Saturday, June 10, 2006

*sigh*
heya folks. hows it going?

no phase 3 for you guys yet, but i'll probably get round to doing it soon.

I was going to go up London to watch "Grave of the Fireflies" at the theatre where my brother works today, but it turns out that only 5 tickets were purchased for it. so its been cancelled. luckily my brother managed to speak to his work colleague and they're going to let me borrow the DVD. its great to have connections, ne?

today is also my grandads 80th birthday. i'll be popping over to see him shortly.


as of time of posting, im still looking for a job. it seems that no one has any vacancies at the mo. I was up bexleyheath yesterday seeing if anyone was hiring, and i saw two girls up there who i used to work with back when i was still at Tescos last year. And they were in their tesco uniforms too. I hope that isnt an omen. ^^;;;

i think the problem with me is that i do not have a decent resume. Unfortunatly all the skills i do have arnt really what prospective employers look for. so i decided to make another resume with all my "l337 5k1ll5" on it. This is a work in progress btw.

DARKE'S L337 RESUME

-L337 M4573R
-Pillow Fight Champion two years running
-Soul Caliber combat experience
-Wielder of the Keyblade
-Jousting Skills
-Lord of the Velcro Wall
-Gundam Pilot (and fanatic)
-State Alchemist
-l337 n1nj4 (with expertise in stealth tactics, but a decided lack of seduction technique)
-Master of the Fish
-Pope
-Dance Dance Revolution Extremist
-Voice Actor identifier
-Comic Artist
-NERV personnel
-otaku

and more besides. as i said, its a work in progress...

hey hey guess what?!?!? i HAVE A COMIC FOR YOU!!

but its not the chibi darke dude. this is a FMA comic. if ya wanna know where i got the inspiration for this particular comic, check out the ALT text (the lil message that appears when you leave your cursor hovering over the image)



(edit: damn f u( |< 1n9 photobucket has resized the image!! auugh! if ya wanna see it properly, click on the deviantart link up top. its in my gallery. gomen)

Once again: i watch too much anime

Once again: There is no such thing as too much anime.

Ah the paradoxical life of Darke. Speaking of too much anime, i have recently been spending my nights (from like 11pm to 2:30 AM) watching anime online. Particuarly a lil anime called "Karin". Its the anime version of the manga known as "Chibi Vampire", in which the protagonist is a vampire that doesnt suck blood so much as produce too much of it and has regular nosebleeds and stuff. Its really quite funny. ^^

what else...uhm... oh yeah. Saikano the anime has just been released here in the uk under its translated title "She, the ultimate weapon". Its moot really cuz i already own the entire anime series and OVA (i like america. ^^) but i thought it was worth noting.

and tomorrow i am going on a snorkelling trip to this place called Horsea. Its an ex military ( i think its EX anyway ^^;;) torpedo testing ground with sunken helicopters and jeeps and stuff underwater and they let people dive there. im going with our snorkelling club and we're making a day of it. Its been nice and warm and sunny here all week, so it should be nice. ^^

and thats it from me today. I probably wont update again for a week or so. Now lets see how many comments i get. ^^; j/k

ciao!
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Sunday, June 4, 2006

Howdy y’all!
Hey guys. Been a while ne? Well, that’s cuz I’ve been livin it up in Tennessee this past coupla weeks. I had the most awesome time there seeing Amber, Chrissy and Mindy (a.k.a Flueky, Cee-Kari and Mitzy here on MyO) and going to their graduation, amongst other things. Course, now I’ve come back home and discovered I'm out of a job, but as Kyrie (a.k.a Shadowtiger69) would say: You know what?

If that’s the price I had to pay in order to experience all that I experienced in the past two weeks, then it was a worth every penny. Heck, it was a bargain. My job for a holiday with some of bestest best friends in the world? No contest.

But I digress. Lemme recount my adventures. as a special treat for you guys I have altered the ALT text for each picture. hover the cursor over em to read what i say!

