Wow, day 55? Seriously? I have no idea where the time goes I really don't!!
So today was kind of special. It was the leaving party of two of my met girls, Emma and Rachel. A little unique to have two leaving at once, and I'm not happy about that. But it is what it is. It didn't feel like a leaving party, because their replacements haven't even arrived yet. But being the socialites that we are, there are too many functions in the diary between now and the day the leave, so it had to be today.
They had chosen to have a BBQ and ordered a full on BBQ pack from the mess. This turned out to be quite a complicated procedure in the end involving advertisement and a lot of organising.
I was on a night shift on the Friday night, so stayed in bed til lunch time. But during the morning a few of the guys and girls had done the Dew Pond run. This is about a 6 or 7 mile run, up hill, from the pier at Georgetown to the top of Green Mountain which is a 2500 foot climb from it's base. I struggled to walk up the bloody thing when I did that a couple of weeks ago, but I was gutted to have missed cheering them on and meeting them at the top (in my car!!) with some Savannahs.
The dew pond is exactly what it sounds like. A grotty little hole in the ground filled with green slime. It looks beautiful in the Ascension brochures and tourist website, and actually kind of is, but just don't look too closely at it... Anyway... On the Ascension Island bucket list, one of the items is to skinny dip in the thigh deep pit. I'm pleased to say I was not there to capture the photos.
Did I post about the dew pond? I think I did, there should be some photos on the last entry, I haven't got round to putting them on Facebook yet. I will do soon, promise.
Today was lots of fun. I eventually woke up around 12 and went for lunch at Two Boats with a couple of the det guys and some of the Air Tanker cabin crew girls which was lovely.
I got back home and started getting ready for the party. Transport was booked for 5 pm and there was to be no stragglers. The girls had opted for a hula Hawaiian theme, and randomly I happened to have brought a hula skirt out with me. The rest of the gang had made a varying degree of effort - some of the guys looked normal while others were wearing bikinis. Hmm!! I even took my ukulele as a costume prop :)
We pulled up at turtle shell beach hut. There was a sign on the door saying "MOD property" and I just smiled - this has to be the best military det ever. The place was beautiful. We were there in plenty of time to watch the sun set on the beach and play around on the sand. It was just perfect. Especially when Jack was picking up dead black fish and throwing them at me!!!
Champagne for the dew pond runners:
After the sun had set we started the barbecue and had some more drinks. At this point I took to the microphone to give the leaving speeches for our two girls. It's going to be very hard saying goodbye to both of them.
The transport came back around 10 to take us to Two Boats bar. I had been stealth drinking cokes from about 9pm so was relatively still all there. The party was in full swing, but I left at midnight like a pumpkin as I was at work the next morning.
Got a fun and interesting and bitter sweet week ahead now. On Thursday morning two of my good friends from back home turn up to take over from Emma and Rachel. I'm really looking forward to seeing them. Then this coming Saturday is the Battle of Britain memorial dinner, where we all get to dress up in our finest, plus that morning I'm going on a boat trip fishing with some of the guys. I hope I can catch something!! I think if I don't throw up that will be an achievement in itself though. Then on Monday and Tuesday I say a final farewell to Rachel and Emma respectively :( sad times indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment