September 2nd 2005, 2122B
I’m going to try to keep this relatively short as I’m hoping for a fairly early night tonight. Actually I know that this won’t be too long as I’ve just popped a double dose of sleeping tabs, so I’m not going to have much choice in the matter :P
And before you moan about misusing meds, it’s accepted medical practice to increase a dosage if it isn’t effective ;) And Lord knows but I could use a good nights sleep right about now, as I’ve only had about 7 hours sleep in the last two days.
The last two days have been pretty crap actually. I’ve been in a really shitty mood because I’m knackered from not sleeping, the weather here sucks, & this place has an abnormally high asshole quotient. The mefliam has also been screwing around with my happy thoughts again which really hasn’t helped matters much.
But I’m cool now. Actually I’m in a pretty damn good mood right now, particularly by comparison, & with a little luck it’ll hold for awhile. I can’t say why my mood suddenly improved, but I’m sure as hell not going to complain about it :P
So far as news goes there isn’t much, but there’s nothing really new about that. Work here sucks, I’m surrounded by assholes, & the internal politics are something to behold, particularly between the medics & infantry on this base. It’s fucking pathetic the way people here squabble over petty little shit. Some of it’s not so petty though, & evidently certain people in the infantry hierarchy have been trying to make inroads into the autonomy of the medical contingent, and have been trying to interfere in our administration & routine in some fairly serious ways. It’s an old story, something I’ve seen happen a hundred times before, and unfortunately it’s a situation that has few clear guidelines. It all goes around command and control, & who’s the boss. The medics are here to render a service to the infantry, & as such fall under the functional control of the infantry commander. But there’s a very large difference between “under command of” and “under the control of”. There’s a definite line between the two, but it’s rather blurry in places which is where the problem comes in. You’ll often find an enthusiastic infantry commander overstepping his authority, or a SAMHS commander effectively handing their job over to the infantry command structure. It was one of the former in this case, but the general in command slapped the infantry guys down today though, so hopefully the shit will ease a touch from now on. I’m not going to say any more about work though, as I really don’t feel like moaning in this and I’ll likely just piss myself off all over again if I don’t stop now.
On the positive side of the balance sheet for the last few days, I finally got to chat with Shirley on the phone this morning which was really pleasant. It’s was something of a crap line on this end, & Shirlz has a tendency to speak pretty damned quickly so it was a tad tricky to hear her at times, but it was still great to chat with her.
I feel pretty shit about not getting hold of many of my friends very often, & it feels as though I’m neglecting them, even if it’s not for lack of effort. What makes it worse is that I can get through to some numbers without hassle – I called Ash twice today, & I never have a problem getting through to Rob, for example – but others flat refuse to connect.
At least I have good access to a phone though, so I’ll keep trying while I’m in town till I get hold of everyone. Email would likely make matters easier, but to be honest I hate sending mail – it often seems a very impersonal form of communication to me. It’s better than nothing though I guess, so I should probably start using it more. Net access is a bit tricky though, & I don’t get to spend much time online when I get chance to use the computer. I could always type up mails in Word, same as this blog, & then just copy-paste-send whenever I get opportunity I guess.
Tonight was actually a fairly pleasant exception to the rule in terms of being on the net though, & I managed a good hour & a half at the pc before I got chased off. I managed to update this blog again, had a quick look at The Pond & even posted once, did my mail, went on a trawl for things to spend money on, & managed to have a look at both Ash’s & Shirley’s blogs. Ash’s blog is huge though, so I didn’t try to read it but saved it instead. I’ll read through that a little later, but I did have chance to read through Shirley’s. I gather from what she had to say that she’s been having major hassles with her hay-fever & also a client who’s decided not to pay her, & I really hope that improves very soon. I’m glad I work in a business where I don’t have to worry about clients not paying up in good time, & it burns my ass that this guy is busy screwing her over to the point where she’s needed to involve a lawyer. It’s a pity I only got to know about this now, as I likely could have asked Rob to advise her & draw up contracts for her. Chances are all it would have cost is a bottle of whiskey or two, if that even. It’s sometimes really useful to have a lawyer as a good friend, I must say.
