Sunday 25 January 2015

Almost a month done.

Welcome to this week’s blog post and this week it will be a fairly quiet affair.

One of the things you have to do when you go to a place like the Falklands for four months, is decide what you are going to do while you are out there. Now, it may seem like quite a simple thing to decide but whatever you choose to do will shape your tour.

Last time I was here, I chose to work hard and in my free time, visit the bars and socialise... and yes... there was much karaoke going on as well. This was all very well but I was lucky to get home without a massive beer-belly and a failed liver... not to mention the low times I had due to the depressive nature of alcohol. 

This time around, I have chosen to focus most of my attention on getting fit and running a half marathon while I am here. As part of the fitness programme, I have started to undertake the Falklands challenge (which I will expand upon later). I also wanted to go on a couple of battlefield tours (Mt Tumbledown was the main one and I have already ticked that box) while I was here and have a proper visit to Port Stanley to have a good nose about.

There are other options; many clubs, volunteering, arranging trips, going on heli/aircraft flights etc... but you can’t do everything, can you?

The Falklands Challenge

This is a challenge to cover 574 Km on land and 62 Km on water. The land options are: running, cycling or cross training. The water options are rowing or swimming. Fortunately, you can use the swimming pool and the machines in the gym to complete the distance (which is representative of a trip around the islands). Unfortunately, I didn’t bring any swimming trunks with me so I am covering the water part of the challenge on the rowing machine. Since the 8th of Jan, I have covered 82 Km on land and 25 Km on water. I have also clocked up over 700 press-ups and sit-ups... so I am properly ticking along with the whole fitness challenge.

With all that, plus the fact that I am not sleeping at all well, you will understand that I haven’t even looked at my sculpting kit yet so I apologise for the lack of Squat pictures. Hopefully, I will have something interesting to share with you next week as the weekend promises to be highly entertaining.

See you from the top of the wall!

Sunday 18 January 2015

A trip to Mt Tumbledown

Welcome to this week’s blog post and this week it is all about a little trip I took to visit Mt Tumbledown on the Falkland Islands.

Tumbledown overlooks Port Stanley and was the focus of fierce fighting between Argentinean troops who were dug in on the mountain and British troops who wanted to shift them from the high ground.

It was winter; there was snow and extremely cold weather. The British had to cross large areas of dead ground to reach the base of the outcrop and then assault upwards, in darkness under a hail of bullets, mortar rounds and artillery shells.

The battle for Tumbledown was fierce and in some cases, hand to hand with bayonets and knives but ultimately the British won the battle.

Today, I followed the route the British soldiers took from the approach to Mt Tumbledown, up the mountain, across the ridge and then on to Mt William. It was tough going in daylight with the rain falling and the wind gusting but it was nothing compared to what the British troops faced in 1982. To face a constant barrage from well dug in troops when you are cold, tired and can’t see very well due to the darkness must have needed superhuman determination and courage.

Here is a poem written by a guardsman who took part. This poem is displayed in the main corridor of the Mount Pleasant complex:


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 And here is the site of the battle:


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 I think I’ll leave things there for now.

See you from a position of reflection!

Sunday 11 January 2015

The first post from the island

Welcome to Inso’s World again and as you will have noticed; I am a week late in posting. The reason for this is that I am now in the Falkland Islands and have had a very busy couple of weeks. It all started with a 26 hour journey from my front door to my new room on the island. I spent 16 of those hours in the air, with the remainder being an hour to get me to the airport and a lot of time waiting around. Being an insomniac, I didn’t get any sleep on the aircraft so I started my time here tired... but that didn’t stop me having to do ground defence training, rifle zeroing, arrivals processing and then sorting out my life when I got here. I was then put straight on call-out for over a week whilst being second in command of my own little platoon of 30 troops (something a little alien for a desk-bound, aircraft technician). That said, it has certainly been entertaining and time has flown by.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to celebrate the New Year in a fashion of my choosing (due to being on call-out) so my new year began on the evening of the sixth Jan and included cider and darts.

The section I am on has a bunch of great people on it and it was thanks to them that I got Christmas Day at home (they shared all the duties of the guy who I replaced for a few days so that I could come here a little later than the 24th Dec; which is when I was due to leave the UK). A lot of my work is Health and Safety, documentation, Quality Assurance and other office work but on top of that, I have my platoon to look after and a number of other little jobs to keep me busy.

There is still the opportunity to get out and about and see the sights so it isn’t all work and no play. In fact, on Friday night, I spent an evening in the mess and got the opportunity to sing a few Karaoke tunes so it was a fun evening.

My room is quite spacious and has all the home comforts including a TV and a sink (it enables me to wash and shave without having to queue up at the communal facilities so it is a godsend). The bed is comfier than my bed at home so I am starting to get a bit of sleep now that I have settled a bit. Here is the view from my window (I have blotted out certain items for security purposes... the Islands are, after all, still contested by the Argentineans):
 

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As you can see, it is a bit bleak.

I have brought some sculpting to do but haven’t started doing it yet because I have been settling in. I expect that I will start doing some sculpting soon so that my bunch of Squats finally get their arms.

The internet wireless can be patchy and it costs £8 - £10 for 100 minutes (although there is the opportunity to use free internet from fixed consoles) so I am restricting my internet usage. As a result of that, my forum and blog activities have been reduced so I can spend more time talking to my family.

Well, that’s about it for now. I am sure that once I start getting into the routine of things, I will post more interesting things but for now, I will bid you farewell.

See you from the command post!