Why would you put someone with the name Brent Spiller in the role of Major Incident manager at an oil company that sell Brent Crude Oil……

His link has a blog and a lot of detail, there are obviously people out there with lots of time on their hands….

“Mystery surrounding a man wearing a horse’s head who has been captured on Google’s Street View in Aberdeen.”

The man – who has become known as ‘horse-boy’ – can be seen in the Hardgate area of the city.

If you go to Google maps and look up 14 Hardgate, Aberdeen and drag the little orange man-shaped icon onto the map you will see this image.

The “mystery” relates to who this is.  While I have no idea of the person’s name I can tell you that they have white hair and appear to be a “silver surfer”.  If you move up the road and then spin the image around to look back you will see this image:

You can clearly see that the “silver surfer” had not accounted for the rear facing camera and had decided that it was time to go back and celebrate his achievement.

Well done old chap.  However next time stand still until you cannot see the Google car anymore before loosing your head.

Positive Focus

The “biggest thing you have to protect is your confidence”… is a great idea.

Time to celebrate the good things.

When I was a child, the world was my oyster…

Some days, my friends and I would go exploring in the woods. Other days, we’d play kick the can… or we’d play "British Bull Dog” at a friends house.

I always had a secret mission, though: I was going to be a "pro" at something. Fortunately, I had the work ethic to get there…

When I wanted to be a professional cyclist, I cycle for hours. And when I wanted to be a professional athlete, I’d practice for hours a day without thinking about it. Remember, I was on a mission.

The challenge was, my mission changed each and every year. But the fact never changed: I believed I could succeed at whatever I wanted if I tried hard enough.

I had no burdens in front of me… I had no impediments to my potential success. If I put my mind to it, I could make it happen. And thankfully, succeed I did. I’m living proof of the idea that you could set out to make your own success and achieve it.

Today? I’m not so sure about things.

When I was a child, we didn’t have money. But that was OK. We were starting from scratch.

Unfortunately, my son will not even have the "luxury" of starting from scratch. Instead, he will start out in the hole…

According to the Governments figures, the government’s debt is $141,416 per person in 2010. For my little family of three, that’s $424,249 of government debt. And it keeps growing.

By the time my son grows up, the  government will have already "mortgaged" his household earnings by hundreds of thousands of pounds, by spending more than it takes in before he was born. Even worse, the government will force him (with the threat of prison) to pay its debt.

We’re quickly replacing the what one might call the American dream with the European Politician’s Dream – that if you’re lazy and don’t try hard, the government will take from those who do try hard and give their money to you.

That is not the Britain I was raised in. And that’s not the Britain I want to live in.

I hope my son has the ability, like I did, to start with a clean slate… with the world as his oyster… with no shackles holding him back… so he can be successful.

But I shouldn’t hold out hope unless we can make a change…

Gordon Brown pledges ‘five more years’ as Prime Minister if Labour wins

Why is this a positive thing.

This one-eyed monster lead us out of prosperity and straight into the worst recession ever.  He failed to save in the good times and is now suggesting that we should all pay more to support his myopic vision of the future.

Someone poke his other eye out.

http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1268321569637RA89

Then what did you do?

The short story…

His request approved, the CNN News photographer quickly used a cell phone to call the local airport to charter a flight.
He was told a twin-engine plane would be waiting for him at the airport.
Arriving at the airfield, he spotted a plane warming up outside a hanger.
He jumped in with his bag, slammed the door shut, and shouted, ‘Let’s go’.
The pilot taxied out, swung the plane into the wind and took off.
Once in the air, the photographer instructed the pilot, ‘Fly over the valley and make low passes so I can take pictures of the fires on the hillsides.’
‘Why ?!?’ asked the pilot.
‘Because I’m a photographer for CNN, he responded, and I need to get some close up shots.’
The pilot was strangely silent for a moment, finally he stammered, ‘So, what you’re telling me, is . . . You’re NOT my flight instructor ?!?’
"Life is too short, so always drink the good wine first !!!"

Arriving on site at 8am we discovered that the conditions were “frozen solid” and that it had started to snow.  We walked around the site to have a look at some of the course and the obstacles.  This basically a farm which has some obstacles built into it. 

Yes, this is a frozen lake

The race was due to start at 11am and Pete, Giles and Simon were in the “Front Squad”, that group of competitors who start first and have a clean run at the course.  I was in the “Late Buggers” right at the back of the field of 5000 competitors.

As the guys pointed out to me afterwards, we had two completely different races.  They had a clear run at every obstacle with the competitors spaced out 10m apart for most of the time.  I had queues of people ahead of me who slowed to walking pace at the obstacles and pinch points along the course.

I can’t tell you about their race, other than it was a lot quicker than mine, however I will describe a bit of my race.

The race starts with a run of about 6 miles with a number of obstacles, the first being a series of trenches filled with water and slabs of ice about an inch thick.  This is designed to get you wet and muddy within the first mile.  Needless to say your feet get COLD. 

Inch thick ice welcomed the front squad – the late buggers just got lots of sharp bits.

The next major obstacle is 2/3rds of the way into the run and is called the slalom.  Typically they understate this on the map.  But imagine standing on Winter Hill overlooking “The Bounty” on the Thames.  The run took us up and down that slope 10 times, before sending us on to other obstacles.  I was lucky as there was a very attractive young lady with a very pert bottom in front of me who I pursued through this section, it took my mind off the pain!

  The Slalom

The course then sets you up for a really horrible experience, crisscrossing a stream where the water is at least knee deep and the bank on the other side up to 5 feet high.  This both freezes you and saps your strength as you work on keeping moving.  At this point I had lost the feeling in both legs below the knees! and we had not reached the killing fields yet. 

  The Tiger – first climb followed by an electrified set of wires before the next tower

Up and over The Tiger, made difficult by the lack of feeling in your legs and then into the killing fields. Lots of water and mud awaited, oh yes and ice.  Over the Coldiz walls where I got cramp halfway up and fell off.  Through the tyre tunnel into water and then over burning bails of hay and on to the swamp and the vietcong tunnels which are too narrow to crawl through unless you are slight in stature.

Then it is on to the real wet bits…. The water tunnel, the Brandenberg Wall and the Death Plunge seen below (walk off the plank into the frozen water and swim out of the lake…

Death Plunge – 15ft drop into the lake

At this point in the race I cannot remember that much as I was SO COLD, I do remember stumbling along over some burning hay, across some duck boards covered in mud, under some barbed wire and into lots more water.

A view over the course 

The end of the race couldn’t come soon enough for me. 2 hours and 20 minutes after the first person started I crossed the line, almost in tears and was presented with the most incredible medal.

For Giles, Pete and Simon showers beaconed, however I changed straight into dry clothes and shivered violently for the next hour.

Would I do this again?  Well we are all signing up for next year and look forward to setting better times…………