Buried Treasure

As she drew her trowel across the soil at the bottom of the trench she had no idea exactly how the next few seconds would change her life.  Her eyes were drawn to a sliver of metal appearing out of the dust and mud at the bottom of the trench.  She had spent the last 3 days on her hands and knees in this and other trenches across the lawn, she was one of the group of 3 amateur archeologists working a private dig.  The phrase it’s not what you know but who, 100% true in this case, the team leader of this dig Jane was the daughter of the family who lived here and they were the first team to dig this site.  This was hardly a site of any national importance and there was little other interest, however Jane had a number of small items that had come out of the various flower beds over the years and did suggest that there may be something under the grass that would be worth spending this time.

Jane was her professor at University and for some reason had picked her to be part of this team, what she didn’t realise was that Jane had spoken to many other people at the University and in the end only two of her students were interested enough in her personal investigation to come and spend time helping her.  Debbie was in the 2nd year of her studies at university and her interest in archaeology that began whilst watching TV programs on a Saturday afternoon had grown into an academic focus.  She had been out scouring fields with metal detectors at 14 and had managed to join a local amateur archaeological group at 16 and had been on a number of digs.  However in all of these she was just a single member of a large team with little importance upon her shoulders.  Now with Jane her professor, Liz another student and her they were trying to cover all aspects of an investigation with three people.  They were taking turns digging, making details notes of any finds and then cleaning, identifying and cataloging them with the same level of professionalism that any larger dig would have achieved.

In general the finds were nothing spectacular and she was slowly giving up hope of finding anything to make these three days worthwhile.  Sure they had discovered a small wall , but after some further investigation they had decided that it was a small outhouse less than 200 years old.  There had been a few bits of pottery that had been discovered and a couple of rather nice broaches that had come out of Liz’s trench, but Debbie felt as though her trench was really giving up nothing. She had been taking back the surface an inch at a time for the last hour and had found little, as she drew back her trowel one more time something caught her eye.

It was a glint of metal that drew her eye to the find, she immediately reached to her kit and drew out a brush to allow her to clear the surrounding dirt without risking damage to the find.  As the dirt cleared she could now see that it was a ring with a gold band it appeared to have some kind of decoration on it, but at this point she could not make it out.  She managed to lift the ring without damaging it and with it now clear of the surrounding sould she could make out some kind of inscription around the outer edge in a language she did not recognise.  She continued to brush off the dirt and it was clear that the ring was in very good condition, which was unusual when compared to the other finds they had made.  She went to place the ring in one of the plastic holding boxes, however at the last moment she paused and drew the ring back towards her in her right hand.  As she held the ring up  it caught the sun and she almost felt a warmth pass through her body and her left hand seemed to move up towards her right without consious thought.  She sat there for seemingly hours fixated on the ring as her right hand moved closer, however it can only have been a second when Jane sat down beside her and started gushing over the ring she had found.  She managed to pass the ring over to Jane for her to look at it, however Jane had it in her hand for only a brief second before she handed it back complaining about how cold and evil it felt.  Jane beckoned Liz over to look at the ring and she also took it off Debbie but again she handed it back complaining that she didn’t like how if felt.  Debbie held the ring in her hand and again the warmth began to flow through her, she managed to place the ring in one of the holding boxes, but it took her some effort to break contact with the ring.

That was the weekend that was….

Valentines weekend, nothing else can surely send as much fear into the male mind.  Thankfully I think I managed to survive this one intact, I did some good things, some really good things and probably one stupid thing.  But all in all a very good weekend.

The Valentines stuff all came off great, the perfect card that I spotted out of the corner of my eye 2 weeks ago, went down a storm, we hadn’t actually bought each other presents prior to the day, but a pair of ruby earrings for her and a set of Bose Headphones for me were just about spot on from either point of view.  A great meal in the evening and then watching Slumdog Millionaire yesterday rounded off the good parts to the weekend.

