Black Watch Mess Dinner

Last night, I was privileged enough to be invited to the coolest goddamn dinner I’ve ever been to.
My step father, John Angus, is an honorary member of the Black Watch mess, and his brother Steve used to be the company’s colonel. They managed to sneak me an invitation because of that, and my great grandfather was also a colonel of the Black Watch.
The Black Watch is a Scottish regiment, and is the most storied and histories regiment in Canada’s history, and has taken part in every major battle in both the great wars. As we walked into the Hall of the Watch through the entrance, past the honor guard dressed in formal parade gear, with regiment colors, kilt, spurn, tarkin, sash, and tall hat, the Officer on Duty came to attention for a display of arms to greet Steve, the guest of honor for the night. Behind them stood a trio of bagpipers and a drummer, who played an abbreviated rendition of the Black Watch Hymn. After he inspected the guard, we were ushered into the officer’s mess.
As you walk in the imposingly large double steel doors, you find yourself face to face with four massive wooden placards, with the names and years battles past. Paschendale, Vimy, Ypres, Somme, Dunkirk, the Oder River assault, Caen; the lists went on and on, listing all of the most influential, most gruesome battlegrounds of the wars that played host to the Black Watch.
We saluted.
First off, a few hours of ‘fighting thirst’ as they call it, which essentially means drinking neat scotch until you need to be helped to your seat. Maclallans, Glenlivet, Gelnmorangie; the list of fine spirits had me giddy, being a huge scotch lover, and I threw myself in wholeheartedly, and with much encouragement from the others to help me on. The others, I started to realize, were a who’s who of Montreal, and Canadian, big names. Though I’m not allowed to name names, there are a few things I can tell you. The black watch is an active regiment, serving in Afghanistan, as well as several other countries, around the world. There’s fear of family names being leaked, and it coming back to haunt their families, as has happened in the past.
Let me put it like this; to my right at the table was a Lieutenant General, to my left two majors on leave from Afghanistan. Across from me was a Major General, retired, who had served in the Second World War as Assistant Commander of the African Theater, and next to him was the Canadian minister of finances.
The meal was incredible; Sherry Consommé, followed by Steak a Jus, with wild beans and carrots, then Haggis with Sherry, followed by apple cobbler and handmade vanilla ice cream. And scotch. So much scotch. The table was set to a formal setting, all in fine polished silver and bone china emblazoned with the Regimental Crest, but there were only two glasses; one for scotch and one for sipping sherry. No water, not even wine or port. Scotch and Sherry; that’s it. There were crystal decanters for every two people, filled with the finest of spirits. Between every course, a jug of sherry, crystal as well, would be sent around, but there was a catch; as long as there was sherry in the jug, it couldn’t be set down on the table. It had to be emptied.
At the beginning of every course there was a parade progression of pipers and drummers with a different hymn each time. The best was when the haggis party came out. Four soldiers holding a platform with a big, steaming pot filled with a massive stomach, full of all the fixings. The commander of the Watch was handed a dirk, which has been blessed by the pope and given by the queen, and stabs the haggis three times, then pours brandy over it. Then, we all toast the haggis party and they head off.
Another strange experience was the snuff. Finley powdered, naturally grown tobacco leaves that are served to you from the head of a ram, in a little inset silver bowl. You sniff it. I don’t really get that part…
The night was a roaring shit show, and everyone there was completely pissed before long, and it only got worse.

I loved it.

