Can't stand the heat? Get out of the kitchen

CHARGING forward, the desert sand blowing in my face, dust finding its way into everything, my breath sounding loud and unnatural through my ear defence, loud and rasping through the dryness of my throat, my body armour and webbing hanging heavy from my shoulders and waist, sweat pouring down my back and forehead and the heat constant and unrelenting.
Down, crawl into position, take aim with my rifle, fire off a few shots while the other fire team zig-zags its way forward to the next bit of cover, crawl, up charge, down. Then crawling up the bank, grenade out of pouch, pin out, hurling it towards the enemy, taking cover and BANG! Rifles to the fore, pouring rounds into the bunker. MAN DOWN, MAN DOWN! Someone's hit. We pour more shots toward the enemy, some of us grabbing the casualty and hauling him back towards safety, a long, lung-bursting half-run with the dead weight of the injured man suspended between us before we're out of contact, getting into cover again and watching for the enemy, who may follow to try and finish us off.
Fortunately, our enemy on that day was wooden targets, although the rest of it was real. Since arriving in Afghanistan, we've been involved in a pretty intense training package to get us ready to go out around this hot and dusty country. We've had briefing after briefing on the enemy, on what to do if we find an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), on security, on all manner of things which make up the complexities of a modern war being fought halfway around the world.
And we've been on the ranges practising our tactics, firing our weapons, throwing grenades, learning about the weapons which the Afghan National Army uses and acclimatising. Lots of acclimatising.
The temperature is in the high 30s, not as hot as it gets in the height of the summer but enough to make an Englishman, used to maybe 30 degrees tops sweat a bit! The sun really beats down from a completely blue sky. I saw a cloud last Friday, the first for a week. But when the weather starts to break at the end of October, I'm promised I'll have all the rain and cold I want.
It's a country of many contrasts. The extremes of summer and winter, the sudden change from desert to "green zone" as you fly over the River Helmand and the cultivated areas either side of it - much like the Nile in Egypt - the mountains to the north of Helmand Province which jump out of the desert like huge craggy monoliths.
We are all very relieved to actually get here and start to get on with the job, despite the best efforts of the RAF to delay us us much as possible (I told you I'd complain about them - six hours of kicking our heels at RAF Brize Norton).
I managed to go and visit my colleagues from Corunna Company in their mini-camp inside Bastion the other day, and they are all in good spirits. Some of them have already gone out to the FOBs (forward operating bases), so they are happy to be getting stuck in.
I'm due to deploy with my team to a patrol base sometime in the next few weeks, which I'm very excited about. I'm currently a liaison officer between my battalion, which trains the ANA, and one of the other battalions here in Helmand, helping co-ordinate operations between the two.
It's all exciting stuff and is really opening my eyes to the complexity of this operation. Sure, I knew that there were lots of strings that needed to be pulled together to make an army function effectively (let alone two armies, with a language barrier thrown in), but until you've seen it in action it's hard to comprehend how big a machine it is.
But it's the end of another long, hot day and I'm going to shower away the dust and relax in an air-conditioned room with a film on, while I still can!