So give me a little credit - Have in me a little faith - I wanna be with you forever - If tomorrow's not too late - But its always too late when you got nothin - So you say - You should never let the sun set on tomorrow - Before the sun rises today

If I am - Another waste of everything you dreamed of - I will let you down - If I am - Only here to watch you as you suffer - I will let you down

So you're walkin on the edge - And you wait your turn to fall - But you're so far gone - That you don't see the hands upheld to catch you - And you could find the fault - In the heart that you've been handed - For though you cannot fly - You're not content to crawl - And its always too late when you got nothin - So you say - But we should never let the sun set on tomorrow - Before the sun rises

If I am - Another waste of everything you hoped for - I will let you down - If I am - Only here to watch you as you suffer - I will let you down

So you're standin on the ledge - It looks like you might fall

If I am - Another waste of everything you dreamed of - I will let you down - If I am - Only here to watch you as you suffer - I will let you down

The answers we find - Are never what we had in mind - So we make it up as we go along - You don't talk of dreams - When i won't mention tomorrow - And we won't make those promises that we can't keep

I will never leave you - I will not let you down - I will never leave you - I will not let you down

there goes the sun...

So Long Sweet Summer... it had literally only just begun and now I'm done...

Caught up in the excitement of the world cup and the extreme rareity of sunshine and the phenomenon we like to call heat (note: I am measuring this by English standards because last nite as it was cooling off I heard several Pom's remark "it's just too hot!") Now, to be fair, England has 8 months of winter and 4 months of what could generously be described as summer so it actually was pretty warm in comparrison to the rest of the year. Anyway! Back to the point, the Pom's have been outside playing "football" (soccer) every day for the last week and it's been brilliant!!
I've been in two absolutely amazing games over the weekend which were so much fun it almost makes up for the 8 month winter!! But it was all about to come crashing down in a heart breaking end last night. After we'd been playing for about an hour tragedy struck, the ball was put across to a guy in front of me playing for the other team, I stepped forward and robbed him of the ball with some fancy footwork but instead of clearing it I kept up the footwork whilst looking for an open man on my team and remained unfortunately close to the bloke I'd just robbed of possesion. And as he attempted to steal the ball back he put in a sweeping kick around the outside of my body hitting my leg and causing us to twist as we both went down in a heap... as we fell I felt a huge wave of pain as my knee cap drelocated itself to the side of my leg.
This has happened once before during a game of Aussie rules so I knew what was going on straight away but this time round was far more painful than the first. Tim came running in obviously realising that I'd done myself an injury but as I was wearing long pants he missdiagnosed it as cramp and said typically "it's ok, I know what to do!" (note: if anyone ever hears Tim say this again knock him unconscious before he can do any damage) and grabbed my leg, straightened it, put my foot over his shoulder and hugged my knee into his chest. Having been falsely reassured by Tim's previous statement and the knowledge that he is qualified as a personal trainer I blindly trusted he knew what he was doing although during the minute he spent stretching out my "cramp" the pain seemed only to intensify.
Realising that this wasn't working (the reasonably clear indicator being my continued shouts of pain increasing in volume rather than subsiding) Tim gritted his teeth, got a firmer hold of my knee, and tried harder -how exactly he didn't realise my knee cap was in the wrong spot I'm not sure- A sudden gestalt hit me as I realised exactly what Tim was trying to do and that it was not going to help if we tried it till Christmas.
I informed him, in a quiet and calm roar, that my knee was disloacted and if he would kindly put my leg down gently I would see to fixing it. The scattered laughter of the onlookers cut off abruptly to be replaced with horrified gasps as I rolled up my pants to reveal my Picasso'd leg.
In a moment of madness I stupidly considered hammering at my leg Bommer Thompson style to put things right but another wave of pain informed me this was not a wise choice and so I intstructed Tim to "have a go" and this time he rather wisely levered my knee cap upwards so that it was free to slide back into place (he later informed me that he had a facinating time feeling my knee cap from underneath and has since taken to calling himself Doctor Tim, something I cured him of by retelling the story making special note of his "help") and I enjoyed the few moments of comparative relief as shock numbed my leg to feeling... this blissful state lasted not long enough...
Tim again showed his awareness of sporting injuries and how to treat them by calling out "All right, Game On!" Picking up on the process of the laughs he recieved back for the spectators he passed the comment off as a joke but later confessed he had thought I would be ok to get up and keep going now it was fixed.
We finished off the evening by spending 3 hours in Stoke Mandeville Hospital and watching the world cup high-lights with my African doctor Tomi.
(If anybody happens to go to Stoke Madeville hospital anytime soon and happens to require a wheel chair; don't get sucked into paying a pound for one near the door, have someone help you hobble up the hall to the reception desk and then limp your way over to a seat and a nurse will probably take pity on you and ask you if you'd like a wheelchair -free!- graciously accept this offer and bite back any cutting comments about the ludicrousity of charging for wheel chairs and parking in the emergency ward)