Blog Summary - oct 28

Though technically my first written synopsis, I have been keeping an eye on my trends in leisure throughout this blog, and there are a few outstanding points. First and foremost, nature is prevalent in my activities. Though there are instances otherwise, being outside, getting fresh air, and generally being active, are staples to my recorded leisure. Be it Capture the flag or gardening, the majority of the time, leisure goes hand in hand with nature for me. Personally, I’d like to entertain the belief that I use leisure as an enabler to find myself in the outdoors, as compared to nature being criteria for my leisure activities. I’ve taken that stand because I still do a lot of other, non nature oriented leisure activities; like, for example, gaming. I’ll sit on my ass, smoke a joint, and play videogames with friends for hours on end locked up in my apartment. I’m also a big scene freak when it comes to music, which often finds me holed up in dark, smoky rooms with obnoxious, gritty electronic beats saturating the atmosphere. Not exactly a natural milieu. On the whole, however, regardless of what I’m doing, either as a guide during the summers, paid with responsibilities, or running through the woods like an idiot with friends for shits and giggles, I have fun in the woods, even if it’s mundane work like raking.
Another outstanding set of trends that I have noticed on a personal level are my tendencies towards purple, or deviant leisure. There are some things I’ve mentioned in my blog, like for example, my little shenanigans with the saran wrap, but there are also many things I have pointedly neglected to mention on my blog. Things such as graffiti, or drug use are something that I’m not comfortable going into detail about, though I will go so far as to mention that some such activities tend to be prevalent in my leisure. Those, I see as accessories to leisure, save maybe with graffiti. Graffiti is a draw for me because of the rush, the risk. That dopamine release associated with adrenaline keeps me coming back, so in that case, the deviant nature of the activity is the driving force. But in essentially all other cases, my leisure is accentuated by such deviant tendencies.
I’d say the biggest thing I’ve gained from the blogging process is a critical view on why I do what I do in leisure, as well as the subjective attitude that requires. Also noteworthy is the venue for expression blogging has given me; I find I enjoy the expression of my thoughts quite a bit.

so, i guess this is worth talking about.

...

Actually, i know it is, because it was goddamned hilarious.


So, i was working for a friend's parents, and as i and a pair of friends were leaving, we found four rolls of, oh, i'm gonna arbitraily say about 200m of seran-wrap to each roll. We started scheming so bad, it was contagous like HIV. We built up these elaborate schemes of who's cars or houses to wrap, in their entierety, in plasic wrap, giggling like little school boys. Our imaginations ran wild with the possibilities.

Well, we part ways with the intent to meet again soon and finalize our plans. As one of the friends and i are driving back to our place, we have an ingenious idea.

'Jesus mary and joseph, ian, i've got an idea!' he blurted. Well, not really, but that's what it felt like. We pulled a quick u-turn and headed back towards the house of our third partner in crime to seran his van while he was at rugby practice. We were so proud of our devious nature.

well, we get to his van, all hyped up, only to find out that these massive, 30kg rolls of Plastic are actually tubes of seran, as compared to one long sheet.

wow, we were dissapointed. Like, you know when you drop the icecream cone when you're like 5, and you're ready to find a fucking bridge to jump off? That's what we felt like. We would up just putting the huge-ass roll under the wheels of his car, so it couldn't move. Until he moved the roll.

Sigh. So much wasted potential.

What have i learnt from this? Aside from the fact that i should never buy a car, or my life will be wrought with angst, forever in fear of having it pranked, i learnt that leisure can kick ass. When it pull off.

Pz

The Return of the King(shit)

Well, i'm back, at long last.

I've got numerous excuses and explanations, but utimatley, my lack of presence herewithin can be summed up by a lack of internet. I'm ghetto, and havn't paid my bills.

But hey.

Well. I have in fact been quite leisurley in the past little while. This past weekend, i had organized a game of Capture the Flag on the Mountain, which was epic. It's a game i usually play at my summer camp, Kanawana, but this weekend, things took a really different spin. Because of the sheer ammount of space involved, the game was played with more of a John Rambo mindset, as compared to the Lance Armstrong that's usually prevalent at camp.
It was two teams of six playing over, ooh, about a square mile. our time was spent sneaking and crawling, done up in full camouflage. I felt like an SAS commando.
It was great for me, because, dispite the time required to organize it, it was a great chance to see people i hadn't seen in quite some time. There was work involved, but boy, was it leisure.

