Inauguration.

Yesterday was the inauguration of Barack Obama and from half past three in the afternoon till half past ten in the evening with small beaks in between I watched it on TV. An inauguration of a US president has never interested me so much but there is something about Obama that is fascinating, he reminds me of John F Kennedy. I found his speech very good and I must admit he is 100 % correct when he talks about going back to the fundamentals in life, respect for each other, honesty among ourselves, modesty instead of greed, manners then personally I think the world would be a better place.
The snow has all gone and we are having a spell of weather what I call “Shit weather”, nights just below freezing and during the day temperatures around nine degrees. This type of weather plays havoc with my bones and I shall be glad when we have it either warm or cold.
My wife is suffering with her back once more, one wrong movement this morning while putting on her shoes and the pain is there, it takes a few days to cure, mostly with warmth.
The photo is one out of the series that I took when the snow was there. Actually I like this one.

Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss

Short story’s of past incidents in my army life (funny and sometimes sad)

After roll call (there were still one or two that hadn’t showed up) we were marched to the QM stores to collect our army kit. If you thought you was going to be measured up for your uniform no such luck, the thumb did it all. The first thing we were issued with was a kit bag every thing after that had to go into the bag so that you could carry it back to your room.
We got issued with BD (battle dress) 2 sets of denims 2 pair of boots, “what size shoe?” that was the question asked, no more no less. Under ware, colour green, socks grey, 2 shirts, 1 pullover, 1 overcoat, web belt, gaiters, 2 towels, a steel helmet, a set of shoe brushes, a button stick cleaner, pouches with full fighting pack one large and one small a set of mess-tins a water bottle a poncho, gloves, gasmask, 2 berets 2 cap badges, collar dogs (I will tell you later on what those are) a pair of braces (must be worn at all times with trousers) 2 sets of pyjamas striped, knife fork and spoon a small pouch with needle and thread, 2 pairs of shorts and 2 PT shirts, colour red one pair of PT pumps. With all that kit we of course received our bedding too, to round all that off on the way out we were issued with a pot mug and we were told when we broke it a new one would cost us 2 shillings. The last thing we each received was a piece of paper with our army number wrote on it. My number was and still is 23798372. By the end of the week you had to know it of by heart, this number accompanies you all though you’re military life.
Getting all that in a kit-bag is nigh impossible for a new squaddi, so the steel helmet was put on the head the great coat was put on, boots were strung round your neck the rest some how you stuffed in the kit- bag the bedding of course you carried and the mug was hooked on a finger, of course two thirds dropped the mug before they got to the billet. That’s how the QM guy’s made their extra cash.
On the way back to our billet we must have looked like a bunch of refugees, one can’t describe it people were dropping things on the way the two corporals were shouting at us to move our body’s. If the situation hadn't been so serious it would have been a laugh number.
To be continued.