...so, this week I have been mostly on-line and not doing hobby stuff. It is a real shame and it actually irritates me greatly when I can't get any hobby stuff done...it's almost like I feel guilty! Fortunately, while I have been away, feeling sorry for myself, Monkey has stepped in and taken control. Here he is; caught in the act whilst painting a Dvarg from Black Hat miniatures...
Click the Pic!
As a result of being overly tired and Monkey hogging the painting area, I have been incredibly lax with regards to finishing off the mechs for my tunnel fighters and have only got this far with the last mech:
Click the Pic!
...I guess that there is a little progress; seeing as I have under-coated him, painted him silver and painted his pilot but I would have really liked to have had his base-coat finished and the next mech assembled...ho-hum and all that :(. By the way, the next mech will be a Brutish Dog...
Fortunately, the orders from Em4 and GW turned up and I now have enough bits to make all of the pilots and enough bases to stand all of the mechs on. I also have 10 small plastic mechs to...try and find a purpose for, some bike bases for...another project and a pair of Lord of the Ring Dwarfs to finish off a small Dwarf raiding party...so it isn't all bad.
I mentioned to my mum that I had settled for a naff phone sock because I couldn't find the one I liked. I mentioned that I wanted one that looked like a woolly hat...guess what turned up a few days later?:
Fortunately, the orders from Em4 and GW turned up and I now have enough bits to make all of the pilots and enough bases to stand all of the mechs on. I also have 10 small plastic mechs to...try and find a purpose for, some bike bases for...another project and a pair of Lord of the Ring Dwarfs to finish off a small Dwarf raiding party...so it isn't all bad.
I mentioned to my mum that I had settled for a naff phone sock because I couldn't find the one I liked. I mentioned that I wanted one that looked like a woolly hat...guess what turned up a few days later?:
Click the Pic!
The lads at work have certainly got a lot of mileage out of my new phone sock but they just don't appreciate the style :)...I love it!
So why the heck aren't I at my quality assurance course? It was cancelled! So I have a lovely week at work to look forward to...including a trip tomorrow for a bit of team building! I can't wait.
On to a completely different topic...
I must be a very lucky man indeed...
...I am in the wrong job. I have known this for a very long time and have just ticked along, doing my best and going where I'm sent. I have been promoted (sometimes later than I would have preferred), changed tasking (sometimes the tasks were better than others) and had to move house a few times (some better than others) and all the time I have known I was in the wrong job. I should have joined the Army...or gone to college and learned how to do my hobby as a way of life...but instead I joined the Royal Air Force (RAF).
...Don't get me wrong...I made the right choice.
I work on helicopters. Helicopters are the missing link between the Army and the Royal Air Force and as a result, we are often sent where the Army goes and live in similar conditions. I have been to 'war' (I think it was called peace-keeping...) and have carried out my duties under fire and at those times I have felt such a huge amount of pride in both what I am doing and what my fellow servicemen are achieving that I realised that this was as close to being in the Army as I could get...without being in the RAF Regiment or actually joining the Army...and I like it!
How many people can say that they are enjoying their working life, knowing that they are in the wrong job? Not many, I can assure you.
I remember the first time I walked onto the flight line after arriving at my first posting after training...
...I had been at the station for about two weeks. In that time, I had been a tool monkey for a junior tradesman (I had higher rank but no experience...I think I was 'learning my place' in the team) and because the aircraft was near to flight test, had not been assigned to any work-sheets...I had to learn the ropes! Finally the maintenance was finished and the helicopter (a Puma...XW231...and yes, I can remember to this day...and for your information, it is the same Puma that has tiger stripes of the 1/72nd scale Revell kit and it is 'pre-mod' on the front of the Airfix 1/72nd kit) was ready to go to the flight line for air testing.
I hadn't been on the flight line before and took a back seat as the aircraft was towed out and parked on the pan (helicopter landing pan...the sort of thing that in civvy-street would have a big 'H' on it). While we were waiting for the pilot to arrive, a bunch of Chinook were towed out on to the airfield and a bunch of Pumas from the Squadrons joined them. The air was a bit cool but the sun was shining brightly...one by one, the aircraft fired up and either carried out ground-runs or took off...filling the air with the smell of burnt aviation fuel and the noise of rumbling engines...not forgetting the thump-thump-thump of the Chinook rotors as they dragged themselves airborne...
