Pipsy finally has 2 finished half sleeves. I am writing this in the pose of somebody doing an impression of a chicken with their "wings" out. OW OW OW!

The inside of both arms is a lot to get tattooed, especially for 4 straight hours, no breaks nothing, just in and ink.

I am damn glad they are finally finished but so bloody stingy. Far more stingy than outer arms. I feel I could fry an egg on the inside of each arm at the moment.

I'll post piccies in due course but as I am at my mums house at the moment am limited IT-wise.
Unknown "Mary Pipp-ins" Cheeky - 16 years, 7 months, 9 days ago

Well guys, I am back home from Germany mit ingwerbart. (It has to go this weekend though, it has served its purpose (keeping me warmer on a mountainside)).

My trip away was exhausting, truly exhausting. I even went to bed at 7pm one night it was that tiring. I went with the thought of “oooh a free ski holiday”, however when I arrived we had a brief that started with the words “Lets dispel any myths: this is NOT a ski holiday.” In hindsight I must wonder why on earth would the tax payer provide me with a free ski holiday?

Essentially the week was adventure training which is designed to push you physically and mentally to breaking point in order to enable you to better cope with real warfare. The medium they were using to induce panic, exhaustion and fear simply happened to be skiing. The idea of nice easy piste skiing I had went out of the window on day one when ski touring was highlighted as the main aim of the week. Those whose Alpine Skiing was not yet up to a full ski touring week were given instruction from the bootneck PTI’s. After being graded into groups (somehow I managed to get into the top group), we had packed lunch (removing much needed weight from the daysack) then it was a case of “Follow me” from the RM Captain as he promptly buggered off at mach ten followed by all the other advanced skiers. I tried to keep up but shed a ski in a hair raising turn meaning as I struggled to get up with this sodding backpack on I totally lost all sight of my group as they vanished into the woods. When I made it to the start of the woods there was a marine waiting to send me to the top Intermediate Group. This was much better and actually meant I had a very enjoyable trip. The ski instruction was very useful and got a massive amount out of you but technique was not the order of the day really. I have come back to the UK having been taught a few good ski related words of encouragement:

Face your fears,
Get down the mountain.
Follow me,
Have you grown a fanny on your head? (fortunately never levelled at me)
And my favourite:

“Is everybody here?, so what you are telling me is that nobody has died, is anybody injured? No, see there’s nothing to be scared of, lets smash it up.”

Shortly followed by:

I said “Lets smash it up, not lets smash ourselves up” when coming back into the woods after hardly anybody emeged from the bottom in a reasonable timescale to discover a snotty heap of about 4 people all in turtle mode unable to get up because the combination of very deep powder snow and backpacks.

All in all I am glad I went and would go back to do a full weeks touring, once I have improved my fitness of course.

P.S. On Weds a guy who broke his leg the previous week stayed with us before flying back to the UK, we had 2 leg injuries but no breaks in our week.

Unknown "Mary Pipp-ins" Cheeky - 16 years, 7 months, 11 days ago

MegaDave re-release of " A tout le monde". Featuring Christine The Scabby bitch from Within Temptation. (In my eyes she will never be Amy Lee).

This is actually a damn good version of a damn good song:

:-)

Pipsy's funeral potential



.
Unknown "Mary Pipp-ins" Cheeky - 16 years, 7 months, 22 days ago

I turned 30 yesterday so here is a photo of me with my mum and one of just me.
Unknown "Mary Pipp-ins" Cheeky - 16 years, 7 months, 22 days ago

Well Pipsy flew a real life aeroplane this morning. It was through work: They decided to give interested engineers the opportunity to actually fly an aircraft for ourselves.

Needless to say I did not fly a single seater fast jet but a small 2 seater piston engined prop driven a/c.

As all those chosen to go are experienced engineers we know how aeroplanes fly, what all the instrumentation relates to and how to read it all so we have a monster health and safety briefing about insurance, filling out forms etc. The Force Commander came in to show his support then we drove over to VAS (Visiting Aircraft Section). As I go nearby I say this thing that looked more rickety than an ancient Ford Fiesta sat outside. Oddly this was really exciting. Don't really know why.

There was a photo opportunity for all us pilots day characters in front of the aircraft and another one taken inside. ( I am currently 8 days into cultivating myself a Captain Haddock beard so probably look a bit dodgy in navy uniform mit zehr kurt stobblebart). I think I look like a Word War II Submariner.

I got to take a surprising amount of control considering I have never ever flown before. I took off pretty much by myself and flew around on my own for basically the entire time we were airborn except landing.

In short. I loved it but it was too much concentrating for me to fully appreciate it and doubt I will pay to do it again.

that said:

PIPSY FLEW AN AEROPLANE THIS MORNING. WOO HOO
Unknown "Mary Pipp-ins" Cheeky - 16 years, 7 months, 24 days ago