Time Flies...
I last wrote in here 5 months ago.
5 months where so much in my life has changed! As you can see below, my last post was regarding Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I had just read it and was deeply disappointed by it (I am going to re-read it so that I can see if it was me missing out all the good bits by mistake).
At the time of reading I had just finished working at Jersey Airport and was working at Edinburgh Airport as a Missing Baggage Supervisor for British Airways. It was an AWFUL job, but it did set me up with plenty of money.
That money was put to frivolous use, attending shows and buying copious amounts of alcohol at the Edinburgh Festival. It was my 2nd Festival working at the Underbelly, this time turning myself to the Box Office. In hindsight, I did prefer Front of House as it is a little bit more active, not quite as frustrating and you get to know the acts a lot better.
Come the end of the summer, it was time to take off the party hat and replace it with a beret. September took me out of my comfort zone and threw me into the world of Naval Officer Training. Dartmouth is a strange place like nowhere else yet you can see it is there to do a job and it does that job well. It also carries out the same job it has done for 100 years, and other establishments and ships have done before then, to recruit, militarise and then train Naval Officers.
…and it is there that I have been for the last 3 months being “militarised”. It is harsh, but rewarding. Often you look at a task and think “sod that, I’m gonna slob about and not bother”… but the militarisation (this is the magic bit) MAKES you do it (bet you didn’t see that coming). THEN they teach us how to make other people do that by showing us how to give orders.
It was that bit of the training that got me. I found it hard to turn off Mister Nice and Polite and turn on Mister Bossiboots! What this meant was that I had to retake the elementary training to make me into a hard-arsed bastard.
And it worked! Well, I’ve ticked the box now and have shown that I can do it. The next stage, after Christmas, is to prove that I can be an Observer. Hard, complicated stuff but if I can survive 4days on Dartmoor in horizontal rain, I can survive 30minutes sat in the back of a Jetstream pushing a few buttons on a computer!
This Christmas has been great. We spent it up at my Grandad’s due to his ill health. I think my mum found it all a bit frustrating (she has her Christmas routine and we all like it) but it was a welcome break from the rigors of Dartmouth. On the way I went via London, Edinburgh and Liverpool to see friends and relatives around the country.
So, Sunday I return to Dartmouth and, to be honest, I cannot wait! The next stage of the training is what I joined up to do and so it cannot be helped if I am a wee bit excited!
And as for home, Jersey is as Jersey was and I’ve found what I continue to leave behind has moved on. Every time I return I feel more and more dislocated from it and what I once saw as my home I now see as a place to touch base. My friends have all moved on, be it geographically or mentally. I think its great how everyone I care about is finding a place for themselves and is planning and preparing for their future. I’m sure it won’t be long til I have to go to a wedding/ baby shower/ 1st West End performance… and who knows, in a few years we may all regroup and find ourselves back on this rock.
If I had one wish, it would be that we can all remain in contact (what did we all do before facebook?) and that we all remember, in the words of Baz Luhrmann:
“Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.”