(btw, I am aware I still have to post the final part of my Malaysia blog, but that can wait.)

After a long, boring and kinda annoying flight, I found myself at Knoxville’s lil airport. And waiting for me was Amber and Chrissy. We went and had dinner and Amber hit me with a straw. This was promising to be a fun coupla weeks. ^^

For most of the fortnight I was staying with Chrissy’s family. They were totally awesome, and Chrissy, I really appreciate everything you guys did for me. ^^

The first few days were kinda uneventful, as the girls were finishing up at school in preparation for the big day. I met up with Kyrie and Mindy, and together with Chrissy and we went for pizza hut. ^^

However, the week really kicked off (ironically) on Friday with the graduation.



Congrats to anyone who graduated this year BTW.

After the ceremony we went to O’Charlies and had a celebratory dinner. (oh, btw, some of these piccies were taken with Amber’s camera, used with her permission)



This is Chrissy, Kyrie and Chrissy’s lil sister Rissa at the restaurant. Rissa is mean. The lil American sister I never had. ^^ she also has a huge crush on Axel from KH2.



Amber and Chrissy, looking sexeh. ^^



Myself (in a tie!!!) Karen (chrissy’s mum) and Ambers cousin (I forgot her name!!! Sorry!!!)



A close up of Chrissy with some weird guy in the background. LOL

And here are some funny piccies from the restaurant.



Karen Craft, caught off guard. She is quite probably the coolest mum I have ever met anywhere ever. ^^



Dunno whats up with this pic. Mebbe there was a draft in the restaurant or something. LOL

Later that night we went to Project Graduation, which is a scheme where all the seniors from East and West Morristown High (and their guests) are locked in the Mall for a night and are entertained with movies and food and giant inflatable thingies. It was fantastic. We partied all night and crashed like hell the next day. ^^;; Amber and Mindy even both won DVD players in the sweepstakes, but as far as I'm aware, neither have even bothered opening the box yet. ^^; unfortunately I have no pics of Project Graduation cuz we weren’t allowed to take anything in with us. Gomen.

After that I was kindly invited to go with Chrissy and Mindy on a vacation Mindy’s family were taking to nearby Gatlingburg. The cabin we were staying in was HUUUGGGEE!!! With a hot tub and games room and everything! Fantastic! I ended up sleeping on the couch, but that was ok. ^^





Chrissy and Mindy. Did I mention that I have awesome friends?

We did tonnes of cool stuff in Gatlingburg, including going to the aquarium, going to Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum, A 4d cinema (which was kinda crappy actually) and Mindy and Chrissy both bought Samurai swords. Go figure. ^^;
The next day we went into Sevierville and spent a good hour or so in Books-A-Million reading their manga ^^;;;;

Then…Forbidden Caverns. *sigh* it took us FOREVER to find the damn place. Stupid route 339 and its non-existance/going round in circle-ness. *shakes fist*

But we found it eventually. And it was really cool. Then it took us forever to get back to the cabin. >.<#

Mindy: you ARE an excellent driver!!! You just need more confidence in your abilities!! ^^ *hugs*

After we got back, Amber took me to Knoxville zoo, as well as an extensive shopping trip. ^^;;



Amber wanted to see the nekkie mole rats. ^^



QUEEN AMBER COMMANDS YOU TO GO SEE THE NEKKIE MOLE RATS!!




Us taking an ice cream break. It was REALLY hot!! (the weather, not the ice cream)

There were some really scary animals at the zoo too. Here are a couple.




Don’t feed the animals.

We also did extensive shopping (Amber, remind me never to let you go into Victoria Secrets when I'm around, kk?) ^^

And Amber purchased a DDR set. w00t!



We played many sessions of this at Chrissy’s house. It really gets your heart going!

On the last Sunday we spent the day at one of my fav places: the lake!



As you can see, it was a beautiful day. perfect, in fact.



