Sunday 24th January
10 mile walk, 2hrs 35 mins, 15.35m/m pace, 615 calories. I pushed the pace a bit today! (Nitsdale Road and Pollock Park)
Whole body weights (including cable machines)
Monday 25th January
30 mins cardio
some weights
Too busy, couldn’t cope!
Tuesday 27th January
1 hr cardio – 20 mins, bike, 20 mins, cross trainer, 20 mins step – 630 calories
whole body weights
Wednesday 28th January
40 mins cardio
upper body weights
And that was it for the week as I was off to Plymouth on the Thursday for Neal’s passing out parade.
Well it’s only taken him 34 years but pacepusher has apparently found his dream job at last! He passed out from Navy basic training on Friday and my mum and dad, his mum and dad and gran and I were all there to see it.
It was a really good day although quite different to what I was expecting. We were to be on base between 9.15 and 10.15am and I hate being late so we there about 9.20am! Luckily so were lots of other people so we didn’t feel overly keen…and there were a wide variety of different types of people there!
I was worried about being cold while outside for divisions in the afternoon but in actual fact I was pretty much cold all day; having wanted to look smart rather than concentrate on being warm!
We were taken into a lecture theatre first and shown a DVD of basic training through the lives of some trainees. It was really interesting and although I have been hearing all about the training this brought it home. I was still finding it weird that there was this big passing out celebration from just 9 weeks of training as it does not seem to me to be that difficult (all being relative of course as it would be my worst nightmare!), at least to Neal. I think it was more of a big deal to the younger guys to get through it. Neal knew he just had to get his head down, play by the rules and get on with it.
We were introduced to all the PO’s etc who had trained them and then we were told the two classes would be coming in and this was informal and we could clap, cheer etc as much as we liked. I was not even expecting them to come in, never mind be told it was informal, although of course they did not look or act informally, that was just for us (not that those of us there to see Neal were very loud. So in they marched, Neal’s class being led by him as class leader to the Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling. I wasn’t expecting that either! And he had to shout all the orders to get them to stop and turn etc.
Prizes were given out for things like best academic scores, kit and fitness and one for funniest/kept people going person which was nice. They then individually marched out to collect their epaulettes and then left to the Black Eyed Peas again. They all didn’t like this part as they felt a bit conspicuous being on stage all that time but it was good for us as you could see everyone closer up. (And apparently the music had to be something they had on CD so it was that or In The Navy by YMCA – no contest really!)
We got a tour of the submarine school, except it was only the museum really, lunch and then outside for 2 hours to watch the divisions (passing out parade!). This was not as good as I expected as I thought there would be a lot more marching etc but most of it was the commanders/VIP’s going round talking to each individual sailor – there were 50!
Neal and one other guy had ages to spend standing up at the front as the other guy was collecting the best overall individual award and Neal was collecting the Ganges trophy for best class. They won pretty much everything and the Commander when giving him the prize said something along the lines of: “I gather it wasn’t very close!”
They did a bit of marching after that and then went back into the shed (and took off the silly white gaitors) and then came out to march up the path in the middle of all the spectators to be dismissed for the final time.
Again Neal led his class out and had to shout halt etc before they were ordered to dismiss and they threw their hats in the air before immediately going to see family and friends. Neal’s greetings didn’t last long as he was desperate to get to the bar and well I was happy just to get inside!
Stayed for a few drinks, met some of his class mates and others including the big commander chief and his wife before Neal took us to see his old accommodation – both better and worse than I was expecting and his new accommodation which is much better than I was expecting!
My mother-in-law can’t know me too well as she asked if I would not be interested in this kind of job as I was fit! There are many, many reasons why it would be the worst type of job I could imagine and just a few are: being told what to do and being shouted at, heights, climbing over walls, being cold, sharing a room, no make-up, straighteners et al (although this comes lower down, I manage fine in Malawi), no choice of clothes in basic training, hand-washing every day, having to march everywhere, especially bad when it is only trainees that have to do it, the food, the list could go on and on and on!
Neal’s done well though and his report stated that he should be considered for promotion at the first available opportunity! What actually brought it home to me though how well he had done as class leader was when we went out with a lot of his class (and the PO’s that trained them) on Saturday night and what the other guys were all saying to us and to me separately and how they were behaving towards Neal. They all obviously genuinely liked and respected him and many spent quite a while talking about how he had been a great class leader and how many of them would not have made it through the basic training without him. Their PO was also telling us what a great class it had been.
So down to only 7 of them in a room for the next phase of training and a bit more freedom!
I have put more photos on facebook and just these should be available for anyone on Facebook to see:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#/album.php?aid=2029385&id=1316921298
