Happy Birthday, Shirley :D

September 30th 2005, 1710B

I sent an sms this morning, but given the hassles I had trying to send it I have no idea if it was received or not, so I guess I’ll just have to repeat the message here :P

Happy Birthday, my friend ;) I hope you’ve had a great day & wish you all the best for the year ahead. I’m sorry I’m not there to say this in person & give you a big hug, but you can make a note that I owe you one for when I get back :P

Hopefully this year I didn’t screw up G’s plans for her present – last year I sent her a copy of Sims2 while I was still in the Congo, neatly stealing his idea in the process lol
I’ll be going into town tomorrow to sort out some paper work for my broken ambulance, & I’ll try to call & wish her a proper, if slightly late, happy birthday then. I should also be able to update this blog & send some mail while I’m at it, but we’ll see what happens.

Another reason I’ll be going into town is to have a quick chat with my boss, as the whole command & control issue between the medics and infantry I mentioned previously has cropped up again. This time it affects me directly, as there’s a UN policy that states that medical personnel may not at any time be inside a combat vehicle, or any vehicle being used for operational purposes – the UN sees medical personnel as non-combatants, even military medical personnel, or perhaps especially military medical personnel. It’s very different to how the Ops Medics – i.e. me – usually work at home, where we normally ride in the Caspir or whatever with the infantry guys, & it appears that a few of the infantry people are having a little trouble getting their heads around the idea. Something that isn’t helping is that we only found out about this policy recently, & up till then we’d been riding along with the infantry guys in their vehicles, so there’s a certain amount of “but it was fine last week!” going on. But my boss has stated that we will not get into the vehicles, and that’s the end of the story as far as I’m concerned. Regardless of any policy, she’s my direct superior in my chain of command & has the right to make decisions like that. The fucknut at the battalion HQ who has decided that the Ops Medics will get into the infantry vehicles when ordered to do so, or face being charged if they refuse, is NOT part of my chain of command, and does NOT have the right to give me an order like that. The Lieutenant here at Mwaro was quite decent about it – it’s not his idea after all, & he knows how much shit he’ll be in if he tries to implement this – but I still need to chat with my boss about it.
Actually I hope some retard does charge me for refusing to get into a caspir, ‘cause I could use the money a wrongful prosecution suit would bring in – I could buy a new notebook in addition to that lens I want :P

Otherwise it’s been a quiet day. It’s been bloody freezing & raining on and off since 0300, which is when I woke up this am. At least I managed to catch a snooze this afternoon, or I’d have been feeling rough as bears’ ass by about now. I seem to be managing ok without the sleeping pills, but I’m still short on sleep. Which might explain why I wasn’t exactly at my most cheerful when I typed up that post last night. But that little nap this afternoon seems to have improved my disposition somewhat, which is all to the good :P

That’s it for now though, so I’m going to make myself some coffee, then crawl into bed where it’s warm & read till it’s time to crash.

Till next time ;)