A quick update….

February 17^th 2006, 1825B

There’s a chance I’ll get to a net connection tomorrow, & seeing as I’ve had so little contact with everyone at home lately I figured it’d be a pretty good idea to update this. Besides, it’s also been quite awhile since I spent any time on this, & funnily enough I’ve sort of missed sitting down in front of the pc to waffle on about my day.

Actually, it’ll be interesting to see if I carry on with this after I get home. I mean, the whole reason I started this blog was to keep in touch with people while I was away from home, but it has become something of a habit now. Getting home will obviate the need for the blog, as I’ll be in regular contact, face to face for the most part, with all of my friends, but I have an idea that I’ll be carrying on with putting down my “brain farts” – as Noelle once described blogging :p – for at least a little while after I’m back in Durban.

Anyway, to get on with the “brain farting”….

It’s been a fairly busy week since I last updated this, with the breaking down of Palace Base in town, & the move to the new base. Breaking down the old base was a significant amount of work, & it’s the most physical labour I’ve done in a very long time – I’ve not been so tired, or sore, in many years lol Strangely enough I actually enjoyed the work for the most part, though I must admit my enthusiasm for the task had waned significantly by the third day. One thing that really pissed me off though, was the way that basically half of the section worked, while the rest sat and watched. Even one of the guys who was deployed to an outside base came in to help out, & really worked, but the others literally did nothing. It didn’t go unnoticed who worked & who didn’t though, & the major in command of the section effectively banished the slackers to the external bases for the remainder of the deployment. I don’t know that I consider that much of a punishment myself – I mean, I’d far rather be in Mwaro right now lol – but I think they got the message.

Something else that’s been keeping us surprisingly busy lately is the number of escort missions, & there’s been at least 3 every day this last week. It’s keeping me busy though, & it easily beats sitting around the base with my thumb up my ass, even if sitting in the back of a Land Rover for 5 hours at a time wears a little thin. Another benefit to the number of escort missions I’ve been going on lately is that it’s afforded me chance to dust off the camera, & even though I’ve not actually taken too many photos, I’ve managed to get a few pretty decent shots. I’d have taken a lot more if it wasn’t impossible to take photos from a moving vehicle on these roads though, & once again I find myself hoping my extension comes through, if only so that I can afford that stabilised zoom lens I’ve wanted pretty much since I got here.

Speaking of the extension, there’s no change there since I last typed something up for this – I still don’t know for sure what’s happening. I had a meeting about the extension on Thursday with a visiting staff officer from Pretoria, and I was promised an answer “within a few days”, but I gave up on holding my breath while waiting for feedback a long time ago. One way or the other, I’ll be home within the next few weeks, and it goes without saying just how much I’m looking forward to the break, & to seeing everyone again. I think I’ll carry on with being non-specific with regards to exactly when I’ll be home though – God knows I don’t want to jinx things again – but I’ll keep everyone as updated as possible within that context.

Otherwise there’s not a whole lot of news – all I’ve been doing really is escort missions & counting down the days. One thing I’ve missed since we’ve been at this new base is comms, as cell coverage is unreliable here, & we didn’t have a landline until yesterday. I’ve managed to get in a call to Ash & Rob at least since we’ve had a phone again, & I really enjoyed speaking with both of them, but I’m still having trouble getting through to everyone else.

Rob had some good news for me, in that he was able to confirm a price & availability on that new notebook I’ve mentioned previously, & while he’s not had chance to buy it yet, he should easily be able to manage that by the time I get home. So it looks like I’ll be clubbed like a baby seal at Warcraft on my new machine after all :D

Rob also sent up a few parcels for me this week, which was really appreciated. Mostly it’s stuff like peanuts & those cheddar biscuits, but he also included must be about 3 litres of whiskey and an engraved hip flask, which I’m busy sucking on as I type this up so if my grammar & spelling suddenly go to shit, you know why :p Something else he included in the parcels was a new external hard drive case to replace to one I have here, but it looks like it’s the drive that’s toast rather than the case, as the new one doesn’t work either. Hopefully it’s just a blown fuse in the drive or something, & it will be simple to recover the data on the drive when I get home, but I’m really worried that I’ve lost what was on there. Most of what’s on it is stuff I have backed up already at home, but all my photos from this deployment are also on that drive, & if I’ve lost those I’ll be really disappointed. All I’ll have left are the low-res ones I’ve uploaded to travelgallery, & the photos I’ve taken since the drive crashed. It’s not just the lost memories either, as Shirlz has also suggested I try get some of the photos published, & I’ll need the original high-res files for that. And data recovery is also not a cheap undertaking from what I understand, which is something else I’m concerned about – I’ve managed to save a fair amount while I’ve been here, & I don’t want to eat into that any more than is necessary.

Anyway, I’d best end this off for now as it looks like supper is ready. I’m not sure if I’ll get chance to update this again before I get home, but failing that I’ll keep in touch as best I can by phone & sms. In the meantime, I hope everyone reading this has a great weekend, & I’m looking forward to seeing you all soon :D

Cheers for now though ;)