BUT DAMN ME if that lake wasn’t cold!!!!



We had a lot of fun swimming.






And chillin



(they are friends really!!)





Kyrie in her “You know what?!” pose (I luv ya really Kyrie! ^^ )



Me trying to grasp the subtleties of a sandwich bag.

And I have to post this, cuz if I don’t, someone else probably will.



Me with a bright green noodle. Yes, it looks like a thingy. Curse your timing with the camera amber. ^^

And that’s basically it for the holiday.

“No no no…that’s not quite how it went…”

LOL, how true. There are hundreds of little things we did, but to try and even recount them all would take me all night. Lotsa DDR, lots of ninja seducing, lots of alchemy and keyblade mastery, lots of Soul Caliber ass-whooping,
lots of Time reversing with funny accents, lots of monster slaying with Dragonball rejects and enemies called “One Knight Stand”, lots of poking and groping, lots of pillow fights, lots of sneaking up on people, cooking british meals, eating british chocolate (I cannae understand what it is about the jaffa cakes!), lots of anime music and rock music, lots of sleeping in late (well, for some of us anyway) and in general: a hell of a lot of fun.

We also celebrated Rissa’s twelfth birthday and had two “last” days. ^^; it took me a bit longer to get home then originally planned, but I wasn’t too bothered. I didn’t particularly want to go home anyway. ^^;

To finish, here are some random piccies.



Rissa, Kyrie and myself being daft.



Me and Amber. This piccy looks better than the other one where I look stoned… ^^;;



My totally awesome friend Chrissy. And Rissa’s foot. LOL



Rissa didn’t want her picture taken. So we forced her down. ^^



The big softy that is P.C who has three legs, a foot fetish and the ability to jump up on you when you’re off guard and scare the bejeesus out of you.


Thanks guys. Thank you so much. You made me feel right at home and I had the time of my life. It has been said that Time Spent with Friends is time Well Spent. I whole-heartedly believe that. You guys are my bestest friends in the world. Thank you. I know we will meet again someday.



Amber, Kyrie, Mindy and Chrissy. The greatest friends a strange random british guy could ask for. I love you guys!! ^^


“Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh
How did our eyes get so red?
And what the hell is on Joey’s head?

And this is where I grew up
I think the present owner fixed it up
I never knew we ever went without
The second floor is hard for sneakin’ out

And this is where I went to school
Most of the time had better things to do
Criminal record says I broke in twice
I must’ve done it half a dozen times

I wonder if it’s too late
Should I go back and try to graduate?
Life’s better now than it was back then
If I was them, I wouldn’t let me in
Oh oh oh
Oh god I, I

Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It’s hard to say it
Time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it
Time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye

Goodbye

Remember the old arcade
blew every dollar we ever made
the cops hated us for hanging out
they say someone went burnt it down

We used to listen to the radio
And sing along with every song we’d know
We said someday we’d find out how it feels
To sing to more than just the steering wheel

Kim's the first girl I kissed
I was so nervous that I nearly missed
She’s had a couple of kids since then
I haven’t seen her since God knows when
Oh oh oh
Oh god I, I

Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on the bedroom floor
It’s hard to say it
Time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it
Time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye

I miss that town
I miss their faces
You cant erase
You can't replace it

I miss that town
I can't believe it
So hard to stay
Too hard to leave it

If I could relive those days
I know the one thing that would never change

Every memory of looking out the back door
I had the photo album spread out on my bedroom floor
It’s hard to say it
Time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye
Every memory of walking out the front door
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for
It's hard to say it
Time to say it
Goodbye, goodbye

Look at this photograph
Every time I do it makes me laugh
Every time I do it makes me...”

Nickleback: “Photograph”



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Saturday, June 3, 2006

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE BLOG!!
hey guys, its good to be back. im not really posting at the mo, my main post will be tomorrow. this is just so that i can push the Phase 2 photoblog into my archives so this page can load a little easier when i post my adventures from tennessee tomorrow. arnt i considerate?

a joke! what screws like a wildcat and winks at you?

