By the beginning of week two, the time was passing much quicker. We had plenty of time over the weekend to prepare all our kit for Monday's kit and locker inspections. Everything had to be folded to the size of The Blue Band Magazine.

At the beginning of the week I still had strong feelings of homesickness and was wondering what I had let myself in for in joining the Royal Marines Band Service. My father, himself an ex Royal Marines Musician, Mick Button, has been a great support encouraging me by saying the time will pass quickly and basic training is not the same as being in an adult band.

We began weapon training this week and have learnt NSPs (normal safety procedures), stripping and cleaning the SA80 rifle. In addition to five sessions of weapon training we had our first night in the field, exercise First Step. Thankfully the weather was good so the conditions were quite pleasant which meant that we didn't mind getting up in the middle of the night to do sentry duties.

The second week passed much quicker than the first as we are beginning to settle into the routine of doing out kit and it doesn't seem to take as long to complete.

Basic training has been much more demanding than I ever imagined and I was glad to have built up my fitness before joining. The level of fitness required in the Royal Marines is much higher than I ever thought. The IMF ( initial military fitness) periods require 110% effort all of the time, with some periods being eighty minutes long but we have learnt that the more effort we put in, the fitter we get and the easier it seems to be.

We are all looking forward to our leave in six weeks time and if we stay focused the time will soon pass.

At the moment the weekends are our weekly target to aim for because we are given a few hours of shore leave and can go to church.

I am beginning to enjoy the training a lot more now because I am starting to get on top of my work, kit and the routine.

Musn Button.