Eight Random Things .. ..

So it appears to be my turn for the "Eight Random Things" after being tagged by Danacea

The question is what to choose from my "dark & distant" past .... Well here I go ....

1) I've been working for Blockbuster since October '93.
It was a fill-in job whilst I tried to decided what to do with my life. After doing every job in the field other than district manager, I now find myself in the IT dept. filling the role of Retail Systems (or Support depending on who you talk too) Engineer.
I still haven't decided what to do with my life ....

2) I'm legendary amongst my clubbing friends for my ability to dance all night without the aid of "chemical stimulants" and still have the energy left the following morning to get everyone home safely by car.

3) I spent New Year's eve 1999/2000 at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield attending the Gatecrasher bash that was held there .... along with 24,999 people.
The Chemical Brothers were awesome and dropped Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the middle of their set ... The entire crowd responded by singing along to it which was amazing. Much lunacy was had that evening and I believe I've still got the pictures to aid the memory of my more "spangled" friends ;) ...
And yes I drove up from London and back home again straight after !!

4) On July 13th 2002 my best mate and I headed down to Brighton for Fatboy Slim's 2nd free event on Brighton Beach ... Along with 250,000 like minded people ... It has since become the stuff of legend .... Good times :)

5) I have a copy of "Iron Man" issue 4 from August 1968 .. Nuff said :)

6) I've spent the vast portion of my life being referred to as a certain Sesame Street character
The nickname has followed me in various 'guises for the best part of 20 years to the extent that the "Higher ups" at work all refer to me as "Cookie" and that's what I get introduced as ... I have a couple of cuddly versions of the blue furry one at home too ...

7) I proposed to my Girlfriend with a ring hidden inside a Kinder Surprise Egg
With patience and a steady hand I unwrapped the egg. Separated the 2 halves, removed the toy from it's little yellow capsule and replaced it with the engagement ring. Resealed the egg and re-wrapped it. Total time for the operation was 30 minutes. The look on her face on Easter Sunday last year when she realised exactly what I'd done ... priceless :)

8) I've had a snowball fight with a squad of Russian soldiers.
Quite a few years ago now I went to Russia on a school trip. During a wander through Gorky Park admiring the ice sculptures, which have to be seen to be believed, my friends and I started a little bit of snow war amongst ourselves. The main reason for this was that it was pancake week at the time, yes they have a whole week for it, and during this it's customary to have a snowball fight. So as the saying goes "when in Rome ....."
The minor skirmish took on what we thought was going to be a very serious turn of events when a stray shot hit the arm of a soldier stood next to his truck, a truck packed with the rest of his squad (about 10 of them in total) ... There we were wondering what on earth was going to happen next, thoughts of arrest and imprisonment under some archaic rule rushing through our brains. What actually ended up rushing was a volley of snowballs hurled in our direction by said group of soldiers who'd left their rifles in the truck and gone for less fatal ammunition.
They caught us off guard by this sudden salvo but we regained our composure and returned fire.
This continued for about 10/15 minutes before they went back to their soldier-ly duties.
Of all the sights we saw and things we experienced .. that one instance of friendly competition, with none of us speaking the others language, was possibly the high point of the trip.

So that's my eight random things .... A little glimpse into my past which triggered a couple of "misty eye" moments for me ...