ANSWER:

*wink*

Thank you Mrs. Craft for that one. ^^;;

see ya tomorrow folks.
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Saturday, May 13, 2006

PH34R MY SLIGHTLY BIZARRE AND CREEPY REI OBSESSION…












…


…


Yeah, this was sorta brought on by the fact I bought another Rei figurine (the one on the right) the other day. along with Vol 2 of GITS 2nd gig and Vol 2 of FMA on DVD.


Yeah. Scary. But I like her…



oh btw, im going to be away for the next two weeks,i'll probably be offline. amuse yourselves by looking at my Rei piccies or my part 2 photoblog below. see ya guys in two weeks (unless you are Cee-Kari, Mindy, Flueky or Shadowtiger69, in which case i'll be seeing y'all within the next few days. ^^)

ciao.
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Thursday, May 11, 2006

Man I REALLY suck.
After I get back from Tennessee I am seriously gonna try and start posting everyday. I was browsing through my archives and remembered all th fun I used to have being here. Lol not that I don’t have fun anymore, but I used to have something serious going on here
and now its kinda half-assed. Oh well.

Oki-doki, its time to put up part 2 (of 3) of my Malaysian adventures. This time we have PHASE 2: ADVENTURE PHASE.

Phase 2 basically saw me with a new, bigger group and me with a hella load of trepidation, cuz I sooooooo did not wanna do trekking. But to get on to the SCUBA and mountaineering I had to trek first. So…



This is my group for phase 2: ALPHA 7. powered by Tofi-Luk. (one of the few bits of chocolate we had rationed ourselves with. Damn, it was nice after a hard days slog)

Anyway, we have:
Back Row: Katie, Loz, Charlie, Isaac, Tom, Becky, Myself, Sian, Rob and ANOTHER PHIL (trust me, it got confusing)
Front row: Serena (medic), Jane, Zoe, Lucy, Wench…uhm, I mean Bindi…yeah…, Ruth, Ems and Dave (Project leaders).

Missing from that photo is John, another Malaysian venturer who, BTW was a GUNDAM FREAK! It made my time there worthwhile. You shoulda heard me and him go on for hours about Gundam. ^^
I got on really well with Katie, Loz, Rob and the other Phil too. And of course, I was with Zoe, Jane and Becky on the first phase. ^^

Ok, first off we had to do some tril maintenance near this awesome waterfall:



(btw, I am quite enjoying the thought of all of you tilting your head to one side in order to look at the picture…these were mostly off the photo cd so I havnt been able to flip em the right way up)

We also washed under that waterfall, but the water was FREEEEEZZZIN’!!!

Essentially trail maintenance was creating these steps.:



and we spent four days doing that. I also managed to complete the challenge set out by best friend Nic and

SWUNG.

ON.

A.

VINE.


(HEALTH WARNING: careful when swinging your head the other way. dont damage your neck.)

w00t!

after we did that we set of trekking (but on the way to the start point we stopped off at Fook Hing Long Supermarket. Say it aloud and quickly. And no, I aint kidding.)

the first coupla nights we stayed under bashas, which is essentially tarpaulin over a hammock. Its REALLY uncomfortable.
The second night we had to put up our own personal bashas IN THE RAIN! >.< there were times during the first coupla nights where my motivation was at an all time low.

But most of the time we stayed in places like this:



which kept us out the elements and away from the bugs and leeches. Yuk.

Trekking was essentially a lot of crossing rivers, getting wet and going up and down large hills, or “undulating” as we liked to call it. ^^

It essentially, sucked. But strangely enough, as I looked back on all of it at the end, I kinda enjoyed it.



this was on one of the last days of trekking. Me in my trek hat. Lol

BUT we had made it to the end of the trail and were eager to meet the next part: SCUBA diving on Mamutik Island!!!

