“It’s All Right Now” Part II

September 3rd 2005, 0630B

I woke up in a pretty good mood still, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to bury an in axe in the head of the asshole that’s been playing their radio so fucking loud for the last hour. But don’t mind me – no Kate Beckinsale to wake up next to, inadequate levels of caffeine & nicotine thus far, a mild sleeping tab hang-over, and the fucking mozzies that ate me like a mielie last night. None of these things are likely to fill me with feelings of warmth & fuzziness, particularly not on top of my general “grumpy bastard” demeanour when I first wake up, but I’ll be sorted after my second cup of coffee :P
Sleeping better last night was certainly welcome. I managed about 6 hours last night, and even though I still woke up again at around 0100 the drugs dragged me down again after about 20 minutes. It’s that waking up at some obscene hour, and then tossing & turning for an hour or two before I go back to sleep that really sorts me out, so managing to avoid the worst of that last night was a relief.

Anyway, to carry on from last night before the drugs pole-axed me, I had wanted to upload a few photos to that TravelGallery site that my friend Brendon runs. I even got as far as logging in to my account so that I could set up the new album, but then got chased from the computer, which is a bummer. I don’t think I’d have gotten it right in any case though as the connection was seriously slow, & would likely have choked on a number of the images I’d wanted to upload. I think what I may do instead of uploading them myself is put all the photos I’ve taken on a DVD and post it to Brendon so that he can pick & choose which to upload. I think he may have moved though, so I’m going to need to get his new address before I send anything to him.
I’m going to do my “shameless plug” thing again & suggest that everyone who reads this go have a look at the galleries on the site as there is some great photography to be found there. I figured out how to edit the links on the right of the page – RTFM, Mr Sankey :P – so I put a “clicky” to the site there, to make things even easier for you ;)
There may not be as many naked women on the site as there are on Walts’ – none at all, last I saw :P – but it’s still well worth a look.
Actually, mention of Walt reminds me that I saw he started a new job in the last few days, & I hope it really goes well for him – Congrats mate, assuming you read this, & I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with PC Format. That commute sounds a bit dodgy, especially on a bike, so good luck with the house hunting for something closer, & safe travels in the meantime.

Something that I’m quite pleased about is that the AU medics will be moving to another base today, instead of sharing unit lines with us. Some of them are quite decent & I get along with them fine, but the rest definitely contribute towards that elevated “asshole quotient” I mentioned in the last post. This would include the troll who was playing bloody kwaito at bloody 0530 this bloody morning, & the obnoxious shit-head I just spent the last month with at Mwaro.
Having these guys move out will also give the rest of us a little more space, & I’ll be moving into one of the vacated tents ASAP as it’s much better than the one I’m in now. I’m still pissed off about the mess I found here when I moved in, and the big ass tear in the netting the mozzies come in through really doesn’t add to the appeal either. The new tent should hopefully contribute towards making this place a little more bearable, and a little peace & quiet in the mornings certainly won’t hurt :P

I think that’s about everything for now though, so I’m going to finish this off.
I’ll catch up again in a few days though ;)

2020B

I’ve got a little time to kill before parade at 2100, so I figured I’d type some more up for this. The day’s gone quite well & I’ve had an enjoyable time of it. Just after I finished what I typed up this morning we had roll call, & were then kept busy with base maintenance – general cleaning up & so forth - & I also had to fill out some paper work on a vehicle. That was something of a chore, but it didn’t take long, & the place looks better for it. After that I just faffed around for awhile & then a few of us went out to a sports bar around the corner from the base. I wasn’t too keen on going at first, as I really don’t have the cash to be doing much socialising, but Tiaan eventually twisted my arm into going along, & we got there just in time to see the Kiwis’ beat the Aussies in the Tri-Nations final. Ostensibly we had been going to go for a swim in the pool there, but we ended up drinking beer & trying to take photographs of the girls in bikinis instead :P
I really need a longer zoom for this camera, because the 200mm I’ve got here doesn’t quite have the reach to get a good cleavage shot from across the pool lol
After about our 6th pint of Primus we started to get the munchies, but none of us had enough cash on us to buy anything decent to eat, & certainly not enough for everyone, so we thought to try the hotel next door in case they accepted credit cards. The Visa sign we saw as we walked into the hotel was quite welcome I can assure you, as we’d had another 3 beers in the time it took us to decide we were actually going to go next door to find something to eat, & the beer munchies were really making themselves known at that point. Just to be on the safe side we checked to make sure they’d accept my card before we ordered anything though, but plastic opens doors all over the world it seems. Lunch was not bad at all, even if the menu was somewhat limited, and pretty damn cheap too – only $43, including more drinks, for the five of us or about R350, which is a good thing seeing as I was footing the bill. The portions were not bad at all either, & I’m really not going to complain at all. Something we all had a good laugh about was the credit card machines they use here – they have the old carbon-paper swipe machines instead of the electronic ones we’re used to. I think I’ve only ever used one of the old machines like that twice in my entire life, & it’s easy to see how people used to screw up with their credit cards. With the new machines you know immediately how much money you have left available & any purchases are deducted straight away. With these old things you have to wait till the shop takes the slip to the bank on Monday morning to process the transaction, & in the meantime you’ve gone and spent another 10 grand on other shit, merrily blowing your limit without even realising it. It’s at times like these that you realise just how spoilt we are by technology & the effect it has on our lives.

Anyway, that’s it for the day & I’m going to end off here. If I’m lucky I’ll get to upload this onto the net after parade in a few minutes, but if not I’ll try again tomorrow.

Till next time then ;)