Ok so what was the stupid thing you ask, I came across an old link to oGame!!  Now this is an online space game which I played obsessively a couple of years ago,  for at least a year.  I got good at the game and tottally loved it, however in the end it came time to give it up and I did.  Yesterday I signed up for Universe 43 and began playing again, I know this is not going to end well, the worse thing is that I can get to it on my iPhone which means I can monitor it during the day at work.  Its going to dominate my life again I am sure, this was not a smart move.

It’s cold outside Part II

They’re back

http://dave.uktv.co.uk/library/red-dwarf/red-dwarf-exclusive-first-image/

Ok this is getting beyond a joke.

It’s amazing how this country goes to pot when we get a small snowfall and it’s also hardly surprising when you get all these critics complaing that schools were closed on Tuesday when no snow fell.

If you look at the facts, the Met Office advised that there would be loads of snow, schools decided to take that information and rather than waiting until the last minute and close schools, giving parents no time to try and find some other option for the kids, announced as early as possible that they would close the schools.  It then didn’t snow.  Who’s at fault here, well my opinion is that no-one is at fault, the Met Office has their computers and they predicted snow, it didn’t happen, it’s not like they are always right…..  If the schools had attempted to stay open and it had snowed and someone had been injured trying to get to school, those same outspoken individuals would have been calling for the head of whoever kept the schools open in the worst conditions for 18 years.

The complaints that came out seemed to suggest that it sent a message to kids that “if it’s all going horribly wrong stay at home”.  Well I don’t know about them but it seemed to me that the kids didn’t stay at home, they went out and had a bloody good time outside.  Thats away from the TV, Xbox and Playstation and doing something active.  How long before someone suggests that councils should bring in snow machines to get kids active and prevent the spread of obesity, although of course someone is bound to outlaw sledging (I know a young girl was killed this week in a sledging accident and it really is sad…) because it’s dangerous, along with snowball fights etc etc etc.

Of course we are now in a situation where the councils are running out of grit and everyone is up in arms about how they could let it get this way.  Can I point out how wrong the Met office got it on Monday night saying heavy snow and then nothing, and last night saying the worst we would have was heavy rain, well we had 3 inches of snow overnight. If the Met Office can’t get it right, the councils can’t plan correctly and at the end of the day this is a once in 18 year event, how can the council be expected to hold enough stocks of salt/grit to cope with this kind of event all the time.  However what I do blame the council for is not reacting fast enough, out here in Berkshire, apparently the gritters didn’t get going until 5am today.  Well my alarm went off at 5am and we already had over 2 inches of snow.  You would have thought that someone might have looked out of the window!!!

Anyway for those of you who didn’t make it in to work today, enjoy it and those like me who managed it, well done for trying.

It’s cold outside…. Part II

It’s official….

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7851989.stm

The best bit of Bottom Live ever

Live by the lens, die by the sword – Part 2

She pushed through the crowd causing guests to turn at the commotion, something that never happened at these parties.  As she moved foward she could already see men in suits with their hands to their ears by the main entrance and she knew that route was impassable.  She stopped in her tracks, her mind running through her memory of the party thus far and the geography of the room, her reminicense threw up a door in the wall to her left that had appeared to be unguarded.  With that knowledge she moved in it’s direction hoping that it might provide a means of egress, with a plan in mind her, panic took a back seat and her training came to the fore. Her movement through the crowd was now more measured and attracted less attention from the crowd allowing her to quickly reach her objective, a quick twist of the door handle confirmed that it was unlocked and she slipped through.

Her luck was in a short corridor with a number of doors greeted her as she gently closed the door benhind her.  She glanced back at the lock and quickly realised there was no way to prevent anyone following her so moved to the first door.  The handle turned but the door remained locked, she pushed against it, testing the level of it’s resistance, and decided that any attempts to make her way through that door would take more time than she likely had, before someone discovered that she had escaped the hall.  She moved to the second door and again tried the handle, the door opened this time and she look inside.  A small room with shelves from the floor to the ceiling packed full of nothing that would help her current situation.  She closed the door behind her after noting the small barred window, high on the wall at the read of the room.  She moved to the third door and again turning the handle discovered the door unlocked, she opened the door wide and movd inside closing it behind her.  She now stood in what appeared to be one of the bathrooms specifically for the staff, the gold taps that she had seen earlier when using the bathroom off from the main hall, were missing and the mirror on the wall that was cracked in one corner certainly would have been replaced.   However her main interest was on the window at the back of the room and 3 hurried steps carried her over the tiled floor and allowed her a closer inspection of her target.

