what an interesting week!

on sunday, i got up at 5.45, and finished packing and shaving and brushing my teeth at exactly 6.20. exactly the time the shuttle from the kibbutz to the bus station is supposed to leave.
by 6.30am, i'd had a morning run with 40kg on my back, and returned to the house for coffee, to wait until the next shuttle.

great start to the week.

i got to the base about 9.45, just in time to say a couple of words before my sergeant's promotion. the morning would have been uneventful, but just before lunchtime my commander gave me a huge surprise - a week's non-stop guard-duty on a base up north!
whee!
it just so happens that this week is completely NOT a good week to have this happen, and as far as normal army procedure goes, it's not legitimate to give a soldier only one day's warning.
but nevermind.
so i spent the rest of the day getting all my kit together, like a gun, flak-jacket and "working" uniform, and filling out forms and running them from place to place. it was great, really a lot of fun. honest.

my newly-made staff sergeant lent me his sleeping bag, and gave me a ride home with all my gear - was really nice of him. he's now the first person to see my new place :) he then gave me a ride to azrieli center, where i met up with the dog, and a few of his friends, for coffee. it was quite nice.

when i got home, i made my bed properly for the first time, and slept really well! unfortunately i had to get up at 5am. on the way to the base, i has plenty of time to think about how disappointed i am with my commander for not being able to bail me out of my situation, when he really should have.
let's just say that the start of my day wasn't exactly, well, cosy.

the first person to give me directions gave me particularly BAD ones, and had me walking around the base for about 20 minutes, with my kitbag on slightly lighter than the day before. fortunately my commander's girlfriend visited the base just before we left, so she donated a rather warm beanie to my cause - most appreciated :)

the bus ride to the new base was long, and really uncomfortable. i slept fitfully, and my neck HURT by the time we got there.

to my great amusement, we were deposited on a base very close to afula, and i've been assigned to the artillery corps for the week. i need to check if this was my cousin's base at any period in time.
now, this base SUCKS. it really is in the middle of nowhere, there aren't any real facilities (the bathrooms are AWEFUL), there's very little food (they forgot to feed us on our first night), and everything is generally crap. it is, however, very beautiful, and it's absolutely ENORMOUS. you can't walk from place to place.
it's also the kind of base where anytime that we are transported anywhere, we have to wear helmets - we're between arab villages, and they haven't told us yet just how real the danger is.

my first four hours guarding were hell. it is the most boring job, standing in a watchtower, doing ab-so-lute-ly nothing. very nice view, totally not worth it. and it is SO cold, so very, very cold.

as i said, they forgot to feed us after the first shift (i managed to pull the worst shift: 2pm-6pm, 2am-6am, every day for a week), and we're on alert (sleeping in uniform) until 9am each day, and all day on the weekend.

basically, not the best conditions ever.

at 11pm, three hours before my second shift, we were all woken up and made to stand in line for inspection. i felt really bad, and suddenly started feeling worse - and i blacked out.
i managed to stay on my feet, but the second my vision came back i lost control, and had to squat. after a few seconds, the commander who was speaking to us stopped, and asked if i was feeling okay.

i told him, in no uncertain terms, that i really wasn't.
he continued to look at me, then said, "okay, you look better now."

and they sent me off to guard.

that was, without any doubt, the worst guard duty i've ever had. it was freezing cold. i could barely keep my eyes open, and i didn't have the strength to stand. at 3am someone drove past, and filled my canteens with tea. or at least, he SAID it was tea. i'm convinced it was sugar-water. horrific stuff. but i didn't really have a choice, it was the only thing that could keep me awake. the view at 6am was simply stunning, but i had a really hard time appreciating it. if i was feeling better, i would have been really impressed. but i wasn't, and i had to keep forcing myself not to fall down the stairs. being dizzy in a watchtower is great.

i slept until 9am, woken up by the sun shining, the birds singing, and my alarm telling me that i was off alert. still feeling a bit crap, i bought a do-it-yourself, really unhealthy breakfast, had a shower that went from freezing cold to way too hot, and passed out on my bunk.

i woke up barely in time for lunch - i had such a *huge* appetite, that i only half-filled my plate with salady stuff and was done in about two minutes. i went to my new c/o, fifteen minutes before the next shift, and told him i was feeling aweful. he took me to the clinic, but the doctor was out - fortunately there was a field medic available, and she sent me off to the real doctor. my c/o came with me - it's in a village quite far away, and it took until 16.30 to get to see the doctor.

he was really worried, so he sent me off to the emergency unit at the hospital in afula. my c/o's c/o picked me up, took me to the base, and i quickly packed everything and went to the gate to find a lift. in my hurry, i forgot to pack the sleeping bag, and my toiletry bag. GENIUS. i managed to convince the soldiers waiting at the gate to let me take the first ride - they were really nice about it.

i got a ride straight to the hospital, and was there until about 7.30 or so. they were really thorough, did x-rays and blood tests and so on, and it turns out that i'm completely healthy! the doctor said it's probably a virus, and they've given me three days off.

it's like my body has come to my rescue. it's picked the PERFECT time to get sick :)

i made my way to the kibbutz, and promptly went to bed.

this morning, i called my new c/o, and he said he'll watch over my things till i get back - it looks like i'm going to have to guard the weekend, but that's way better than the whole week... i don't know what'll happen in terms of them finding me a replacement. it sucks that i'm screwing over the other guys who are guarding, but if they find a replacement then i'll have to do the whole thing again in a month or so.

i've just watched ridley scott's someone to watch over me (very pretty), and now i'm going back to bed.