A couple of back dated entries.

Pippa said that she hadn't seen an entry for a while and was getting worried. Been having problems connecting, I'm using my mobile so have to send over short times. Been keeping a few entries, so here they go...

18/09/06
Today I started at my new job in the north. So far so good. Looking for a place to live now, got a couple of numbers to ring so we'll see how it all goes.
Randomly, on the news just now, they're auditioning for hobbits in London, you have to be under 5'7" and they each had 30 seconds to impress the judges. Seemed a bit odd to tell you the truth.
Over the weekend, while traveling up here, I stopped over with Tasha and Chris in Alloa and we went out in Falkirk with some of their friends from work, so hi to Charl, Louise and their daughter Faith; Peter, Patrick, Nolan and his lass and the other lads that I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten their names. Was a great night. As I've thought, you can have a good night by being somewhere great or with great people, or spending LOTS of money. Didn't spend much that night, and I was the only Englishman, no Scottish either, just Poles and South Africans and Welsh. Tasha's English as well but didn't come out to the pub and club with us.
Right, anyway, I'm off to get some grub.

08/10/06

So, been a couple of weeks, stuff's happened and I'm in a different place now. I had a look at all of the flats/small houses/any place within my price band, and they were all "just been taken off the market" or "sorry, let that weeks ago." So I rang the place one of the guys from work recommended, apparently he'd been paying about £350 a month. Went round, the place was lovely but huge, with unbelievable views across the bay, but I was quoted a price of £300 a week for October and then it would go down to £190 a week. Now, I know it's been a while since I did any serious maths, but that's a bit more than £350 a month. So, I'm in the officer's mess. It's not as cheap as if I was a regular but it's still cheaper than a hotel, and includes scran. (That's food, for the Americans.)
So life in the mess, what's it like? I hear you cry. Go on, say it, it'll make me happy.
For those who went to Clyne, imagine Clyne but with brilliant food, a cheap bar (Single malts for 79p, pints for £1.30) and a bigger room. For those (the majority) that didn't go to Clyne, somewhere between a hostel and a 5 star hotel. The room is big, en-suite, and has quadrouple glazed - to keep out the noise (see later). There's a "batting" service, which is basically a cleaner, security isn't a problem, what with the armed guards on the gates and all. The rooms have aerial points and plenty of storage. The food is generally excellent, although I'm told that not all messes are as good. The fact that there's loads of aircrew around is an interesting one, I'm not an officer, even when (note, when not if - thinking positively) I get my rescommissionssion I'll only be partly an officer in the eyes of some of the regulars, but the ones I've met have been friendly enough. There's an odd feeling about fighter squadrons, I started to notice it at the last posting between the training and the fighter squadrons. It wouldn't be right to say that it's the "steely eyed killer" feeling, because it's not, but there's a certain focus to the place. The other thing is that there's more incentive to get to the gym and be fit. Not that anyone would say anything but when almost everyone around you is fit flight crew (not all air crew are fit, but most are) you feel out of place if you're not. Does help that the gym is two minutes from my door and work is about 12 minutes walk across the camp.
There are downsides, meals are at set times, although I can get food kept behind the bar if I'm on shift. There's restrictions on what you can wear and where you can wear it, in public rooms you should have proper shoes and a shirt with a collar, although this mess is somewhat more informal and you can get away with more. And there's the fire alarm. I've heard most of the fire alarms used on the open market and I'll usually wake up going "ahh, a fire alarm" but this is different. This is not "Wake up, there's a fire!" this is a three tone scream of "LOOK OUT, THERE'S A STOMACH EATING ALIEN INVADING THE SHIP!!! ALL THE LIFE PODS HAVE GONE AND THE GUNS ARE OUT OF AMMUNITION!!!!" kind of alarm. I honestly woke up with the words "what the ...." groggily coming out of my mouth. Turns out it was set off by the bloke down the corridor having a shower with the door open. Steam, not smoke. Bugger. The fact that there's jet aircraft taking off for most of the week until pasy midnight most days does make it somewhat noisy, but that's why there's two sets of double glazing. The prices of houses in the area has increases recently, mainly with people commuting to the cities down south, now that it's an hour's flying from Inverness or Aberdeen. I think that they must only show the houses on weekends when the Tonka's aren't flying, because there's no way that you'd convince someone of the "tranquility and pease of the north" with multi element takeoffs (ie two or more at once) happening in the background.
Almost on solo shifts as well, that'll be in a couple of weeks. *Gulp* I can do the job, just really need to get it right in this part of the world, the mountains make a huge difference to how the weather behaves.
Aside from that, two of my friends from uni are engaged (separately, not to each other) so congrats Pam and Alice, Pippa is moving back to Swansea, good for her and good luck.
Unfortunately, my mate Tris in London had his flat broken into and his kit got nicked. So if you're approached by a Londoner wanting to sell you dodgey stuff, punch him in the mouth, smash him in the kidneys and report him to the police. Makes me somewhat glad that there are armed guards on the gates here and effectively a conceirge service with the reception downstairs. Tris is one of the guys I've known the longest; and like Kev, Tash and a few others, if he called needing help I'd do everything in my power to get there and do what I can. Seems like to me, that's friendship, or at least one of the parts of it.