The trawling for things to buy was also fun, & spending money is something I enjoy almost as much as receiving it. Most of things I went looking to spend money on were for the camera, but chances are I’ll also be ordering a few DVD’s while I’m here. I really want to get my hands on a copy of Sin City when it comes out in the shops, & I’m seriously pissed that I’ve missed the theatrical release because I’m here. I’ve got some of the comics here with me though, including the ones that the movie is based on & they’re bloody excellent. Read them if you can find them, as they’re certainly worth the effort. I also want to order the Keen Eddie DVD set, as I really enjoyed what I saw of that show when it was on tv. I missed a fair number of the episodes though, so I’ll have to buy the discs to watch the rest, but I don’t mind that.
I also want to get my hands on some new games while I’m here, & have them sent up to me because I’ve gone through everything I have here. These days pretty much all I do in front of the pc is either this or Photoshop, & that’s depressingly like work :P
I saw from their comments that Mark & Gareth have started playing WoW & have invited me to join in, which is a great plan & thanks for the invite guys. I’m wondering how they managed to get hold of it in SA though, as last I checked it wasn’t available at home. Anyway, I won’t be able to play from here, but as soon as I get back I’ll be taking them up on it ;)
Speaking of Mark, I see that he commented on one of the earlier entries, saying that he wasn’t going back to the UK anytime soon. I don’t know what the circumstances surrounding that are, so I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing for him, but I know that I’m plenty happy that I’ll get to see him when I get back to SA. There’s a lot of beer in Durban that we said we were going to drink when I got home from the Congo last year, but we didn’t get around to it then so we have LOTS of catching up to do :P
So far as goodies for the camera go, there’s a new backpack that I want to buy that’ll hold the laptop, at least one camera, & all my lenses at the same time. It’s not a bad price either, just over a grand. There’s also a cable release that I want to buy & a little gadget that you use to clean the CMOS sensor. I need that cleaning kit badly, as there’s a shit load of dust on the sensor of my camera & it’s been there awhile. Not only is it a serious pain to edit the spots out of the photos I take, but I’m also worried that it’s going to damage the sensor if left there long enough. I shudder to think how much a new one would cost.
That 500mm lens that I’m drooling over is going to have to wait awhile though. I’ve decided that I really want the 50-500mm lens instead of the 170-500mm as it’s a more flexible lens & has a list of features as long as my arm, but it also costs a shit load more – R13k or so as opposed to R5k. It’s a real beauty, but I’m going to hold off till I know what’s going on with this extension to the deployment before I make a final decision to buy it or not. If I am going to be here till May, I’ll be able to afford the 50-500mm happily without even touching my allowances, just out of what I’m not spending of my normal salary while I’m here. If I’m not going to be here so long then I’ll end up getting the 170-500mm instead, as that’s well within my budget. R5000 for the lens is still a fair chunk of lucre, but it’s nothing compared to some of the lenses I saw. The kind of thing where you first go “Ooohh, shiny :D. Gimme!!”, and then you see the price…… ouch. I saw a lens that was going for nearly 60 grand today. It’s was an awesome lens to be sure, but I’m not going to spend that amount of money on something until they start throwing sexual favours into the deal. Or start accepting sexual favours in lieu of payment.
Now there’s an idea….. Just so long as I get to choose who I’ll be paying these favours too, this might actually work :P
I’m also tempted to get a film camera at some point, though I’ll likely not spend too much on that as I mainly intend for it to be a learning tool. Now that I think about it, Wes (Srxy) was saying he had an old 500n that he was looking to sell….. if you read this Wes, then please let me know if you’re still trying to sell the camera, as it sounds great for what I’m looking for. How’s that 28-300mm Sigma working out, btw? I don’t regret having bought the 55-200mm before I came up here, but I think the 28-300mm would have served me better, & it’s a pity that I couldn’t get one in Durban at the time.
That’s it for me for now though – the sleepy drugs have kicked in with a vengeance, & I have this luuuurvely floaty & trippy feeling at the moment which is fucking amazing…
No, that’s not a suggestion to misuse pharmaceuticals, not by any stretch of the imagination. It is, however, a suggestion that you enjoy the effects of the drugs you are taking on your doctors orders :P
I’m going to go lie in the arms of sweet Morphette now – I gave up on lying in the arms of Morpheus long ago ‘cause he’s a hairy bastard who farts in his sleep, & his sister is WAY cuter. Oh, and female :P – but I’ve got a little more to add to this, but I’ll leave that till tomorrow, when I’m not tripping the light fantastic.
Hasta mañana, everyone ;)
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