"No-one ever died wishing they'd spent more time at work."

"Hmm...what if you were a health & safety inspector and you died in a building collapse that could have been prevented if you'd spent more time checking it out for structural defects? Then you might wish you'd spent more time at work, y'know, as the building was collapsing on you."

"..."

Ludicrous anecdote via half-a-movie review, I went and saw Hard Candy last night, which contains a certain infamous scene which some of you may have heard of and some of you may not have (I certainly had, so it's not like it was the suprise factor that got me).

I actually got through the scene okay. (annoyingly, I needed to go to the bathroom before the scene started, but I didn't want to give the impression I was running away from the scene, so I held on) There were some giggles from the girls in the audience at the pained expressions on all the men's faces, and I do believe I had a finger or two in my mouth as it was all going on, but the whole scene was implicit, they didn't show anything gross, and I didn't feel funny until after it was over. Then I felt a bit nauseous, and so I thought I'd stand up- maybe to get some air, maybe to go to the bathroom.

Then I fainted.

I don't remember standing up, or even falling down. It was actually highly disorienting, the first thing I remember was not knowing where I was or what time it was, I was just lying on the floor in the dark with lots of people crowding around me, and I felt very sick. As it turns out only a few seconds had passed, but I didn't realize it at the time so I was actually a bit frightened as I'd no idea what had happened.

Anyway I was ushered out of the theatre and after a minute of deep breaths and a cup of water I felt pretty much normal again- if a little embarrassed at passing out in a movie. The staff at the cinema were really nice about it, they refunded our tickets and were offering drinks and things (so big ups to Vue cinema in the West End), but I was a little annoyed because I never got to see what happened next, and now I don't know how the movie ends.

If anyone with a stronger stomach than me can outline how it all worked out in the comments, I'd really appreciate it.

Why is the 99 called the 99?

The origin of the name '99' Ice Cream (also known as a 99 Flake) is unclear. One theory is that to ice-cream loving Italians, '99' means 'very special'.

Name a 5-letter middle-eastern country starting with S.

Syria is in the middle-east, sharing borders with Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. Cyprus lies off its Western coast. Syria's capital is Damascus.

Where is the Ice Bar?

The Ice Bar is at 29-33 Heddon Street, Mayfair, London W1B 4BL. Contact them on 08714745769. The temperature is kept at -5C and the fittings are ice.

Who 'gives away' the bride if the father is not present, and what is the title of this person?

The presentation of the bride, if not by the bride's father, is call the Bride's Escort. He/she should walk on the left of the bride.

What word would you use to describe a self-defining adjective?

AQA thinks you are referring to the word "Eponymous". Examples of this abound, usually album's titled after the band who wrote them er. Metallica's 'Metallica')

This isn't really the answer we were looking for, although admittedly it was a poorly-worded question. In the final analysis, the word sought was: a recursive definition

How many islands comprise the British Isles?

There are more than 6000 islands in the British isles. Some of the smallest inhabited are in Scotland. The second largest island is Ireland.

Dear God,

if Satan's number is 666, what is your number?

AQA thinks that God's number is probably 999 in most countries, except for the UK of course. For UK residents, AQA thinks it's 007, as he's all-important.

Hey Team,

Well I have been a very busy bee lately- in the last week I think I?ve only spent one night in London, the rest of the time I?ve been jetting all over the place taking care of business.

Let?s see, it all kicked off a week ago when my work had our summer ball, so I got all dressed up in a tux and had a very pleasant evening with my co-workers. Check out some photos of me looking fancy here:

Then from the ball to more work-related stuff, I went on a three day course in Horsley (near Guildford) called ?Managing Project Relationships?. The course itself wasn?t very helpful (pretty much teaching you how to deal with irritable people- like I didn?t learn that in Teacher?s College), but the location was fantastic- we were housed in a castle/manor called Horsley Towers- it had a gym and a spa pool and a lake and it was in the middle of a forest- it was like being on holiday- the food was good (and free, heh) too.

Then I went directly from Horsley to Hamble (near Portsmouth), where we did a training run for the PFI Challenge, which is a sailing boat race that my company participates in every year. This was my first time helping to operate a boat and it was a lot of fun- I even slept overnight in my own little cabin on the boat (which was a Bavarian `37, if you want to know what sort of boat I was in). What was most impressive to me, and I think you?ll enjoy this, was that if you have the same class of boat, and your crews are operating at roughly the same level of competence, and both boats are using the same wind, the only thing that determines who the winner will be is the decisions the captain makes. Like, the captain has to determine a course based on the conditions he observes, and he directs the crew how to best exploit those conditions, and whoever makes the best decisions will be the winner- everything else is just an extension of the captain?s will- quite apt advice for a management training course, really. On the downside I did get quite badly sunburned and I also took a boom to the head but both were well worth it!

After a quick jaunt back to London on Friday to shoot a music video (!) I was back in the country by Saturday morning to camp on a small island (isthmuth, actually) called Portland, which is just west of Weymouth. I went out there with some friends to do some rock climbing, and it was gorgeous! Absolutely beautiful, it was like being on a Greek island- the sun was shining, the water was crystal clear, the coastline was lovely. We did something called ?sport climbing?, which means one person ?leads? by climbing up to various notches, setting the rope on each notch as they do so, and then someone else ?seconds?, by climbing to the top (just like in regular climbing) removing the set-marks as they do so. I mostly did seconding, but I did my very first lead (which is way scary as half the time you?re not supported by anything) on Sunday. It was a lot of fun and I can?t wait to go back and do some more climbing.

So as you can see the last week has been very eventful, loads of stuff to do, it feels like a month has gone by since the ball. Would love to hear about your adventures too!

YTMD,

d