I can’t say that the last week was an exciting one because it wasn’t. Nothing really happed that’s worth mentioning the high light was the link on Saturday morning with my brother Nr 1 Broad Street. We had a good chat for about an hour, it’s always good to see him and I always enjoy the conversation with him. On Wednesday I had an appointment at the dentist for a new dental bridge because the one that I have at the moment has come into the years and has to be replaced. The dentist gave me an estimate and I had to take this to our local national health office to see how much they would contribute to the costs.
The full amount was 1372,60 € I receive 30 % from the national health, which left me with a bill for 955,10 € that was the down for the week.
Yesterday I was at work and one can tell by the mood the boss was in that the pinch has started to tell with the world wide financial crisis. Although they have a lot of work on, the prices so I was told have dropped tremendously in the last month or so. He is also worried about his plant in Hungary, if he can keep it going or not.
On Friday afternoon my wife and I are going into Düsseldorf to do a bit of shopping because the winter sales are on and perhaps we can pick up a bargain or two, we are going to have lunch in Düsseldorf (that we don’t do that often). That will be a high light of the week.
Oh! I went to the car wash this afternoon, there was so much salt on the car you would have thought I had driven through the salt lakes in the US instead of on the motorways here in Germany. The nights continue to be below freezing and the air is full with moisture so that the roads would be continuously frozen over if they did not daily spread salt on the roads.
I have just heard on the weather forecast that we are in for a very cold February. Up to now the winter has been very cold and it looks like it is going to stay that way for a while yet.
The photo is one from the series that I took at the beginning of this month. It looks like I may have the chance to take more.
Take care out there were ever you are. Tshüss
Short story’s of past incidents in my army life (funny and sometimes sad)
Of the many things one needs at the beginning, black boot polish and dusters are an absolute necessity to bull the two pair of boots that you get issued with; the second is Blanco for your webbing. These necessary items you acquire from the NAAFI. Oh! I forgot BRASSO to polish all the brass that you have and believe me we had a lot of brass to polish.
After requiring these items from the NAAFI, this was done collectively as a squad, marched there and back, we were told to change into denims with boots gaiters belt and berets and the regimental badge we were to carry in the right denim jacket pocket. Of course we wore an army shirt and under-ware, this under-ware being the laugh of the day. The under pants was a toss up between boxer shorts and something that women used to ware in the Victorian days. There was waist cord that you tied up in a bow at the front and if you didn’t tie a double bow you soon lost them (to the dismay of many) when you marched and did halts and about turns and so on. With the denim trousers we of course had wear braces (army one’s).
Outside in three ranks we couldn’t stop laughing (We were told to shut up (we sounded like a bunch of f----- giggling school girls) we looked so ridicules, every thing was either too large or too small for us, our berets looked like pancakes on our heads, gaiters straps were to long and must of us were cripples after ten minutes with the boots that we wore (the leather was so hard).
We were then shown what we had to do with our kit that we wore. Berets had to be shrunk and shaped this is done with hot and cold water and leaving the beret on your head till it dried. Blanco had to be applied to gaiters and belt (how to do this was shown to us later on) gaiters straps had to be shorted and stained black then polished also the buckles on them had to be highly polished. Inside of the belt on both ends was a brass fitting with hooks (for lengthening and shortening the belt) the rivets that held the brass fitting to the webbing had holes in them, they also had to be polished and the inside of the holes as well. Two loops made out of brass that held the doubling of the belt together had to be polished inside and out, also the two buckles on the back of the belt also had to be polished inside and outside. Shirt and denims had to be ironed (if you had the insight to bring a iron with you, you was a well sought man in the hour of need). We were shown how and were to put the regimental badge in our berets.
Boots was a topic for it’s self. First you had to remove all the, (I will call them small pimples) this is done with the handle of a spoon and a candle flame. You heat the spoon handle then in circular movement burn the pimples off taking care not to burn the leather. You always get the guy that knows it better, knows all the short cuts so to say. This one guy held his boots directly over the flame and burnt the leather that badly there was no way he could put a bull shine on them.
Once you have done that the next step is to soften the leather so that you can ware the bloody things. There are all sorts of remedies, you can pickle in them and let it soak into the leather, it works but your boots stink like a piss pot afterwards. You can put your boots on and stand in the bathtub for a while pulling the laces tighter and tighter till you think that there’s no blood getting to your feet, then keep the boots on till they are dry. That method I chose. Afterwards you spit and polish them till you can see your face in them. None of the NCOs are ever satisfied with the result.
To be continued.
