Allo All,

very quick peek online from me, whilst I rush around between setting up a New House (its empty and keeps my nerves on end as I worry about its safety) and Getting Married (the Indian Ceremony that is).

I'm actually now Wed to the lovely Icy, via a Ceremony on Friday 10th June 3pm :) CaptainDamo has some pics on his site, that shows a rather dull looking Num Num with a stunning Icy. That was a great day, and we've had nothing but praise for our organisation of the Evening's Reception. Full credit to my lovely Sisters for getting it all together and keeping it ticking over smoothly on the night. Its all a blur to me tbh.

Tonight is the Gharba, and then tomorrow a Vidhi (pre-marriage ceremony) and then Sunday is the full on Wedding. Right now I'm sneaking in an email check to ensure nothing important comes through from the hall organisers or the insurance companies.

Its all very very busy for me, and I've yet to pack my suitcase with the Honeymoon Clothes. I have yet to find my Passport. I've yet to get my clothes ready for Sat/Sun. Gulp.

Its an understatement to say that I am well and truely knackered. Totally exhausted.

Still, everyone else is having a whale of a time, and its lovely to see so many happy people. Will show some pics once its all done, but until then, hope you all have a lovely time.
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dp

Today is my last day on this Project. I've been here 44 months.

Yes 44 months!

I'm off now. Life is about to get much much better...
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dp

We've exchanged contracts.

I'll have a house on Monday!


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dp

Had my Stag on Saturday. The allocated spaces were not entirely filled, but those who turned up had a stonking good time. We were the "White Team", which meant we sported lovely white masking tape on our left biceps. Fitted out in Full Combat Camoflage and Solid Black Masks (many a Darth Vader Noise was made), we were issued with Weapons of Mass Coloration - aka Air Powered Seriously Good Automatic Action Paintball Guns.

We spent the whole of Saturday running around in the woods shooting at other mad folk like us, and in turn, being shot at and picking up some serious bruises. We started against the Brown Team, in the OK CORRAL game - lots of false western buildings, barrels etc. We lost both innings of the game, since they were exceedingly well organised, prior gamers who outnumbered us, and we were newbies who were just learning how to use the guns, crouch, and the all important fierce impact of a 200mph paintball on your body. The Second Game was called JUNGLE, played against the Black and Yellow Team, where both sides had an allocated general they had to protect in some serious forest with exceedingly dense bushes. Both teams had Stags, so we were both allocated as the Generals. In the first innings we almost won, but I got shot in the neck just before the end - obviously my body guards were not that good! The second innings was a marked improvement as Meady, Rodriguez, Brett, Snyman and Tichborne endeavored to not only protect me, but get me to the opposing team's outpost, which would mean we won flat out. After much military like movement, through underbush, and delusions of SAS missions, we ended up in the opposing teams area and won. Woohoo!

Lunch was fantastic for a Vegetarian Pallatte, if I do say so myself. Very tasty.

The third game was CHEMICAL ALLEY, where we had to gain and protect some steel chemical vats from the opposing Black and White team. The problem was, they were Zombies, or as more commonly known, CHEATS! I shot two flat in the head, easy shots, paint visible from my sniping position - but they refused to put their arms up and walk off the field. CHEATS! I wasn't the only one who complained, so it seemed the entire White team, apart from the fact we were horrendously outnumbered 2:1, were being faced with Zombies from Resident Evil Chav Land. For the 2nd innings we decided to put into place operation Chav Kill, and we put up fierce resistent to the Zombie Threat, and surprisingly my corner sniping position held me long enough to be the last White Standing at the end of the game - and STILL they shot me as Game Over was called. Stupid Chav Cheating Zombie *^@£s. Its just a game you know. Ahem. Final game was ZULU - played against the Blues from Morgan Stanley. Storm the Hut, keep it from the opposing team and you win. We lost the first innings on a narrow margin, but we realised it was more to do with the fact that the opposite side had better ingress to the hut, and were more unified. We anhiliated them in the 2nd innings. Gregor and I pinned down two sniping positions and held ours very well, taking 3 kills of evil Credit Card pushing Bankers. Snyman and Brett did a South African Resistance operation and put up a wall of immense firepower that held their advancing scouts at bay. Waseem and Ari were firing away allowing for the storming Rodriguez, Mead and Tichborne to head into the house. The ever wise Mr Thornton took up a brave position and sent many a Banker packing to the Dead Zone before being merciliessly taken out with multiple shots in the back. In the end Greg and I were facing a 3 minute to end of game call and we were unsure if we had the house or not. He lay down cover as I did a kamikazee run towards the house. Got pinned down between two sets of well hidden *ankers, and only via some careful shooting from Waseem was I allowed a Ben Jonson like Sprint into the house only to be faced with 5 of the White Team positioned inside all training guns at my advancing figure.

I had it under good authority that if Mr Tichborne was not out of ammo I was a deadman regardless of my allegiances to the White team and not the *ankers.

To be totally fair, the Morgan Stanley team were a pleasure to play against, they were fair, honest, determined, well organised and very good humoured. We decided on both sides we had found the best opponents with which to end the day. Twas a well earned draw between the innings and both teams applauded eachother well. Good showmanship from the Blues and Whites. Shame they work for a bunch of *ankers.

In all, the Paintball Stag was a wonderful day. The Weather was great, the games fantastic, the opponents varied and fun (except the Zombie Chav *@$@s) and the team spirit very good indeed. As I expected, my various friends got on well, which says something about the 'Water finds its level' comment that I suspected operated within friend circles. All fantastic people, and great fun. We had a few pints at a pub, soaked up the last of the rays, and then headed off.

The W.London crew went to The Five Chillies in Sudbury for a fantastically hot curry, and then I came back and showed Mr Tichborne one of my fave films - Black Hawk Down.

We decided, paintballing was good, but we couldn't face the prospect of going to a real war with real bullets.

We will, however, return to paintballing later in the summer. Right now, I'm nursing some serious bruises and eagerly awaiting bedtime.

Thats wot I did this weekend :)
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dp

Nerves.
When i was younger i didn't suffer from nerves or stress. As the years have progressed i seem to be more prone to stress. So much so that right now i can hardly sleep. I put that down to work really. I really need to sort out what i want from work and then get on with making it happen. The wedding is a bit stressful. Not much, just a bit. The house buying is really stressful. Having my work laptop stolen is a bit on the pain in the posterior side but nothing major.
So what do we do about these stresses? Meditation is how i used to cope previously. Periods of silent contemplation.
I also realised that stress is largely of your own making. You make it stressful by virtue of what you value or case about being out of your control. Or that you don't feel confident that you can pull something through.
So surely the secret lies inside.

How do you deal with stress?
..
dp
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