Have spent 31 months of my life in the FI !!!!!
Tour 1 in 1983 at Cara Cara as a newly promoted Fg Off. Lots of shift work where we used to amuse ourselves playing cards and hiding from the Infantry who were really scary. Spent most of my free time refuelling various helicopters as they passed through. We used to advertise fish and chips on the radio, they were like flies round sh!t. Swapped 200 fags for 20 minutes low level in a lynx...those were the days. The Wokkas were a godsend, especially with the blue bags on board. We lived in a croft which doubled as the medical centre. Managed to get a flush toilet working but is soon got clogged.........with sweetcorn. Had a working bath at one point but the water was full of small fresh water shrimp, so food and a good wash
Finally, looked at how much the spares for the AR3D cost: £30.00 for a roll of bodge tape. Good old British Industry.
Tour 2 as SOpsO at Mt Kent. Miserable sh!thole of a place. Best bit was 'fat boys' at 9.00pm every night. The Chefs came round each Mess with trays of sandwiches!!
Tour 3 1999-2001 as OC 303SU based at MPA. Much better place when you are there with the family living in a brand new FMQ. My daughters still talk about it (in a good way). They saw Albatross building nests, hundreds of seals etc and too many Penguins to count. Loads of flying too with Bristows and the little red FI Taxis. Two X Xmas as well where the weather was boiling and we had BBQ'd Ostrich, Kangaroos, Prawns and Crocodile tails! On the first one CBFFI thought it would be a jolly good idea to fly around all the remote sites on Christmas day saying hello to the troops. I was dragged along. Poor sods all had to stand there looking grateful when all they wanted to do was get the party started.
Now a civvy and will never set foot on the place again, unless I win the lottery in which case I may well stop by on the luxury liner taking me to sunnier climates.
Happy Days.