Soooooooooo

Well, the last week and a bit has been incredibly busy. Full of different bits and pieces going on, lots has been happening and lots of things to update you on.

Firstly and most importantly (for those of you who don't know yet), Naomi and I got engaged last Saturday. We're looking to get married on August 16th 2008, so keep that date in your diary! Luckily for me, Naomi is good at organising things, and It would appear she has maybe thought a little about what the wedding might be like before! To that end, plans are progressing surprisingly quickly considering that I am still in the middle of Basic Training!

Week 6 was a heavy one. As before I can't go into too much detail, for obvious reasons, but we were looking at CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) warfare and everything that goes with it. Lots of information to retain, facts and figures, drills, procedures etc. All of it absolutely crucial in today's modern warfare. Needless to say, sections of the training were really quite harrowing. But nonetheless its done and dusted for now. This week has seen a little more navigation training on Monday and then a CBRN exam on Tuesday morning before the practical assessment in the CS Gas chamber in the afternoon! Its the kind of assessment that if you've learnt the drills and just keep calm, it really isn't that bad. When you start to flap a little bit, that's when it gets uncomfortable. Now we are currently on Wednesday, and the rest of Troop 1/07 deployed this morning into the field on Op. Afghan Horn, the main navigational exercise.

I unfortunately have not been able to deploy due to back problems. I was able to finally see this Physio yesterday and so hopefully we should start getting to the bottom of it. It would appear that the issue, rather than being purely muscular, is in fact being caused by a 'protruding' disk in my spine. Not quite as simple as I had first hoped. Anyway, this has led to me being medically downgraded, subject to review in one months time. Needless to say this is not an ideal thing to happen at any point in someones military life, least of all 7 weeks into basic training. As it stands at the moment, the Troop Sgt (Sgt Schofield) is having a meeting with the DOM (T) Major Dowerick as I write this, to decide what is going to happen. Obviously I am apprehensive at the moment as regards to my future in the Band Service. For now, this is as up-to-date as I can bring you. I will of course let everyone know when I hopefully find out the result tomorrow morning.

Bugging out

Nathan