A weekend off!

I'm writing this post from the comfort of my living room after a very, very long lie in. Our Officer Commanding sent us home last night for a well-earned rest after a week on the shooting ranges on Salisbury Plain.
It's been hard work and long days, but every member of Corunna Company has now been well practised in using most of the weapons we will have at our disposal in Afghanistan, from our personal weapon, the SA80 rifle, to the beast that is the .50-calibre heavy machine gun, which fires a slug of lead the size of a man's thumb further than two kilometres. It's quite an impressive weapon, but it's jolly heavy - almost 70kg when you include all the bits and pieces attached to it.

But for the time being, we're all at home relaxing, catching up with all the domestic things which we've been removed from since we mobilised - bills and laundry, mostly!
We form up again on Sunday for a long drive east for more range work, with the tempo and intensity of our training increasing all the time.

On a more serious note, we're now into territory where the emotion of becoming a full-time soldier comes into play. Most of the lads who haven't been on operations before have never spent more than two weeks continuously in uniform, and for some of them it's tough. Luckily, the comradeship and general matey larking about that squaddies love is coming into play. One or two of my troops have already privately admitted to me that they are missing home and their wives, partners and children, but the support they all give each other is phenomenal. The Army is one of those odd places: filled with very macho types, but the freedom with which they share their emotions with each other when the going gets tough is quite touching.

The feeling in Corunna Company is one of excitement and anticipation: everyone is buzzing about the training we've done. There are plenty more challenges to come, and some experienced members of the battalion have been giving lectures on what we can expect to come across in theatre. It's a bit like looking at someone's holiday snaps, but with the knowledge that we're going on the package tour soon and we're being told about all the problems with the hotel in advance!

So with all this new knowledge sloshing around in my tired brain, I'm going to have another cup of coffee and finish washing my socks. Back to the coalface on Sunday!