Thursday, November 29, 2012
Moving back
I know it's been a while, but I'm finally back to the real world and am moving back to Mascara & Anchors my usual blog!!
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Updates!!
Well!! It's been a while! I know, I apologise.
My vacation was fabulous and lovely and I never wanted to come back to work...as usual.
Well now I'm back to work as usual in Diego Garcia, the land where rain almost never stops! Haha. Seriously, I'm thrilled that I live on a ship out here, because otherwise I'd consider building an ark.
Things haven't changed much out here, my relief is a lovely young lady from North Carolina, who has taken over most of my job now that she's been here a few weeks. For a few weeks we had a lot of people off island so i was the acting Chief Staff Officer, Operations Officer, Material Officer and Force Protection Officer...that was fun. Now that people are back here, I have much less to do. The USNS BUtton, where I live, is due to take part in Operation Native Fury in a few months, and I'm being left behind as the Commodore's acting representative on Diego Garcia while they're gone. As a result I have to move off the ship onto another ship for a few months...joy. It's not too bad, gives me a chance to clean out my stuff and pack for my household goods to be shipped to Washington.
As a result of nothing to do, I volunteered to drive our new Doc out to the Plantation ruins on the other side of the island. So we hopped into the van and off we went...halfway to the middle of nowhere I noticed the smell of burning rubber, so we got out and looked around, looked like the brakes were smoking...so we turned around and started to drive back to the office when the burning stopped. We decided to turn around a gain and try to make it out there. Well the brakes went out...in the middle of nowhere. So Doc and I rolled over to an emergency phone and called for a lift. In the meantime we were surrounded by donkeys!! We brought carrots for them anyways so we fed the scavenging donkeys until we were rescued by the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Police. All in all it was an interesting day.
My vacation was fabulous and lovely and I never wanted to come back to work...as usual.
Well now I'm back to work as usual in Diego Garcia, the land where rain almost never stops! Haha. Seriously, I'm thrilled that I live on a ship out here, because otherwise I'd consider building an ark.
Things haven't changed much out here, my relief is a lovely young lady from North Carolina, who has taken over most of my job now that she's been here a few weeks. For a few weeks we had a lot of people off island so i was the acting Chief Staff Officer, Operations Officer, Material Officer and Force Protection Officer...that was fun. Now that people are back here, I have much less to do. The USNS BUtton, where I live, is due to take part in Operation Native Fury in a few months, and I'm being left behind as the Commodore's acting representative on Diego Garcia while they're gone. As a result I have to move off the ship onto another ship for a few months...joy. It's not too bad, gives me a chance to clean out my stuff and pack for my household goods to be shipped to Washington.
In more news...I'm still shopping around for a house to rent in Whidbey Island, there's a pretty good range of available housing though, so I'm not worried...and as most of you know, due to the inability of the civilians who work for the Department Of The Navy to understand what Permanantly forward deployed means...I had to sell my baby...my Thunderbird, before I came out here.
So after all of that I have a new car!! Throught the Overseas Military Sales office I qualified for a great deal...look at my new baby!!
Yup, I'm pretty excited!!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Sunsets and Oct 31st!
Well, hello again!
I know it's been a while, and my last post was a little down I suppose. I'm fine now, especially since we're having a Halloween party out here! Haha!
Those of you who know me know it's my favorite holiday. I'll share my costume ideas, and y'all can help me decide. I have to order them now or it won't get here on time. Keep in mind...I'm on this island so no REAL costumes, like i love. So these are nice and tame for me. I can wear them all with either jeans or leggings for the dress. ;)
So what else?...OH! my list came out for my next job!! The list was pretty big, and I had to pick my top 20 choices. Most of those ended up being in DC or Massachusetts...but we won't know where I'm off to next for 2 weeks!! It makes me nervous, as usual. I hope I don't get a crappy job (who does I suppose) but you know, I don't want to live in Bahrain or Chicago particularly. Nothing against them, they're just not my kind of places. As soon as I find out what's next I'll certainly let you all know!
Lots of people's time on the island are coming to a close. We've had a few goodbye parties already, a good one last week! I wish my camera was a little more competent, because of course the photos look awful, but I did get that nice sunset at the beginning of this post for you!
Well I think that's all for now, time for some chow!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Seasons come and go...
