12 of 12 April

Another 12 of 12. this time with a twist - well one and a half twists. Firstly none of this months shots come from Leeds, we are definately out in the wilds here. Secondly this is my 100th post at this location, long may it continue.



If you've been following this blog you'll know I've been taking an expedition leaders course over the past few months. Well last weekend was my assessment - as part of the assesment we were to supervise a group of cadets taking there Bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition. This was to span both the Saturday and the Sunday, but to stay within the rules these pics are only from Saturday - a full set of pics will follow later this week.

-----1. 08:20 am

This is my rucksack for the weekend. I have to carry this whenever I'm out supervising the cadets. It contains my tent, sleepingbag, food/cooking equipment, spare clothes, torch, whistle, map, compass... oh and my camera. ;-)

I was staying at my parents house on Friday night as it was an easier location to start from.

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2. 09:00 am



I was also tasked to transport the cadets taking part to the starting location in Helmsley (N. Yorkshire). My car is what's called a Supermini and wasn't up to the job. So I borrowed a slightly bigger car for the weekend. Even so we still filled the boot floor to ceiling and they all had stuff on there knees while sat in the back as well. I don't think we'd have got any more in if we tried.


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3. 10:20am

Here are my team for the weekend. These are the four cadets from my ATC squadron who are going to undertake the expedition. They also provide me with a group to lead so I can be assessed for my course. This picture was taken at the begining of the expedition, hence the smiles. From left to right - Cpl Hildreth, Cdt Corden, Cdt Fowler, Cdt Oeshlarger.

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4. 14:00pm

The cadets have been walking for 4 hours now, I have met them on various points and the route and walked with them a few times to check there safety. The last checkpoint is the campsite where we will be spending the night. While waiting for my group to turn up, I have set up my tent before the rain starts (it had been raining on/off all day). It's a v. small 2 man tent, I bought it as it's really light to carry (only 2kg). However it's not even big enough to sit up in, I also think it's more suitable for 1 and a rucksack - see pic 12.
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5. 15:00pm

The cadets are running late so I go out and look for them. I find them walking down this hill. They are just off the shot to the right. This is the view down the hill, looking at the campsite in the distance.

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6. 15:40pm

My team have finally made it to the campsite (with only the odd navigational error). First job is to get the tent up while it's dry. They may have just walked 13 km, but they can't get yet. They must get themselves set up for the evening and get all there kit away before they can rest. Luckily the rain had held off so they could do this in the dry. It's actuallya three man tent, but they decided to only use this tent as it gave them less to carry.

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7. 16:45pm

Tea time, at least for the cadets. While they cook, they must be supervised at all times to ensure there safety. You can lose tent, even eyebrows through a moments carelessness. They are using a Trangia, which is a methalated spirts burner. I think here they are coooking Chow mein in the left pan, and pasta in the right one.

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8. 17:35 pm

These guys will never win at hide 'n seek! Actually the boots stay in the porch section of the tent, to keep the sleeping area mud free. This scene just reminds me of all those cartoons when someone hiding behind the curtain is found by there toes sticking out.

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9. 19:10 pm

All the cadets have eaten and it's time for us to eat. Leaving the cadets in the care of a number of volunteers, the rest of us have gone to a local pub to get something to eat. It seems slightly unfair that somebody has to stay behind, but the cadets have to supervised all times to ensure there safety. It is part of our responsibility as our Duty of Care to other peoples kids that we take on these expeditions. I have been the one to stay behind on previous occassions.

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10. 19:15

Here we all are, all 18 of us that have descended on this pub looking for something to eat after eating out of our rucksacks all day. Some of them are other people taking the course, and the rest are assessors and tutors. On the left in the foreground are Louise, Shona and Ian, on the right are Steve (red T-shirt) and Charlotte. The guy you can just see in the background (at the end of the table) is the course director.

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11. 20:45 pm

This is the bit of the evening I've been looking forward too - desert. Here there are not one, but 2 slices of Sticky Toffee Pudding (I only ordered one!!!!) with Walnuts, Toffee sauce and Ice Cream. I was tempted to take a photo message and send it to the cadets, but I didn't in the end. Not out of any sense of niceness, I had no mobile signal at the time.

