"And the oppresors are trying to keep me down
Trying to drive me underground
And they think they have got the battle won
I say forgive them Paris, they know not what they've done"

So, this has been my first week back at the hell of the Scottish Training Foundation and so far it's been relatively painless. It seems to be a good bunch of people I'm being inducted with and the guy who is in charge of us is far different to the kind of STF staff I'm normally used to. He's pretty reasonable and straight up about things, despite his hands being tied in certain matters. First two days have been pretty short and we get tomorrow off because everything is being moved to the newly taken over and renovated building in Ardrossan. Apparently Friday will be pretty short too, but then next week the real hard slog will start with strict adherence to times of 9.00 to at least 3.30 every day (two ten minute breaks and just half an hour for lunch a day and no point in being a passive smoker because there's no smoke breaks). Considering the number of units and people that will be converging into one building I hope we don't end up like sardines or that we have to be around young neds all the time.

Tuesday, I decided while in Irvine to visit the Crown before going home. I had three pints there and got pleasantly tipsy. SHE was there (complete with the dulcet tones of Foghorn Leghorn) but she let the nicer barmaids do most of the serving and we never had to interact or directly look at each other.

Today we had "fun and games" in the form of a couple of trivia quizzes to work through. Some of the questions were on my fields of expertise. One was who Eric Arthur Blair was better known as (George Orwell), another was before the French Revolution who the quote "let them eat cake" was atrributed to (falsely most famously attributed to Marie Antoinette but previously applied to others). Another was about the name of the Doctor's time machine. Not only did I know the easy answer of TARDIS but I wrote down and answered when enquired what it stood for, which earned me being called a geek and wrongly labelled as a "Trekkie", lol! Good job I didn't also add knowing who gave it it's name (or the similar origin of the name Liberator in Blake's 7). I didn't volunteer out loud the additional information about the Marie Antoinette answer though, as I didn't feel like giving a history lesson about the repetitive tactics of pampleteers.

We got let away about half ten today, so I got the bus back home with one of the other guys who stays close by (and likes playing strategy games all day on the computer). I had started acquiring the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica (how stupid of the US Sci Fi Channel to let the UK's Sky One get this episode before America - not the best way to get ratings on the day), so this allowed me to get home early and finish the job. Called me mate Shareen to come over but she said no because of the heavy rain, grrr! LOL, me mate Shareen has managed to lose another one of her shop jobs in Saltcoats and is looking to get something in Glasgow now. At least she manages to avoid getting stuck on unemployment courses and the like, but what will she do when she's been fired too many times by every suitable employer within travelling distance? After watching BSG I went to sleep for about at least three hours (and I know the tiredness of early rises and the impossibility of ever getting eight hours sleep the night beforehand will just make me progressively tireder as each week goes on).

I now have The Simple Life 5 on DVD, but unfortunately I'll have to buy season 4 again because the second disc refuses to play at all. LOL, despite knowing that Paris would be rescued, I still couldn't help worrying about her when she became lost in the woods - I'd appreciate it if she stops scaring me like that in future. I could be doing with a new personal CD player too, as the one I have keeps deciding not to play just about every other CD I try on it, but none of the ones I've looked at in Argos catalogues and the like seem to have a remote control (and I don't want to have to fiddle about with it in my bag unlocking it when I'm walking, getting on a bus, paying for something or when someone starts talking to me). I overheard someone joking about being psychic yesterday - resisted the urge to challenge them as to what I was thinking about that very moment, hee hee hee (and no that answer really does ever change)!

In other news, Lily Allen looks good in a bikini in the French Riviera and Tura Satana in Faster Pussycat costume looks far better than she should at 69.

Lalala!