It's strange coming back from a week of leave and feeling like everything's all new and strange again. There have been some courses coming through base, which has meant a slightly increased tempo for the Airmen's Mess - catering speak for busy-ness, I guess. Some of the crew from the other messes have been jumping in to help us out, but I think I'm lucky to have missed a whole week of hotboxing three meals a day.
One would think that once you get to the stage of cooking for two hundred people, it isn't too much trouble to cook for a hundred more. It should be like when you cook a decent spaghetti bolognese or stew - you can always stretch it out to feed a few more people. Sadly, it doesn't work that way when it comes to doing what is essentially a
takeaway service on top of the regular eat-in meals. For one, the hotboxing takes place in between the regular meal times, which means not only extra prep time that you have to squeeze in somewhere or somehow, but also a chunk of the time you'd be spending getting normal dinner ready, is actually spent cooking and putting a whole other set of dinners out.
After doing back-to-back early to late shift, and having to hotbox meals for dinner and the following breakfast, I'm already over the novelty of it all. I actually did think it was fun to hotbox meals out field - it feels like you're actually doing something remotely tactical, and closer to the glorified version of feeding the troops. Still, it gets tiring being part of a process line, even if you do get the end job of slamming all the foil box seals shut!
I'm just into my eighth week here, which means that quite soon, I should start getting things signed off in my comp log. Unfortunately, I'm still technically lacking a mentor, as I'm about to be shifted over to the Sergeant's Mess starting next month, which means there isn't much point assigning me another Corporal. The one that I thought I was losing to a potential deployment is staying here, and I've found out
that nobody's going to Pitch Black after all.
I've spent a couple days catching up on medical appointments, training, and the biggest pile of emails in the universe. Why is it that so much appears to have happened in the mere five days I had off? Anyway, as much as I wanted to just get back into the swing of things, I haven't quite been able to, due to having to jump in and out of the kitchen. Next week I've been rostered on sweets as well, which is definitely out of my comfort zone - I'm hoping there'll be someone to guide me, otherwise it could all end in tears! I'm wondering if it's a fitting send-off from the Airmen's Mess... just when I thought I'd learned a thing or two since the start of April, I'm going to leave here feeling possibly more clueless than when I started!
I'm not sure how long my adventures out of the Airmen's Mess will last, considering one of the guys that just moved from here to the Sergeant's is coming back when I go over there. It's like some mixed up exchange student program, or something. However, I will be definitely seeing my Sergeant and Flight Sergeant again in the future, as I've signed up to be a participant in the Willytown team for Relay for Life. It's an
overnight run somewhere local, where I think the idea is to have a team of 10-15 people that clock up as many laps as possible, to raise funds for the NSW Cancer Council's various support networks. Should be interesting... oh yeah, and fun!
Speaking of fun runs, the Mother's Day Classic in Brisbane went without too many hitches. I got warmed up by about the halfway point (4km) before my right leg started to feel sore along my ITB, then the side of my knee, then my ankle, then I got a little paranoid of injuring myself whilst on leave (free medical is kinda useless when you have to hobble your way to it?) and took it easy for a stretch. I finished okay, but I think I could have done better. I like 8km as a distance - I can finish the race and still feel motivated enough to walk around for the rest of the day, as opposed to the usual post-race feeling of needing to eat half a chicken and take a nap until dinner.
I'm still leading in my age group for the 5km fun runs on base... however, this isn't too much to get excited about as I only have one competitor so far, even though the numbers for the runs have been on the climb. Fortunately, it seems that females in my age group are either few and far between, or have better/other things to do than run on Friday mornings! Not to get too cocky and wonder about what the prize might be, but I know I'm running faster than the existing competition. Gotta love being ahead by default!
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