----- 12. 23:00 pm

Bed time. It's been a long time and now it's time to try and get some sleep. The green thing in the foreground is my sleeping bag (3 season bag, good for 0 deg C). It's on a foam sleeping mat (about 1/2 inch thick) which is the only thing that makies sleeping on the ground comfortable. The other half of the tent is taken up with my rucksack. There is no other room in my tent, but it does the job for the evening. One more day to go.

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Well that's it for this month. I'll hopefully post more photo's + a video later in the week. If you're wondering why I've done all this pop on down to Chad's Blog and have a gander.

12 of 12, March

It's March, which means we are nearly a quarter of the way through the year. My god where has the year gone. And the only answer I can think of is "In front of us, or behind us, depending on which way you are looking". Which I think is quite a good way of looking at things, but I can't remember where I originally heard that line.

Obviously one of those little bits of information that has decided not to stay in my head and make room for something more useful. For example the story of a Russian air hostess who got blown out of an aircraft at 33,300 ft and survived. Why I remember that one I don't know, it's just been with me since primary school.

Maybe that's why we blog, so we don't have to remember.

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1. 06:35
Always the first dilemma of the morning, which tie to go for. I'm a big fan of the colout blue, so that colour features prominantly in most of my ties. In the end I selected the left hand one.

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2. 07:00
This photo didn't come out as well as I intended. It looks just like some random outdoor shot. In fact at the time I took the photo the tree was leaning over quite heavily due to the gale that was blowing around my house. Unfortunately the picture was from the wrong angle. Well we live and learn.

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3. 07:25
Again a work photo before anybody else gets in the office. This is my current test rig for testing software at my desk. The hardware doesn't look that technological advanced, because it isn't. It's part of an older system that I'm modifying for a customer. I go to site next week to install it, here hoping it all goes smoothly.

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4. 16:15
Time for some shopping. This week I'm helping to run a practice expedition for the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh group at Cadets. So I need to pick up some camping supplies and some food for the group for the weekend. This is Blacks, its one of the biggest camping retailers in the country, also one of our cadet instructors works there so he slips me a discount.

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5. 16:45
Now for the food shopping. Asda, part of the Wal-mart family. I'm looking for stuff that's easy to cook and will keep in a rucksack. Preferably boil in the bag stuff. I know it's rubbish but for just one night the stuff will do. And you can always eat more of it if you are hungry. The best thing about expeditions is that as well the boil in the bag stuff you also get to eat a lot of sweet stuff. Hiking takes a lot of calories, about 2 - 3 x as many as a normal days intake. They recommend lots of high energy foods to help sustain this. Especiallyas you can't stop every hour to cook bowls of pasta.

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6. 17:45
I think I may have gone a bit mad with the shopping. There are 16 boxes of boil in the bag meals there. The boxes looked too small to contain a good meal so I bought at least enough for 2 boxes each. Also the boxes were 8 for £4!!!!! So going overboard didn't cost me that much. Also notice the packets of biscuits and chocolate, they're also for the expedition.

I can't wait.

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7. 18:00
Something else I bought for the weekend, this time for me. It's a head torch, useful for keeing your hands free, in the dark, for example while trying to cook. I was looking for some cool light effects with this shot, but the lense flare I could see on the screen didn't translate to the actual picture. I'm learning all sorts of things this month.

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8. 19:25
Tonights entertainment. The book I've been reading on/off for the last month. With the amount of studying I've been doing for my expedition leaders course Finding time for me has been difficult. After my assessment that should hopefully change. Oh and guess what, my assessment is on the 12th April. You know what that means!!

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9. 19:55
I don't know why, but I always seem to be doing a stirfry whenever I'm taking pictures for 12 of 12. I can cook other things, honest.

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10. 20:45
Do you remeber the picture of the food for my expedition? Yep, it's the same bar of Toblerone. I just couldn't resist. Especially as I'm about to curl up on the couch in front of a DVD. It's actually a "fruit and nut" Toblerone, which is actually a bit of a con. It's actually just a Toblerone with Raisons, still very nice.

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11. 21:30
DVD watching. Generally when watching a DVD full of episodes I'll skip through the ending credits. Having seen them once you generally don't repeatedly watch them over again at the end of each episode. However this series (Trinity Blood) has such a nice ending song, that I generally don't skip it. It's sung by a Japanese artist (I don't know who) in english. I think the song is called broken wings.

Oh and the lights were on, the photo just came out very dark. That's three photo's inone sitting that weren't quite right. If things come in 3's that should be the last of them.

