October 17th 2005, 0520B
That was a weird one. I remember some time ago that Gareth typed up a post for his blog about two really cool dreams he’d had, & that he said he wanted to get them down asap before he forgot what they were about. I also woke up after a vivid dream this morning, about 20 minutes ago, only mine wasn’t quite so cool as I remember Gareth describing his as. Nooooo.. in fact, mine was not the most pleasant I’ve ever had. For a start, neither a naked Kate Beckinsale nor winning the lottery featured :P
Jokes aside, the dream was that I had just arrived back in Durban after having stayed on here in Burundi till May, hardly by choice either, & I really hadn’t enjoyed it. We’re talking 20 minutes ago “just arrived back”, & I’ve gone straight to the unit to sort out the paper work for my leave – literally a 5 minute story – rather than going home & doing it the next day. Thing is I don’t even make it to the HR office before I get called into the one colonels office, where she proceeds to tell me that she needs me to deploy again immediately. She doesn’t even want me to go home at all, but rather get back into my vehicle & drive straight back to the mob centre in Bloem. She’s not even being apologetic about it either, but really cold & uncaring, like she really couldn’t give a shit. Naturally I freak, but the more I stand in front of her desk bellowing at her that she’s “fucking mad!!”, that I’ve not been home in over 11 months, the more she just looks at me, implacable as a glacier, & says “you need to do this, you’re still packed, & there’s no-one else who can go”.
So I get back in my car – I must have bought one along the way somewhere – start the engine, & drive immediately back to Bloem to catch a plane out of the country for another 6 months or more.
What has me worried about this dream is that something very much like it has happened to me before, after an internal deployment in ’95 or so. I got back to the unit on the Friday afternoon & walked into my boss’ office, after I’d just spent the last two or three months deployed, only to have him say “don’t unpack too much, you’re going out again on Monday for another 3 months”. There was far less yelling & swearing involved than in the dream I had this morning, but I distinctly remember not being particularly amused by the prospect of having had a mere two days off in 6 months at the time.
Now, I cannot imagine a situation short of the outbreak of open war where I’d be deployed again immediately after I got back from Burundi next year, but this dream has reminded me that in theory it is possible. It’d be grossly unfair to me, but there’s nothing I know of that says they can’t do it. The needs of the organisation come first & so on. The only thing that comes anywhere near that is that the deployment leave we accrue on ops must be taken within 6 months from the time you start earning it, or else it’s forfeited. We’re also only allowed to carry over something like 10 days annual leave to the next year. Note that I’m not saying that we must take the leave, only that we’ll loose it if we don’t use it.
Like I say, I really can’t believe that this could possibly happen, but I’ve now got this cold knot in my gut telling me that this was a premonition, & I imagine it’s going to be a niggling little worry for quite some time. Not a good way to start a Monday lol
Anyway, I’m going finish this off now & go make some more coffee. I’ll catch up again soon though, I’m sure ;)
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