Recording the Moments….

I was really pleased to hear today that this Blog has been nominated for the Irish Blog Awards 2012, A “Long Way to Go for a Sun Tan” was something I started while bunked up in a Containerised Bedroom on the Military Base, FOB Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan, Afghanistan late one evening in July 2011.

It was my attempt to write a “Diary” of sorts of my thoughts and feelings on living and working in a modern war zone many thousand miles from my home in East Clare.

There were so many thoughts in my mind at the time, there was the loneliness of being away from my wife and two wonderful sons and all that that involved, this was very extreme and certainly was never part of the “big plan”, whatever that means.

There was anger, surrounding the economic circumstances that took me abroad to provide for us all, an anger that I harboured towards the Banks and Government back home, who had affected so many of us and who had a direct role in bringing an end to many businesses including our own business which I had worked on for eight years.

There was the adrenaline filled days in the Uruzgan desert, C-130 Hercules Planes, Apache & Chinook Helicopters flying over all day long, dust, noise, fuel shortages, DFAC food, working with the Army every day, and never knowing what was going to happen next…..

The Blog was really a mechanism for recording those days as I knew that it would be just a short period in my life but a very significant one and one that I certainly wanted my family to understand and I felt that writing it down and being able to refer to it would help them, likewise my friends back home..

And , so the story continues, here I am now working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, another culture shock in entirely different circumstances, though the reasons I am abroad still remain, so with the encouragement of followers and friends, I will continue to blog……….

Thanks to all my Followers for the continued support……