I've only been back at work for a week, but I can already tell that it's going to be a pretty busy 2009. Christmas/New Year break was fun, spent mostly in Melbourne, but stopping at Canberra, Wangaratta, and Terrigal along the way there and back. Clocked up some much needed kilometres on the new/old car, caught up with friends and family, and thankfully didn't get called up to do any RAAFesque duties.
I'll start with some not-so-breaking family news. While talking to my Mum and Aunt about someone who ran into me last year while I was attending the International Women's Day Dinner at Telstra Dome, I found out that this woman's father worked in the Air Force with my Grandfather. I didn't even know my maternal Grandfather was in the Air Force! I'm guessing it was for Taiwan, seeing as that's where my Mum grew up, but who knows. I'm determined to learn Mandarin properly, and go back to Taiwan to research more of this untranslated side of my family's flying history. Maybe it's something in the blood, which could explain other relatives on my Mum's side working for Cathay Pacific, and my own brother's fascination with aviation.
I think I remember seeing photos of my Grandfather with medals, or at least ribbons/braids of some kind, but no one in my family told me there was any kind of Air Force connection when I first said I was enlisting. So much for being the first in the family to go the military route. Not only was my Grandfather in the Air Force, he was a fighter pilot! My Mum and Aunt continued bantering away about the odds of me coming across someone who was two degrees of separation from my Grandfather, while I was still gobsmacked about him being some kind of AFie! Funnily enough, the woman that spotted me at the Telstra Dome thought I was with the Victoria Police band (who were performing that night), because I was in my service dress blues, which look quite similar to the Police uniform. I could have also been two or three degrees of separation from this woman, because she worked for Metropolitan Fire Brigade, which isn't too far removed from the Paramedic I'm with...
News on the future career front is that my application for LEAP, which is a scheme that basically covers the cost of the Bachelor of Business (Logistics and Supply Chain Management) course I'm attempting by distance learning, has been successful. This means that I've really got to get my rear into gear and pass all the subjects that I'm pledging to get through this year (four of them, yikes!), and spend the next couple years doing the equivalent of first year university. Through the application process, I've had to inform my superiors (and their superiors) of my intentions, which is basically to get a head start on the Business degree in order to be competitive for the Undergraduate sponsor scheme (full time study at a civilian university campus) or entry to ADFA via the Airman/Airwoman Access to the Academy Scheme (full time study in Canberra) by 2011. Not entirely concidental is the end of my initial sentence (sorry, Return Of Service Obligation) of 2 July, 2011, although I'm not sure what the payback is meant to be for however much of my degree the RAAF ends up footing the bill for. :)
So what does this all mean, in a nutshell? Well, for one, it doesn't look like I'm going to be saving up money for that little bar or cafe in the near future. My initial impetus for going the logistics path was a mixture of wanting to open up my career options so that I could possibly move back to or closer to Melbourne and live with my partner (RAAF cooks can only be posted to NT/QLD/NSW below Corporal rank), and also coming to the realisation that I don't think I'm physically and mentally capable of spending years in catering without wondering why I didn't give in to the curiosity of what I could do and where I could go if I pushed myself that little bit further. Also, if I do want to leave the RAAF eventually, I think the idea of a civilian job in logistics is much more appealing than one in hospitality (if it's not for my own business). My bar and cafe dreams have somewhat dwindled to the mobile coffee or kebab cart for now; I think that owning/running a small business is its own battlefield of sorts, and the sum total of my hospitality (and life!) experience hasn't readied me for that at all.
To put another twist in this tale, it turns out that I might not be a couple years away from wrangling my way to a more Victorian location, as it seems quite possible that my Paramagic partner can share this lovely State with me a lot sooner than 2011. There are no guarantees of course, but considering for the best part of a year I've thought that I'm going to be up here keeping the bench warm by myself for a couple years, this is amazing news to me. I'm still going ahead with the degree studies, and pursuing that ever elusive commission (if only to have an ending of sorts for this story!), but there's less pressure to ride the career rodeo just to be in a more geographically favourable position. This year I'm hoping that I'll be sent away on an exercise within Australia, that I'll get my Leading Aircraftwoman rank, and that I'll move into a non-military dwelling of some kind.
That's right - with a little luck, and a bit of work, this little baseling is going to go places.
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