I have but one day of work left... Then they give us a bit of time off to sort out any last minute items before leaving... I'll be running around taking some last photos.. Send my last parcel of clothing and other items I can live with out...
The time warp is worst then time leading to vacation... As much as I try to keep my self busy its seems that time slows down … For most of my time here weeks would fly by, now a day seem to take forever and I know that the night before that hours drag from one to the next.
It could be worst, one from my department left last Friday and his flight got delayed as the run way here was closed to civilian traffic for operational needs. So he is told at first the plan is a hour late then four hours, eventually it ended up being almost 8 hours late. Those must have been the 8 longest hours of his life.
The Olympics are soon over, we have the gold metal hockey game tonight here around 1 AM local time. I'll be happy to see them go as I'm not much of a fan and of late its all that's on all the TV here. This whole greatest Canadian event stuff is starting to get on my nerves. This excessive nationalism that seems a century out of place make the little hairs on my back of my neck stand up. Am I being too much of a pessimist? To be honest I'm a bit annoyed that the best thing Canada thinks it can do in the modern age is hold a really cool Olympics, kind of disappoints me.... The worst part is that here we have one Canadian TV Channel and its CTV playing only events that Canada won a metal over and over and over... It's the ONLY thing to watch here !!!.... Ok enough ranting...
Speaking of games... about two weeks ago some one joined the SCA Afghanistan email list and asked if there was any armored combat here and should they bring there spare armor. I replied no but we have fencing three times a week and have quite a bit of fun doing that. Now you have to understand that there's a lot of people on the SCA Afghan email list that have nothing to do with Afghanistan, I think many joined as some sort of SCA support the troops sentiment.
Well the list started talking about different kind of easy to make armor some one could theoretically make for use over here. At this point I quit paying much attention to this thread. This was a mistake. You need to understand that due to logistics and environment here armored combat is very much a bad idea and has been tried. I wont bore you with the details why.
Some point some knight who I'll leave nameless decided it was just not right that we had fencing and not armored so he started a campaign to have a bunch of gear organized at gulf war to be sent here... I got wind of this when Menken asked about some message on the chiv list asking for donations to this effort. So a storm of emails are being sent around to try to convince people to stop. It seems that this energy has now been redirected towards making us a banner to hang at practices...
I so need to go home
Good news is there is another red belt here and hes full of energy and so I know I can pass the stewardship of Castle Cadfania to capable hands.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
T - Week
Today I got 4 boxes mailed out making up the bulk of the stuff I have here sent on its way back home. I have left myself one large plastic box for clothing and some remaining tools. My trip home is so close I can taste the snow from here.... Well not really, The temperature here was over 25 degree C for most of the day, you think it was summer back home other then the natural level of dust here..
With less then a week to go my goal is just keep busy to make the time move forward. I know from the past when leaving for vacation that if I don't keep busy this last week will get painfully slow. Starting to plan for the little things I want to do when I get home, starting with food. The idea I can cook for myself now seems strange. I'll get a little practice as tomorrow is the monthly company BBQ and it looks like i'll be cooking for that... With one bottle of Canadian Club BBQ souse left, The plan is to blow it with my friend here tomorrow.
Many of the people here I may never see again. Even if I do come back in the fall some of them will have ended there contracts in the meantime. Some I can keep track of is Facebook and email others but memories and faces in my photo collection.
With less then a week to go my goal is just keep busy to make the time move forward. I know from the past when leaving for vacation that if I don't keep busy this last week will get painfully slow. Starting to plan for the little things I want to do when I get home, starting with food. The idea I can cook for myself now seems strange. I'll get a little practice as tomorrow is the monthly company BBQ and it looks like i'll be cooking for that... With one bottle of Canadian Club BBQ souse left, The plan is to blow it with my friend here tomorrow.
Many of the people here I may never see again. Even if I do come back in the fall some of them will have ended there contracts in the meantime. Some I can keep track of is Facebook and email others but memories and faces in my photo collection.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
T - Fortnight
Less then a fortnight to go … I have started to pack. The biggest issue is getting the fencing blades back as long as the Canada post see them as sports equipment not as blades. It may be easier in the long run to just disassemble the blades, send the guards in the mail and take the raw blades with me in my checked luggage.
The toughest part is choosing went to actually tare everything apart and send it. In the past year I have built and collected a lot of little creature comforts in my little 6 by 8 foot tent space and so I hate to live with out them even for a few days. I got lucky in that someone that use to be in the same tent wants to move back in and wants the very complex shelving I built, this saves me disassembling it apart myself. He also purchased my fridge too …
Last weekend I forced my self to get up at 5 am to watch the opening ceremonies at the little movie theater here. Its not any ware as big as promised but hey its here. We had the reporter up front filming us. Oh if you were looking for me I was only in one shot and that was far in the back ground the rest of the time I was just out side of frame. With camera in hand I got some “threw the looking glass” shots of them filming us.
