Paintballing – a little taste of war

OK , here I am fed up from being cooped up in my room writing my thesis, barely stepping out for days on end, fast losing motivation and the will to survive!. On some days work goes well and I feel great, on other days like today I will look for anything and everything to do before wanting to return to work and with Rosa back in India there`s little to stop me procrastinating…. and so it was that while looking through the photos on my hard drive that I realise that I haven’t posted any of these on here. So here you go - a product of my procrastination – a belated update on our paintballing experience.

It was my fried Bevan’s 30th birthday and what better way to celebrate it than relive the childhood fantasies in an adult way. So here we are in a place called Hamburger Hill for a bit of excitement.

Bevan and Morgane decided to go down the paintballing route. For those who have never heard of paintballing before here a little help from wikipedia:

Paintball is a sport,^[1][2] in which players compete, in teams or individually, to eliminate opponents by hitting them with pellets containing paint (referred to as a paintball) from a special gun called a paintball marker.^[3] Depending on the venue, games are played on either indoor or outdoor fields of varying size. A game field is scattered with natural or artificial terrain, which players use for strategic play.

and here`s a few answers to the most common follow up questions:

a)Yes they are real guns (air powered pistols)

b) No, they are not real bullets – they are basically gelatine capsules containing a water soluble paint. but..

c) Yes it HURTS!!! badly,  but we do get a helmet to protect our heads. Safety is taken very seriously here especially after someone got shot in the eye and went blind!

Anyway, Morgane being extra protective of her boyfriend decided to get Bevan a T-shirt with a bull’s eye on it, so that we could use him for target practice! Just a little birthday present (for us)!!

We were about 25 people and soon got outfitted in military overalls, not just for the camouflage but more so to protect us from paint! We soon headed of to the “play grounds” to collect our pistols, pellets and instructions. Basically we were pitted against another team and given tasks to do. Such as defending a helicopter (yes, real ones but broken) or stealing a flag from under the enemy`s nose….oh yeah, we sent Bevan to the enemy team, just so that we could shoot him too!

Unfortunately I had too much sense to take my camera in with me, and although I regret missing out on the action in pictures, after seeing how devastating a ball of exploding paint at 200 miles per hour can be, I am glad my camera sat this one out. However just to give you an idea here’s a video from YouTube

The video above doesn’t really capture the true spirit terror and excitement. I can tell you, that if you thought war was cool, this will make you think twice. It just makes you experience first hand the danger and risk out there on the battlefield…and this was only with comparatively harmless bullets which don’t kill you!

Oh did I say harmless…err correction. Here`s what paintballs can do to you:

Luckily for me I escaped with a few shots on my hand and helmet which didn’t leave behind any permanent evidence. Rosa was not so lucky and carried a few bruises for the next few days.  One thing though…the guns are heavy, and with every passing minute in the field, it got heavier. Manoeuvring it takes strength and skill and by the end of the game we were really exhausted.

Having said all that, we had a great time. Rosa and I even successfully defended a group of huts by the skin of our teeth and earned our team a few valuable points. I must say it feels geat feeling like a war hero! Bevan though, proved quite a handful, He showed great skill in not only evading our bullets but also in bumping us off one after the other.

My only consolation was that I shot him back in the last game- right in his head!

When our time was finally up we were more than ready to leave with aches and pains all over the body, but that was the most fun we had in a long time. I doubt we will get another opportunity to do this in the UK, so its a memory we will cherish forever.

India, here we come...

Its been 5 years since I first arrived here in the UK. The journey has been long and eventful. There have been ups and downs along the way, some that have changed me as a person and some that opened up worlds I never knew existed. It has been fun, it has been hard and it has been unpredictable. Like everything, good or bad, this part of the journey also has to end.
While Rosa and I have enjoyed the past year here in UK together, I cant express how much we missed India and all our loved ones back there. We have seriously considered heading back to settle in India on several occasions in the past, but work and study commitments had gotten in the way. As of now we have a chance and we are ready to take it.
We may be living in a country with an advanced standard of living, but it comes at a cost. We 've come to realise that it's the simple joys in life which one takes so much for granted that really matters. The joy of being a citizen in your own country. The freedom of being able to reach out and be with family. The joy of being surrounded by life and nature in its truest forms. of home food, of the monsoons, of family gatherings....
I`m not sure what awaits us in India. I will shortly have my PhD (I hope) and Rosa will have her 2nd masters. Ideally staying on for another year and gaining a bit more experience would have been a good option, but right now that is looking unlikely.I still have a few months to explore last minute options while I finish writing up my thesis but as of now our intention is to return. I have no idea how employable we will be in the Indian scheme of things. However, we have always wanted to eventually settle in India and this is our chance to lay out the roots and we are looking forward to it.

Bristol is all snowed in!!!

Most  of you must be aware of snow storm that’s taken over U.K. Buses and trains have come to a halt and schools and colleges have shut. Our universities too have been closed for two days too…The authorities are struggling to cope with the iced up roads and keep public services running. For us meanwhile, its a bit of fun and play. Here is some pics from snowed up Britain.

Some views out of our window on the first day of snow.

A view of the traffic jam caused by the snowy conditions.

The next morning, there’s several inches of it in our garden. Here’s a bird looking for its regular supply of food at our bird feeder which has been enveloped by the snow:

Some more shots on the next morning.

The kids are out causing mischief. Below some kids took to pelting windows, cars, passerby's and each other with snow balls.

After they left, we decided to step out and have a little bit of fun.

Our first ever snowman slowly began to take shape.

We didnt have a carrot for the snowman’s nose, so he had to make do with a pen cap.

Rosa poses with with her snowman before he melts away.

He turned out to be a happy looking snowman.

Heres another snowman built by our neighbours.

Meanwhile the snow still keeps coming down. The forecast is not so bad for tomorrow. The sun should be out and the snow should melt away. It hasn’t snowed so bad in Bristol for about 18 years but we prefer the snow to that miserable rain. At least we get to stay at home and do nothing while the chaos continues around us.