Well, it's been, what, a month? I figure it's about time to drop some beats, get some feet movin.

This is the latest of the latest; it's been online for about an hour as of this posting. Just remeber; it's MstrMono that brings em to ya live.

Thunderheist - Jerk it (Nasty Nav + JFK from Mstrkrft remix)
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&batch_id=Y2ovS3dnUzhZY1EwTVE9PQ

I cant get this goddamn song out of my head.

Matt and Kim - YeahYeah (Flosstradamus remix)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/50141044f6654a7b/

Shinichi Osawa - Rendevous (crookers remix)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/5014125098a9a873/


So, i'll be back soon, now that my net is up, in a flailing attempt to compensate for lack of time spent.


peace, fools.

And now, for somthing completley different...

So today i went out to the west island to visit my parents. Mabye visit isn't the right term; i helped close up the backyard and rake some leaves, and in exchange, my mom let me use her washing machine, so i could do a whack of laundry. it wasn't really obligated time, but it was fulfilling base needs, and it was kind of work.
To me, though, it was leisure. Romping around in the backyard barefoot, sticking my hands in dirt and water, getting messy, and getting fresh air. It was relaxing to play with the dog, getting in her last swim of the year.
Though i often neglect it, times like those often bring home the value of gardening as leisure. To me, it's using the work as an enabler to get some fresh air and slow down.

Hold up...!

Stumbled upon a copy of Def Jam's 10th anniversary. Couple a good, old school hip hop beats.

Keep it f r e s h .

3rd Bass - The Gas Face
http://www.zshare.net/audio/18958490397c206c/

Public Enemy - Shut Em Down (Pete Rock Remix)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/189587018e4a8842/

The Magnifying Glass

So, considering how this is supposed to be me taking a good look at leisure, and how i spend my time in leisure, i figure i should, at least once throughout this here shindig, take a straight up, no bloodclat, look at how i'm spending my time.

I chose the past few days as my subject of reference for a couple of reasons. first, i've got nothing to do, so i might as well. Secondly, i've been doing so goddamn little with my time, even i want to know exactly what i have done. I mean, i say i'm doing nothing, but i'm clearly not sitting in my room, staring at the wall, letting spittle build in the crook of my mouth until it dribbles down my chin. On to my shirt even.

Well, at least i hope not. Anyways, here we go.

First things first; i'm a gamer. And a huge techie. but a gamer first and foremost. Needless to say, that's been taking up a great deal of my time. To me, i'd have to say the concept of Leisure as Flow for sure applies to this; i'm playing games for six hours, straight, only broken out of my reverie by a painful urge to heed to the calls of nature. Try and tell me that's not a textbook example of "flow". Upon closer thought, it's true. I dont play games that are too hard or to easy, too fast paced or too slow, because they dont match my skill or interest levels. I've spent enough time gaming to know my niche, so i usually hit flow fairly fast. I'm going to have to allocate a good 20-25 hours of gaming out of 96. (Dont hate me for who i am...)

Next most frequent? This is a toughie. I'm going to have to say arbitrairily that it's socializing. This means many things, sure. Going downtown, cooking dinner, working out, playing games, whatever it may be. But i do feel as though, for myself, that the activities, save mabye cooking, are ones i do to be with people. It's my primary objective. That, to me, brings and represents, *ahem*, "...a state of mind, freely chosen, that results in intrinsic feelings of happyness, satisfaction, pleasure, and/or enjoyment." (Steven Henle, Sep. 16, 2008, AHSC260/01). I'm gonna pin a good 20-25 hours on the grapevine factor.

The remainder of time spent went towards less noteworthy stuff. Like, say, sleep. Or hygene. And other such. I'd allocate 40 hours for said peripherals.

But where, you ask, have the last five some-odd hours gone? Limbo perhaps?

...

I was hoping you could tell me....(and in case you didn't notice, that was a quote, up there. That one's for you two. :D )