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12. 22:00
I still had a little bit of studying to do before I went to bed. I was looking at an Ordenance Survey map (a company that provides all types of maps in the UK) of the area we are camping/hiking in this weekend. The map is a 1:50,000 (2cm = 1km) scale map of a type suitable for hiking (it shows terrain as well as paths).

I'm actually looking at it on my PC as I have a number of these maps on my PC making it easier to plot routes. During the weekend we have to teach the cadets to plot a route, however using the old fashioned method of paper map and compass.
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That's it fdor this month. For adventurous photo's you'll have to wait for next month. If you've been reading this and wondering why I've done all this then visit Chad's blog and all will become clear.

Join us!

12 of 12 February

Well this year I decided I wanted to go one better than the 11 out of 12 that I managed last year. I didn't get off to a good start. January's 12 of 12 (falling on the 12th) fell into the Weekend I started my BELA (Basic Expedition Leader Award) course. This course teaches the basic skills required to take young people out walking in lowland countryside. It also teaches you about your responsibilites. It is a minimum requirement for takling cadets out hiking.

The problem arose due to the location of the course. It was on a Royal Air Force Air Base. Being a military installation, security is pretty tight. However this particualr air base is currently home to one of the heirs to the Throne aka Prince William. He is currently in residence undergoing his pilot training. As you can imagine being seen with a camera, let alone taking pictures gets you a big frown down the barrel of a gun.

Still no one around to stop me this month so without further ado.

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1. 06:55

Having started my new job in January, I find myself having a much earlier start on Morning. I actually start work at 07:30 am which is an hour earleir than my previous job. This morning it's very foggy and I can't see very far down the street. It's also very icy and I almost go flying walking down the steps to the path.

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2. 06:56

It's so icy my car has completely frozen up on the outside. It will take me a good few minutes scraping off the ice you see here. In the meantime I get much colder wishing I hadn't got out of bed this morning.

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3. 07:25

My desk at work. It's nice and clean at the moment as I haven't had too much time to accumulate the years of crap my last desk had. The second reason is that it's only a temporary desk as there's an office move in the works. Thirdly (and finally) the desk is right next to both my bosses, so I can't escape there gaze.

Note: Unfortunately photo's from work will be few and far between as they take security and privacy very seriously. However as I'm one the first few people in the office on the Morning I should be able to get one or two. Also for those not in the know I finished my job with the Cremation industry at Xmas and started one with the water industry in the New Year. So I've gone from Crematorium to Sewerage Treatment Works. It's a good job I have a bad sense of smell.

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4. 16:10

The one good thing about starting early is I finish at 15:30. I can be home within 30 minutes and now I suddenly find myself having more of the day to play with. Also the new job no longer has the option of going to the canteen for lunch (and I refuse to pay shop prices for Sandwiches all week) so I make my own. Lunch usually consists of a Sandwich, 2 slices of Malt Loaf and a Cereal bar. I also have a fruitbowl full of fruit stashed in my desk draw for when I get peckish!

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5. 16:25

Tonight is a Cadet night and there is now time before I go out to have a shave. As I am in uniform I must be clean shaven (you can only grow facial hair under exceptional circumstances) and I'm glad I no longer have to rush before travelling to cadets. And yes that is my bald head you can see just in the bottom of the mirror. ;-)

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6. 17:00

As part of my evening preparations I also need to polish my shoes as part of the uniform. Only the toe caps need to be polished, but the rest of the shoe needs to be clean and scuff free. I usually spend about 1 hour a week polishing them, however this is currently not giving me the shine I want so I may have to find the time to do another hour somewhere in the week.

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7. 18:00

There's just time to check my emails before I leave. This is my new Laptop which I've had for about 3 weeks now. My old laptop has been on it's last legs for the last 6 months now. It was really slow and had no battery life, but at least it worked. However just before Xmas it welded the power lead to the back of the laptop due to excessive heat generated by the charging circuit. At that point I decided it was too dangerous to use anymore. The new laptop is silver with a white outer casing. I had my choice of colours, but I went for white as it seems to be the fashionable colour at the moment.

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8. 19:25

I've arrived at the Squadron headquaters. It took me a bit longer than usual due to the fog coming backas the evening wore on. I've been a uniformed memeber of staff on the Squadron for 6 months now and I'm starting to get the hang of it. However having been a member of the squadron for a total of nearly 14 years probably gives me an advantage in that respect.