When I moved out here over 4 months ago everyone told me I'd get island fever within the first month. I have to say I've prided myself on being entirely capable of entertaining myself since I was a child. Well now I'm slowly getting that feeling of restlessness, though I'm selfish to think it's not for the same reasons as everyone else.
I'm an Army Brat. Until high school we moved about every 2 years, so I've become very adaptable. I LOVED my childhood, but it does make life a little unpredictable. However, through it all there was one sure thing...come December we'd pack up and go to FL to see my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Things always change, but those vacations, spending time with my family have always been very important to me. And, while I always loved that trip during the holidays, my favorite time of the year has always been Fall.
When Fall showed up it was time to start planning the trip, the weather got cooler and windy, leaves changed colors, I got to break out coats, hats and tights from my closet, and when I was little for some reason I always associated our record player with Fall...I'd dance around the living room singing along with Rodgers and Hammerstein records and our one Christmas record that had Feliz Navidad on it, all while the dogs watched me from the couch or in front of the fireplace. For whatever reason, I've always had memories triggered by smells. One Fall I vividly remember standing in front of the brick wall in our kitchen in Memphis, smelling an apple and clove candle. That smell is the essence of the season to me.
Since I've grown I now add group dinners, good wines, boots and hats (not ball caps, real hats...I don't know why) to my list of Fall reminders. I tell you that to tell you this... out here (on what is generally considered the other side of the world from my family and friends) I get The Today Show at 6 o'clock at night. Tonight they had a feature on Fall wines. Such a stupid little thing, but it struck me so suddenly that I wouldn't be somewhere this Fall where I could throw a dinner party for my friends or make mulled wine or even hand out candy on Hallows Eve. It's made me very nostalgic (if you couldn't tell from this post!).
Well now that Fall is approaching I had to think of something to do for my favorite season. I pulled out some apple and clove plug-ins (got to love bath and body works air fresheners!) and did some autumn cleaning...at least now my room smells like the season should, even if it's 89 degrees and sunny outside.
I suppose there isn't much else left to say, I know it doesn't have much to do with the island...but there you go!
I'm an Army Brat. Until high school we moved about every 2 years, so I've become very adaptable. I LOVED my childhood, but it does make life a little unpredictable. However, through it all there was one sure thing...come December we'd pack up and go to FL to see my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Things always change, but those vacations, spending time with my family have always been very important to me. And, while I always loved that trip during the holidays, my favorite time of the year has always been Fall.
When Fall showed up it was time to start planning the trip, the weather got cooler and windy, leaves changed colors, I got to break out coats, hats and tights from my closet, and when I was little for some reason I always associated our record player with Fall...I'd dance around the living room singing along with Rodgers and Hammerstein records and our one Christmas record that had Feliz Navidad on it, all while the dogs watched me from the couch or in front of the fireplace. For whatever reason, I've always had memories triggered by smells. One Fall I vividly remember standing in front of the brick wall in our kitchen in Memphis, smelling an apple and clove candle. That smell is the essence of the season to me.
Since I've grown I now add group dinners, good wines, boots and hats (not ball caps, real hats...I don't know why) to my list of Fall reminders. I tell you that to tell you this... out here (on what is generally considered the other side of the world from my family and friends) I get The Today Show at 6 o'clock at night. Tonight they had a feature on Fall wines. Such a stupid little thing, but it struck me so suddenly that I wouldn't be somewhere this Fall where I could throw a dinner party for my friends or make mulled wine or even hand out candy on Hallows Eve. It's made me very nostalgic (if you couldn't tell from this post!).
Well now that Fall is approaching I had to think of something to do for my favorite season. I pulled out some apple and clove plug-ins (got to love bath and body works air fresheners!) and did some autumn cleaning...at least now my room smells like the season should, even if it's 89 degrees and sunny outside.
I suppose there isn't much else left to say, I know it doesn't have much to do with the island...but there you go!
Sortie...sort of
Some minor excitement out here...Saturday we had a small accident. One of the small fishing boats we can charter has flipped over outside the lagoon. Four people had been thrown into the water. Our ship got underway to launch our rescue boats to attempt to recover who and what we could. Unfortunately two of the four passed away before they could be rescued. One was a US Navy Chief. The other was a civillian captain of the fishing boat. It was a very sad day out here.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
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