London Baby!
It has been AGES since the last time I topped up on LJ credits... so here I am with my twice annual LJ update.
So, since I last updated, here is what has happened:
a) I have completed Officer training. BRNC is in my past (woohoo!) Although, I will be revisiting the old place just before Christmas for the Dartmouth Ball with all my WAFU buddies. Dartmouth was the best of times. It was the worst of times. But overall, I think I am a better person for having done it (better than crabs or booties anyhoo!).
b) After that, I then visited my sister in Mallorca. It was the hottest week since records began, apparently. So I spent a well earned week topping up the tan and out on Helen's friends' boat. Nice.
c) I then returned to Jersey for a quick pit-stop (to drop off all my Navy crap in my bedroom) before heading up to Edinburgh for a taste of the festival and fringe with Liz and Carrie. Its odd being there on the other side of the counter, not being "part of the magic" as it were. But I had a great time! I miss Edinburgh :_o(
d) I then headed back into the military fold, this time to do various survival courses. This included being taken to 20,000ft in a hypobaric chamber to experience hypoxia, learn basic first aid, study what survival aids we have to hand to be able to survive both at sea and on land followed by the infamous 'dunker'. What it is is a box full of aircraft seats attached to a crane above a swimming pool. What it does is plnge you into the pool, turn you upside down in the dark to simulate crashing into the sea. The mission is to escape without drowning. FUN (not).
e) And now we arrive at where I am now. London. Due to my next course not starting until January I had to fill it with a stopgap job. This, for me, has been with the Ministry of Defence's Ceremonial Events and Comemmorations Team based at MOD Main Building on Whitehall. As a team we have organised 2 national events here in London. The first was the unveiling of the memorial to armed conflicts in the Cloisters of Westminster Abbey in the presence of the Princess Royal, all of the Defence Ministers and Chiefs of Staff, as well as 400 members of the armed forces recently returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. It was good
The 2nd was on Tuesday 11th November. The service was to mark the 90th Anniversary of the Great War Armistice at the Cenotaph on Whitehall. We organised for the last 3 surviving WW1 veterans to attend and lay wreaths on behalf of the 3 services, and their generation. This service was broadcast live on BBC1, BC World, Sky and was featured on all news channels and reports as well as in all national and regional newspapers (the JEP? I don't know actually!). After the service we held a reception at No10 Downing Street hosted by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. What a day!
So... that is what I have been doing officially. As a sideline, I do kinda have a boyfriend. He's called Joe and he is an Actor/ Doctor of Chemistry (they often come hand-in-hand). He is lovely, but due to his current performance in a panto out of town, I don't see much of him :_o(
Anyway, that’s me in a nutshell since my last update. I'll be home for Christmas and then its off to Cornwall for the foreseeable future beginning my ACTUAL training (finally!!).
*kisses*