In other news the Socceroo's beat Japan 3-1 in the World Cup!! I watched the game in a pub across the road from work. It was a good game although I was fairly tense throughout as we trailed 1-nil for most of the game. In the last 10mins Australia scored 3 goals!! They played well throughout but I'm worried by the way that our strikers would carry the ball to the edge of Japans box and then play these weak girly balls forward which Japan turned aside easily and though I kept reasonably calm for the duration a few exasperated cries of "Have a crack boys!" escaped my frustrated body in the second half as we went forward for the 57th time only to surrender the ball on the edge of the box!! To my great relief they began to listen to my advice in the last 10mins of the game... Cahill plugged 2 great shots through the defence and then Aloisi made a great run through the japanese defence to slip a final goal past the keeper placing Australia on the top of the ladder for GROUP F on goal difference... at least until we play Brazil on Sunday...

Thursday 2moro!! Love Thursday!!

World Cup Update (don't read if you haven't seen the game and still plan to)

England 1 - Paraguay 0 (half time)
England scored a great goal 3mins into the match from a free kick; Beckham unloaded a huge curling ball from the left wing about 5metres back from the box which connected with the head of a Paraguay defender on its way to an own goal. The keeper got a finger to it but was never going to stop it, the only real debate will be whether or not the goal is attributed to Beckham or the defender. My personal opinion is that the own goal should stand but the defender is probably more than happy for Beckham to claim it. Other bits of drama so far in the game include the goal keeper for Paraguay injuring himself 6mins in and having to come off- poor bloke was in tears, I hope he'll get a chance to play again in this world cup -and a controvertial ref from Mexico who has given a yellow card to a brilliant piece of defence from Gerrard which was blatantly legal and then ignored a foul that was a definite yellow card offence against Beckham as well as refusing to allow the English physio on the pitch to attend to an injured player and not allowing players to have water on the pitch despite it being 30degrees. He's a little to impressed with himself for my liking so far but my opinions not going to have much of an impact there... lets hope someone in FIFA shares it.


Carlos Gamarra; the unfortunate Paraguay defender who has the dubious honour of having scored Englands first World Cup goal for 2006

Happy Thirsday

Thursday is proving itself once more to be the focal point of the week in the Posse House. It has recently become the Diploma day for myself and the girls (rachel+maria) previously we had had two half days in which to focus on our diploma's, ie. doing assignments, putting together information for our portfolio's and comppetencies, catching up on much needed sleep and journalling frantically so that we had at least one entry each before we headed into PIT (proffesional integration tutorial) to talk about the week and the work and whatever else came to mind... but we found (unsuprisingly) that we were easily distracted and often spent much of our time doing general work or catching up on emails and friends back in Oz... (if dan happens to be reading this that er, last bit was the girls, nothing to do with me) So it is a huge relief that we now have a whole day to work on emails, friends and sleep, uh... i mean assignments and diploma stuff... (hi dan)

Anyway, Thursday, focal point also plays host to Comm. Tea -once weekly dinner with people from work and some friends- and reasonably often; some good TV shows (v. rare on english TV) It is 1 week since I got back to the UK, about 3 weeks since I have felt well rested and not tired, 5 weeks since I left for Oz and 7 weeks since I stupidly told Ian I would do one of the talks at Mosaic (Youth Church) for him... and as usual I am ahead of schedule in my preparations, which is to say that I have actually remembered I promised to do something, now I just have to remember when I promised to do it and work out how to get out of it...

