Dawber,
If you cant take a bit of sarcasm then your going to find training a very stressfull experience. If you ask fairly pointless and somewhat unimportant questions which the 'marker pen' one was (no offence Adam

) then you are going to be met with a sarcastic responce. However its all in good humour and not vindictive, it will be like water off a ducks back after a small time. In reality druadan has answered adams question by saying, 'the size of the marker pen doesnt matter mate, crack on'.
As hyperlithe says, the tiny details people are trying to gleam from this thread are not worth the effort, i understand that i would have asked these before training if not told otherwise as i know you want to get everthing right beforehand, down to the smallest detail. There is nothing wrong with that, BUT now you are being informed that as long as you have the stuff on the list, the brand/type/size doesnt matter a great deal unless its clearly stated on the kit list.
Its not the end of the world if you turn up and something in your kit isnt quite right, you will be pointed in the direction to get the correct kit.
You'd be losing out if you let this get to you and stopped using the forums, they are very worthwhile.
dwarfy