After starting a blog with the best of intentions of keeping it up to date, I am once again being woefully lazy, as I have not updated it for the past two weeks. I would like to say it is because I have been out partying every night but alas, it is because I spend my day in front of a computer screen and so come the evening I just switch it off and sit in front of the moving picture lantern. I think the only reason I have managed to sit down tonight and write though is that after just drinking 5 cups of coffee on the trot I am somewhat bouncing of the bulkheads. Goodness knows how I will get to sleep tonight.
The last couple of weeks have been hectic with our daily programme changing almost hourly, this certainly makes the days go quickly but makes it very hard for me to produce a decent fortnightly programme. At least longer term things are steadier even if we have a five month programme crammed into three months. The worst bit about it all though is that our visit to Devonport was changed at the last minute to Scotland so my planned night in a hotel had to be cancelled. I had been looking forward to that weekend and spending time with Debbie and the little ones. Hopefully, though if all goes well I should see them in a little over a week when we go back into port next weekend.
Scotland wasn’t all that bad though, first of all the scenery up the lochs was as stunning as usual and it was great to see the snow in the hills. It was really good to have a bit of a break and the chance to get ashore after an extremely busy two and a half weeks at sea. I braved the weather on the Saturday and cycled ten miles into Dunoon to meet up with the chaps. A pleasant time was spent in Sinbad’s but as time marched on, I thought it best to head back to the ship. It was a really hard ride back with a dreadful head wind and frequent hail showers. Saying that it did not deter me on the Sunday as a couple of us headed out for another bike ride clocking up thirty miles and thankfully only coming across one hail storm.
Since sailing again, things have been even more hectic as we have tried to maintain flying ops whilst avoiding fog banks. Work wise things have been none stop as we continue to prepare for our forthcoming exercises and work up. The only good thing about this week was that we did actually get to anchor yesterday so we finally had decent phone signal for the evening. It was great being able to read the bed time poem to the little ones and hear everyone’s voices back home.
Things are starting to look up for next leave as if everything falls into place we should be going away a couple of times. Also it will be really good to be home for the summer months as hopefully we will be able to have a few BBQs and will definitely be able to go for a few picnics. Last leave I took the little ones out for quite a few picnics and they always thoroughly enjoyed them.
Well hopefully the caffeine will start to wear off in a bit but at least I am feeling quite mellow for once, dare I say almost relaxed but then again perhaps that is because I have ignored my inbox this evening. At least being the weekend there will be no work emails from shore side for the next couple of days so I will be finally able to clear down my queue and get ahead of the curve.
Well I suppose that is it for the time being until next time.
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