Time and distance

Do these things really exist or are they creations of humanity to measure the world and divide it into managable portions?
Or, to put it another way...tomorrow I'm driving home to see mum and dad on the way to a two week stint at Newquay international airport. Or, to give it the proper name, RAF St Mawgan. Mum and dad live just over 500 miles away (509), which would have seemed like an impossible distance to travel a couple of years ago. My closest friends live 180 miles away, which would have been unbelievable not too long ago itself. Now it's just a number, you take account of the time it takes, add it to your travel plans and bosh, there's your new plan.
There's a saying that the Americans consider 100 years a long time and the Brits consider 100 miles a long distance, which is true to an extent. Both can be long, for example I'd like to be re-reading this in a 100 years, but not if I have to live those hundred years crawling on my stomach over broken glass; I'll visit friends that are 100 miles away quite happily but not if I have to travel those 100 miles hopping backwards while singing Take That songs (which I consider worse than crawling over broken glass).
The guys here at work (the throttle jockeys that is) wouldn't consider 100 miles that far, but then they can travel 100 miles in about 10 minutes, which makes my little car seem a little under powered. 'Course my car doesn't have afterburner but then their jets don't have a stereo.

On the latin note, the BBC have a great list of "handy latin phrses."

Latin

Some phrases:
Catapultam habeo; nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabris, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam. - I have a catapult. Give me all of your money, or I will fling and enormous rock at you head.

Bibo ergo sum - I drink therefore I am.

If I find any more I'll stick them on. Submissions welcome.

The point about the hair

Yes there was one. I'm 26. Not very old, but hey. About a year ago I began to notice grey hairs, not many, but definitely some. Now my mate C, he's got the whole "bits of grey in dark hair" thing going on, sometimes called "salt and pepper hair." I've not. Also, for as long as I can remember I've had a bit of a widow's peak with high sides of my forehead. This, and the fact my hair is fine anyway, makes me look somewhat older. (There's other reasons as well but that's not the point.)
Over the Christmas period my brother was taking the micky saying I was going bald, I didn't believe him but while cutting my hair I realised that yes. I am thinning on top.
Arse.
C, and loads of other guys I know, would get a buzz cut and to hell with it. I'm tempted, but it's not a good look on me. Trust me on this. Also, it's not a look that fits the job, and confidence in the forecaster is half the job. Once I actually loose more hair, yeah, I'll get it short and it'll be okay, but at the moment there would be just a patch of fuzzy looking stuff in the middle of the head and not much else.
Also, the same day I found my first grey, my mate Tris, who's six months older than me, was ID'd to buy a lottery ticket.

Just a short one (ohh err missus)

Got the bike out today. Went riding. Found out that riding a MTB into unexpected sand makes it somewhat difficult to steer, or generally stay on the sodding thing. No epic, just got the inside of my leg oiled nicely by the chain.
On an unrelated note, cut my hair today. I decided to do my own last year when I realised that the only hair cut I'd need was basically a grade 5 with 3 on the sides and I could learn to do it myself or spend £6 every few weeks. Okay, I haven't got it right yet, but I'm not far off. My mate Tris told me I look better with longer spikey hair and my Cebe glasses on, but then we were drunk halfway up a slope in Meribel. But then he's looking at things from a trendy London style point of view and I'm more looking at the "keep it simple, keep it easy care and get it so that it can be worn under a helmet/hat/dive hood" frame of thought.
Well back to work, series one of "Coupling" is on in the background - check Wikiquote for some classic Jeff lines about the nudity gap, the giggle loop and captain subtext (actually captain subtext isn't on there but googling it could help) and to anyone that knows - "Cleft! Gusset!"

New Year, or "Arrrgggghhhhhh!"

But at least I didn't have an hangover...
To expand. This Christmas I've driven over 1500 miles to spend Christmas itself with my family then hoofed it back up to Scotland to be with a couple of friends (I'll call them T and C) over New Year. We'd made plans to go walking/camping over New Year's itself, which we duly did. Up to the Cairngorms on a route called the Minigaig. The group consisted of myself, T, C and the dog, Rossi. We had to drop one car at the end and one at the beginning (Dear Daihatsu, I bought a city car from you, you'll never guess what I've been doing with it...) so by the time we were walking we ended up being faced with the choice, carry on walking to the bothy (stone hut usually open but basic) which we weren't sure was there or open so as the weather was coming in and sunset wasn't far away we decided to find a good spot and camp for the night, possibly reassessing the plan once we'd had some scran.
We camped, cooked and got into our bags, hell we were pretty much asleep by 6, after having a few wee drams each from the booze we'd carried in. Did I mention the fact that it's the middle of sodding winter and we were all carrying close our limits in safety kit and supplies? Well, I have now.
C's tent is a Lightwave 2 XT, which is a big two person tent. Three of us could sleep in relative comfort, with the dog it was a bit more of a squeeze. The porch area is a great size, it's big enough for all of our kit and it holds up in poor conditions rather well.
After a couple of hours kip we were woken up by a bit of wind. I say a bit of wind, there was a trough passing over head which means showers and strong winds. I would put the winds at about 50-60 KT, which is around 55-68 mph. The tent was great, we were a touch nervous. By which I mean bricking it. Nasty though the idea was we were all thinking about worst case scenarios, if the tent failed what would we do. None of the options were particularly attractive. Fortunately, the tent held and after 2300 (11 pm) the wind eased somewhat but was still strong. We knew we would have to walk over a high plateau the next day in very strong winds, and the weather was turning showery with a definite blizzard potential so we decided to have breakfast the next day and then walk back. I'm bloody glad we did. Not only was the kit soaked (although my kit did all I could ask of it), but the snow showers hit us as we were driving back, the wind did what we expected and we were all a bit out of shape.
So we did spend New Year's Eve on the hill, drinking and praying that the tent would hold (well, I was) and then we walked out the next day. This left us with a few days to fill. So we did what anyone else would do, we all slept in (except T, she had to go to work on the 3rd) and C and I went snowboarding at the indoor snow slope in Glasgow. It's pricey but good, there's one at Milton Keynes and another at Castleford. Was good to find out that I can still board, even though ever time I tried to turn heel to toe edge on the steeper slope I stacked, usually at the top in front of everyone. Ho hum.
After leaving my friends further south I had to transport more of my kit back to the mess. My little car holds a surprising amount of stuff. C was amazed I think (Dear Daihatsu...). Now in my room I have bows and arrows, diving, climbing, snowboarding, walking/camping and mountainbiking kit. And two of what I believe to be some of the best coffee table books around. These are "100 Suns," a book about nuclear explosions (hey, I did physics and I'm a geek) and Banksey's book "Wall and Piece." I disagree with his politics and his methods but I do love some of his work. All I need now is a coffee table.

Oh and it turns out that you can get the nagging GPS patch, and does say things like "You NEVER listen!" Legend.