Two weeks left in country :) In Kandahar city, 16 km away, 17 UN workers were killed by a mob who were pissed off about some guy in the US burning the Koran. It really annoyed me that a book can create so much hate. It’s not just the Koran, the book burner was some kind of pastor who was motivated by his own silly book. People need education both here and in the West. Apart from a few rocket attacks and a splash back incident in one of the portaloos, everything here has been quite pleasant. The RAAF had their birthday and they know how to throw a party, smoked salmon and cheese platters, roasted animals, and the 10th Mountain Division band.

It’s dry now and the dust is fine and everywhere. By the time I get up from night shift, the Sun is sitting in a low cloud of dust, a perfect golden circle. Running outside leaves me coughing up mud so I stick to the treadmill. My routine will soon change as I get ready to handover to my replacement. No more spending afternoons playing the Uke at the NAAFI. Hopefully I will still get down to the NAAFI tomorrow for trivia, old mate behind the bar said he’d give me an open mic session :) . My morning routine will also change with my omelette mate. Currently, a nod gets me for eggs with the lot and a plain omelette (for Rach). Then I normally have a chat with whomever I am sitting near. I met some US Army civilians, they wear uniforms but are non combatants so they didn’t carry weapons. I asked them about their status in regards to the Geneva convention, they weren’t really sure. One from Alabama convinced me to put salt on my watermelon, I complied as a cultural experience but I wasn’t impressed.

I gave my NAAFI friend my email so he can look us up if he’s ever in town. He always sorts us out, the other day Matty was at the end of a long line and he got us a sly regular on the house. Our regular is a gay cap and a hot chocolate, a gay cap has honey in it and that’s less manly apparently, I have to bring my own honey and leave it behind the bar. Quick confession, I may have stuffed up the power box. We had a power outage and I started the generator as per normal, however, when the mains power was back online, I re attached both power sources at the same time. There were some flashes and then darkness. I managed to get us back on generator power but whatever I broke stopped us from using mains. I’m keeping the Tech employed.

My mum friended Dee (my kind of girlfriend) on Facebook. They haven’t meet and it’s really weird, I think I’ll have to unfriend my mum for misuse.