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9. 22:20

Back home for the night and as you can see the fog is still on it's way back. It's not quite as bad as it was the morning, but I still can't see all the way down the street. As I live on a hill I have to say it was much worse at the bottom of the hill, rather than where my house is.

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10. 22:25

For the next part of my BELA training course we are doing a camping skills weekend. I've borrowed a couple of tents from the squadron for this part of the course. However, I know one of the tents is missing a few pieces. So I need to put up both of these tents sometime this weekend to see which one is the complete set. I think I'd fail my course if I turned up with the wrong one.

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11. 22:30

Just time before I go to bed to get some reading in. Well I say reading, but I've gone for the option of a Comic Book this time. This is a Japanese Comic by Mamoru Nagano called "The Five Star Stories". It's a Science Fiction epic (that should be EPIC) and even though it's a comic I wouldn't call it "light reading". It's also printed in the original Japanese format, so you read if from right to left and back to front, compared to what we are used to in the west. My favourite thing about this series is the art, some of the drawings (especially the colour ones) are simply beautiful.

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12. 23:10

Okay before I go to bed, one more picture. Yep that's a picture of somebody in a uniform. Sorry I couldn't resist. Also that Beret, to get it that shape, you have to soak it in warm water and then wear it on your head in the correct shape until it dries in that shape. That was an uncomfortable few hours I can tell you.

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Well that it for the first on of the year (how I wish it was the second). If you've been reading this and wondering why I've done all this then visit Chad's blog and all will become clear.

Join us!

Twelve of Twelve

Well another year is almost over, with this it'll be 11 from 12 this year, which I don;t think is half bad dor my first year at this. Hopefully I'll manage a full house next year. I can certainly promise no more "Cremation" pictures next year. I start my new job on January and that'll just be doing work for the "water" companies. So from Fire to Water, there's definately an elemental nature to all of my jobs.

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1. 07:15 Approx
At this time of year, the sun gets more of a sleep-in than I do. So I wake up to this grey half-light when I look out of my window on a morning.

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2. 07:30 Approx
No you're not having a flashback. This is honestly yet another different picture of my breakfast (museli and banana). Thinking you may be getting bored of this by now, I decided to spice it up by taking the picture upside down. Maybe next month I'll set it alight or something.

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3. 07:45 Approx
As well as being dark it's also bloody freezing this morning. Not only am I cold enough to bump into a Yeti, but it was also cold enough for the windscreen on my car to freeze up. I hate scraping the ice and frost from my windscreen. I just want to get from my house and into the car (with a heater) as quickly as possible.

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4. 08:30 Approx
First things first when I get in the office, get the kettle on. The office hot water urn is currently broken so we have to share this kettle for the water for our tea/coffee. I try and get at it first before the queues form. I need a cup of tea when I get in to help me warm up.

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5. 10:00 Approx
The office outside door security system is playing up again. We have a number of doors into the building that can be only accessed by a swipe card. We built the system ourselves as my boss didn't want ot pay a professional company to do it. So when it goes wrong I have to fix it. Today the cards either won't let anybody in, or the doors are letting anybody in off the street.

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6. 14:00 Approx
It's 2pm in the afternoon and I still have the heater on underneath my desk. I hate the cold weather.

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7. 15:40 Approx
Nearly 4pm and the security system is finally fully functional again. As I've been so bust this is only my second cup of tea of the day. What is the world coming too?

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8. 17:15 Approx

This year at work we all decided rather than give out christmas cards to each other, instead we'd donate the money to charity instead. But as the number of ever increasing cards on my windowsill shows, some people have gone ahead and done it anyway. I always feel the need to reciprocate, so I'm having to up the estimated number of cards I'm going to need this year.

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9. 18:40 Approx
At home any recieved cards sit on my fireplace. I haven't yet had any cards land on the doormat just yet. All of the one you see here actually turned up at my old address, luckily my parents still live there!

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10. 18:55 Approx
These are the first and last of the christmas decorations that need to go up this year. It may not look it, but within the hour this'll be my christmas tree.

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* 11. 19:30 Approx
The tree's finally up. It's like one of those Rubik's puzzles, there are a number of different pieces that can only fit together in one way. Needless to say when I first put it together, I had the middle and the bottom the wrong way round. Apart from looking a little lobsided it's managed to survive a year in the back of the garage.

