Monday

We started the day like any other with a little bit of circuit training, however, today's circuit was run by Gregg Norton who had thought up a monster session for us. This left everybody totally exhausted, but with the feeling that we'd achieved something good. After recovering from circuits we then went to our own departments within the Primary Casualty Receiving Facility (PCRF), mine happens to be the Intensive Care Unit (ITU). As we've nobody in there yet it was relatively quiet as you can imagine.
After lunch we rehearsed the Showcase concert music that we will be using to entertain the troops on here and the other ships. This would include concert band, big band, dance band and corps of drums. After a couple of hours of hard work the music for the Showcase should be ready for our first concert on Friday.

Tuesday

As the temperature continues to rise above 27 degrees, the powers that be decided now was the time to put on our anti-flash and respirators and carry out a chemical attack exercise. The band is split in to two watches (Port and Starboard) with one watch as the chemical monitoring team within the facility. This entails checking all doors and air vents for any contamination. The other watch then becomes the casualty handlers and are ready to receive casualties. After the exercise, when our sweaty fogged up respirators had been removed, the band moved outside for some sun over the lunch-time period.
This was not a wise move as the wind across the deck was very deceiving and although Spud Edwards was only out for 20 mins he's doing a very good impression of a boiled lobster at the moment.

Wednesday

An easy morning today, just a fire and an abandon ship lecture to attend. After lunch things took a change for the worst with our circuit training happening at the hottest part of the day. Let's just say that a lot of water was guzzled and a few pounds were lost by the end of it. Then it was on to dance band rehearsals, however, the buglers have been given the luxury job of running the ship's incinerator. So straight after circuit training we started on that. With the temperature reaching 1,000 degrees in the furnace you can imagine how hot the room is. After a couple of hours in there the rest of the afternoon was ours. So that gave us the chance to play some of our games in the uckers tournament. Although we didn't play very well, only winning 1 out of 3 games.

Thursday

Another day dressed in our NBC kit complete with respirators. Today we were going to carry out the procedure for decontaminating a casualty. This is a four person job with everyone keeping an eye on each other. After numerous NBC suits had been cut up that was us finished until after lunch. Then it was back to rehearsing our Showcase of music. The concert was on the next day so every little crease had to be ironed out so that we were ready to 'wow' the ship's company with our musical excellence.

Friday morning

The day started with the usual circuits, however I managed to have a lie in due to my Hep A and Anthrax jabs the day before, what a bonus! After that we were up on the flight deck in coveralls and full NBC kit in the sweltering heat of 27 degrees. We continued with our casualty decontamination drills up until lunch. Then after lunch we started to prepare for our Showcase concert on the flight deck in the evening.

Friday evening

We've just finished the Showcase concert and it went down a storm. The audience loved the big band and we even had some people up dancing. 820 Squadron, who are departing tomorrow, made a guest appearance as the 'Village People' where they sang their version of YMCA and called it PCRF. This went down really well and it'll be a shame to see them go. The Corps of Drums performed mess beatings with Matt Abbott pretending to faint half-way through it. This provided the opportunity for a Generation Game routine. Matt's dying swan act was that good that the XO of the PCRF got up to help him (it works every time). Dave Taylor then picked out some unlucky contestant to have a go. Although she'd never played before Lt Lisa Penney did really well. After the finale it was into to the bar to enjoy our two well deserved cans.

Saturday

There wasn't much to do today, just a working party in the morning then on to a weapons safety brief. We had the afternoon to ourselves that gave us the chance to catch up on some of our personal admin such as writing home, washing or trying to top up our tans.

Sunday

Today we stopped at Salalah to pick up stores and the rest of the PCRF staff including 13 members of the band. They were lucky enough to visit the American PX the day before and came onboard with some Gucci bits of kit. It was good to meet up with the rest of the Band and after we'd helped them get settled in we had a coffee and swapped stories from the past few weeks.
I'd just like to take this opportunity to say hello to my family and my fiancée Danielle and I'll see you soon.

Bugler Stu Warmington
"Warmy"