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Time is my only enemy these days.

June 22, 2012
Development, Military work
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It now seems like such a long time since I was out in Afghanistan, in real terms it was.  Three months is such a long time.  We move on quickly, get back into the swing of things in our day to day jobs.  I am now (for those who have not been paying attention) back in Germany with my family.  Still working in the Army, yes we still have some of the Army based here (not for too much longer though).

This job does not seem like a job much really, it really is a shock to the system to enjoy my job as much as I do and in fact I have been known on many occasions to feel real guilt as I see people around me slumped and dejected as they struggle through the week to get to the weekend.

None of that for me, many weekends I am behind the camera enhancing my skills and keeping looking for a way of doing things I have not tried before.

One of the most exciting parts of this job is the variation.  This week has been a prime example, for three days I was chasing soldiers around a live range trying to capture images for their local press who had come out to visit.  Then there was the small matter of photographing a high brow event in Hannover city center to commemorate the Queen’s birthday and then today I spent the day photographing handicapped children as they climbed all over military helicopters.

 

All this work needs to be processed and dispatched to whoever wants it.  Not a five minute job.  So my long suffering wife has to watch me sitting at the laptop most of the evening.

Ah, a negative!  Perhaps the only one.  Sometimes there really is just never enough time in the day.  I need to get a new watch……………

One with a 27 hour day.

Failed Amphibious Assault

February 20, 2012
Afghanistan
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Any of you who know me on Facebook will no doubt have been made aware by my oh so generous colleagues that I was involved in a rather unfortunate incident.

Those of you who may have been out here before will know that when it rains, it can rain hard.  Not that this happens too often, but when it does, this place (Bastion) can flood, and flood fast.  After being here for several years there has been quite a bit of development with a decent (relatively speaking) road network and huge drainage ditches.

Sounds great, but the problem is that when the big rain comes, it can quickly fill the ditches, and when it does in places the road disappears.

So driving through Bastion at night, in the rain claimed another victim……….me!

Laden with kit, driving back to the office, one of the roads was swallowed by a flood.  Initially it just looked like a patch but once in, it just seemed to get deeper.  Probably only 3 inches deep,  I slowed down, dropped gear to keep the revs up and tried to pick the route, but with no visible markers for the drainage ditches, once the minibus found the edge, it had me.

Evacuating the vehicle was interesting.  Pretty soon we were all up to our groins in the water.  And from there the good old military banter begins.

One thing I have learnt is that the ‘taking the piss’ is never not going to happen, so you have no choice but to laugh along.

So there we have it, I am a little red faced, I have added that little bit of morale to the team but the reality for me is that at least no-one was hurt and if this is the worst that happens to me on this tour, I will be happy.