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12. 20:00 Approx
The finished product. I initially the lights wouldn't work, but after replacing a bulb, htye look like they'll be good for another year. They actually twinkle once they've warmed up, but I can't make em twinkle in a photo unfortunately. I did try taking some photo's in the dark, but they all turned out green as if they were taken through night vision goggles.
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So that's it for another month and for another year. I hope you've enjoyed the 132 pictures that have made up this year. Next year maybe 144.

If you have read all of this and have no idea why I did this, then pop over here and read Chad's blog.

Twelve of Twelve

Well if you believe the shops it's already Christmas, but I don't, for which I am eternally thankful for. It's only November and that means we have 2 more twelve of twelves left for the year. This is one is slightly different from most, as it crosses over slightly with another 12 of 12 being typed across from me as I type. It's a very odd experience.

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1. 07:30 Approx
The obligatory breakfast shot. The only thing that differentiates this one from last months 12 of 12, is that there is no milk in this bowl and there are 1 1/2 banana's accompaning it.

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2. 07:45 Approx
My car boot needs a good sorting out. A lot of it used to sit on the back seat and in the footwells, but because I had a car full of cadets last Friday I had to quickly dump it into the boot. I also dumped it in there to make my car easier to search, (which it sometimes is) when we go through security to get onto our local Airbase.

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3. 08:10 Approx
Monday morning Traffic. It's the worst traffic of the week and I really hate it. I find it just an utter waste of time to sit in a car and not go anywhere. What makes it worse is the traffic is not just caused by there being more cars, but due to the very bad design of the junction.

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4. 10:30 Approx
First task of the day is to sort out parts for those machines that have broken down over the weekend. This is a display for an operator, that seems to have died over the weekend. Poor choice of words I know considering the type of machine it is going to be attatched to.

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5. 12:00 Approx
This is another thing that has broken down over the weekend. I'm actually setting up this PC to go out a crematorium on the Swiss/Italian border. Fortunately this version of Windows is in English, but the software is in Italian.

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6. 15:00 Approx
It's over to the workshop for an afternoon of testing various machines. First to be tested are the cremulators. This is a machine that we like to like to test rather thoroughly as they tend to take rather a beating at the hands of customers. The final test is to put a brick through the machine to test the anti-jamming measures. This simulates an artificial hip joint being put through the machine along with somebodies remains. The brick doesn't always survive the test.

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7. 16:30 Approx
I know it looks complicated, but this is one of the more simple machines that we do. This one isn't for humans though. This one is an animal incinerator, although I think it looks like a bank safe from the front. It's designed to a whole cow or even a small horse. And if you're wondering how we get one in there...

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8. 16:31 Approx
... this is it. This is a loading box for an animal incinerator. It is basically a large trough with a hydraulic ram at one end to push the "animal" down the trough and safely into the machine.

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9. 17:05 Approx
Work is over, but I don't leave straight away, that would mean sitting in more traffic. So I usually bob around the internet and wait out the traffic. At the moment I am playing a game of online scrabble against my boss. I'm winning, just, but he is clawing some points back in these final few turns.

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10. 18:33 Approx
Standing in the freezing cold at Micklefield Station waiting for a visitor. Who you may ask? Well you'll just have to search the other 12 of 12's to find out. Although it's probably not hard to guess. Yes I am mean like that!!

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11. 20:45 Approx
This is the table which sits by my door. It's my "Too Remember" table. I put things on it that I need to take with me to work, or to other places. For tomorrow I need to remember to take these Jaffa Cakes into work, so my boss doesn't go hungry. I've got Wednesday through to Friday off and he'd jsut starve if I didn't stock up the biscuit urn. It is also where my wireless router sits, because I haven't got a long enough telephone cable for it to go anywhere else.

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12. 22:15 Approx
Boy she moves quickly. You go to take her picture and by the time you've got your camera she's gone. Sorry folks I wasn't going to make it that easy. ;-)

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BONUS PIC: THANKFUL

Digital TV. ;-) The best place to find re-runs of TV programs you can't stop watching again and again, like Top Gear. I've lost count how many times I've seen the same episode from the show, but I don't care, I still find it funny.

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If you have read all of this and have no idea why I did this, then pop over here and read Chad's blog.