How do I describe this: IT WAS PARDISE! It was almost always hot and sunny, and Scuba was sooo much fun. I loved being there so much (although the mozzies, as always, were a serious pain in the arse. The cicadas were a bit mental too. Lol)

Here are some piccies from Scuba:



that’s John and Jane, my dive buddies. ^^ (btw, every malaysian venturer i got to know had a name that began with a "J". theres gotta be a hefty research grant in there somewhere...)



this is Tom, who was also in our small group for diving. Here he is doing a mask retrieval exercise.



on the left we have Jane and on the right is Amanda, our instructor who was really cool (and really short! Lol) giving me the “Victory!” sign. ^^



this is John doing press ups WITHOUT USING HIS HANDS!!!! Figure that one out. ^^



OMD thats a scary sight to behold! yours truly (you will notice the lack of bandanna LMAO )

and here is a selection of amazing sights in the reefs around Mamutik Island.













(what rain looks like from under water)



seriously, I think these images speak for themselves.

When not diving we had the island pratically to ourselves and we just chilled hardcore.



and enjoyed spectacular views. But, alas, we were only there for a week, Soon, it would be time. The upcoming challenge awaited us:



Mount Kinabalu. Highest peak in South East Asia.

We met up with group alpha 6 and climbed up until we got two thirds of the way, where we were due to stop for the night. This trek involved going through the cloud layer.



oblivion anyone?



a triumphant me at the rest stop.

The lodge at the 2/3rd point also had a resteraunt where we pigged out after the hard climb.



the first lil peak on the left…that’s how far we had left to go!

We were awoken at 2:15 AM to complete the ascent before sunrise. IT WAS FREEZIN COLD! And of course, the air is quite thin up there, so we got out of breath quite easily. But it was worth it.

















I particularly like the shadow cast by the mountain in that last pic.

After the sunrise we descended back to the lodge, had a hearty buffet breakfast (we were eating the food quicker than the kitchen could replenish it) then went the rest of the way back down to the bottom and returned to changeover,
which is essentially two days recovery and getting into our new groups.
We had lil “skits” that we had to do, little comedy routines and by some bizarre twist of fate, our group, who put absolutely no preparation into our skit managed to win that round.
Strange but true. Still. Those kit kat krunchies were nice.

And that’s the end of phase 2. just phase 3 left to go. I got the piccies back today, so hopefully I will try to upload them and post before I leave for America on Monday, but don’t hold your collective breath folks. ^^;
oh, and I will also try to post some piccies up from the changeovers and end of ex party.

Well that’s it from me and the guys of alpha 7 would like to ask you a question:



Is this the way back down?

(yes, they are wearing nothing but their boxers at the top of the highest mountain in south east asia. Mad, the lot of them.)

Ciao for now!!!



PS: Happy Birthday yesterday to Katy Onee-sama! hope it was a good one! ^^
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Thursday, May 4, 2006

hum dee dum
okies, nothing going on in my life at the moment.

i havnt got any piccies today, due to serious lack of motivation to do anything on my part. i'll probably upload em tomorrow if i remember, with intent to show them to you this weekend. gomen nasai.

uhm...yeah. thats about it. been waching the matrix trilogy, lotsa Gundam, been reading my volumes of Yotsuba, and listening to a lot of Nightwish. ph34r my weird tastes in mutlimedia.

today im going to do some gardening, since my mum asked me too and i got nothing better to do. i also got to go and vote in the local elections today for the regional govenors. blah blah blah politics blah blah labour conservatives, liberal democrats blah blah blah back stabbing cat fighting shit i have to put up with. *sigh*
et voila.

no comics. havnt had any inspiration for a while now.
today i leave you with random linkage to a funny comic.

Dr. McNinja Funny comic about a ninja who is also a doctor. HE PUNCHED A SNAKE. IN. THE. FACE. OK?!

and remember, if in a crisis and not sure how to cope, just ask yourself this one question:

What Would Batman Do?

goodnight. day. morning. whatever....

