Got home last night, had dinner and then fell asleep in front of the television for a couple of hours. Then I woke up for just long enough to go to bed.

Feeling better today! Have meetings now, so I might get even more sleep :D

In order to get some focus back Ive decided to put pen to paper, metaphorically, and do some research and write books. Again. Its a nice little hobby, and it makes a change from editting my brother's enormous output of material.

Annyywwaayy so far Ive got 20,000 words on the Chasseurs a Pied (French light infantry) with a preliminary working title of "Crimean Chasseur" and need to get another 10,000 to have a respectable book on the subject; I just need to find out more specifics about what they wore and how the faught really.

The problem is, my main interest is the 1830s to 1850s and no one is really interested in that period of military history, especially the goings on in France. The Crimean War is more or less forgotten or ignored but it was, despite what the Yanks say, the first modern war. Either that or the French campaign in North Italy 1858-9.

What is interesting, is that the US army slavishly copied the 1845 Reglement pour les Bataillons des Chasseurs a Pied as their own dress and field regulations during the 1850s; Colonel Hardee translated it and "improved" them. Sadly, I can only find volume II (Ecole du Bataillon) in translation by Hardee and bits of the early 1831 Regulation. It's ironic really, that the US slavishly copied what it percieved to be the most recent innovations in Europe from about 1780 to 1870 but were always one or two steps behind: in 1808 they sort of adopted and adapted the French Gribeauval System of Artillery despite that latter being abandoned in 1792; they adopted in 1854 the French 1845 Regulations despite the French having a new set of regulations of 1852. They also must have based their dress regulations from only pictures of the French Army. For some daft reason they put their infantry in long frock coats and baggy trousers which were for full dress only in the French Army - on campaign they wore greatcoats over short shell jackets, but by the 1860s the Frock Coat had been replaced by a very short "Basquine" due to Frock Coats being a bit crap - the US only came to that conclusion in the Civil War. They also put their cavalry in them, based on the practice of the Frenc Cuirassiers, despite the fact that those soldiers hooked back the skirs of their coats so as not to sit on them!


The French Army also supplied the Union Army with something like 60,000 sets of uniforms in 1861, all of Chasseur Pattern. The thing is, is that the French and US dress regulations state that the uniform trousers should be IRON GREY (Gris de Fer) rather than the shockingly bright Sky Blue one sees so many ACW Reenactors Wearing. Yes the Sky Blue looks pretty but its not sodding accurate. I know they changed their trousers to a lighter shade in the late 1850s but that particular shade of blue seen on many reenactors, in films and books didn't exist then. Its too bright and clean. Iron Grey was made from weaving cloth 2 parts blue and 1 part white, which creates a *paler* slightly grey shade of dark blue. Oddly, the Chasseur Uniforms supplied by the French were found to be too faffy and too small for the US soldiers but their leatherwork, packs and the chasseur trousers were issued, but mostly to the US attempt at Zouaves.

However, because so much French kit was sent to the US (and also British kit), ironically it is in the US that the most uniform from the 1850s and 1860s from Europe survives.

The other two book ideas I have are "Crimean Zouave" which would look at the growth and development of the Zouaves and their role in the Crimean War which made them the most famous troops in Europe and copied in almost every other Army appart from Britain.

The third book would be "Crimean Guardsman" which would be a study of the Imperial Guard in the Crimea.

There might also be a book somewhere on the artillery and rocket troops.

I've shown an initial draft of my Chasseur book to a publisher and they like it; Paul has also seen it, and amazingly, flabberghastingly, he says Ive got a great writing style which is much better than his and that my work reads well and comes off the page better than his. BLOODY HELL! Has hell frozen over? A COMPLIMENT From Paul? What next?!

Off to work without getting any sleep at all last night. Wish me luck!

Photo by arachne.
Toad by spawnofweevil.
Blunderbow by Will Segerman.

A friend of mine - auriol - is conducting some market research - if you've got 30 seconds to spare would you consider submitting a few anonymous answers here?

Thanks.

