My son turns 13 tomorrow.  We’re waiting for the kevin moments like, “I didn’t ask to be born” “It’s not my fault” “Leave me alone” “I hate you” blah blah blah… and to be honest, as soon as we get it we’ll mock him something rotten ’cause thats the caring kind of dad I am!

On Sunday we took him and his mates paintballing at Delta Force just outside Hockley Heath which is only a 20 minute drive from home for us.  They have 64 acres of woodland with 10 different game zones in it:

• A Bridge Too Far
• Afghan Command Post
• Chemical Alley
• Mad Murphy’s Jungle Attack
• Minefield Attack
• Pablo Escobar’s Jungle Airstrip
• Terrorist AttackThe Haunted Graveyard
• Tomb Raider
• Viet Cong Village

We arrived at 9am and after a brief registration which is effectively a “if you fall and break your leg it’s all your fault” kind of process we were soon kitted out with overalls, head protection including fixed goggles, a hopper for feeding the guns and a box with 3000 paintballs in it.  There were perhaps something like 200 – 240 game players getting ready for the days action but me and the lads were teamed up with another group of lads and given blue armbands to mark us out as the blue team.  We had about 16 players in our team.  I soon sought out the “extra’s” man and upgraded my weapon from a standard issue gun (see picture above) to a black M16 which gives greater accuracy over a greater range. Well wouldn’t you?

There was a very thorough safety briefing which was both amusing and informative and because of that held the kids attention very well.  The main point being that the paintballs exit the muzzle at about 180 mph and typically strike at something around 100 mph.  For this reason there were two fundamental rules: No firing at people less than 3 metres away and more importantly under no circumstances should anyone remove their head protection for any reason whatsoever from the moment they entered the weapon collection zone, for the transit to/from the play zones, during play and even until after exiting the weapons return station at the end of each game.  Delta Force operate a zero tolerance approach to this rule which means anyone removing the mask even enough to show their chin and teeth will be removed from the combat zone and will take no further part in the days activity.  When the safety briefing explained that a shot to the eye would almost certainly detach the retina and result in loss of sight the kids bristled a little but there was no doubt in their mind that this was for real.

We played 6 games during the day with each game being played twice.  Once as the attacking team and once as the defenders.  Each of the 12 game plays offered a maximum of 10 points so during the course of the day there was a maximum of 120 points on offer.  By the end of the day our team had scored 80 points.  The next best team were on 58 points with two games to play so the maximum they could get was 78.  Our team beat all of the other teams competing.  Even lunch which was an individual pizza for each competitor was received well by the boys who at the end of the day were raving about the days experience and all planning to ask their respective mums and dads if they could do paintballing for their own birthday parties.

During game play if you were hit with the exception of the head or the weapon you had to put your hand in the air and walk to the dead zone outside of the play zone.  At this point you were out of play until the next game.  On the viet cong village event the objective was to capture 4 village huts with at least one team member in each hut.  I split blue platoon into three and we made a three pronged attack with me leading the left flank for the first hut.  We made the hut quickly and I put myself against the inside hut wall out of sight of the advancing enemy.  As I looked up I took a shot straight into my mask which knocked me off my feet.  I initially thought the goggles had broken such was the force of the shot and paint had also come through the air vents in the mask at quite a force enough to sting my face to the left of my mouth.  I could taste paint.  I’m pretty sure this was the work of the terminator, one of Delta Forces own staff because where the shot had come from was no where near where our enemy were.  Anyway, head shots don’t count so on we went.  With the M-16 paintgun the accuracy is pretty good.  With an enemy combatant sheltering behind a tree at say 150 yards away you can typically hit the tree with the first shot and then shift the sight to accurately pick off the enemy when they lean out from the tree albeit it that they can if they are really really quick see the shot coming and get out of its way.

We finished playing at about 4pm. All in all a very successful day.

From November 2007 to November 2008 Christopher Rehage walked over 4600km through China. During that year he took these images and has now made this time lapse video

Chris’s blog can be visited here

I’m pretty sure these must be a hoax but they’re still pretty good pictures.  They came in a email I received today circulating the internet with the following narrative:

The world saw the disappearance of an A330 Air France during its trans Atlantic flight between Rio to Paris ..
The two photos attached were taken by one of the passengers before the aircraft crashed. This extraordinary photographer kept his cool, even in his last moments of life, to take these photos. The photos were retrieved from the camera’s memory stick. You will never again see photos like this.
In the first photo, there is a gaping hole in the fuselage through which you can see the tailplane and a vertical fin of the aircraft.

In the second photo, one of the passengers is seen being sucked out of the gaping hole.

The photos were found in a digital Casio Z750, amidst the debris. Although the camera was destroyed, the Memory Stick was recovered. Investigating the serial number of the camera, the owner was identified as Paulo G. Muller, an actor of a theatre for children known in the outskirts of Porto Alegre .. It can be imagined that he was standing during the turbulence, he managed to take these photos, just seconds after the tail loss and the aircraft plunged. The structural stress probably ripped the engines away, diminishing the   falling speed, protecting the electronic equipment but unfortunately not the victims. Paulo Muller leaves behind two daughters, Bruna and Beatriz.

What do you think?

I spent 4 hours in the garden today jetwashing the patio, paths and sun trap.  It seems the cat approves of my handywork

For the last month I’ve been hitting the gym a lot, typically working three days on one day off and puting in far more cardio work than I used to.  I’ve been starting most of my workouts with 60 minutes of cardio, although occasionally I scale it back to 40 minutes.  The magic sauce here is taking the headphones and plugging into whatever cardio machine I’m working on and listening to the Virgin music channel.  I try and get a machine opposite the video monitor so I can watch the music video too and for me this helps me grind away without it seeming like i’m working for days rather than minutes.  Usually I do 20 minutes on the treadmaster machine followed by 20 minutes on the treadmill followed by either a further 20 minutes on either of those or the cross trainer.  My exercising heart rate has improved massively since I started, coming down from the mid 150′s to the mid 130′s and occasionally dipping to the mid 120′s. I’ve also noticed an improvement in my recovery rate, for instance on the treadmill I usually jog at about 8.5 15 minutes and then for the last 5 minutes I pump it up to 10 which is full on running rather than jogging.  My heart rate at 8.5 hovers around 155 ish, but up in the 10 range i’m into the late 160′s early 170′s. During the two minute cool off that rate sinks rapidly back to the 120′s.  I’m even enjoying watching the progress and definately feeling fitter. I only ever really feel out of breath when I’m pushing hard at 10 but I sweat buckets.

After the cardio I move onto weights.  I know I should have more of a plan but I don’t, I just do whats easiest with the available equipment with some thought about what I did the previous day.  For instance if I blitzed triceps the day before, and I usually match this with bicep work because it’s good practice to work opposing muscle groups in the same workout, then I’ll avoid working the same groups the following day, so although not by design, I’ll work my legs one day, arms and shoulders the next day, back, stomach and obliques another day etc. I also try and work in sets of between 10 & 12 reps, usually 3 sets, occasionally more if I feel I’ve got more left in me and I work until it hurts from the lactic burn.

My body weight hasn’t changed much in the last month until this week when magically 4llbs seem to have melted off.  My man boobs are getting firmer and my arms are visibly improving.  My waistline is also starting to get a little more comfortable.

If anyone reading this has any comments critical or otherwise about my workouts I’d love to hear them.  I have one friend who’s telling me I should cut the cardio work to 20 minutes, but I believe that it takes this long before the body enters a fat burning stage and right now, trimming the excess fat is more important to me than building muscle, although I am aware that carrying more muscle improves ones metabolic rate.  Advice?