3 July 2008 - The final day of their current tenures for the Chiefs of Navy, Army and Air Force. The new Chief of Air Force, Air Vice Marshal Mark Binskin, currently Air Commander Australia, will be promoted to the rank of Air Marshal this morning to begin his tenure. Outgoing CAF, Air Marshal Geoff Shepherd will officially handover his title at a dinner and ceremony at RAAF Base Glenbrook.
3 July 2007 - The first day of the rest of my RAAFie life. That's right folks, somehow I've managed to survive a whole year of being enlisted, without even seeing what a Discharge On Request (DOR) form looks like! It seems fitting that Air Marshal Shepherd is stepping down on the same day that I feel like I should step up to the position I've found myself in.
It's been a month of ups and downs at the Sergeants' Mess, with my three weeks service there being a wild mixture of getting accustomed to the ways of a bunch of different staff, improved management style, chasing up various medical appointments and Individual Readiness (IR) related training, and of course, a whole new kitchen to work in. Overall, I think it's been pretty good for me - I'm working with some great staff, serving Warrant Officers, Flight Sergeants and Sergeants, which makes a
change from indecisive Cadets, snotty Gap Year kids, and bitter Airpeople, and learning a lot.
My biggest achievement for the month of June has been my patisserie turnaround. I'm not sure whether it's a relative thing, because I was struggling with tackling savouries for lunch, and to everyone else in the kitchen it seemed I was cruising through sweets bay. Maybe because I was working mostly by myself, and was so paranoid about falling behind
and drowning in sweets that I was extra organised and thorough with my work plan. It could just be a fluke that I managed to get through all of my tasks whilst avoiding all manner of patisserie-related disasters.
Perhaps because sweets bay is tucked away in a corner on the far side of the main prep area, no one noticed me back there having my own minor nervous breakdowns. I've still found that no matter how much you stare willingly at an object in an oven, it's too late to do anything about it if you've somehow put it together the wrong way. There's just far too much faith in chemistry going on with patisserie - I'll probably never be able to trust it and myself fully to feel completely comfortable with it.
However, whatever I managed to produce this week was enough to impress myself as well as the rest of the guys in the kitchen. I've now been tagged as one of 'those' people, one of the golden children of pastry, as if I have somehow been touched by an angel of the bake lords. Apparently some people get sweets, and some people don't, or just can't seem to get a knack for them as easily as they do with other dishes and styles of cooking. I tried to tell others that sweets and baking were my weak point in TAFE, and have been a mystery to me for most of my life, but no one seemed to believe me. I feel like I've won something, because I certainly don't think I've learnt how to do sweets right! I wonder how much longer I can ride this luck for, though?
Despite blitzing sweets this week, there was a bit of a comedown point when I had to rock up to dental to get my teeth attacked. Well, attacked in the good way, seeing as sweets were probably to blame for them being attacked in the bad way. I have a history of shoddy teeth and dental-related problems, I guess it's much like the golden sweets child thing, I think you're either born with teeth that'll give you strife, or you win with a set that leave you alone for much of your life. People in this day and age generally have the same or similar oral care practices - flossing, brushing at least once daily, drinking water and milk, eating apples, avoiding sticky/sugary food and drinks. I just lost out on the dental lottery in this lifetime.
It's been a while since I've had dental work done - I used to pride myself on having bazillion dollar teeth, because of all the work that's invested in there. An old running joke I had was that one thing I escaped in my youth was braces, because my brother had them twice - when he was ten, and again at eighteen or so. Unfortunately, my civvie days weren't the end of dental torment, as I needed three fillings and a check on my existing root canal at last check. I've since had two fillings done, and I remember now how unfun it is to 'talk' about working in sweets and watching Ramsay on Thursday nights when you've got a half-numb face, wads of cotton and gauze stuffed in your mouth, oh, and an array of tools and hands popping in and out.
I just keep thinking, at least I don't have to pay for any of this. Sure, it might be a pain in the butt (or the mouth, you never know your luck with 'free' dental) getting my root canal done again, but when the alternative scenario is being stuck in the middle of some war zone and requiring some emergency dental work, I'm willing to take my chances here on base. One good thing is that I don't find local anaesthetic being shot into my mouth as painful as I used to - it was more uncomfortable getting my back molar x-rayed, while I was biting down on a bit of plastic that cut into my mouth and tongue!
There's a lot of staring at the ceiling while at the dentist. I would have thought that on a RAAF base they could probably put some model planes up on the ceiling. I know I would appreciate brushing up on my aircraft identification skills whilst I can't have a real conversation with anyone else in the room, and could do with a distraction from the ungodly events going on in my mouth. Somehow, I don't think that the dental section has a suggestion box. It's amusing enough that someone seems to have taken the one from the Airmens' off the wall where it used to be. That's either a really strong suggestion, or management has
given up on taking them, ey.
No comments:
Post a Comment