Tonight I think I'll have to sleep. I know it's boring and rubbish, but words cannot even describe the tiredness! I hope I am awake enough to get home :O

And then the rest of the week...
Tuesday: Choir practice then last Mage game
Wednesday: Working late
Thursday: Pub for last games club session of the year
Friday: Work Christmas dinner
Saturday: (evening) Handel's Messiah

The rest of the weekend that isn't Saturday evening will be spent gardening, running around Bournemouth trying to find the last remaining Christmas presents and hopefully lots more sleeping!

Next week... well there's another work Christmas party, but that's about it! The thought of a week with nothing in it (apart from work) is quite exciting...

I did something bonkers yesterday! I drove my mum and sister to London to take them Christmas shopping. It was actually ok, it was just a long straight line on a couple of motorways and then a traffic jam once we were in London. Luckily I know the route from going on the coach so that was ok!

Apart from a nutter going rather fast through a red light coming off Chelsea Bridge when I was trying to turn right along the embankment on the way back (that was interestingly close), all was pretty quiet and normal really. It was certainly no worse than the traffic round here, both in terms of quantity and insanity. I think a few of the potentially cheeky drivers were put off by the fact we were twice as big as they were and backed off :D

Managed to park near where I used to live, and we met my brother at Victoria station. Cue 7 hours of rampaging around shops and then fooooood (but sadly no yummy wine for me)!

Anyway, I now only have 4 more things to get and then I am sorted. There's a couple more but that's going to wait till the new year as I've run out of money - it's not cheating as I won't see the relevant people till the new year :D

Also put up all the Christmas decorations on Saturday, wheeeee! pretty :D

Am very sleepy today. In fact I want nothing more than to sleep. Mmmm, sleeeeeeeep...

Nazi Soldiers!

Yes, this is not a typing error. Yesterday for Tameside Museum's "Christmas Fun Day" there was very little in the way of Christmas or Fun.

Usually there is a Brass Band, people dressed up in Victorian Costume being all Dickensian Christmasy at people, a Punch and Judy, craft tables.

This year...a World War 2 Reenactment group (who were a bit shit). A bloke playing a penny whistle and some awfully generic craft activities for the little ones.

The guys dressed as German "Home Guards" looked too uncomfortable for words - obviously they had NOT been told why they were there (nor had the two "strolling players") and left after about 15 minutes.

I can see the point of A WW2 group being there IF they like presented a Wartime Christmas, instead of putting on their usual show of "wind the air raid siren", "wear a tin hat", "throw sponges at Hitler" activities....they didn't seem all that good either - mostly over weight middle aged men and women trying to be WW2 squadies (none of them would have passed the fitness test), or even Yanks who strolled around giving out gum and a couple of spiv Joes. They just had tables of 1940s vintage books, clothes objects and werent even playing 1940s music (1940s Christmas music wouldve been good), instead things like the "Dambusters March" and "633 Squadron" (!)....both very post war war films. They didnt know why they were there. It was all very awkward.

Quite a lot of people were very upset and went home. A lot of older people left when they saw German soldiers walking around and others left after hearing kiddies wind the Air Raid Siren saying they never wanted to hear it again thank you very much.

It was a massively missed opportunity. Yes the Museum Service had pissed off the local brass band...so why not speak to another band? or to schools and have school orchestras or choirs? Why not had the in-house costumed facilitators doing the Dickens Characters?

They REALLY need to be less complacent and get a proper event organiser. I couldve done it better.ARGH.

I played the organ for the "Christmas Tree" service at Haughton Green Methodists lasr night. Due to the minister being rather indecisive I only got the hymns on Friday (ARGH). The organ there is.....mediocre. Really high quality - all the pipe work is spotted metal - but the voicing is dull, boring...yawn a minute. And NOTHING above 4' in a building that seats about 300! (Mind you, according to the organist who is as nearly as old as the organ, its the "best in the area", as all organs are even if they are piles of shite). The other scary problem was that the Swell and Great were in divergance by several beats. about 4 or 5 so the Swell could not be coupled to the Great without it being massively out of tune.


I'm not saying that the congregation gabble, but they zipped through the hymns like it was a race. Apparently this is a "Methodist tradition" to sing hymns like it is a race...I dont know how they manage it as I didn't even hear them pause for breath or stop between verses. I more or less gave up with "The Holly and the Ivy" and we begged to differ with "Of the Father's Heart Begotton" which is Minim = 48, not what they had Crotchett = 110 (if not more) and sung in a waltzy style. It's a stately, melodic, processional hymn with differant harmonies for each verse not some gallop!!!!!