Comments (11) | Permalink

Friday, April 28, 2006

BTW, does everyone like my new Rei bg piccy?
i think im suffering from an abundance of rei...last night i had a dream about her. ^^; cant remember the exact details, but i knew it involved Rei somehow. i knew i watched too much anime. Oh wait, no i dont, thats impossible...



Yesterday I had a great time. I went up to London and bought many many DVDs. and i could have ought alot more, but im trying to save my money.

I bought:
Ghost in the Shell2: Innocence (I LOVED THAT MOVIE!!)
Chrono Crusade vol 7 (the last volume!!!)
Haibane Renmei vol 4 (also the last volume!! w00t!)
and FINAL FANTASY 7: ADVENT CHILDREN. THAT MOVIES ROCKS SO HARD YOU COULD RECREATE MOUNT RUSHMORE WITH IT WITH THE FACES OF THE FF7 CREW!!!!

phew. lil over excited there. ^^;;;

i also picked up "Gone in 60 seconds" directors cut and "Dukes of Hazzard: Unseen version" for really cheap too! like, the two DVDs for less than 20 quid! (like, uhm...36 US dollars.)

glad everyone liked my phase 1 piccies. when i finally get my act together, i'll upload and type up phase 2. its mostly just pictures of when i went SCUBA diving, but there was a whole lot more stuff we did too. ^^;


well, thats all from me today. I havnt done any chibi darke or anything like that recently. gomen. ^^;;;

so instead, RANDOM QUOTE!!

todays random quote(s) come from the Slogan Generator

Shadow-chan got my interest piqued. so here are a few random slogans starring yours truly:

"We Don't Make Darke. We Make Darke Better."

"See the Face You Love Light Up With Darke."

and the best one of today:

"You Can't Top a Darke."


ciao folks. ^^
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Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Hokay my darlings, its what you’ve been waiting for…
Part 1 of my malay adventure. Its currently 1:02 AM here in merry ole England, so forgive me if my typing is really screwy…


Ok, so the first thing you notice in Malaysia is that its freakin hot. And they expect you to build buildings and trek and stuff in this weather, so the first thing ya gotta do is acclimatise. We did this at Jungle camp, a nice enough place where we spent the first week. (BTW, this was all charity work, NOT A HOLIDAY! If anyone mentions the H word I will hurt them using a wooden spoon carved from Borneo Flora.)



This is my “basha” where I stayed at jungle camp. It was quite comfortable actually. You got used to the mozzie net after a while too. In fact, towards the end of the expedition, you didn’t feel safe unless you had it. ^^;;

Jungle camp basically consisted of meeting our teams for the first phase and doing some basic training, including a one day trek.



this is my team (alpha 2) doing a radio check



And this is the nice little stream we washed in. that night was hell though, sleeping in the actual jungle with nothing but a small tarpaulin over me and a hammock that was badly put up (by me) so I kept sliding down to one end. >.<

But after all that, we went to a nice hostel for the expedition opening ceremony, and then from there we were to head out to our different phases. My group were off to a remote village called Kampung Rita to build a library (or start to anyway)



This is Alpha 2 (phase 1), or my group for the first 3 weeks. Back row: Me.
Middle row (left to right): Justin, Phillipa, Sam, Martyn, Peter, Diana
Front row: (L to R) Jane, Vicky, Collin N Rosie (our project managers), Becky and Zoe.
They were a pretty cool bunch of people. ^^

You have to turn ya head sideways to look at this one…



this is pete with the lil ukulele he bought at one of the rest stops. -_-;
we were staying in a community hall and when we first got in there, it looked like this:



but after two days hard work, we transformed it into this:



luxery accommodation complete with kitchen, proper beds, dartboard and 24/7 audience…yeah…the local kids were fascinated by us, and would basically watch us every hour of the day (and a lot of the night too) it was kinda cute to begin with, but after a while (and after they always insisted on coming to wash with us in the river-did I say wash, I meant SPLASH AROUND WHILST WE’RE TRYING TO HAVE A BIT OF PRIVACY) …yeah, they were kinda annoying. But useful too…
like bringing us…



FRESH COCONUT. Seriously, ripe coconut straight off the tree is possibly one of the most refreshing things on this planet. ^^ yum.

