Afghan adventure day 3

Feel catering merits a mention seeing as they are feeding the multitudes on base...had a lovely meal last night - lamb with mint sauce, rosemary roast potatoes and veg, then spent a couple of hours at the bar with the medic hearing the anecdotes about what they've dealt with...some stories there believe me...quite a few of which are not suitable for publication!! These guys are something else!

Meeting about HR issues all morning was more than compensated for with a trip to the Afghan Army weapons range for some instruction in firing an AK47, M4, Smith & Wesson, plus Glock. That is some place...covers a huge expanse of ground and there are literally tens of thousands of recruits going through drills etc. Slightly intimidating being a blond western woman in that environment even if wearing full body armour & a helmet ! (Very fetching) There's loads of evidence of the Russian invasion strewn about including hundreds of tanks slowly rusting away in a tank graveyard. Maybe as a result of feeling I might need to protect myself I managed reasonable score on targets (pics of insurgents & small bulls-eyes) but was best with the Glock. Semi automatics gave me a fat lip & broken nails from the recoil...how girlie is that? Least you think me somewhat pathetic I should point out that the instructor actually reckons my rapid response firing with a handgun is excellent and well within the range of the professionals which made me feel extremely chuffed and should ensure more compliance at home from now on ;o)

Later on I was put through a rigorous defensive driving course in a B6 armoured Land Cruiser. Had to take this beast of a vehicle through chicanes a rapid speed both forward and reverse, plus react & avoid sudden obstacles in the line of driving. Initially quite scary as I'm not used to driving so aggressively but over time my confidence in vehicle handling increased and I became less wussy.

Still can't quite believe what I'm up to....surely this can't be a paid job!?!?