Week 13

The week started with an early morning PT session starting at 0730, that consisted of a set of circuits on Base with CSgt Hope. The session mainly focused on running, push-ups and sit-ups.  The next detail was private practice, which meant being is our practise rooms come cells for 0900 and carrying on throughout the day, with the exception of a map reading session with the Military Training Team at 1400.  After hours, I have to say, was the most stressful part of the day as we had rounds of the accommodation.  This meant some serious cleaning throughout the night.

Tuesday started early as the last call for the showers was 0550, in order to enable everything to be squared away and immaculate before we left for parade band.  Parade band consisted of an inspection of kit and then introductions to marching with instruments.  This is hard at times as I personally find it difficult to concentrate on more than one thing at a time.  Instead of marching and counter marching on the Parade Square we took a trip through the Naval Base which proved interesting due to the uneven ground. Tuesday was an interesting day for the two trombone players as they were asked to attend the big band rehearsal. This proved to be rather enjoyable as the rest of the Troop remained in their rooms.  We finished the day with an afternoon of map reading in the classroom as our trip to Portsdown Hill was called off due to poor visibility.

For most of the Troop, Wednesday was a day of private practice.  However, our three buglers were roped into parade band with the rest of Training Company, whilst they were practising for a King’s Squad pass out at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines, Lympstone.  Thursday was very similar to the previous day, however, it was the turn of the cornets to play in the concert band, filling in for missing players.

On Friday, the morning started with a PT session at 0730 hours, which included another circuit, but this was the first time we had used equipment. Using mats, benches and weights, this circuit was devised to separately work the upper and lower body but also included sprinting (surprise, surprise). It was an enjoyable session that worked on most of your body and was a fairly new experience. The rest of the day consisted of private practice and the weekly recital, which hosted some rather impressive performances that personally made me more ambitious to reach that level of playing, or even higher, during Training.

Musn Eskrett

Monday

0730am: Time for phys.  Today we did circuit training on the Parade Square with a mixture of upper and lower body exercises at different stations.
0900am:  Back to our practise rooms (cells) to start a day of practising on our instruments.  However, today we had a change of rig.  The first day in lovat trousers and gleaming parade shoes.  In Military Training, during the afternoon, we practised resections ready for a map reading session on Portsdown Hill on Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday

0745am: Parade Band.  First time for wearing our George boots.  We marched up and down the Naval Base practising new march moves such as ‘advancing from the halt whilst playing’, and ‘left/right wheeling’ and how to keep your dressing whilst completing the moves.  We also revised countermarching and halting.  We certainly felt the effects of marching in new George boots, and we have the cuts to prove it.  It was too cloudy in the afternoon to do the resections so we stayed in the classroom completing route cards for next week’s Navex at Longmoor.

Wednesday

This was a good day for the Phase 1 Buglers, as they had a chance to taste what parade band is really like, when you get good at marching and can finally play and march at the same time; they joined in with the parade band and were able to practise a King’s Squad pass out parade as used at Lympstone for the Commandos.  They were allowed to join in with ‘Sarie Marais’ and ‘Life on the Ocean Wave’.

Thursday

Practice as usual in the cells today with a full day ahead.  The cornets were allowed a special treat when they joined in and fill the empty seats, with in the wind band.

Friday

0730am: Phys.  Today consisted of more circuits in the car park in the spitting rain.  For circuits today we had to do a mixture of upper body followed by lower body and then sprints.  It was a tough, but also great, session!
The rest of the day was just as usual, but with some excellent recitals after lunch before finally thinning out at 1520pm.  Bring on the weekend!

Musn Johnson

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