Here I am at the edge

Remembrance Sunday Veteran's Day in Lac La Biche, Alberta In 2009, I had the pleasure of staying with a lady who I loved in Canada. On the last full day we had together, we saw the Veteran's Day service in Lac La Biche , Alberta , Canada .  This article about the day is an article I wrote for my good friend, Julia, last year.  Veteran's day parting  To fully understand both the joys and sadness this day has for me, I need to take the story back to a few days before Veteran's Day .  The first trip over to Canada to see my lovely friend Faye had been in the Summer of 2009, even though we had planned meeting months in advance. I still had to use CanAir as the flight, owing to the shortage of money available. This trip entailed a Tuesday to Tuesday schedule, being cheaper than Air Canada they fly once a week from Gatwick airpor t - it was a real pain to get to the airport, involving a six-hour wait for the flight and worried about nerves. ...

#Cursed I have carried this curse since my days in the Royal Air Force . It started in Germany, during the late Spring/Summer we were involved in a series of N.A.T.O. Exercises colloquially as "The silly season."  The exercises ranged from Minevals that lasted only a few hours - designed to test how quickly we could be mobilised. Next in line where the Tacevals. Tacevals were designed for RAFG and could last from a few hours to a couple of days. The largest exercises were the Maxevals these didn't only involve RAFG; these exercises included N.A.T.O. bases in the USA.  Whether it was Mineval, Taceval or Maxeval they shared one thing, they started at 03:00 and left you exhausted from lack of a night's sleep. It was during one of these exercises I had what I call a " Beau Geste moment" but that's for another time - if you're interested.  I was 21 at the time and on my first - and only - overseas tour. After two or three of these...

A long time ago and in another life November 6th is the day I joined the Royal Air Force for a six-year period.  Through many roads have I travelled in the past 41 years, at times I thought my time had come but I am still here to tell my tales.  By the time Christmas arrives, I will have had my injured tendon for that length of time too. Scary - isn't it!  For most of the time, the ankle has been good. It is only in the last few years that the injury caught up with me and left me physically challenged .