The window was locked and had re-inforced glass, however the frame appeared to be weak around one corner and when she applied pressure to it she could feel a certain amount of give to it and a chance of escape.  She knew that any kind of sustained attack on the window would attract her pursuers, she had to get through the window in one attempt or face capture and all the inevitable interegation that would bring.  She surveyed the room and only one possibility presented itself, she dragged a table from a corner to the wall near the door and set it up about a foot away from the wall and facing the window at the far end.  She slipped back out into the corridor and grabbed a fire extinguisher that had been placed there and dragged it back into the room.  She examined the top of the extinguisher and was able to unscrew the handle to expose the valve at the top of the cannister.  She lifted the extinguisher onto the table and lined it up with the window, then looking round she managed to find a spanner that someone had left in the room.

From outside the room she could hear voices raised and she knew that they were close, she raised up the spanner swung down with all her might on the valve.  The spanner met the valve with a loud clang and the valve broke off, the pressurised CO2 gas immediately started shooting out and for a brief moment she thought that the cannister was not going to move, but with a sudden whoosh the fire extinguisher lept forward and across the room, it arced from it’s launch point on the table across the room and crashed straight into the window and collided with the re-inforced glass.  The glass broke, however the re-inforcement kept it together and this transfered the force of the impact to the frame of the window.  The right hand side gave way and her escape route was there, although the voices in the hall were outside the door as she lept to her feet.  She crossed the room and reached the window as the door was flung open, a shout went out but she could not afford to look behind.  She reached the window and flung herself at the opening, however she realised immediately that the frame had not bent as much as she had orignally thought.

None the less she had managed to get most of her torso through the whole and was just turning her hips to drop out when hands wrapped round her legs.  She attempted to kick out but more hands held her legs tightly and began to drag her back in.  She tried to gain leverage on the frame to prevent them pulling her back in and whilst she intially made some progress the strength of her captors quickly dragged her in.  As she landed back on the floor of the bathroom she began lashing out at the bodies around her.  She managed to connect a fist with a chin and someone went down, another crumpled to the floor as one of her knees connected with his groin, however this was a numbers game and she was clearly fighting a loosing battle.

In the end one of the captors pulled out a taser gun and gave her a quick blast of 50k volts and her body was no longer in her control.   When she regained her senses she discovered that her hands were bound behind her and she was being half dragged half carried down a set of stairs into the basement of the building.  “This does not look good” she thought to her self when a door ahead of her was thrown open showing a single chair within a sound proof room.

Jack’s Back – 24 Day 7

Well following his little escapade in Africe, detailed in 24 Redemption, Jack is back in the US and in serious trouble.  CTU has been disbanded and Jack is facing an inquiry into some of the methods he has employed in his treatment of suspects.  However this wouldn’t be 24 if something major wasn’t brewing and Jack wasn’t in the middle of it.

Cue the return from the dead of Tony Almeda and he’s not working for the good guys.

Well 4 hrs in to the day and things are a little clearer, you can already see the people who are maybe not quite what they are supposed to be and of course Jack is once again right up to his neck in it all.  With the return of more of the loved characters this season is shaping up to be worth the wait that the writers strike enforced.

Sometimes people just drive me nuts!!!

Now I accept that everyone in the world has the right to their own opinion but this is just ridiculous.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7824940.stm

To make complaints about a comedian doing a comedy version of a passage from the bible, hardly the most outragious thing on TV these days.  It was a great sketch from one of the top comedians in the country as part of a performance for Prince Charles hardly contrevsial.  However what we have in the country are groups of mindless individuals jumping on the bandwagon following the Ross & Brand incident, which lets face it only went as far as it did because people read it in the papers, apparently 10 times the original listeners to the show complained, can you get better publicity than contreversy???