Yesterday Mim(Simeons nickname for Tim- i love it!) and I set a record for longest supervisors meeting ever, which we ceverly disguised as a game of basketball on one of the most glorious summer day I have seen in England, followed by dinner and a loooooong game of soccer up at Long Crendon. It was good to get a game but it was also incredibly frustrating playing on grass (now that it's summer and stays light till 10!! that's right; 10!!) without studs, made more frustrating by the opposing side who did have studs and did this infuriating little dance on around the ball until we fell over and then they cruised around us into the clear path to the goal!! It was one of the hardest games I have ever played, Mim also had a tough game but went hard and payed dearly for it; he's managed to stretch something that he didnt notice at the time but woke up this morning with a really sore back. I was enjoying teasing him about his whinging until I realised that he was actually hurt (although I don't feel bad at all because I know he would have done pretty much the same thing to me if I was whinging) and I showed him some stretches for it but the only thing that will do anything for it really is time... that or a physio but they're kind of expensive.


I visited the Ken Duncan Website this week and borrowed some of the previews of his photo's. I love the wide panaramic shots that he takes, you get a whole sky line and it seems more like you would see it rather than the square images you get with digital camera's. The humungous advantage of digital camera's being that you can take an inumerable amount of shots and just delete the ones you don't like. But to really get into the quality photography (see above) you pretty much have to go film. Speaking of digital camera's the "new" Fuji (just had an interesting spelling error typing Fuji then) is going well and Danbo has leant me a Teleconversion lens that makes my camera look like a beast, not sure if does anything else but it looks wickid!! And to my dismay I have discovered that the photo's the Fuji takes (I will have to think of a name for it soon, we name everything, yesterday we named Danbo's new car the Surging Sevanna either the Surge or Sev for short) take up about 4 times the amount of memory space on my laptop as the old camera. This would not be a huge issue, especially as it implies the quality of the photo's is heaps better, except that the Tornado (my laptop, see, I told you we name everything) is very possibly the slowest laptop still functioning in the northern hemisphere. I have seen one or two in the Po -southern hemisphere- that were slower but it's a rare thing. So the addition of increased size photo's is double edged and it has taken me 3 days to write this post so far, hence why I am posting Happy Thursday on Saturday afternoon right before Englands World Cup match which I need to run off and watch now but I shall be back with a half time update!!

Singapore part 2

As promised; the continuing tales from Singapore Airport


The Case of the Coy Koi
One of Singapore airports best features is its gardens and ponds which are really nice places to go and sit in a jet lagged stupor in between your flights to more important places. On arrival I set out in search of the Koi Pond I visited last time to try my hand at spear fishing and then smuggling (coz I figured singapores not likely to have harsh judicial penalties for anything like that so I'm fairly safe plus I always wanted a giant goldfish) and on top of that there was, as I recall, a really nice coffee shop with internet access right next to it. However, upon arrival at the pond (via terminal 1 twice and terminal 2 thrice and an hour or so trying to figure out where the hell anything was) I discovered THERE WERE NO BLOODY FISH IN THE POND!! that or they were all hiding under the deck, a quick dip would have revealed this but as I had newly begun my career as master thief and smuggler extraordinare I felt it wiser to keep a low profile (this would later prove to be a VERY good move) And so instead I set off in search of the other Koi pond and found that it was remarkably close by. Once I had arrived there I found myself in competition with a small Asian girl who clearly had the same idea as me and was cleverly disguising her attempts to capture a Koi(giant gold fish if i failed to mention exactly what they are) by pretending to pose for a photograph. Seeing straight through this feeble illusion I immediately took advantage of the situation and pushed her into the pond and used the ensuing chaos as cover while I snagged my own giant gold fish (who I have named Neemo) whilst the authorities were busy dragging off my unworthy competition for interrogation.



