Veritas21C

No, never, because then I wouldn't be the person I am today... I've done some silly, stupid and bad things in my life but I wouldn't change any of it. We learn from our mistakes and are better for it. Have you ever spent longer than a week outdoors without a roof over your head at any time?

Right, I'm going to add my two penneth here... Link to those figures please? Even the worst estimate I've seen is less than half that number... Regardless, have you actually been to Iraq? I have, and the majority of the people are much happier with the change. Don't believe everything you read in the papers... The country is on a slow road to recovery and becoming the golden boy of the Middle East. Yeah, those inspectors weren't able to comb every square inch of desert. What is international law? The same law that Iraq managed to violate a bazillion times? Irrelevant... How many Christians and Jews do you see going around slotting infidels? *puts on flame retardant suit* Fact is, Islam is one of those religions where it's easier to convert people to extremism. Everyone meddles, everyone's got their fingers in all the pies in some way shape or form. You think the Middle East would be a happy fun place if we left them to it? Israel would have been driven into the see long ago, there'd be a mad stranglehold on oil and gas, you say 'so what?' you have a car I'll bet, at the end of the day voters don't care about poor Johnny Turk in Frickfrakistan and his hardships, they care about a cheap tank of fuel and a low cost standard of living. I'm not saying it's good, or right, but it's just the way things go. Conspiracy! Conspiracy! I watched it a few years ago, it's pretty biassed mate. I'd hardly call them puppet governments, it's not like the Nazi's rolling into France and sticking in the Vichi government. Yeah, down south in Afghan it's all a bit mad, you can't go blaming that all on Terry Taliban, if the NGOs and Charities got off their arses in Kabul and stopped drinking beer and discussing the merits of the different themed restaurants in the city and started with the regeneration of the south of the country things would start improving. I can't comment much on the old 'Sunni Triangle' but from guys I've spoken to things are slowly but surely getting there. I'm well aware that Saddam had no link to 9/11, however, at the end of the day, the man was a fucking tyrant and a lunatic, consistantly giving two fingers to the precious UN. Without going all 'you don't know man, you weren't there!' on you, I saw plenty of shit that justified invading the country, and it will work out for the best... Regardless, what's done is done, if troops are withdrawn now the current situation will get ten times worse and Iraq WILL CERTAINLY become a havan for terrorists and nasty folk. Not only that, it completely erases all the hard work that's been done so far, and all the sacrifices that blokes have been asked to make.

Woo, I'll give an answer to both questions! Yes... I've lied about my age to get served in pubs and get into films. I look a lot older than I actually am (hard paper round) so when I say I'm 20 people sometimes call bullshit. Yes, I do sometimes wonder how my life would be if I'd done something different or gone down another path, but then I wouldn't be who I am today, fair enough I might be doing better for myself somewhere, I could also be a dick or dead or something... so I don't really brood about what could have been. Have you ever 'lost time' due to being drunk, ie had a blackout of more than an hour or so?

Nursery Rhymes for adults... Rude words ahead Mary had a little skirt With splits right up the sides And everywhere that mary walk The boys could see he thighs Mary had another skirt T'was split right up the front ...but she didn't wear that one often Mary had a little lamb Her father shot it dead Now it goes to school with her Between two chunks of bread Little miss Muffet sat on a tuffet Her clothes all tattered and torn It wasn't the spider that crept up beside her It was little boy blue and his horn Simple Simon met a pieman going to the fair Said Simple Simon to the pieman What have youu got there? Said the pieman unto simon Pies you dickhead Mary had a little lamb It ran into a pylon 10,000 volts went up its arse And turned its wool to nylon Georgie porgie pudding and pie Kissed the girls and made them cry When the boys came out to play He kissed them too 'cause he was gay Jack and Jill Went up the hill To have a little fun Jill the dill Forgot her pill And now they have a son

Yeah, more times than I want to remember (and some times I can't remember), fortunately never been picked up for it by the rozzers. Leading on to... Have you ever woken up somewhere with no idea where you were or how you got there?

Yeah, I got bottled at a party once when I was 16, needless to say I wasn't too happy about it... I wasn't in too bad a way, in fact was probably the most coherant of everyone, what with all the drama that was unfolding regarding my apparantly mortal injury. Anyway, I got a ride to the hospital in a flashy ambulance where I was checked out and told I was fine other than a very mild concussion. This left me in a spot of bother as I had no way of getting home as I'd planned to camp at the party in my tent and the phone at my house just happened to be broken at the time. I managed to scrounge a lift home off the policewoman who'd come to the hospital to take my statement at about 4 in the morning. Have you ever fired a gun?

