October 2nd 2005, 0730B
I managed a touch more than 8 hours sleep last night, for the first time in over three months, & I feel bloody amazing :D All I needed was for Kate Beckinsale to be in the bed with me when I woke up & the day would have been perfect. A winning lottery ticket wouldn’t go amiss either, but I guess you can’t have everything :P
Yesterday also went quite well. I managed to arrange a replacement vehicle for my buggered ambo, so I have a CASEVAC capability again. I was a bit worried about that, as the best response time to get an ambulance here from Bujumbura is on the order of 2 hours, and then it’s another 2 hours or so back into town. That’s assuming that there’s a vehicle available, and also that I can make contact with the capital in the first place, neither of which I would be willing to bet the farm on.
I also confirmed with Rob that this story of the medics being charged by the infantry if they refuse to get into their operational vehicles is a crock of shit, and that civil claims would definitely be possible. Sometimes it’s really handy to be good friends with a lawyer lol
We’ve already had one guy charged over this, & he’s not a happy camper at all, but I have a feeling that it’s going to be an entertaining court martial if it gets that far. Particularly if the presiding judge is who I think it might be *insert eeeevil snigger here*. I pity the poor bastard who signed the charge is all I’m going to say ;)
I also had two rather pleasant surprises in terms of contact from home. First off, Noelle sms’d me at the crazy time of 0555, which I found amusing – I mean, I’m normally awake then, but most normal people aren’t, not on a Saturday :P It was the first time I’d heard from Noelle directly as I’ve never been able to get through to her number, or Pauls, since I got here & it was great to hear from her. My phone actually decided to cooperate, briefly at least, & we managed to exchange a few messages before it reverted to type & quit working. Permanently as it turns out.
Anyway, it seems that she & Paul were taking a train ride from Kloof to Nottingham Road, & needed to be up early to catch it. That sounds like it could be a really pleasant way to spend the day, & it’s definitely something I wouldn’t mind doing when I get home. I can imagine the trip back might be a little different to the one going up though, particularly if a stop at the Notties brewery is involved :P They make bloody good beer there, & I’ve missed it while I’ve been up here. The only problem is that it’s far stronger than you’d think, & after 2 pints my eyes start to cross. By the time I’ve had 4 my legs have wandered off to chat up the cute brunette in the corner, which makes getting up off the bar stool a tricky proposition :P Lovely stuff. My old lady quite enjoys it too, & whenever I’m in Howick I take her to a pub around the corner & treat her to a few pints. Half pints, actually, ‘cause my old lady is a similar build to Shirley & really can’t handle her booze. Which is, of course, exactly why I take her out drinking – I laugh my tits off at my old lady when she’s pissed :P
The other pleasant surprise was that I had a few personal emails waiting for me when I got to check my mail, from Shirlz & also from Beatrice. Some of you may remember Beatrice as BabyGirl from her brief tenure on the old NAG forums &, like Nicole, is someone I’d pretty much managed to lose track of since I got back from the Congo. Needless to say it was bloody good to hear from her again, & I’m looking forward to keeping in touch from now on.
It’s always good to hear from Shirlz, especially when she says such nice things about my photographs lol The suggestion has been made, & not just by Shirlz come to think of it, that I see if I can’t get a few published at some point, & I have to admit that the idea is starting to grow on me. Till now, photography has just been a hobby for me, but if I can make money out of having fun I’d be foolish not to.
So far as my phone dying on me goes, it suddenly locked up & switched itself off when I was halfway through typing up an sms to Noelle, & then flat refused to switch back on. Bastard thing. I’m still not entirely sure that I’m going to make much use of a cell while I’m here, but I decided to replace the phone anyway while I was in town & I got myself a Nokia 6260. I’d have preferred to get a Sony-Eriksson I saw the other day – the 750i or something – as that’s got a decent 2mp auto-focus camera rather than the crappy VGA “camera” that Nokia seem so enamoured of, but they didn’t have in the shop when I looked. The 6260 is nice enough, & I’ve always enjoyed the Nokia interface and ease of use, but I may still get that Sony-Eriksson anyway if I see it. It pays to always have a camera in your pocket, because you never know when the picture of a lifetime is going to appear in front of you, but the 20D I have here is just a little large for that – “Damn, but you’re VERY happy to see me!” :P
Perversely the old phone seemed to catch a second breath later in the day, & decided to start working again, if only for a little while before it went tits up on me again. At least I managed to get all my contacts off of it before it died again. There’s not much use having a phone if you don’t have numbers for anyone after all.
Anyway, that’s about it for now. I have an idea the rest of the day is going to involved installing GTA-SA again, and seeing how far I can get without the cheat codes this time – damn, but that game is bloody hard in places! Good fun though.
Take care everyone, & I’ll catch up again soon ;)
P.S. I’ve had a few people ask me for a postal address since I arrived here, & I’ve finally pulled my thumb from up my ass & confirmed what it is – sorry for the delay :P
89373583PF
SSgt I. Sankey
MTT Palace Base
Ops ONUB
FPO 3
ElardusPark
0153
I’ll be honest & confess to being an atrocious letter writer, but include a return address & I’ll reply to any mail I receive. So long as you’re not offended if I type any letters as opposed to writing them out by hand. Just ask Ash what my handwriting looks like…..
Cheers all ;)
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