The Great Sky Train Race
As every bloke knows- any piece of data that could ever possibly be taken as a challenge or turned into a competition, should be. And so, when I saw this sign:


That told me it took 10 minutes to walk 500 metres the challenge was on!! (I did take the oddly named sky train out of interest and discovered, among other things, that it mostly ran under ground) Seeing as it doesn't take me 10 minmutes to drive the 15 or so kilometres between the Po and Cressy there was a snow balls chance in hell that I was gona lose this challenge. So I set my stop watch, glanced quickly at the clock so that I would have two references to double check off, and set off at a brisk walk -I wasnt worried but there's no need to push your luck either eh- and headed onto the travellator (this I did not consider cheating as I'm sure the estimated time took into account the use of the travelator) passing several people and making good time. I had discovered previously that for the sake of speed the best way to negotiate the gap between travelators is to tip your trolley back just before you hit the bump and then get one last push off the moving side walk leaning forward over the top of your trolley and using it as a kart of sorts to glide across the 4 metre gap (this prevents you feeling the disheartening loss of speed as you step off the travelator and is considered by most experts in the matter to be more fun) as I got off the third of the travellators, excuting a sneaky overtake of an entire family in the gap, I found myself suddenly stuck behind a small Japanese family- that is to say there were about 7 of them but they were all rather short -and to my dismay the width of the travellator had suddenly halved making over taking nigh on impossible!! Not to be beaten by this turn of fortune I readied myself to make a sudden push and either gather the Japanese family on top of my trolley or crush them beneath me as I passed. Just as I was about to execute this move my spider sense tingled and I looked about in search of the danger. Going the opposite direction on the travellator were 3 Singapore soldiers carrying machine guns!! Quickly revising my plan of attack I dropped my head and coughed in case they were searching for the missing Koi and kept a decidedly lower profile through the rest of the race. Deciding in my infinite mercy to spare the Japanese family (who I have decided to call the Yatsu-ami family from the Yoshi clan) I rode out the rest of the race at a slower pace but even then on arriving at the other Sky Train "station" the trip only took me 6 minutes, although that result was based on the airport clocks as I discovered my stopwatch ceases to function automatically when you close my fone so I was probably closer to 4 minutes... 5 at most...

There were two other minor incidents during my time in Singapore that should be noted; firstly I left my jumper with my trolley when I went upstairs to the roof top garden to get some "fresh" air. When I returned 10 minutes later I noticed it and did a nervous and thorough check to make sure it had not picked up anything that did not belong to me and that could help my neck find its way into a noose (while I proudly bear the nickname "Trouble" this was not the sort I was looking for) having found nothing amiss with my jumper I breathed a sigh of relief and moved on. Secondly, after spending a good 5 hours in the airport I headed for my boarding gate to depart but en route I was stopped by three airport police people (the one questioning me was a woman, hence the unusual P/Cness) and there was a tense moment as she looked over my passport and boarding pass without explanation of why I had been stopped. She then asked me how old I was, cutting in before I could answer with "27, right?" fortunately I was thinking clearly and managed to recall the fact that I was/am 19 and corrected her. I like to think (now that I am safely far the hell away from Singapore) that she was trying to trick me, probably in search of a famous Koi smuggler who must be at least 27 based on his skill and reputation, and that I outsmarted her with the plain and simple truth... yeah... I know... I'm good.

That's it for now!! Stay tuned for the next exciting episode...

