Musn Fothergill
Monday
After awakening at 1230pm I decided to get up and make myself bacon butty and a cup of coffee. It was pure relaxation after a hectic term and especially a manic last week at work which included the Section Commanders course, which ended on Monday evening, preparation for two gigs, an assessment on each of my instruments and organising a social for the school. I was glad to be on leave at my girlfriend's house in Cambridge where I just relaxed for the rest of the day.
Tuesday
I ended up being dragged out of bed at about 0830 and carted off to London (to admire the fine modern art of Albert Irvine) by my girlfriend who is in her final year at university studying art. After returning from a maze of London underground tubes we decided to go for a meal and to the cinema which rounded the day off nicely.
Wednesday
Another day of relaxation, after getting up at 1030 I lay in the garden all day as the weather was beautiful and there wasn't much else to do as Emma, my girlfriend, went shopping with her mother.
Thursday
I went into town shopping for Easter eggs, after about half an hour I wandered across to Halfords where I saw a CD player for my car, which I bought and took home, forgetting the Easter eggs, my girlfriend wasn't too happy as she couldn't eat the CD player!
Friday
I was dragged into town again where Emma chose her own Easter egg (most expensive one in the shop). My own fault really. We then rounded off the day with a slap up 3 course meal, courtesy of her Mum and Dad who took us and her brother, to the King Bill in Cambridge.
Saturday/Sunday
Saturday involved a long 6 mile run to burn off the meal from the night before and then an early night as I was travelling home to Cheshire early the next day to stay with my brother Duncan, his wife Al and kids Alex and Kieran. Duncan recently fell and broke his elbow and is feeling a bit bored sat around all day. Get well soon Dunc.
I'll leave you now as I go into another week of relaxation before starting another
busy term here at the RMSM.
Musn Hall
I am Musician Hall and I joined the Royal Marines Band Service in September
2001. Troop 2001 have now completed their first term of musical training and
are now currently on Easter Leave. Prior to joining the Band Service I lived
with my parents and sister in Essex and worked in London as an Accounts/Logistics
administrator.
I think that I speak for the whole troop when I say we couldn't wait to go on
Easter Leave after completing quite a challenging 1st term of Music Training.
Musn 'Oz' Cleverly was counting down the days and hours and was very close to
minutes and seconds as this was the first time he was going home to Australia
to see his wife and son since September. Hope you had a great time OZ.
For me this first term of music training has been very hard as I have been learning
both the flute and saxophone from scratch. Even though we may be on leave I
still find myself doing the everyday things which we do at work. As most of
my friends are working during the day there is not really much else to do. Anyway
a bit of exercise doesn't hurt anyone after eating all those takeaways, Easter
eggs and socialising.
To ensure I didn't get out of the Parade Band routine I attended the Youth Marching
Band I played for prior to joining. I think the members there were teaching
me a thing or two on my new instruments though.
I also found myself driving to visit Musn Dawkins as both of us were bored and
missing our busy lives back in Portsmouth. I remember during the first couple
of weeks of joining the Band Service some of the instructors were saying that
the friends we made here would be friends for life. None of us believed it…
but it's so true. We work, socialise and live together and at times get fed
up with each other but as soon as we're apart we miss each other's company.
Well after 2 weeks leave it's back to work for the longest term in the year…
17 weeks! I'm sure we will all be topping up our tans at the weekends ready
for the summer holidays. Monday morning will be straight back into PT and I
am sure Sgt Griffin and CSgt Curry will help us get rid of all those Easter
eggs.