To be honest I'm not an Olympic fan but here theres not much else to watch and we seem to collectively get sucked in out of something to talk about. One thing it reminds me is how much more BC imagines its self to be a place for the upper class. There is adds for BC and Ontario running, The BC add is full of Famous people in the woods or at vineyards or the downtown Vancouver trying to look very hip. The Ontario adds just have random people ( I know there bit actors ) doing very middle class kind of things like going to a museum or seeing the sights. I know that nether of these images are accurate representations of the given Provence but its interesting to compare the self image they try to invoke especially with this Olympics being so focused heavenly on “image” of Canada. The coverage to me seems to “Hollywood North”, trying a little to hard.
The opening ceremony also marked here the start of a nasty cold spell. It was actually down below zero at night. But its not forever and it started worming up again yesterday so today was I nice 20 to 22 degrees C for almost the whole day. Now before people start lynching me at the air port when I get back you have to remember that we live in tents who only insulation is a layer of mylar and that we have to walk about 150 feet out side to go the washroom. The tents we have do have these client control units but they are notoriously unreliable.
What this means that if you get up in the middle of the night with a need to visit a water closet you have to make a judgment. You need to weigh the factors of how badly do I need to go and there for amount off time do I have to put on some layers verses my willingness to freeze my ass off. Some have just ware a few layers to bed so they do not have to make such a call or at least have a head start.
Any Way this is a Last call for anything people may want for here. I'm planning to hit the spice markets of Dubai on my way threw as well if any one wants something from there.
The toughest part is choosing went to actually tare everything apart and send it. In the past year I have built and collected a lot of little creature comforts in my little 6 by 8 foot tent space and so I hate to live with out them even for a few days. I got lucky in that someone that use to be in the same tent wants to move back in and wants the very complex shelving I built, this saves me disassembling it apart myself. He also purchased my fridge too …
Last weekend I forced my self to get up at 5 am to watch the opening ceremonies at the little movie theater here. Its not any ware as big as promised but hey its here. We had the reporter up front filming us. Oh if you were looking for me I was only in one shot and that was far in the back ground the rest of the time I was just out side of frame. With camera in hand I got some “threw the looking glass” shots of them filming us.
To be honest I'm not an Olympic fan but here theres not much else to watch and we seem to collectively get sucked in out of something to talk about. One thing it reminds me is how much more BC imagines its self to be a place for the upper class. There is adds for BC and Ontario running, The BC add is full of Famous people in the woods or at vineyards or the downtown Vancouver trying to look very hip. The Ontario adds just have random people ( I know there bit actors ) doing very middle class kind of things like going to a museum or seeing the sights. I know that nether of these images are accurate representations of the given Provence but its interesting to compare the self image they try to invoke especially with this Olympics being so focused heavenly on “image” of Canada. The coverage to me seems to “Hollywood North”, trying a little to hard.
The opening ceremony also marked here the start of a nasty cold spell. It was actually down below zero at night. But its not forever and it started worming up again yesterday so today was I nice 20 to 22 degrees C for almost the whole day. Now before people start lynching me at the air port when I get back you have to remember that we live in tents who only insulation is a layer of mylar and that we have to walk about 150 feet out side to go the washroom. The tents we have do have these client control units but they are notoriously unreliable.
What this means that if you get up in the middle of the night with a need to visit a water closet you have to make a judgment. You need to weigh the factors of how badly do I need to go and there for amount off time do I have to put on some layers verses my willingness to freeze my ass off. Some have just ware a few layers to bed so they do not have to make such a call or at least have a head start.
Any Way this is a Last call for anything people may want for here. I'm planning to hit the spice markets of Dubai on my way threw as well if any one wants something from there.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wow the clock keeps winding down, less then 20 days now... The weather here has been cold, we had frost the one night. OK so that may cause every one in Ottawa reading this to roll there eyes, but that's cold here. This started about a week ago the night after I last posted we got a quite large rain storm leaving this place full of water... Even washed out some of the base.
Its quite at work other then the military has shortened the amount of time we have to finish. The made it so we more or less have to fail at some point. My department prides itself in having a perfect bonus rating for getting things done in the time given. So the military has decided to shorten these times on the grounds of “just cause” … The longer I stay here the less I want to do government work back home... Any way its means now we are doing night shifts.
I did the first week and was there for the one ticket that whole week that was called in. When I got on site the guys there were packing up to go to there tents and were surprised to see me and annoyed as they had to wait while I fixed there computers. They had sent the ticket at the end of there shift in the hopes to get the first tech the next morning.
The Olympics are going to be broadcast to the new screen here. Yes the government built a small movie theater here so the soldiers could watch the Olympics on a 30 foot screen. I know that's not big for a movie screen back home but here the largest before that was the one we built for the movie nights and it was 15 feet.
