T-Minus 35 days and counting…

I previously mentioned I never trust the air forces deployment dates, and I was correct again.

My hubs initial deployment date was May next year, then they moved it to April – with standby starting in December, and low and behold he’s off in approximately 35 days.  He came home on Monday and told me my response of ok was met with surprise, but whats the point of getting upset/annoyed/angry, it’s not going to change anything.  Not that I’m saying they wont be tears when he leaves, of course there will be I’ll miss him.  A lot.  No amount of tours prepare you for the empty bed.

He’s off to the Falklands this time; he’d prefer to go back to Afghanistan, which may shock some of you (he is relatively safe in his job – so he tells me).  At least in Afghanistan there is constant entertainment, sense of support and the bonus at the end.  In the Falklands by all accounts it’s rather bleak, although I am trying to persuade him to talk his DSLR camera to get some photos (especially of penguins), although his usual subject is sports photography.

From other wives accounts there two groups of people over in the Falklands; gym and pub.  I think my hub will go over with every intention of being in the gym group, but will fail miserably and end up being a pubber – this is the first full tour he’s done where he is allowed to drink (Iraq and Afghanistan for the UK troops are dry camps).

I’m facing my first Christmas alone.  I work 12 hour shifts and live two hours from both families.  I’m working days Christmas day and boxing day, so the commute would be pointless with the time I could spend with the families.  Luckily, I have an awesome set of friends in a nearby village who have happily said they’ll have after work on Christmas day so I wont be coming back to an empty house.

I’m trying to get the hub organised this time, I don’t want to go through the drama we had to endure when we were given 11 hours to deploy for Afghanistan – pure chaos as he spent his last hours packing, but I may as well talk to the wall!

Nat

Related articles

• New oil find off Falkland Islands (bbc.co.uk)
• Falklands To Be Handed Over To Argentina? (floroy1942.wordpress.com)
• Argentina should shut up: The Falklands are British (politicsontoast.com)
• Falklands invasion was plotted ‘months earlier than thought’ (telegraph.co.uk)