A Jelly Baby goes into a doctor's surgery one day and say's 'Doctor! Doctor! I think I've got AIDS!' The doctor looks at him and says 'You can't have AIDS, your only a little Jelly Baby.' To which the Jelly Baby replies 'I know! But I've been shagging All Sorts!'

Pretty fancy DailyDi, good effort!

I managed to write off a car I'd had for ten hours by driving it into an escaped cow on the road. I walked out of it with nothing but dented pride, can't say the same for the poor beef. Without a doubt one of the most surreal moments of my life seeing this cow fucking run (A RUNNING COW!!!) out onto the road into the beam of my lights, I slammed on the breaks but it was too late, hit it's hind quarters and it's arse bust the front of the car and smashed my windscreen. Have you ever found yourself in a spot of bother in a foreign country?

This mofo... Should have maybe resized the pic I just realised... Get a bigger screen! Have you ever been wrongly accused of something?

Longest without washing? 5 days or so, I wasn't being a dirty sod though, circumstances dictated it. On another occasion I went 30 days without access to running water and whatnot in the depths of the jungles of Belize, just dipping into a river every few days, when it was practical. Have you ever taken part in any sort of protest or march? If so, what for?

Yeah, probably about 20 hours solid... jetlag+lots of alcohol=sleep. Have you ever been involved in a brawl? Did you come out of it on top?

Did you hear about the scarecrow who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? He was outstanding in his field.

I've always thought Superman had it pretty much made... apart from the whole Kryptonite thing... I'd probably go for his powers, there's fair old scope for abuse too. As far as single powers go (Superman really is an all in once package) I would say Magneto from the X-Men. I don't know why he's so evil... he could have gone into construction and made a fortune. Have you ever paid for the services of a 'Lady of the night'? Or had one paid for you... or failing that do you know someone who has? Just noticed this awesome!

If you're mother is that upset by the idea of you staying overnight with this fellow try meeting him for the day a few times if at all possible (if he doesn't live in Inverness or somewhere daft and in the back of beyond like that) and let her know where you're going, get her to phone you every hour or so. Then maybe you could go away for the night once she's a bit more comfortable. Or you could just rearrange it and say you're going off with some mates from uni on the lash in another town where one of them lives.

Well said Kanji... People will always be killing people. The Israeli government has the right to protect it's citizens, if that means innocent people get in the way then boohoo... it's brutal... it's war, can you get over it? Civilians have always died in war, either by accident or on purpose (firebombings of Dresden and Tokyo by the RAF and USAAF in WWII spring to mind orders that came near enough from the very top, our histories are hardly squeeky clean). But in this case it's Hezbollah the rest of the world should save their bile for... they're the ones using civies as human shields, placing rocket launchers next to Mosques and hostpitals... provoking the Israelis into innadvertantly causing civilian casualties which in today's media frenzied world are going to be at the forefront of every soldier's mind from the lowliest buckshee private soldier to the top brass... And I can guarentee next month there'll be a different area of conflict and all new atrocities for people to get teary eyed about. I can also guarentee that by next month most people, yourself probably included John will be saying 'Qana whuh?'

Yeah, when I was a small child staying at my auntie's house I was pretty petrified by a raging thunderstorm on outside. Many years later on exercise in Belize we were waiting for a helicopter lift when the sky clouded over and the heavens parted and it started lashing down, this was real rain, like the air had turned to water, it was fantastic as we hadn't seen a drop for about two weeks, some bloody rainforest! A helicopter was just taking off with a load of bods on when a bolt of lightning arced down and with a thunderous boom obliterated a huge tree about 20 yards away from the whirleybird and thirty away from me. It was one of the most awesome things I've ever seen. The pilot grounded his bird PDQ and started laughing his tits off, the lads in the back looked less amused. Understandably we were all quite nervous with all these trees exploding around us, none more so than the Sergeant Major's radio operator who in an effort to get better comms was ordered to hold his radio on top of his head. The helicopter crew eventually braved it during a brief respite and headed to the next drop off point, however, no more lifts that day and the rest of us were left waiting for two hours to be picked up by trucks. Have you ever won any sort of competition for being skillful and generally ace at something?

