Inters: New College Begins!

So i'm back! After an all too blissful break over the summer i very much slipped back into my civilian mentality.  The freedoms of getting up whenever i wanted, impromptu drinks with friends and not a chance of marching, were all too easy to get used to.
As such driving through the gates and unloading my gear into my new room in New College was not the best feeling i've had in a while. Reminiscent of the feelings i used to have as a 10 year old returning to boarding school i think truth be told i was home sick, expect now i wasn't worrying about French lessons and whether my new football boots were cool enough, it was that i was about to spend a term digging trenches, being gassed and learning how to kill people with a whole range of new weapons.
However i'm pleased to report those low first few days are now well and truly past on saturday night, and i've remembered that this can indeed be fun, and since its my job its not all that bad at all! So what have we done this week? Well things have been undeniably hectic and sleep has been at a premium.  There has been a big emphasis on CBRN (lots of different shitty ways to die), and so lots of running about in silly big suits which couldn't protect us from a spilled coffee let alone a nuclear blast, and stifling respirators.
We also had what can only be described as a school trip to the Defence College at Shrivenham where we played with all the equipment we will be allowed to use once we leave the time warp that is Sandhurst. This involved 270 Officer Cadets crawling around in and out of tanks, and every other bit of military gubbins you can imagine for a day, happily away from the confies of the Academy.  Just as we started thinking the Army was about impressive technology there to make our lives safer, and certainly easier, we then went on Exercise!
It was only a 24 hour 'shake out' and truth be told i actually had fun, and reacquainting oneself with the stinking, knackered, aching world of exercise was probably the shock to my system that was necessary.  One night time recce patrol, creeping about in bushes searching for Gurkhas, a few lessons and a rapid platoon attack, complete with mock artillery and another lung bursting casualty evacuation and we were done and back to camp.

The week has ended in a fairly relaxed manner, but with the foreboding knowledge that things i feel are about to get a little crazy.  You can only be taught about how to dig trenches and put on gas masks for so long before you inevitably find yourself in a trench being gassed.  Which is far from an ideal place to be when you haven't slept for 48 hours.  Here are a few pictures of our 10 year old inner selves being unleashed on some poor undeserving army toys at Shrivenham. More reports to come soon.