Contractual Obligations

During my recent visit to the Great South Land I suffered that ageing affliction that we are all cursed with; the Birthday. This year was the 19th time I had endured the effects of the Birthday although, fortunately, this time I managed to avoid 300 people singing me happy birthday at the same time -whew- although I recieve a text message via email (don't ask and no, I'm not making it up) that was a recording of someone singing happy birthday to me. Perhaps a sign of my health deteriorating in my old age I caught a nasty cold a few days prior and the lingering tail end of said cold is still hanging on for dear life as my body vehemently seeks to expel it by any means possible ie. sneezing, coughing, drooling, farting, and I have also been to the toilet about 5 times today clear proof that either a- I am destined to suffer from a weak bladder in later life or b- Drinking 8 cups of water a day is in actual fact BAD for you and as there is a drought on we should conserve water at EVERY opportunity. But the really annoying part of said affliction is that the more times it strikes you in the course of your life the more unwanted responsibilities seem to be thrust upon you. Last year it was voting, then there were the series of letters reminding me that I still had yet to register to vote and threatening fines and whatever else should I fail to do so before the next election (needless to say I remain unregistered as a voter and if the Australian Government should choose to waste their time tracking me down they will find their country void of my presence thwarting their efforts to force me to conform to the social norm MWA-HA-HA!! Then there's this whole adult business- what the hell's that about anyway?! And I'm not even gonna mention taxation... This year is no. 19; the last year of the age of the teen. I'm definitely not looking forward to 20 and the expectaions that will appear as I depart freedom forever.

However 19 was looking like a quiet "breather" year to recover from the shock of enforced adulthood during the previous affliction and all seemed well until GP (Grampa Peter) noticed my lack of fresh obligations and decided that my load was too light and that he'd do me a favour and fix that little problem. As is customary; during the day of affliction friends and family members give the afflicted (in this case me) gifts to ease and distract from the pain and to encourage them to hold on to their annually decreasing quality of life. GP gave me a new camera!! (my old one had recently ceased to function and so I was in want -note: need is often missused when really the situation calls for the term want- of a new one but lacked the necessary funds to rectify this problem) It's a Fuji!(feel free to insert jingle from the adds and sing that line to yourself several times) and really very good, I'm still trying to work out exactly how I'll get a photo of it onto the blog. But, this is where the afore mentioned responsibility came into play. GP cunningly gave me the camera as a conditional gift and the condition was this: that Zachariah Holt (thats me) will post a new entry on his noteworthy blog (the Posse House) at a minimum of once weekly, futhermore, Zachariah shall be required to suply proof of his activities in the form of photographic evidence on said blog by means of his new Fuji camera. The consequences of failure to meet these obligations were left hanging but I have a reasonable suspicion they are not of futher benefit to myself... probably more bloody responsibility at this rate...

"And so it came to pass that Zachariah pulled up his figurative blogging socks and sat in front of a computer several extra hours each week in order to fulfill his new contractual obligations. It should also be mentioned at this point that previously the family of Zachariah had contacted the Fearless Leader (Zac's boss) to ascertain his continued existence after 3 weeks without contact, it would appear they got wise to the unsuccesful nature of that attempt to keep tabs on their son" -from the Posse House Prophecies, vol.3 year 2762

Singapore Airport

Ok, without even bothering to make a long story short; I'm in Singapore. If you don't know what's going on, why etc.. don't worry, you'll either pick it up as we go along or you'll be left like 3 day old fried egg-plant at the beef farmers conference buffet.
I flew out of Brisbane on Singapore Airlines precisely 12 hours ago and bizarley have not slept a wink in that time (which is either going to make for a hell-ish 17hr second leg to this trip or a very peaceful 17hr slumber) now this is odd for two reasons; 1st, since arriving in Queensland on Saturday morning, right up until two hours prior to departure, I have been absolutely KNACKERED!! More so than usual even, including the loss of an entire Saturday to sleep!! And yet, I get on a 6hr flight and am awake for the entire trip which is made stranger by the 2nd reason- I had a whole row to myself!! All that space, all that time, and no sleep... having said that I am getting head spins for the past 5mins as I type this which may have somethng to do with the lack of sleep or possibly are the result of my recent step towards old age (refer to non-existent birthday blog post from the 29th May... ok, who scrolled down going "what post?!" come on... be honest...) so I'm, 19 and either the ground in Singapore is a loty less stable than anywhere else or I am distinnctly dizzy right now...
6hrs in Singapore has yielded a few entertaining and unexpected ventures in the first 3hrs; so far there has been the case of the Coy Koi (will post full story with photo's on return to england and stable ground), the Sky Train Race and the Missing Jumper... all of this and more in the next exciting episode!! (the toilet is calling my name right at the minute)
I'm Zacharias Trouble Holt!!