08th June 2008, 0525B

Well, we're up to post number 2 at least, and it's only around a week since the last post, so maybe I'll get back into this after all.

It might be pertinent at this point to go into the "why" of this blog again, because as I said in the last post, the reasons have changed.

Previously I maintained this blog as a way of keeping in touch with friends while I was away on an 8 month deployment to Burundi, & evidently it was fairly well received. These days though? I'm quite firmly established in Durbs, where I can and do see my friends fairly frequently overall - some far more than others - and I won't be heading anywhere soon, so I really shouldn't need to use this to keep in touch. Then again, given how infrequently I do see some of my friends, maybe this purpose does still apply....

Anyway, to get back to why I’m resurrecting this. The same as before, this is going to be a journal of sorts where I can ramble away, but it’s also going to be way for me to keep track of how the studying is going (or not as the case may be), how my desire to narrow down my fat ass at least a little in the near future works out, and also to record how this little spiritual rediscovery that I’ve been having the last little while.... ok, 2 years or so... progresses. Assuming I ever get off said fat ass & actually do something about it that is.

Hopefully this won’t include quite so much whining & sulking as I did in this blog previously – looking back over it, it seems I was a seriously whiny bitch while I was in Burundi lol – but I make no promises :p

So far as general background for this goes concerned, I’m still in the military, still an Operational Medic, and still kind of based in Durban. I say “kind of” in that since I last updated this I’ve been transferred to the School for Military Health Training in Pretoria, though it’s effectively a paper transfer and I’ll likely never see the place – oh G_d how I hope I never see the place at least. The reason for the transfer is that I was lucky enough to land full time studies at state expense, and I’m currently busy with the National Diploma in Emergency Care & Rescue here at the Durban University of Technology, which is a really sweet deal I must say – the army pays for my studies in full, and they continue to pay me my full salary while I’m studying. After I graduate I’m bound to work back the years that I’ve studied, which is only to be expected I guess, but the real question there is where I’ll be working back that commitment. There’s a very good chance that I’ll be physically transferred at that point, probably to the Pretoria area somewhere, which is something I’m really not looking forward to, but who knows? Maybe by then they’ll have created regional Advanced Life Support practitioner posts and I’ll be able to stay in Durban after all. What would be really sweet is if I could swing some kind of liaison post at DUT itself, as an associate lecturer or something. The military is on a drive to put a lot of students through the N-Dip / B-Tech, and there are currently 17 students at the Durban faculty alone, including myself, & there’s a chance that’ll go up to perhaps 25-30 next year with a new group of 1^st year students. Given those numbers, having a permanent representative at the regional schools to act as a mentor to, and to exercise command & control over, the military students might not be too bad an idea. Now if only I can sell that idea to the various people who make the decisions.....

So far the diploma has gone pretty well for me, though it’s not been too much of a challenge thus far. The reason for that is that I’ve started from scratch as a fresh 1^st year student, instead of challenging the diploma and entering it under a Recognition of Prior learning (RPL) program, whereby I’d effectively do bridging training to upgrade my current qualification. Given that the diploma is structured to take you from “zero to hero”, all we’ve been doing so far has been work I’ve done numerous times before, so my biggest problem has been paying attention & taking things seriously so far. And I must confess, my focus has not been what it should be..... With a little luck I’ll wizen up very quickly & start putting in the work, & paying the attention I should be, but things have been a little shaky in that sense the last 2-3 weeks or so. The work is starting to get a little challenging though, so hopefully the last Adult Emergency Care test we did will shake me up & be an incentive to start studying properly again. I’m not happy with how that last test went at all, but it’s not entirely because I didn’t study enough for it – I’ve been having some real trouble with insomnia the last 6 months, and this last month or so in particular, and the headaches, mood swings & inability to concentrate that’s been causing really haven’t helped when it’s come to getting any studying done.

I’ve not received my results from that test yet, so I don’t know for sure how I did – the last I spoke to the lecturer nobody had failed at least – but I know I could have done better.

Overall though, I’m happy with how the diploma is going for me, & I have no doubt whatsoever about my ability to successfully complete the diploma. Which is a good thing, because I really don’t fancy having to refund the army my study fees :p

I think I’m going to end off here for now though, and perhaps do some of that studying I was just speaking of – I have a fair chunk of anatomy & physiology homework that’s due for tomorrow, and a pretty big assignment on neurotransmitters I need to get started on sometime soon. With a little luck I’ll have something to add to this soon, & I’ll get back into the swing of updating this regularly.

Till then.