Catch up entries 3 - the last of these ones

Latest Catch up entry, written about the 21/12

On the way north I stopped off with Tash and Chris, drove right up from Andi and Sarah’s Halloween party, which was great although I did end up somewhat passed out in the front room with stuff written on my face. Fortunately not in permanent marker. Tasha had got some tickets for a play so I drove straight up and into Glasgow to meet them. Initially the plan was to meet them at theirs and we’d take the train into the city but there was some evil traffic so I was running late. We met up at a service station outside of Glasgow and we went into Glasgow in convoy, running from the car park to the theatre. I had no idea what the show was going to be, apart from the fact it had something to do with “Mrs Brown.” I thought it might have been something to do with Queen Victoria but it turns out it was about an Irish family and oh ye gods was it hilarious!!!! If you get the chance, there’s a whole set (four at the moment) of plays about Mrs Brown and they are very rude and very, very funny.
We had a relaxing day and then on my way home we dropped off at the Lecht ski centre for a days boarding. The nice thing was that pretty soon I was back to the point where I left of last season. By the end of the day I was getting some proper linked turns in, which was brilliant.
A couple of weeks after I got back up north work changed. We went from having just the four of us working 24 hours a day from Sunday night to Friday afternoon, doing 12 hour shifts, to working three (or two) shifts through the day from 6 am till the end of flying. There is now 24/7 cover provided by the regional unit but we have to use some of the charts from down south, rather than producing our own. That’s the bad side of things, but on the plus side we’re now doing many, many more briefings face to face with the squadrons, which is fantastic. I enjoy hooning around the camp in the works car and dealing with the squadrons face to face.
Apart from that I’ve volunteered to drive the weather survey van (some time, when I can) which is basically a set of sensors mounted on a small van, the idea being that we drive it on set routes in certain weather conditions, usually in the wee small hours. To make it a bit safer the office sent us on some skid prevention and control course (aka skid pan fun!) which was an absolute blast! I learned some things I hadn’t known before, including some emergency brake and steer techniques that were new. I still haven’t had the chance to go on a run yet but should get the chance once I’m back up after Christmas.
I’ve done a bit more on the slopes since the first trip back up, at the Lecht as it’s cheaper than Cairngorm and ok, the slopes and the snow aren’t as good as you’d find in France or many other places but it’s here and it’s enough to have fun with. When it comes down to it, I’ll take “fun” that’s an hour away from me and reasonably cheap, over “fantastic” that’s in another country and costs a bomb to get to any day. Especially if I can go there with friends. Of course, if I could go abroad with friends for about the same cost I'd be there in a shot (note to Tris, March good for you?).

