Saturday, June 19, 2010

Plans sometimes happen when you don't expect them

Next month I'm flying back south ('deep' south). Not sure of the exact timing details yet but there's a few weeks left to organise that, must remember to take my DJ and possibly a kilt or two...
The week before I go south I'm moving house. Should be an interesting couple of weeks.
Next week I turn 30, and the implications of that really haven't hit me yet, but there's a whole load of stuff it could be. It's just a number, but over the last 3 days it seems to have become more and more significant. I'll put that down to paranoia for the time being.
Tonight I spent a fair amount of time this evening chatting to one of the guys from the search and rescue squadron, good guy; we talked about linux, Mac's reduction in the world of IT, xkcd, various things about the world of RAF funds reduction and the effect of an Air Commodore on groups of young officers (you really had to be there).
Got home and had a link sent to me to this, a talk by Prof Brian Cox (OBE or is it MBE? - anyway well done Dr Cox!!!) which matches almost to a tee one of the conversations I had this evening. Wonder, my friends, endless wonder about the world, the solar system and the universe in which we live.
There are some times I wonder if I made the right choice 5 years ago, the three courses available to me on that day (and it was actually a day - two job offers in 24 hours), choose one of the two offers or carry on as before. I do sometimes regret not staying working for Blacks, although by now I'd either be running the Cheltenham store or they would still have shut that store and I'd be somewhere else - but that is a path down a road undiscovered and a route forever unknown.
What if I had taken the job with James, working with AWE with the best job title ever - firing technician at the Atomic Weapons Establishment. I'd be working with one of my best friends and might even be on the way to getting a masters or a PhD. I can't describe how much I want a PhD so I won't try, but suffice to say it's a lot.
But here I am, I've taken the other road, it's taken me almost as far south as is possible and certainly further than I thought would be possible six years ago, and I'm still hoping for the chance to get that bit further south. I've still got the chance to get the commission that, it's fair to say, I still lust after. Admittedly, I've got a fair amount of work to do in order to get there, but it's within my grasp and the only thing stopping me from getting there is me. So I'll see how this deployment south goes.

And for those that haven't heard, I should say point blank. I'm going back to the Falklands for a few months :) And I'm really looking forwards to it for a whole bunch of reasons.

But as the song went a few years ago, trust me on the sunscreen.

Oh and for the record, Guitar Hero Metallica - BRILLIANT!!!!!

1 comment:

Richard said...

30's not so bad, and it doesn't really mean anything. Though you do get shocks like I had recently, realising that the original Toy Story was released 15 years ago!

And I certainly hope that sunscreen song is right, because I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing still :)