In other news, Im busy baking. Who'd like some mince pies?

Hello. I am back, from Berlin.

It was cold, I didn't crash the truck and I'm glad I don't have to sleep in it again.

Berlin itself was nice - and I'm now thinking about going back there on holiday as I liked the city. I have seen some wall, Checkpoint Charlie (and the amusingly named nearby food outlet "Snackpoint Charlie") and may bits of interesting that I wish to further investigate.

I have decided that truck driving is not the career for me, and I'm not at ease driving a vehicle as big as that, mainly because it's just so damm unwieldy. I'm glad I tried it though, and glad had the chance to try it.

Tomorrow I have to take it back to the ASETS workshop and empty it (half the load was dropped off at a supplier in Herefordshire on the way home), then I take it back to the rental yard and wave goodbye to it.

But first, I sleep.

On Friday night, we were visited by Russ & Joy, for an evening of food, booze and board games. Yesterday was the fantastic Swedish Jul celebration at Linette and Dan's with excellent food, rum & raisin marzipan chocolate, Glogg and other goodness.

Today we had my brother's family to visit, so cooked a huge roast gammon dinner. Mmm good, but again I am stuffed.

Don't Panic! This is not another emo-introverted post. I've put that behind me for a bit at least.

I was looking at my LJ interests list and wondered how much it actually reflects me as a person. Of course it was never meant to be scientfic and equally was always designed to be public - both of which together destroy any real value.

However it did prompt me to look at the authors I like, the music I listen to and the movies I watch. What better way to work this out than looking at my online data trail. Play.com has just reminded me of all the DVDs I've bought in the last few years and Amazon has ten years of my online shopping there for me to see.

What I did notice were some wonderful trends and reminders of gifts - the odd book or two carefully chosen and posted to a 'special person' or bought for a birthday. It's like a little capitalist blog celebration.

Now, if I'd I'd written down all the films I've enjoyed at the cinema this year. Hmmm. A lot of them are, unfortunately, recorded in someone elses blog I can no longer read. Note to self - keep your own data in future if you think it might be interesting.

Okay I managed to stay away from Facebook for nearly 4 days. I'm still not going to do a great deal on it, but I wanted to check my inbox and once I'd done that, it seemed only fair to see what new pictures had been put up, Ignore a few friend requests. Make sarcastic comments on people's statuses and suddenly an hour had vanished.

But anyway, less Facebook from now on.

Ok,this really is hilarious!
If you haven't seen it,take a pic :)

http://www.popsuede.com/2009/12/twilight-saga-new-moon-review.html

Meme stolen from renniek First sentence in my LJ each month for 2009:

January: So, Steven Moffat, who is a massive fan of the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) has cast a youthful and energetic unknown into the role of The Timelord.
February: From Watchmen oneone* site The New Frontiersman (which you may recall is the right-wing rag in the comic book.
March: As hinted in previous posts, I now have a job that does not involve playing Playground Monitor instead of actual work. Also, this new job has a reliable salary¹
April: Today is Talk Like A Dalek Day. (Link goes to Facebook).
May: An embedded Youtube of a Games and learning lecture.
June: "Headquarters had even started an Employee of the Month scheme to show how much they cared. That was how much they didn't care." - from Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
July: Saw Drag Me To Hull last night, a lovely and coo, fully air conditioned cinema.
August: I've got mixed up with another meme. Oh no!
September: So Marvel has been eaten by the Disney Empire. Like many Marvel fans, my response is one of fret and concern, but not suprise, because the House of Ideas has been looking troubled for a while.¹
October: I have just remembered something very, very important.
November: Have had a rather awesome weekend with the lovely anne_l_davies, morningstar_lj and Jules.
December: For those who don't know, myself and Anne have a series of world domination plans, all of which aim to make our lives a bit better.

So had an interview this morning at Salford City College, to do exactly the same job I am doing at MMU but there.