Live by the lens, die by the sword – Part 1

She watched them from across the room, their two bodies intertwined as they glided across the dance floor.  She raised the camera again her eye drawn to the view finder and with a bried hesitation as she framed the shot and then gently squeezed the button to capture the image.  A tiny click was the only evidence that the photo had been taken, the new mondern digital cameras did not have the tell tale click of the shutter or whirr of the motor driving the film forward to the next frame.   She furtively looked around and after checking that no-one was paying great attention to her, she clicked off another couple of pictures, before slipping her camera back into the small evening bag she had picked out to go with the outfit. The slinky black dress was by some new designer that she had never even heard of, but was apparently all the rage and consequently in a price range that her salary would never stretch to, however the instructions for this assignment had included funds that covered the dress and the state of the art micro-camera as well.

The brown envelope that had appeared under her hotel door had included a key to a luggage compartment at the local train station, that had contained the dress, camera and details of the target along with a substantial amount of cash that would cover her for incidental expenses.  She had been on missions before but never with this level of outlay for such a small return.  Previously she had sabotaged computers, planted explosives and on two occasion been at the trigger end of a sniper rifle, delivering the bad news to someone who had upset the wrong people.  For once the mission requirements were to get photos of all the guest at the party, admittedly a party at the presidential palace, but none the less simply some photographs.  Getting the invitation had been somewhat taxing and she had cashed in a number of favours from a few member of the political party who had been caught with their pants down, in two cases literally,  by her employers.  She had managed to smuggle the camera in to the party, the guard at the door seemed more interested in trying to look down her cleavage than actually searching her bag, whilst she did nothing to hinder his attempts.  She had managed to capture around half of the guest at the party when she caught sight of a face across the room, a face that shouldn’t be there and a face that could spell disaster for her mission.

He had been the school jock, an expert at any sport he turned his hand to.  He had captained the basketball and baseball teams and had been the guy that every girl at the school had wanted to go on a date with.  She never understood why he had asked her to the prom but he had and they had spent a glorious evening wrapped around each other on the dance floor, followed by a what he probably thought had been a glorious night in a room upstairs in the hotel.  Her memories of the event were less than glorious and it was something that she had regretted for many years. They had broken up soon after and he moved onto the next in a string of conquest, whilst she spent months shunning the opposite sex before she let herself open up to another.

Her appearance had changed since that night 5 years earlier and it’s likely that he would not notice her, however having reviewed guest list supplied to her she knew that his name was not on it.  The question that immediately filled her mind was if his name wasn’t on the guest list, what name was he using and why was he here under a false name.

It only took a second for the information to flow through her mind and when she glanced up she couldn’t see him.  “I imagined him” she thought, “or I just saw someone that looked like him”.  However she couldn’t let herself rest on those assumptions and she slowly began to circle the room to see if she could see him again.  She began scanning the faces she could see, her mission currently forgotten and with each face her concern lowered.   However once again in the far corner she had a brief glimpse of a face and again she had the flash of recognition.  She needed to be sure and began to move through the crowd with a purpose, her training taking over allowing her to flow into the available spaces that seemed to appear as she needed them, never needing to ask someone to let her by, therefore never being fixed in their memory.

Her training was good, her luck today not quite up to scratch as she moved past a group of three people, only a couple of meters away from him, a large space opened up giving her a clear view of him.  This gave her the confirmation that it was him, the only problem was that he was looking straight at her.  She saw the confusion cross his face as he probably half recognised her, however that passed before she could move and she watched his right hand move towards his mouth.  She could see the microphone concealed in his hand, saw his left hand move to his ear where an ear piece was half concealed.  She knew she was in trouble, he may have known her then, however it was unlikely that there previous relationship, if you could call it that, would have any sway upon his actions.   The only people with that kind of equipment had to be the security detail and with the camera in her bag and the photos she had taken of the guests and rooms she was caught red-handed.

She turned away from him and back into the crowd, flight the only thought on her mind.