With the Olympics other countries are prepping, this afternoon one of the US jets was practicing doing smoke circles in the sky, in the plan to do a proper Olympics rings at some point. Sorry didn't get pictures of this as I got no batteries for the digital camera, my charger has walked away and there seems to be a bit of a shortage of AA batteries on base. Did find some but too late to get a pic of the rings. But I am ready for when he does the main show.
Any way I will talk to you all soon...
Its quite at work other then the military has shortened the amount of time we have to finish. The made it so we more or less have to fail at some point. My department prides itself in having a perfect bonus rating for getting things done in the time given. So the military has decided to shorten these times on the grounds of “just cause” … The longer I stay here the less I want to do government work back home... Any way its means now we are doing night shifts.
I did the first week and was there for the one ticket that whole week that was called in. When I got on site the guys there were packing up to go to there tents and were surprised to see me and annoyed as they had to wait while I fixed there computers. They had sent the ticket at the end of there shift in the hopes to get the first tech the next morning.
The Olympics are going to be broadcast to the new screen here. Yes the government built a small movie theater here so the soldiers could watch the Olympics on a 30 foot screen. I know that's not big for a movie screen back home but here the largest before that was the one we built for the movie nights and it was 15 feet.
With the Olympics other countries are prepping, this afternoon one of the US jets was practicing doing smoke circles in the sky, in the plan to do a proper Olympics rings at some point. Sorry didn't get pictures of this as I got no batteries for the digital camera, my charger has walked away and there seems to be a bit of a shortage of AA batteries on base. Did find some but too late to get a pic of the rings. But I am ready for when he does the main show.
Any way I will talk to you all soon...
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Less then a month
I did got two of the boxes I was expecting. Mostly food that is ether hard or impossible to get here including the whiskey BBQ souse I asked Kes to pick up for me. Thank you all for sending the boxes. We are not getting to many flights now as most are going to Haiti.
Some of my coworkers are talking about contracts in Haiti. In there minded ware the military goes we are soon to follow. I'll probably not go as I don't speak french. One of the companies competitor according to rumors has already got a contract and is starting to head hunt. Its one of the companies that does the bait and switch so the first wave of contracts will be quite sweet but after that they will only be taking from developing nations at much the reduce rate.
This has not prevent a few from applying. The whole thing makes me feel very ghoulish. When the earth quake hit and then announced we were sending troops many of my co-workers started talking about how nice it be to work in the Caribbean like they just book a vacation there. I put it down as a side effect of doing this for too long.
Need to think about sending things home now. The end is in sight, about 25 days to go. The only problem is I have too much stuff here so I need to start sending some of it back. The first thing will be books I think. There is also some stone ware that needs to go as well.
Its been like spring here. I'm not too sure I want to go back to the winter that waits me in Ottawa. The average temperature here has been around 20 in the day and about 15 at night. We are getting rain and I know there will be more as the month goes along. But for the last few weeks was perfect weather. It was fun well it lasted.
And some may notice that I finally have my correct heraldry up on live journal … There is a place that does custom badges, all you have to do is show up with an image and they make a badge for you. So I had one made up to put on my armor bag.
Hum other fun fact is we have a wondering camera man taking best wishes to the Olympic athletes. A few in my office were gun ho to do that but we got word from higher up that its a no no to have any dealings with the press. The companies that work here don't want to get into the public awareness but stay in the back ground only to be noticed by military upper officers.
Some of my coworkers are talking about contracts in Haiti. In there minded ware the military goes we are soon to follow. I'll probably not go as I don't speak french. One of the companies competitor according to rumors has already got a contract and is starting to head hunt. Its one of the companies that does the bait and switch so the first wave of contracts will be quite sweet but after that they will only be taking from developing nations at much the reduce rate.
This has not prevent a few from applying. The whole thing makes me feel very ghoulish. When the earth quake hit and then announced we were sending troops many of my co-workers started talking about how nice it be to work in the Caribbean like they just book a vacation there. I put it down as a side effect of doing this for too long.
Need to think about sending things home now. The end is in sight, about 25 days to go. The only problem is I have too much stuff here so I need to start sending some of it back. The first thing will be books I think. There is also some stone ware that needs to go as well.
Its been like spring here. I'm not too sure I want to go back to the winter that waits me in Ottawa. The average temperature here has been around 20 in the day and about 15 at night. We are getting rain and I know there will be more as the month goes along. But for the last few weeks was perfect weather. It was fun well it lasted.
And some may notice that I finally have my correct heraldry up on live journal … There is a place that does custom badges, all you have to do is show up with an image and they make a badge for you. So I had one made up to put on my armor bag.
Hum other fun fact is we have a wondering camera man taking best wishes to the Olympic athletes. A few in my office were gun ho to do that but we got word from higher up that its a no no to have any dealings with the press. The companies that work here don't want to get into the public awareness but stay in the back ground only to be noticed by military upper officers.
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