Done many stretches of 24 hours plus on exercise and Ops with the Army. Probably the most punishing for me was going on an exercise last year. Decided it would be a good idea to go out with one of my mates who was at Uni up where he was the night before we went into the field. Woken up at 11am Friday... Wobbled into my car early afternoon still in quite a state, made the 120 mile trip home hoping the fuzz weren't on the route down. Had a very cold shower, sorted my kit and headed to the TA Centre whereupon we were all split up into sections and whatnot and I had the pleasure of being handed a GPMG (machine gun) avec several hundred rounds of link. Straight onto the back of a truck to the training area, no chance for any sleep in the back of the bloody thing. Insertion march into some woods for orders, hangover just getting a grip of me by this point... straight into various attacks, clearing woods, all that rhubarb, and before breakfast to boot. I was sweating blood to say the least but I managed not to pile in and by the afternoon was somehow looking better for it than some of the other lads. Finally got to lay up for a few hours at about 9pm Sat night before doing it all again the next day. Not a bad stretch. Not quick enough I guess... Yes, I was dared to streak across the footie pitch of the local primary school when I was bladdered at someone's house party, it was dark and the middle of winter. Did my deed only to find my clothes had been nicked and the nobheads had locked me out of the house. I was let back in sometime after I started turning blue. Have you ever killed an animal with the intention of eating it?

Yeah, I've bought the odd DVD that I haven't heard of in sales and whatnot. Usually end up regretting it. Had a mate who bought a pirate copy of Brokeback Mountain just after it came out in the cinemas. Played dumb with him as he went off to watch 'just another cowboy western' obviously oblivious to the hype surrounding the film. His face the next day when quizzed about it was a picture. 'Noone told me it was about that!' says he. When the blurb said it was about two men 'exploring each other' what are you going to expect? What's the most exotic thing you've ever eaten?

Yes, I was getting a lift home from camp with a mate in his swish new saloon. I don't think we dropped below 100mph for much of the 3 hour journey back. Absolute lunacy. Do helicopters count as well? What was the last big risk you took?

Wrong side of the Pennines I'm afraid, though saying that Carlisle's not a million miles from Newcastle.

Off the top of my head... Last of the Mohicans Snatch (always has me in stiches) Cross of Iron (The Russian front from the German perspective) Taxi (The original French version, not the horrid one with Queen Latifah) Zulu ('If it's a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it's a short chamber Boxer Henry point 45 caliber miracle!' Fantastic stuff) Apocalypse Now (had to slip a 'Nam film in there somewhere, avoid the Redux version... far too long) The Ninth Gate (Johnny Depp, need I say more?) Starship Troopers (fantastic stuff, read the book as well)

When I was in the Sandpit my company was on a ridiculous patrol routine for about four or five days while one unit was relieved by another and we were on the highways securing all the convoy routes for them. Anyway after three days of eight on four off you're understandably pretty goosed, my team and I came in off our patrol got cleaned up and crashed in our tent. Alarms were set for our next timing (we had to be back down at the vehicles at some ridiculous hour 03:30). Unfortunately we all slept through them, cue our Lt waking us up at 03:40 looking none too pleased. Cue a beasting once we'd finished that patrol. What's the most bizarre place you've ever spent the night?

Keep your head down mate! I've just returned from a tour of Iraq. What's the weather like now? Good luck and stay safe, you'll probably see some things over there that you wish you hadn't... Just don't let it get in your head, stick with your mates and take care. Where abouts are you based? Drop us a PM or an E Mail at some point. Oh, and watch out for those bloody kids! If it isn't nailed to your body they'll have it off you!

In no particular order... Sharpe: Napoleonic War series avec Sean Bean The Shield: Morally dubious cop drama Band of Brothers: Brilliant. American Dad: How are they allowed to get away with it across the pond? Must sail very close to the wind over there. Battlestar Galactica: The new one, ace. South Park: Still manages to make me laugh Law and Order and it's various spin offs. Nathan Barley: Can't really describe it, comedy show written by a fellow called Chris Morris. Funny, but not haha funny. Oz: Very violent, very gritty prison drama. The A Team: Probably nostalgia from when I was a kid... noone dies! Fantastic!