Afghanistan - first impressions
County Durham, Oxfordshire, the Gulf Region, Helmand and finally Kandahar constituted my rather circuitous commute to what is to be my home for the best part of the next seven months.
View Article"I know few bishops but I expect they don't unwind of an evening with the Old...
Working as I am in a multi-national combined service environment, there is all manner of nuance, nicety and niggle that one must observe, mediate and work around.
View ArticleAfghanistan’s local mules
If you think donkeys had it tough in Milne’s post-apocalyptic, anthropomorphical-tragedy masterpiece, ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’, when poor old Eeyore had lost his tail, that is nothing compared to the lot of...
View ArticleMaking the case for being in Afghanistan
One of the few noticeable differences between serving on operations and living in Basingstoke is indirect fire.
View ArticleRaising a glass to one of life's pleasures
Sometimes the most innocuous comments, in the most curious of environs, delivered by the most incongruous of people, triggers envious longings and bouts of home-sickness or frustration born of...
View ArticleGlimpses of how it could have been
When moving around Kandahar either in our armoured vehicles or on foot, it is hard to travel more than a street without passing flowering oleanders, either long swathes or solitary plants.
View ArticleThe tour's less hairy moments
One of the most trivial hurdles to jump when on operations is that posed by the problem of getting a haircut.
View ArticleNo shortage of equipment
There has been much media coverage in recent years over an alleged systemic failure of our military/government/whoever to provide the army with the ‘kit and equipment’ it requires in order to execute...
View ArticleSpeaking out for the Playstation generation
For those with an interest in such things, there is all manner of facial hair and beard-based goings-on in Kandahar Province.
View ArticleSky versus Scoop
Without wishing to erode the gossamer-thin veneer of machismo and testosterone afforded me by my current situation. I would like to thank my mother publicly for her recent aid-package, and...
View Article"It is very easy to pass judgement from trendy Hoxton..."
A wonderful conversational reprieve arrived this week in the form of a flying visit from my Royal Dragoon Guards (RDG) brethren, Capt ‘Spike’ Lee.
View ArticleEnormous confidence in General Petraeus
When away from home, there are certain triggers that induce the longing to be in England in these summer months, and over the last few weeks these have been manifold; catching the sun-soaked snippets...
View ArticleBack into the fold...
For those with refined literary tastes and a disposition towards the witty, insightful and well crafted, my last two weeks of being incommunicado will have been a welcome reprieve. Unfortunately for...
View ArticleNeedless purchases and lizards
IT was 33 summers ago that The Minstrel, underneath Mr. Piggott won the Derby, that Elvis left the building and that I arrived in the world to much celebration and ward-wide plaudits, except from my...
View ArticleTaliban target women politicians
With all the grim predictability that the White Star Line employees must have had regarding the jewel in their nautical crown about one hundred years ago, as that ever-so-tedious iceberg hoved into...
View ArticleA moonlit shower with the locals
Luckily for the discerning reader, I have been unable to access any means of communicating with you for the last two weeks, but as they say; ‘every silver lining has a cloud…..’ My band of merry men...
View ArticlePomegranates and power cuts as the Taliban pushed back
We now find ourselves at the halfway point of our ‘angry camping sojourn’ in the district of Panjwa’i. Life is getting busier as what was once our own little outpost is now co-habited with a variety of...
View ArticleDreaming of conkers and single malts
AS I sit down to write, we have exactly a week of our tour in Afghanistan left to complete. It would be foolish in the extreme to tempt dear old providence at this juncture, so I shall resist the urge.
View ArticleLast posting from Afghanistan
Column Part 18 I was planning to write this last epistle from the turquoise shores of Cyprus, but due to ‘circumstances beyond our control’ it is not to be. There are two things certain in this life;...
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