Downtime

AFTER a month reclining in the relative luxury of Lashkar Gah (showers, good food, a proper mattress and all that sort of thing), the principal town of Helmand, I'm now the proud owner of a day off - a pretty unusual occurrence in this part of the world.
My time as a liaison officer has been pretty hectic, but very educational. It's the hub of everything that goes on, so it was quite an eye-opener. I don't think I've ever seen so many colonels (British, Afghan, American, Canadian, Danish, and even Estonian) in my life!
It's been reported in the news quite a bit that there were a few heated exchanges with the Taliban around "Lash Vegas" over the past couple of weeks, but their attacks were pretty ineffective, especially when you add the Army Air Corps' Apache attack helicopters into the mix. The sound of one of their 30mm cannon roaring into life definitely makes you not want to be on the receiving end. I think the Taliban must feel the same way, because they gave up pretty quickly.
But 90 per cent of the time, it's a relatively peaceful place. The sound of the normal everyday hustle and bustle of any large town is distinctive and plentiful in Lash. At the weekend, children fly brightly-patterned kites high above the low, flat roofs of the city. Taxis and motorised rickshaws come and go, car horns hoot and the cries of market traders in the bazaar fill the air. It's quite satisfying to see that there can be some sort of normality amid the fighting and the chaos that it invariably brings.

Having now escaped from Lashkar Gah (and as an infantryman, the feeling of being released from a desk job to go out "into the weeds" is a great relief. So, I've got 24 hours back in Bastion to "re-cock" and get ready to go out into the field. I'm due to meet up with my team and go out to one of the patrol bases scattered up and down the Helmand river.
I'm not going to pretend that it's going to be a walk in the park: these bases are pretty austere (another reason I plan, during my day off, to eat as much food as possible and take about, say, 10 showers), often consisting of something akin to a mud hut surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
It's proper frontier stuff.
The other problem we're going to have to contend with (apart from bad men who want to shoot at us) is the weather. Up until about a week ago, one could quite comfortably walk about in shorts and a T-shirt at all hours of the day, but the temperature at night and in the mornings has taken a notiecable plunge. Sweaters and the occasional "wooly pully" are beginning to be sported. By the end of November, it's going to rain and rain heavily at that. Then we can look forward to a cold winter - and by cold, I mean down to -20C at night, and not getting much above freezing until elevenses. Lunchtime al fresco dining should still be possible though.
I've been burying myself in reports, pictures and maps of the area we're going to, getting orders from my boss and planning how we are going to deal with this little part of Helmand that's going to be our responsibility. The job's going to be doubly interesting, because we're going to have to take into account how the Afghan National Army want to do things as well!
Goodbye until next time.