I was up at the crack of doom so I could get there for the 9.0am interview....which didnt happen due to the traffic in town being so bad that the 7.54 bus to Worsley did not appear and the 8.24 was late, so I arrived somewhat flustered and in a flap. Happily, the interviews were running approximately 20 minutes late so that was ok. I gues. I was in a total flap and didnt feel confident, which probably explains why I didnt get the job. There were two interview panels - one of students and one of staff. I really got on with the students - 15 to 16 year old girls - by basically bluffing my way through X Factor and "Twighlight" and the vagaries of Brad Pitt. Hmph.

Feedback from the interview is interesting: apparently the way I approach working with disabled students at MMU is not applicable for a 6th Form/College environment, so treating the students in my care as adults, talking to them out of a class room environment perhaps to a more relaxed less formal common room or similar (as we do at University) to discuss issues, the level of support required etc was "not appropriate" and issues of none attendance and rejection of suport should not be raised with the student but with their personal tutor and class teachers rather than with them or coordinate a meeting. ho hum. My answers were not "specific" or "structured" enough.

Also, apparently, my language was not suitable. I used the expression "less abled" and "learning difficulties" when I should use "differantly abled" and "alternative learners" or "specific learners". WTF? (sounds pretty much leftish do goody PC stuff; at University were are definately the Joint Universities' Disability Unity not the "Differantly Abled and Alternative Learners Support Centre" or whatever). Furthermore, in examples I used I should not have used the words "thick" or "stupid" because those words are very negative and can have lasting impact...so explaining how when I was coaching rowing at Bradford Uni that one student I did one to one work with had been told he was thick and would never row by his coach due to his coordination problems was not on.

In future, more careful about my language and how I answer questions: be more specific and lefty.

Had a very interesting debate after Meeting this lunchtime about the High Church and how it tends to attract those who feal a need to dress up and have titles and ceremony and also that it tends to attract the "Spikey Queens" (as one Friend put it) and that a High Church Anglican minister being publically out was really that interesting due to the number of screaming queens int he clergy that a guide dog could spot...but its the actual "admission" of it thats the problem...perhaps people can overlook the screamy whoopsie at the altar if he doesnt actual say he is one. We also got onto the topic of chuch architecture, especially the Gothick Revival and none conformity, but that's for another post, in fact maybe an essay.

Ive another interview tomorrow in Failsworth to work for Oldham Community Leisure and I cannot for the life of me remember applying for it.

Hmmm... I have rather a lot to do I've just realised, and none of it is work related, which is frustrating as work's not very busy at the moment! Wish I had some annual leave left (that I haven't allocated to something else already)!

Firstly, and perhaps most urgently, I really should write and send winter-based-festival cards (if you want one, let me know!).
( And then, over the next few weeks and into January... )

And then find the time to do fun things in between :D :D

Well,this is officially my first entry on LJ since I opened my account 3 years ago...now,because most of my friends are on it,I thought it'd be one more way of keeping in touch...so there...

( More driving based waffle, cut in case it is boring! )

Got to the Brook (concert venue) 10 minutes early. Once inside, I randomly discovered that apple and mango J2O is really nice (my knowledge of drinks that aren't beer isn't very good at all)!

But yes, all this is distracting me from the real point of this post - Hawkwind! This was the third December in a row I have seen them - thus becoming a rather splendid tradition. And they were great, we had 2 hours worth of spacy psychedelic awesomeness, plus half an hour of Huw Lloyd-Langton playing acoustic versions of songs as a support act so really 2 and a half hours worth of mightyness! I soon realised that I didn't need alcohol to become completely zoned out to the music, it was almost shamanically mesmerising!

Hawkwind played a few songs I didn't recognise, which was perhaps not surprising given this is their 40th anniversary tour (even though I have about 20 albums by them!), but this mystery stuff was really good so I want to find out which CD(s) it came from! :D They played, in no particular order, (and I include what Huw L-L bits I recognised here too)... Hurry on Sundown, Rocky Paths, Outside the Law, Angels of Death, Space (I think?), Silver Machine, Magnu, You'd Better Believe It, Levitation, the most trippy rendition of Hassan I Sabha ever and a bunch more stuff that I can't remember! :D No encore, but I expect given such a long set in the first place they were knackered :D

Awesome stuff. Roll on next year!!! :D :D