Do It With Style Or Don't Bother Doing It

Work has been pretty predictable this week, all a bit dull.

However, I have nearly finished the Tech Priest for my Imperial Fists (photos will follow as soon as he's done), I've visited some new places, and I have a new rental car!

On Saturday I climbed Mount Diablo in Contra Costa county and despite warnings of rattlesnakes, tarantulas and black widows, managed to reach the summit without being poisoned. I walked a fair bit of the way, but this being America, there was a car park at the top. The view was remarkable, being able to see the ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge on the west and the snow on the Sierras to the east. The Sacramento valley is behind me in the photo below.

Given my previous blog posts, you could be forgiven for wondering why I hadn't mentioned my hire car yet. Well, here's why, in all of it it's flat white glory, the '08 Mitubishi Gallant:

Boo! Although it did make cool tyre screching noises on the way down the foothills around Diablo. Or at least it did until I had to hurredly brake rather than hit a disgruntled looking family in an SUV.

However, today I drove back to Avis and demanded a more interesting vehicle. What I got was this, the Pontiac Solstice, a two seat sports convertable. Damn sight more fun that the Gallant, but could do with a little more power (but couldn't we all?). All the pedals are quite heavy, which I normally consider to be a good thing and visibility's nowhere near as bad as you might expect. It's a little small though, certainly compared to the Dodge Rams and Ford Excursions you see on American roads. Also , the roof mechanism is a little primitive. But then, as you may have heard, GM are a little strapped for cash at the moment.

Finally, I had such a good response to last week's war porn, I decided to photograph the following for all of you. This is a US army Nike missile battery, stationed on the US west coast to protect it from communists. Mmm... phallic. Enjoy!

P.S. A pint (or drink of your choice) for the first person to guess the geek reference (and source)in this blog post.

War Porn

Death machine manufacture was a bit slow this week, so had to remind myself what it's all about. I therefore visited Alameda Naval Air Station and their floating museum, the USS Hornet. Run by friendly and cheerful veterans of various American wars, it's an old aircraft carrier that in addition to its military duties found time to pick up the crews of Apollos 11 and 12. The best bit (for the eternal child in me) was getting to ride the aircraft elevators up and down.

I know Ben prefers to keep it to one picture per blog post, but since Sam's hat wish list crashed my computer, I have no compunction in posting the following:



The USS Hornet moored at Alameda in the East Bay.



Douglas A-4 Skyhawk in Soviet colours, used for Agressor training. Just like Jester and Viper's jets.



Apollo and Gemini capsules. Cold War rather than proper war.

Everyone gets shouted at by ex-sailors before the lift begins. The heliopter behind us provides a helpful hint of here we're going.

You're still dangerous, but..... Wow, that thing's cool.

Oh, and I can't believe no-one blogged about our pub quiz team fan club!

Geeks Abroad

'Twas my birthday last week and I don't normally make a big thing of it, but was very pleasantly surprised when Dom and my lovely girlfriend Laura organised a surprise birthday party for me. Well I say surprise, but I was beginning to suspect someting was up when whispered mutterings were going on behind my back. The final straw was on the night itself when my housemate Jason had seemingly vanished. "Maybe he's gone to the shops to get chocolate milk?" suggested Laura. "He's been gone an awfully long time just to go to the Co-Op to get chocolate milk," I replied. "Um.... maybe the Co-Op has run out of chocolate milk and he's had to walk all the way to Tesco to get it...?" Now, anyone that knows Jason knows that he has an almost instatiable thirst for the sweet brown stuff that is Frijj chocolate milk, making this story far from impossible, but I knew someting was up and didn't push the point. As it turned out, he'd been with Dom sorting out the last bits of my party and both drinking a fair mount of beer. I had a great time and thanks to everyone who attended, thanks to Laura and Dom for organising and thanks so those that sent messages - Alan sent a very blurred video from Iceland and Dom read out a very entertaining message from Bob, Bex and Fuzz. Thanks to all of you guys and girls!

Anyway, I'm now in the States again - what can I say, America needs me.

This nearly didn't happen, following the litany of disasters that befell this trip, including, but not limited to:

• Our supplier cancelling and uncancelling the trip four days before departure, thus ensuring that nothing was booked with more than four days' notice.
• The Company cancelling my passes (apparently this is policy - every birthday as a special treat they reset your passes and stop you going to work). This necessitated meeting my boss on Sunday night in a dark car park so he could let me in to get everything I needed - inluding my flight times.
• Nat West's corporate card division failing to send me a replacement credit card, meaning I'm having to put everything on my own.
• Amex and Europcar failing to book me a car to get to Heathrow airport which meant that Laura (who is fantastic and I owe big time) had to drive me to Bristol Airport so that I could pick up a hire car to get me to Heathrow.

On the other hand, I've been in the States for five hours now, and I already have a game of Warhammer 40,000 arranged for Friday. This either makes me very powerful, or very sad. Or both.