Pillage and Burn!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Anyone had a nice Christmas? Mine isn't even over yet (Major Christmas Day dinner still coming up!)

Thomas to Earth!
Hey folks, phew. I’ve finally found room to tell you guys a little about what I’ve been up to. I’ve now been in the army 8 days, but it seriously feels like I’ve been here longer than a month. First I was at Rena, a brand new place a few mil north of Elverum, but after 3 days we were moved to Terningmoen, which is just next to Elverum. I applied for the Drilltropp, and after an interview I was taken up to become a “aspirant” – (that’s very cool, a degree slightly higher than the others. I’m now “Aspirant Aarholt”, not “Rekrutt 24-Aarholt” ^^) We were 73 aspiranter, but we’re now down to 63. People are falling out. A maximum of 40 will become real drillgardister.
I’ll think I’ll just list a couple of things we’ve been doing and how things are. I’m sorry that I can’t show you any pictures, but national security is at stake!

Firstly, the good things:
Food is good. Punktum. It is awesomely good. To give you a pretty good idea, the lunch service often consists of prawns, smoked ham (spekemat), crawlfish (? – kreps) and soup. Really good, all in all.
Shooting is awesome! I shot today and yesterday, and I’ve fired a total of 55 sharp rounds! (And no rødfis - I’ll let Lisa translate that one) We went directly to sharp rounds, and we were the first of the 800 recruits to shoot. So that’s kinda cool!
I’m appreciating the small things! You have no idea how nice a clean floor feels on your feet before bed after walking with a 5-kilo rifle, 20-kilo “warbag”, and 4-kilo “warvest”. Hell, I’m a hundred kilo man walking with that stuff on. But clean floors makes it all worth it. Almost.
Exercise. Push-ups, hang-ups, sit-ups and running are daily routine. If you forget to lock your cupboard, which contains your weapon, the sergeant will take it out, and the whole group will have to do push-ups equal to the last three digits of the weapon number. My number is 238 710. Though I haven’t lost mine yet. But I’m building muscle!

Then the more neutral things:
I have short hair. I’m almost completely used to it now, but it still is very short. To give you an idea, I last time I had such short hair was 19 years ago. To give you a better idea, here’s a picture! (I don’t think I’m considered national security – nor is my hair)

I can wash! I’m getting pretty good at washing floors and ironing clothes. This is kinda good, and kinda bad. I wish I could take all my seven uniforms with me on perm, and have mum iron them!

The bad:
Sleep: Bed at 23.00 every evening (finished around 5-6 pm, and then washing floor, eating, etc.), up just before 06.00. Loooooooooong days.
You will do as you’re told. Expected, but it is sometimes really tiring to do this and that as you’re told all the time.
Walk. Long walks. Even longer walks. Variation, walking without bags, walking with bags. Walking with guns, walking without guns. Walking. My legs usually feel slightly like lead.

But there is light in the end of the tunnel! I’m on my first perm on firstcoming Friday, so I’m hoping to see some of you guys then! That’d be great! So, so long for now! Cya!

Anyone interested in Postgirobygget at Rockefeller (Oslo) the 19th of September (Month nr. 9 )?
Tickets cost 250 kr. Or have a look through Billettservice and find a concert of yer own


Just a thought.

Hey people!

Just thought I'd give ya a picture or two from Nøtterøy (my bestemors).
We've been fishing with a "krabbeteine", a crab-pot!
In earlier years, we've done that and been extremely lucky and happy when we got one crab. This year, we got a tip from one of dad's former schoolfriends that we should try one of a couple particular places.

The result was this:



In short, we found 12 blinkin crabs! One wasn't up to size, so we brought 11 bigg'uns home. It shouldn't surprise you that we had a feast when we came back home

Oh, and I went water skiing today too! I'm getting pretty good at the sport!

Hey folks! Here's the vid of the song I told you someone sung at the Karaoke in Tunisia!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ7fQD3FiTk

And just to make things longer, here's Ironic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v9yUVgrmPY