...I knew this was as near as I could get to my perfect job...it was 'Apocalypse Now' without the need for a strange plot...if Ride of the Valkyries had been playing in the background, I would have sworn I had died and gone to 'Irony Heaven'...
I could have joined the Army...I could have gone to college...I could be making a living sculpting and casting...but I chose the Royal Air Force and do you know what?...I wouldn't have changed it for the world :).
I was 17...I didn't know which direction to take...I talked to my English teacher (Miss Penny Duncombe; a woman who was my rock in secondary school) and she asked me what I thought would be a good direction for me to go...I said the RAF and she told me to take Monday off school and visit the RAF information centre...the rest is history! 22 years service...a wife...2 children...not one of my friends at school would ever have predicted that.
Most likely to be a bachelor until I died and end up on job-support as soon as I left school...
...yep...I'm happy to be in the wrong job!
See you through the rose coloured spectacles of reminiscing...
So why the heck aren't I at my quality assurance course? It was cancelled! So I have a lovely week at work to look forward to...including a trip tomorrow for a bit of team building! I can't wait.
On to a completely different topic...
I must be a very lucky man indeed...
...I am in the wrong job. I have known this for a very long time and have just ticked along, doing my best and going where I'm sent. I have been promoted (sometimes later than I would have preferred), changed tasking (sometimes the tasks were better than others) and had to move house a few times (some better than others) and all the time I have known I was in the wrong job. I should have joined the Army...or gone to college and learned how to do my hobby as a way of life...but instead I joined the Royal Air Force (RAF).
...Don't get me wrong...I made the right choice.
I work on helicopters. Helicopters are the missing link between the Army and the Royal Air Force and as a result, we are often sent where the Army goes and live in similar conditions. I have been to 'war' (I think it was called peace-keeping...) and have carried out my duties under fire and at those times I have felt such a huge amount of pride in both what I am doing and what my fellow servicemen are achieving that I realised that this was as close to being in the Army as I could get...without being in the RAF Regiment or actually joining the Army...and I like it!
How many people can say that they are enjoying their working life, knowing that they are in the wrong job? Not many, I can assure you.
I remember the first time I walked onto the flight line after arriving at my first posting after training...
...I had been at the station for about two weeks. In that time, I had been a tool monkey for a junior tradesman (I had higher rank but no experience...I think I was 'learning my place' in the team) and because the aircraft was near to flight test, had not been assigned to any work-sheets...I had to learn the ropes! Finally the maintenance was finished and the helicopter (a Puma...XW231...and yes, I can remember to this day...and for your information, it is the same Puma that has tiger stripes of the 1/72nd scale Revell kit and it is 'pre-mod' on the front of the Airfix 1/72nd kit) was ready to go to the flight line for air testing.
I hadn't been on the flight line before and took a back seat as the aircraft was towed out and parked on the pan (helicopter landing pan...the sort of thing that in civvy-street would have a big 'H' on it). While we were waiting for the pilot to arrive, a bunch of Chinook were towed out on to the airfield and a bunch of Pumas from the Squadrons joined them. The air was a bit cool but the sun was shining brightly...one by one, the aircraft fired up and either carried out ground-runs or took off...filling the air with the smell of burnt aviation fuel and the noise of rumbling engines...not forgetting the thump-thump-thump of the Chinook rotors as they dragged themselves airborne...
...I knew this was as near as I could get to my perfect job...it was 'Apocalypse Now' without the need for a strange plot...if Ride of the Valkyries had been playing in the background, I would have sworn I had died and gone to 'Irony Heaven'...
I could have joined the Army...I could have gone to college...I could be making a living sculpting and casting...but I chose the Royal Air Force and do you know what?...I wouldn't have changed it for the world :).
I was 17...I didn't know which direction to take...I talked to my English teacher (Miss Penny Duncombe; a woman who was my rock in secondary school) and she asked me what I thought would be a good direction for me to go...I said the RAF and she told me to take Monday off school and visit the RAF information centre...the rest is history! 22 years service...a wife...2 children...not one of my friends at school would ever have predicted that.
Most likely to be a bachelor until I died and end up on job-support as soon as I left school...
...yep...I'm happy to be in the wrong job!
See you through the rose coloured spectacles of reminiscing...
1 comment:
Great story about your career choice, oh and I love the phone sock! :)
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