The moon's upside down!

I had a blog entry written out but now that I'm in the cyber cafe I thought I might as well just bang one out (jokes to the usual address).
Well, here I am.
Managed to get pretty much everything organised before I flew out, the flight was long and rather boring, although watching the sunrise over Africa was brilliant. We stopped off in Ascension Island and I got to leave the cage to meet the local Met guys, briefly, before we were herded back on for the next part of the trip.
Arrived after about 18 hours on the plane and got a quick tour of the base and the office.
Limited to what I can actually say about the base but it's pretty good, there's a long corridor from our living area to the main mess (about a mile long) and it's a bit chilly at times - glad I brought my down jacket.
I'm sat in the cyber cafe right now, something dad didn't have when he was here, and soon I think I'll nip to Oasis for a cup of tea and a cake. Life can be pretty civilised at 52 degrees south. It's cold mind, but then it is winter, we had a day of glorious sunshine but most of the time has been dull and drizzley. I'm expecting snow this weekend.
Erm what else, oh we've got a 33m heated swimming pool, a climbing wall, a great gym (had my induction after work this morning - 3 minutes of the timetable being read and the pti asking "everyone seen the rules before? Right see me if you need anything else.") a cheap bar (whisky costs about a third of a the price of a chocolate bar :D ) a bowling alley (the pins are on cable - it's hilarious) that I got invited to on the first evening - great but I was dead on my feet by the end, library, couple of shops, few places for tea and coffee, a cinema that shows some fairly recent shows, and all this is just inside the mess complex.
I've had the landrover training and been hooning about in the works van as much as I can and I've come to realise that I like defenders! Hoping to get off the base at some point this week but I'm working this weekend when the rest of them are going off to Stanley, maybe next time. There's often chances to go on flights which I'll grab when I can but not just yet.
Work wise, it's harder than back home and different with more briefings and different conditions. Different products too. I was worried that I couldn't do it for a bit but I think that was just the newness of the situation. I need to speed up production but that'll come. Work also, like most sections down here, has a cat. He can be a bit annoying when he's begging for food but it's nice to be able to take a couple of seconds pause and say hello to him. I'll stick up some photos of Krusty, and other things, when I can.
It's the little thing that keep throwing me, I went outside and thought "Hang on! The cloud's in the wrong part of the sky and the wind's going the wrong way! My forecast is rubbish!" Then I realised I'm in the south and the sun is in the north. I'd automatically lined myself up and got it epically wrong. I also don't recognise ANY of the stars down here yet. Okay, apart from the Sun, but we don't see our local star much. I think I've seen the southern cross but need to check on that.
In general, I think I'm going to like it down here, but give me a week of work in evil weather on my own and then ask me...

It's not procrastination, it's planning...

Okay, I'm putting off packing, tidying the flat, getting the spare keys cut and all the other stuff.
Still slightly freaking out.

Stuff that needs to get done:

Post redirection.
Pack.
Fix laptop. (Can't be done in time - bugger)
Get jabs.
Get Certificate for jabs.
Landrover training. (Can't be done before I leave)
Sort out Mess Bills for the next three months.
Pick up PSP from camp.
Sort out ID card.
Tell neighbours.
Organise someone from work to check on flat and feed the fish.
Get extra fish food.
Get passport photos for paperwork.
Get eye test for colour perception (might be able to use an old test for this) and for OASC (have you EVER tried to get a short notice eye test!??!)
Tidy flat.
Send OASC paperwork (might need to send that BFPO once I get down there - might look a bit different, return address FIB).
Get keys cut.
Look into phones daaarrrnn Saaarrrrffff (practicing the accent). - Only mobile network is Vodaphone and the prices, well, let's say I won't be using mobile internet...

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. Shame I've got to cover the night shift tonight.
Looks like I'll be travelling down a day later, or leaving later on Tuesday and crashing overnight at Tasha and Chris'. That or pulling another late night jaunt down the highways and byways of this nation.
E-mail will certainly be the best way to reach me while I'm gone, but there are these little things called "Bluey" envelopes that are a sheet of paper you write on and send free. Not sure how much they are but it's a physical letter. We used to send them to my dad when we was in the Falklands, of course, that was before we had internet. Or a computer. Or a VCR. (Yes, for my younger readers (or the younger guy at work) there was a time before the internet, and even before everyone had computers).

Right, I've got a few hours before I need to head to work, so I'll see what I can get done.
And Sian, yeah, fridge magnets were on my to-do list, as is trying to find a suitable penguin to photograph, or getting a Tux and sticking him on a rock somewhere.
Richard's comment on a previous post got me thinking - he was always good at that - and yeah, it's a strange world that we live in. Having said that, I'm not quite as blasé about this as I might seem. Seriously, I'm freaking out!
At least once I've done this, doing it again won't be so hard, and I get the feeling that unless I have a real problem with being down south, I'm going to be put on the list of "people that we can send south."

Ouch

For the record the Yellow Fever jab wasn't too bad, and the Tetanus/Polio/Diptheria triple jab was alright as well.
At the time.
Since then the triple vaccine (which goes into the muscle) has started to ache, but I think that's fairly normal. Feels like I've pulled the muscle.
Didn't have much of a reaction to the yellow fever, apart from feeling groggy earlier, but like I was coming down with a cold. Seems to have cleared up somewhat now.
Looks like FIB (Falkland Islands Base) has a much slower connection speed, which is to be expected, so what I might do is blog off line and then use the cyber cafe down there to upload entries en masse.

Where will you be, the day after next Thursday?

Had one of those days today. The Reds turned up, which was cool, and I got asked if I wanted to do a detachment down south for a few months.


So, next week I'm catching a plane.




To the Falkland Islands.

Yeah, 8000 miles south for three months.
Yikes.

First I've got to sort out everything up here, get an ID, get checked out on Landrovers and get vaccinations for Yellow Fever, Polio and Tetanus.
I should be able to keep everyone up to date but there may be longer than average gaps between posts...

And again, yikes.