Catch up entries 2

Second entry written about the 29/10/08

At the start of the year, actually at New Year's, I looked at what I wanted to do this year and of the four main ones (bike, drive, run and fun) I've amazed myself by completing one. Still got the first three left – to whit, get my bike licence, pass my advanced driving test and get fit enough to easily pass the Cranwell fitness requirements. The last, fun, partly covers not being single but is mainly about getting out a bit more and doing some stuff I wouldn't have thought of; not siting at home on my own every night. On both of these definitions I have succeeded. It's a bit odd that loosing three months down south has actually helped with parts of my aims. Not as much as I'd have hoped for fitness (my fault) but more than I'd have thought with the others. The bike test has been helped by the fact that the government have pushed back the implementation of the new test regime until early next year, so I've got a bit more time than I thought. For the AD side of things I'm going to have a serious look at the Kinloss group back up north, although I'm also going to get a different car as soon as possible. Not another new one, but something a bit bigger and with a bit more capability. After driving all the 4x4s down south I've realised that the bit more ability would have been great for the hills. It's not that my little Charade can't handle most conditions but I'm constantly driving it to almost the limit of it's range, and it does feel chuffing ridiculous when there's a whole row of big four wheel drives parked in the snow on Cairngorm and I'm struggling to get my snowboard into the city car that's hidden by the Landies either side. The fact I have to drop the passenger seat to fit it in is bad enough, although it was funny when I was happily driving out of the snow and the numpty in a big ol' Jeep was getting stuck. He just couldn't drive in snow, was revving the arse off the engine and getting absolutely no purchase. Don't get me wrong, I'm certain the car was able to handle the conditions but the driver definitely could not.
Anyway, I’m now on the way back from London and it’s been absolutely brilliant to see Tris again. I’d like to be able to see D’Abs and it'd be great to catch up with Rich, also getting across to the US to see Kev (actually I’d LOVE to be able to that one!) but time and money prevent those. Apart from that I’d have to say that once I’ve got to Andi and Sarah’s and stopped off with Tash and Chris, I’ll have seen pretty much all of my really close friends within two weeks.
I don’t know if I mentioned it in my recent posts (off line on the train so I can’t check) but a couple of days after I got back from the Falklands I hit a low point. I’ve hit these before, it’s a kind of after travel thing where you realise that the next day you’ll wake up and see the same thing you saw the day before. It’s not a new place and it’s not home. It’s something in between that isn’t so good as either and not as interesting as you’d like. At that point I was ready to call up my boss and ask for the 3 year tour of Gibraltar or a long tour down in the Falklands (preferable as Kate is down there!). Like I said, I’ve felt this way before but this was something different. I really just didn’t want to be in the UK at that point and while I think I know why it’s not something I can put into words. One of the reasons I didn’t was that I knew there was a good chance of seeing friends soon and so I held off. My family’s great but I know they’ll always be there for me, e-mail, phones and blueys aside, contact is easy with mum and dad and I think Matt understands.
As I said before, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see anyone, let alone almost everyone, but I’m so glad I was able to. What I’d hoped for actually happened, I’ve found an anchor to these green Isles (as an aside, if you don’t believe the “green and pleasant land” description, travel to somewhere with a much lower rainfall total then look at the grass and the trees here when you get back. This country is SO beautiful I was almost struck dumb when I got back. The sheer intensity of the colours and the vibrancy of the life was breathtaking!). This anchor is my friends. If the guys weren’t back here, and as much as I love my family, I’d have to say that I don’t know if I’d stay here. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE this country. From the mountains of home to the rolling hills down south, from the vast emptiness of the Highlands to the crowded, noisy, smelly but ALIVE streets of London and Birmingham, from the snow covered north to the palm trees in the south, I love Great Britain. The thing is that I’ve seen a bit more of the world and I know that there are amazing things everywhere. The politics and the social situation in this country aren’t to my taste but I’d rather stay and try to help solve that rather than run away to New Zealand and with my friends here there’s no risk of me leaving any time soon.
So there we have it from the train back from London. I’ll write a bit more of this after Halloween and probably post it in a one shot deal.
By the way, I’m writing this on some of the new software I picked up in London. Still trying to source Leopard for the Mac but I’m working on the new version of Word for Mac and it’s rather sweet. Bit different to the NT version we use at work and pretty similar to the 03/04 Office suite. Might have another look once my pay comes in. I like open source software, and in the case of Office, NeoOffice (OpenOffice.Org for the Mac) is very compatible but I can’t deny that Microsoft (turn and spit) do make some decent software and with work going XP/2003 having a fully compatible system is likely to make things easier. Thing that’s been getting to me a bit recently are the adverts for Microsoft where people say “I’m a PC” where what they actually mean is “I run Microsoft, rather than Mac or Linux.” PC just means personal computer, so I’m working on a PC now, it’s just a Mac, rather than a Windows box.

