Matt’s Journal

The Sniper Who Killed 505 Soviet Soldiers

Posted by Matt under General

Reading Digg, I came across an article on Wikipedia detailling the role of a Finnish soldier named Simo Häyhä in the Winter War. He is credited with being one of the most successful snipers in history.

A snippet:

During the Winter War (1939–1940) between Finland and the Soviet Union, he began his duty as a sniper against the Red Army. Working in temperatures between −20 to −40 degrees Celsius (−4 to −40 degrees Fahrenheit), and dressed completely in a white camouflage suit, Häyhä was credited with 505 confirmed kills against Soviet soldiers.

The unofficial Finnish frontline figure from the battlefield of Kollaa places the number of Häyhä’s sniper kills at 542. A daily account of the kills at Kollaa was conducted for the Finnish snipers. Häyhä used a Finnish variant, M28, of the Soviet Mosin-Nagant rifle (known as “Pystykorva” rifle), because it suited his small frame (5 ft/1.52 m). He preferred to use iron sights rather than telescopic sights to present a smaller target (the sniper must raise their head higher when using telescopic sights) and aid concealment (sun reflecting off telescopic sight lenses can reveal a sniper’s position). Source: Wikipedia

Personally, I find these sorts of things very interesting, last night I ordered “The World At War” DVD boxset for my step-father, little does he know that it was more of a gift we could both enjoy!

The First Rung…

Posted by Matt under Happy, Spendage

On the property ladder that is! I am beaming from ear to ear after securing a deposit for a flat of my very own! Myself and Katie went to view some properties on Saturday and fell in love with a lovely new-built flat located in Westcliff On Sea. It has the following niceties:

Kitchen

• Designer fitted kitchens with co-ordinating work surfaces and ceramic wall tiles.
• Stainless steel cooker, hob and extractor hood.

Bathroom

• White sanitary ware, mixer taps with shower attachment and screen provided
  and medium height tiled walls.

General

• Gas fired central heating.
• Numerous power points and light switches.
• Video entry phone system.
• Satellite TV provision and telephone points.
• Arch topped panel doors with chrome door furniture.
• Coving to all principal rooms.
• Double glazed windows.
• Carpet throughout and flooring to kitchen.

Above is the picture from the brochure (click here to see a PDF of the development).

So all in all myself and Katie are positively beaming at being proud owners of our first abode! We have done our spreadsheets, paid off debts and look forward to securing the keys and moving in. I will update with extra information as I get it, and most definitely will be adding pictures.

England Fail To Qualify For Euro 2008

Posted by Matt under Rant

Am I surprised? No.

For years the English have lived off the back of our famous 1966 win……shame it was 41 years ago now. The recent championships that England have attended have seen them stuggle to get past the group stages only to be knocked out on penalties. The masses get excited, purchase the flags, bunk off work to watch the games and with real expectation that this year could be it, watch England fail.

There’s no excusing England, they drew with the likes of Macedonia and then went off to Russia and lost. Israel even threw them a lifeline by beating Russia, all we needed to do was secure a draw against an in-form Croatian team (who incidentally had already qualified).

Watching the first half last night, I watched as the new England keeper Scott Carson throws the ball into his own net, I watch Joleon Lescott and Sol Campbell panic everytime they get the ball and depise the whole of the midfield as they get completely outplayed by a more organised outfit.

It’s not that the players don’t care, I don’t believe even someone on £100,000 a week is prepared to shrug off a dismal qualifying campaign. The manager shifted the team around far to many times, relied on big names and not in-form players and basically set us up to lose. England when they did play, tried to hard and didnt let the football come naturally, everything seemed forced and laboured.

McLaren is gone, hopefully so will a few players like Owen, Lampard and Beckham when we get a new manager. Who do you think? I think its going to be Mourinho, possibly shading Capello.

New Phone: Nokia N81

Posted by Matt under Tech, Update

After 16 months with my Sony Ericsson w850i, I decided I wanted a new phone that would allow me to be a lot more….to simply put it…..mobile. The Sony Ericsson phone whilst being fantastic for what I was using it for, didnt have the ability to check email all that well and didnt really allow you to use the internet.

Enter the Nokia N81.

The Nokia N81 features Wi-Fi connectivity and dedicated email support for POP3 and IMAP mail systems, perfect for when I want to check my Gmail account. It has 8GB of storage for music (I do own an iPod but that’s mainly used for my in-car entertainment) and is quite a substantial phone, I want my phone to have a bit of bulk (but not too much) so that I dont think I am going to break it when I slide the phone open.

I’m happy with it thus far, I had a problem with my photos coming out very misty and cloudy, but that was put down to the fact I was dense and couldn’t quite see the protective film over it! I’ve paired it with the wireless networks I know of and it performs flawlessly, it will be great to connect to an open Wi-Fi hotpsot and surf without having to pay!

People may tell me the N95 is better, but my brother has that and this has pretty much the same feature set, I’m not fussed.

Update: Beverley Night Photos

Posted by Matt under Photos

I took some photos of the concert on Saturday, whilst the zoom isnt that great, I thought I would share

Beverley Knight

Posted by Matt under Music

Saturday, myself and Katie ventured upto Oxford Street to do a spot of Christmas shopping with the intention of attending the Beverley Knight concert at the Royal Albert Hall in the evening. Apon arriving, we grabbed a spot of lunch (for some reason everytime we visit London we always end up eating at Pizza Hut) and set to shopping our little hearts out.

It didnt quite happen. I was on a mission to get a new phone and visited the number of different shops along the street, finally settling for a Carphone Warehouse and targeting a poor employee who ended up probably getting the sack because of me. I managed to get him to credit £70 to my account for my existing contract, give me a nice new Nokia N81 and a pretty decent price plan too.

Walking out of the shop with a smile on my face, Katie treated us to a belgian waffle from one of the shops on Oxford Street, we both had melted chocolate on them and they were lip smackingly good.

It was then about time for us to head to the Albert Hall. We jumped in a cab and got to the venue about an hour early. After supping a few diet coke’s, we were finally allowed in and took our seats in the Upper Circle. The seats had a good vantage point but I could only imagine how good the view was from the seating just infront of the stage. The first two acts were average, we were treated to a band called Cherry Black Stone and a very effeminate solo singer named David Jordan.

The main event was spectacular, Beverley walked on to a standing ovation and there was me thinking am I/arent I going to like it? As she started, the sheer power of her voice was immense, it shook the foundations of the old hall it was so strong. She started with a few songs I couldnt recognise but as the event unfolded, she had the 5000 or so people dancing away, some with more effort than others (a bald guy dancing on the stairs for instance).

Finishing around half past ten, she ended with my favourite song of hers; Gold. The whole place was singing away, leaving us smiling as we left the venue after her final bow.

I sincerely suggest you go see her, she was fantastic (and this comes from someone who didn’t know quite what to expect).