Monday 8th January

Day Off... It doesn't get any better than this

Tuesday 9th January

Guard

11.34 Gunshots were heard at the Norwegian PX 100 meters down the road. Crash the QRF (quick reaction force). We got down there only to find out that the gunshots were actually a couple of miles away and not a couple of meters away as informed by our excellent intelligence.

Wednesday 10th January

Day Off... Spent most of the day in bed but I did manage to get up in the afternoon for a casual stroll down to the CD stand. The evening was spent enjoying my two cans in Bar Med.

Thursday 11th January

GUARD AGAIN!! (cheers Taff)

Most of the day was spent watching videos, drinking coffee and nursing a bad head. I think that second can of beer I had last night must have been out of date. Never mind the rest of the shift went without any problems.

Friday 12th January

Day off!

However, the Corps of Drums have some gigs to do so I'll have to wait until later on before me and my bed can become better acquainted. The first gig of the day was for a local school in Pristina. We presented them with some new computers. The money to buy these computers had been raised by putting on a concert in Pristina the month before. We formed up in the playground and it wasn't long before we had kids everywhere even the pied piper would have been pretty hard pushed to have this amount of followers behind him.

The second gig was for another school this time we presented them with some lights for their disco which were warmly received. Back to Harden Lines to spend some quality time in my bed.

Saturday 13th January

Crash 5 today (5mins notice to move), but not until this afternoon as the band has a gig at KFOR main. It was a medal presentation for the head of the UN Doctor Kouchner his time over here being finished. The weather that day had a hint of winter about it. The only gig the band has done outside for sometime and it starts to snow… typical! The temperature was about minus 6 so you can imagine the fun the brass players had trying to get some feeling back to their fingers after the gig. All in all the gig went well and the band came away with some more shiny stars to their name. Back to camp and straight into to the crash room. 1500hrs and we get a shout. A Serbian woman has dropped a kettle of boiling water over her foot. Time to hit the blues and two's (lights and sirens) and start weaving in and out of cars like we had Colin McRae driving the ambulance himself. We reached Lipljan and treated the scalded woman and took her to the Greek hospital in Mitrovica where they checked her out and gave her the all clear to go back home. So KFOR cabs (us) taxied the woman back to her house where the rest of the family were waiting. We got invited in for tea but we had to decline as it was Saturday and that's steak night in the galley. As we drove back the snow seemed to be falling that little bit heavier. Arrived back at camp just in time for evening meal. The rest of the night passed very quietly.

Sunday 14th January

Crash 30 As there is no need for an FA1 today I get the chance to catch up on some admin and possibly some shuteye. As I bring this weeks diary to a close the end of the deployment is in sight. The handover has already started to take place and it won't be long before the first lot of Musicians and Buglers are on the plane heading back to Blighty. Looking back over the last 5 months the band has been very busy in both their medical and musical role. This has been a first for the Band Service to be deployed in this sort of environment for such a long time. The big question is would we volunteer to do this again. I'll let you decide?

Bugler Stuart 'Warmy' Warmington