Catch up entries 1

First entry written on about the 27/10/08

I can't really remember why I started this blog, I think it was probably just to keep friends up to speed with what was happening to me. I wasn't expecting anyone to read it, although it's nice that you do.
Anyway, I'm sat on a train heading to London, it's a sunny day with little cumulus clouds over the Cotswolds and it feels great to be travelling again. This strikes me as odd; less than ten days ago I was flying in business class across the Atlantic, yesterday I was driving back from Birmingham, so why does it feel so good to be moving again? It's not like I've had enough time to be in one place to get bored! I think Matt T had the measure of it over the weekend – I love travelling! Not just the seeing new places or revisiting favourite old ones, but the very action of travelling can be good. Admittedly, I'm in an economy seat (not the table one I'd booked either) and as it's half term there weren't any cheap tickets and there are too many kids for my personal tastes but even so, I'm speeding through the country with sun lit houses and open, autumnal countryside passing by, the music on my iPod is great and thanks to Sian I've got loads of extra music to sort though and rate. Might be able to pick up some decent software in the City as well, but we'll have to see how that goes.
When I was looking at having the two weeks off after flying back up north my plan was to visit as many of my friends as possible but I was half expecting not to be able to see any of them. Turns out I was wrong, even managed to get some quality time with my brother and a bit of culture as well!
I just sometimes feel when I'm visiting friends that I don't do enough. I know everyone will tell me I'm being an idiot, and in truth if anyone visited me I'd expect nothing except their presence, but still, I like giving people things, even for no reason. A fluffy penguin or fridge magnets seem small thanks for a quality time, but then I'm a bit daft about things like that.
On a different note, I'm going to try to do something with the pictures from the Falklands, even if it's just providing some unusual background images for anyone that wants them. Once I'm back up with my own net connection I'll see what's around online that you can enter photos in, competitions perhaps, although I think only about 6 of the shots would be worth entering in anything. Having said that, there's a magazine that takes pictures that people have uploaded and gives pointers on how to get better, and that is definitely something I'm going to look into. I don't want to sound cocky but I think with a bit of work I might keep surprising myself with the photos. I might even have a bit of a talent. And if not, then at least I'll have some fun on the way.

Balls and kilts

Summer balls that is.
I'd invited a couple of friends up to come to the camp summer ball the other weekend, and I think they enjoyed it.
The dogs are (left to right) Rosie, Rossie and Puddles (nee Rolly).
There were people in frocks, uniforms, kilts and dinner jackets, the shortest skirts were being worn by the men.

As with most balls at the mess there was also a selection of entertainments...Tom, a pilot, on a monkey bike.

Tasha and myself on the bikes.
Dodgems, with the station commander homes in on Tasha.Bungee running, BIG powerful elastic bands round your waist and try to reach the end before being pulled back onto you arse. Great fun.Mechanical bull with Tasha about to fall off, and...

Chris looking the part - McBrokeback Mountain anyone?

And the best, pudgel stick fighting!!! Chris and myself about to spar. Contender ready!

100 posts in and what's changed?

I was hoping that I'd have some earth shattering news for the 100th post but just now I realised that wouldn't be true to the rest of this blag.
I'm writing this at midnight, on a night shift (already got pretty much everything done for tomorrow...) and outside to the south the clouds are backlit by the almost full moon, to the north the sky still holds the afterglow of sunset; this time of year it doesn't fully go down. While I was outside taking the hourly observation the air conditioning unit shut off and all I could hear was the low susurrus of the waves on the beach to the north and the lonely cry of a gull overhead.
Just now a shower has run through, a light one, but enough for the air to take on that smell of sharp, almost green, cleanliness and the deep rolling tones of the shore to be counter pointed by the crisp tattoo of the rain on the balcony.
I'm not where I thought, or hoped, I would be by this point when I started this blog but right now, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I'm closer to where I want to be, and certainly in a better place but I keep making the path ahead of me longer than it needs to be.
Since I put the first post down I've finished my training and require evidence for three sections of units to finish my NVQ – I’ve been trying to get these units signed off since I got up here in Scotland. One of my friends has taken her Chartered Engineer exams (results by Wednesday, good luck!) and another has started the road to his MBA. I’ve completed my CBT, but not the full bike training, nor have I completed my IAM or diving training. I’m still resolutely single (damn it!) but that’s not really a major worry. I’ve made a good number of friends in the mess and am known by many more. I have climbed at least three Munros, with another planned next month for charity (if anyone fancies sponsoring us to climb a fairly major hill, PLEASE visit http://www.justgiving.com/mountain-numpties , it’s for WaterAid, a charity I’ve liked for a while) and I’ve got my accuracy up to 94.7% on my TAFs, which are the basic 9 hour forecasts we produce. If you told someone that the weather forecasts in this country were almost 95% accurate they’d usually laugh you off the stage.
I’ve got back in contact with a couple of friends recently, including Richard, the guy I shared a room with in the first year of Uni, and Danijela, who went to college with use.
I’ve been to a couple of old friends weddings, and missed more; visited friends down south for Halloween and had a brilliant time; spent one New Years camping in the middle of no-where and another on the banks of Loch Ness, climbing, sledging, mountain walking and biking, ice skating and snowboarding. I’ve walked through snow and thistle, in shorts (rarely), kilts (even more rarely) and trousers, under skies clear blue while the sun rises to kiss the mountains with a golden peak, under leaden skies soon to poor rain onto the ground below; I’ve started so early we had to wear head torches to see the way and seen nights so light with the afterglow of the sun that you can read outside at midnight; I’ve walked alone and with friends, with dogs and ice-axes; I’ve slept in winds so strong we’ve prayed for the morning and dreaded the thought of going outside and through all of it, I feel incredibly privileged to be here.
Yeah, there are things I want to do, things I need to do and things I really shouldn’t do, like all of us; for example I’d like to see more of my friends, but I realised that I am the architect of my regrets and my successes. When I look back again I know that it will be my choices and my actions that will shape whether or not I am happy with the time spent.