The other part of our luxery accommodation was the bathroom facilities…



you have to understand, we thought we were gonna be squatting over a hole for 3 weeks. To actually have a proper sit down seat (albeit over a smelly hole) was sheer class. And, occasionally, when the mozzies weren’t around and it was quiet, and you had something burning (like incense or something) it was actually quite a pleasant experience to visit George. Oh yah, that’s what we named the toilet. George. Don’t ask, it’s a long story involving bodily functions. But the name stuck throughout all three phases and even after Raleigh finished the library, word on the grapevine was that the Chief of the village wanted to keep George intact! Probably cuz it was a nicer bog than the chiefs own one… ^^;;



This is the river where we washed daily, and if you got down there quick before anyone else, it was quite nice. ^^

The library we were tasked to start building was meant to be built on a paddy field…this meant we actually had to HARVEST the rice first, but once we done that, we got started on digging the foundations…



of course, that’s when it wasn’t raining…


But we made good progress despite crappy tools and materials…



Btw, that’s the chief’s shop in the background, another luxery we took full advantage of. ^^;



This was us on the last day of work, a bit stronger and a better equipped for the next 6 weeks of Raleigh.

Of course, it wasn’t all work.

We also sunbathed



did a little wildlife watching



Went to the beach



And again



And again…this was the perfect beach…utterly deserted and never before visited by western people



We also went to a waterfall (sorta)






Taught at the local school



Took on the teachers at footy…and lost…



Became the first white people to ever play Connect Four at this particular spot in the jungle halfway up a steep hill…



Went boat riding (well, that was the only way to get to the beach)



And we even took part in a little Local Cultural Dancing



yes, that is me. ^^;;

we even found time to have a silly little awards ceremony.



That’s me at the front holding my “Firemaster” award for being l337 and skilled at fire building and maintenance. Ph34r my m4d 5k1ll5.

Oh and in case you’re wondering, YES. I am wearing a bandana in every single picture you will see of me in Malaysia. That’s cuz I never took one off, other then when I was sleeping, bathing or changing it for a clean one…

I had a fantastic time in Rita, the locals were great and it was very satisfying work. But alas, I had to leave. I had 6 more weeks of other adventures awaiting me.



BUT

That is a story for another day. if you actually took the time to read all of that…thank you. Now get back to work.





(I painted that!)

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Sunday, April 23, 2006

man I suck.
jeez. im really sorry guys that i havnt posted in a week, nor have i got any Malaysia stuff ready for you. Between one thing and another i just havnt got round to doing it. I got a bunhca photos developed the other day though, and got the picture CD that came with em, so this morning im going to upload and resize a selection and either tomorrow or sometime this week i'll be posting part 1 of Darke's Malaysian Adventure! really sorry i havnt done much towards this. and thank you to all who commented on my last post. i missed you guys.

So whats been happening in my life this past week?

tuesday i did my bike basic training (again) so i can legally ride Luna. however, i've also had to get the insurance sorted and i've had to get her re-taxed...the insurance was done last wednesday, but they havnt got round to sending the cover note through to me and without it, I cant get Luna taxed and thus cannot ride her legally on the roads. *sigh* its so much hassle. its taken up a sizable chunk of my time.

