11:39 pm - Shiny shoes for beginners Last week I got my RAF #2 uniform, including some DMS 'Oxford' toe cap shoes in smooth Dr Martens style leather. Having spent six months getting my combat boots shiney, I wasn't looking forward to starting again - especially since I have two pairs - one for daily use, one for parades.
After a week or so basic brush polishing I have just sat down and bulled them to a mirror finish - in about half an hour. I've read all the bumf one can find on the internets about bulling shoes, and I've just hit on a method that not only works, but doesn't take hours to achieve - and uses standard Kiwi polish. I expect this is nothing new, but here it is written down for posterity, with photos to follow.
Equipment: Three tins of Kiwi polish, two black, one black parade gloss. Two shoe brushes, easily differentiable. A cloth (I use a Tesco car cleaning cloth, with six month's worth of polish residue on it) A glasses cleaning cloth (from an old pair of Specsavers glasses...) A lighter.
Method: From one tin of polish (use only with the brush) apply polish all over shoe with one of your brushes. Apply to both shoes. Take the first shoe you applied polish to, brush polish it off with the other brush, then do the other shoe. By doing them in order you allow time for the polish to work its way into the shoe. From the clean tin of polish (use only with the cloth) apply polish to the toe cap, I just rubbed it all over, none of this small circles malarkey. Again do each shoe. Brush polish the toe cap well. Apply parade gloss to the toe cap, both shoes, buff off with cloth again allowing time for the polish to work into the shoe. Take your lighter and heat up the toe cap a bit - just wave it around all over once, that will do. Buff the area with a glasses cleaning cloth, perhaps using a bit of water (I keep a small mister for this). Apply a small amount of polish all over the toe cap using the glasses cloth - just a dab, enough to cover to toe cap and to dull the shine. Heat this up with the lighter and buff with the glasses cloth, a mirror finish should be emerging. I say this took less than half an hour, but obviously I had a few basic layers of polish already on the shoe, so it might take a few goes. However I now have very shiny shoes that anyone wold be proud of - no cheating, no messing about with rubbing in tiny circles.
02:06 pm - Feeling old On 5 July a society at uni I belong to are having an end-of-year party and BBQ and we were discussing entertainment options, I suggested that I could DJ my 80's set - I have not done so since I was at Surrey, but I was quite successful when I did and was voted best DJ (in my opinion).
Anyhoo, firstly the union here has no record decks, so that cuts out half of my available tracks (I had planned on using records and an iPod) and secondly... other members claimed not to know any 80's music. And that really is the kicker. I literally have 6,000 cubic inches of vinyl of some of my favourite music, and most of my uni colleagues weren't even alive when I first heard most of it, although not when I bought it - all of it has come from Ben's Collectors' Records in Guildford from 1995- 2004. Blimey, I must have spent a fortune in there. Current Mood:amused Current Music: Enola Gay - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
10:56 pm - Fountains of Wayne I have just rediscovered Fountains of Wayne, am I am happy about this. Current Mood:happy Current Music: Barbara H. - Fountains Of Wayne
08:11 pm - Word Processors Why does OpenOffice.org insist on capitalising 'Programme' every time I type it? It is most annoying. Current Mood: Curious Current Music: Put The Message In The Box - World Party
What does this image look like to you? It is supposed to be a transparent image with a nice graduated shadow. And that's what I see here, but a recent website I did had the transparent .png's all wrong - I think it is a Windows/IE thing, but since I am not just designing for Mac users I can never be sure how things look. Current Mood:curious Current Music: You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) (edit) - Dead or Alive
08:37 pm - Ten things From felinebird: Leave a comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list 10 things you like starting with that letter. Post them in your journal and give out new letters to your commenters in turn.
I was given the letter K, excluding myself.
1 - Kissing, a top priority in my life 2 - Friends Kat, Kath, Katie, Kelda and Klaire (really) 3 - Koalas, they're quite cute 4 - KFC 5 - The Kaiser Chiefs, Kate Bush, The Killers and Kirsty MacColl 6 - Kayaking - going to be doing this in Newfoundland this summer. 7 - Karabiners - for climbing, although I have not been for nearly a year 8 - The Kimberlys, eastern Australia. Great for snorkelling. 9 - Keira Knightley, she's lovely. 23 - The KLF Current Mood: memeitious Current Music: Justified & Ancient (Stand by the JAMMS) - The KLF
11:07 pm - Yet anothe music meme Music is my life, so thanks to sloopjonb, here's another music meme. A few of the same artists for me as himself as it happens!
Hit 'random' on whatever you keep all your music on, then answer questions on the first 10 that come up on the list. You are allowed to skip under certain circumstances: If you land on something that isn't actually a proper song/piece (such as a bit of speech) If you land on one of those brief 'filler' tracks that you get on some albums that aren't actually complete songs. If you don't know what it's doing on your playlist and intend to remove it. If you keep getting the same artist over and over and want to talk about a different one. Finally, if you just really really don't want to talk about that song. But don't just use this rule to search for specific songs. That's cheaty.
Randomly playing my 'top rated' playlist of 2004 songs (out of 6622 in my library)
( meme hereCollapse ) Current Mood: musical Current Music: Hounds of Love - The Futureheads
11:33 am - Third time lucky Have just booked another bike test, hopefully this time I will pass. Current Mood:hopeful Current Music: Crash - The Primitives
08:05 pm - All aboard At just after half past ten at night on 26 July 2007 I will be boarding an aeroplane in London, and just over five hours later I will arrive in St John's where it will be nearly one in the morning.
Once there I will meet friends old and new, having the odd small beer, climbing the occasional hill, and probably boarding a boat.
Two weeks later I will return home, wiser, happier and ever so slightly pickled.
See ya there moustachios! Current Mood: hurrah! Current Music: All Night Operator (part 1) - Goldfrapp
02:46 pm - Rallyoke competition Following from the previous post and Scott Mills playing my entry yesterday and Monday, I am in today's competition - listen to Scott Mills today from 16:00 and see how I do!
Edit: I did not win Current Mood:amused Current Music: Madam Butterfly - Malcolm McLaren
11:33 am - Name meme "What does your name mean? For each letter in your name apply the characteristic below, if a letter occurs more then once then that characteristic is very important to you."
X : You like to drink
K : You're wild and crazy. Y : Best g/f b/f anyone could ever ask for. L : You like to drink E : awesome kisser.
M : best kisser ever.
T : Easy to fall in love with. H : You have a very good personality and good looks. O: Easy to fall in love with M : best kisser ever. P : You are popular with all types of people. S : Fucking crazy. O: Easy to fall in love with N: You like to drink.
I certainly do like to drink, but mostly squash, a couple of litres a day.
10:09 pm - St John's Last week I was talking to m'freind Nick who said he was planning on flying to Montreal, Quebec, in the Summer and thence drive to St John's, Newfoundland, in time for the George Street Festival, which I dismissed out of hand, assuming the flights would be far too expensive.
Today, apropos nothing, I looked at the flights and found them to be half as expensive as last time I went, about five years ago. I called m'friend and we discussed going, right now I am pretty excited and want to go, I have not been on holiday for a while, and St John's, and a couple of nights in a cabin along Salmonier pond would suit me fine right now.
moustachios are you about 25 July - 8 August? If so I'll see you in the coffee shop on Water Street, but hopefully it will not be hot chocolate weather. Current Mood:excited Current Music: The Night Pat Murphy Died - Great Big Sea
Just bought the now traditional Red Nose Day T-shirt, but could not face TK Maxx, so got it online. Current Mood:pleased Current Music: Red Alert - Basement Jaxx
xkylet
amused
curious