So there we are. 100 posts, which works out to under one a week. Still, I think it makes me the most frequently posting of any of my friends (of late anyway). I know none of the 100 posts have exactly been Pulitzer material and most would have bored the pants of anyone reading them but thank you for reading them and I hope that I can find something worthwhile to put up soon.

A good weekend

This weekend my good friend Tasha drove up, with dogs. It was good to see her and we got out to do some proper outdoors stuff.
Friday we went out to Cairngorm (starting out at 7:20 - way before sunrise) and started walking up the hills with head torches until the sun came up. We ended up doing two Munros and a few extra tops (peaks above 3000 ft only count as Munros if there's 500 ft drop between the highest named point and the peak you're looking at, otherwise they're tops) and went up Cairngorm itself at the end. This was pushing me to the limits of my endurance, Tasha was bouncing ahead and "encouraging" me. On the way down we stopped off at the Ptarmigan restaurant and asked the nice bloke outside if the furnicular railway was running, although we knew it wasn't supposed to open until the next day. It wasn't but he said to hang on and sorted us out with a free ride down on the railway. That saved us about 90 minutes to 2 hours worth of walking so I owe the mountain guys a few favours I think. While we were out Tash convinced me to wander over to have a look at the Larig Ghru (sp?) which is a HUGE glacial valley. It's hard to describe the size of the valley, we were sat in the snow level with the top of the valley and, no, I just can't describe it. Google it and have a look and any Colin Prior type photos, it's just immense and beyond what I can put into words.
Well, that night we went to take the dogs out for a walk on the beach, mainly to stretch our legs out a bit. Next day we went to take the dogs for a walk in the local woods, in this case Culbin Forrest, and the little 3 and a half mile walk tired out the dogs nicely and almost stretched out all the muscles. Not quite though, today (Sunday) we went to the Inverness climbing wall and Tasha once more showed that she can climb a grade and a bit higher than me, although I managed to boulder to the same level as her HAHAHA.
After a few routes I knew that I wouldn't be able to drive safely if we climbed to my limit so I called it a day, or to put it another way, wimped out like a little girl.
Showed Tash to the A9 (main route south) and drove home, wincing when changing gear, but that's the fun of climbing.
Weeked after next she'll be back up, as she's agreed to be my +1 for the mess ball, and just found out that there's a possiblility that Matt (EMB) may be up in the mean time, although it may be too short notice. Hope Matt can get up, would be great. I'd like to get all, or at least most, of my friends up here at some time, but that may take a few months to organise.......
Put my Christmas tree up as well, all 3 FT of it, drunk a bit tonight (enough to feel happy) and the Jameson's advert with the harp is back on, so happy at the moment. If I can keep my weight loss on track and get a few more forecasts right I'll be even happier. Or, failing that, if I can beat Guitar Hero II or III on medium, let alone hard.
Must stop blogging drunk though, may have to edit this for spelling or excessive honesty.