wednesday i went to the crematorium with my mum and some of my dads family to collect my nans exhumed ashes. we put em in a nice little casket and re-buried her in a little apple tree we put in my grandad's garden. it was a really annoying though, cuz the crematorium gave us the ashes in a polythene bag, which was placed in a cardboard box. you cannot put dead people in a cardboard box, im sorry. luckily there was this place nearby and they had some samples of brand new caskets for exhumed remains, and they kindly sold us one of these sample products. they transferred the ashes from the airtight bag into the casket, which was nice of them. the casket is a really nice metal one with ornate designs on it, its much better then anything else we could have buried her in.

thursday i went back to cadets. nthing much has changed there. ^^; i kinda regained my motivation for it slightly though since being away.

friday i went back to snorkelling club, which was fun, and i also went to see my buddy Nick. it was his 19th birthday on thursday so i went and said hi, and showed him the photos from Malaysia (which i will beuploading shortly, promise!!) it was great to see him again. i kinda missed the last bus home though, and had to call my dad. damn, i wish i could start riding already. >.<

this weekend mum n dad are doing alot of little tasks around the house such as putting up shelves and stuff. i help here and there, but most of the time its best just to stay out of the way. ^^;

This week i wanna go up london and catch up on my anime. ^^ plus maybe look into buying plane tickets. we'll see.

im also gonna call keith (my boss) and see if i can get my old job back. i really need cash. ^^; although im gonna see if i can just work downstairs this time, i hated working in the restaurant before i left.

and thats it from me. no piccies or anything. its raining here (although not as hard as it did in Malaysia!!! )

im gonna leave you with an extract from my Malaysia journal.

"After lunch we went and challenged the Park Rangers to a game of footy. (soccer in case yuir wondering) So far during this expedition the rangers have always won against Raleigh, but today we forced the into a draw...although we did have to extra people on our side, who were rangers, and we were kinda cheating a little bit. ^^; Still, a 3-3 draw and only at the expense of their goalie! (merv, our Project manager accidently took him out. Whoops!!!) Tonight we're going to the Scientist Rest-House to sit on their comfy chairs! Oh yeah, one other thing - I went to cut the sleeves off one of my Raleigh T-shirts and accidently cut them off one of Merv's t-shirts instead!!! Whoops! He was ever so slightly bemused. I fear his retaliation! ^^;;; "

-extracted from Darke's Malaysia Journal (Phase 3- Danum Valley)


toodles.
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Sunday, April 16, 2006

   hey everyone!
hiya guys...

i still dont have my stuff ready to tell you about my adventures, but thats gonna be my main priority this week, to get a report written up and some kinda photo thing going on. ^^; thanks for your patience.

Happy Easter to all who care. I got a lotta choccie eggs downstairs waiting for me. yum. ^^ im so glad i dint miss easter. w00t! (course, we should rememer that the true meaning of easter is not about the eggs, its about the ressurection of christ.)


Today i have a busy-ish day. Hopefully im going to see my grandad this afternoon. i havnt seen him since i left for malaysia and i dont know if he's gonna be around much longer or not. so im gonna try and spend a bit of time with him.

Also ths evening I get to meet up with Rhian and we're going for a drink or something this evening to catch up. Im really looking forward to it.

This tuesday im going to be doing my Compulsary Basic Training for motorbikes so I can ride Luna again. My CBT expired whilst I was away, so I hav to redo it else i have no transport. ^^;;

um, what else... oh yeah, the new series of Doctor Who started last night. I think David Tennant makes an excellent 10th Doctor.

I've been trying to catch up with some of you guys and also with my anime and manga. There are about 8 DVDs that have come out since i've been away that I wanna get, and proably a few manga vols too. ^^; but i havnt got a lot of money. i should go back to my old job but i really wanna go America before I do that (Chrissy, Mindy, Amber and Allie, we gotta start talking about the possibility of me being in the area for a week or two very soon, if thats ok with you guys)

uhm...started to build my Blue Frame 2nd L model that i bought before I left and never got round to starting before i left. ^^; i also wanna get another chibi darke model done and probably start drawing CDDs again. we'll see.

and thats about it from me. I missed you guys.

Happy Easter!


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