16th March - Cyprus

Hiya

Hope this finds you all well, I am still ok...almost half way through my tour.

Amanda xx

Herrick 7 or perhaps it should be Cyprus 1.
There are aspects of our job that are very “privileged” I think we get time out of theatre. Last week I spent most of the week in Cyprus as I did two Strat flights. The two patients lifts were big, a mixture of battlefield injuries and background injury & illness that occurs so the second one I was an extra nurse to cover the dependency of the patients.
So last week I had 3 baths, wore civvy clothes...sandals...absolute bliss it’s the small things you miss! On my working days I was up for well over 24 hours so when we arrived in Cyprus the time was our own. We stay in transit accommodation at RAF Akrotiri. It’s basic but clean and cosy, it was still nippy at the beginning of the week (they had heavy snow as far south as Episkopi on the Sat before we got there) but was warming up towards the end of the week when I returned. We have adjoining rooms with a shared bathroom. There are washing facilities and a kitchen.

So have been sightseeing in Cyprus, all over the island are historical excavations even on base so we stopped at those, Cyprus is looking greener than I have ever seen it, it’s beautiful I found myself just stopping and staring enjoying the view. The colour of the stone with the green grass and the spring flowers in all colours. The silence was also golden we arrived at dawn and as the sun came up and the silence NO aircraft noise was amazing. We also spent time on the beach at various times during the day. My camera has broken so I bought a disposable one which is on the way to mum and David to develop so anyone local will be able to see those photos and the broken camera with SD is on the way to Emma so people will be able to see all the photos to date if they call in on Emma. She will put a few on facebook for me as well. We went east to Larnaka at some points you could have been in Switzerland it was so green and with the Troodos Mountains and then backinto Limmasol. We also went the other way along the coast to Aphrodite’s Birthplace....supposed to meet the man of my dreams yesterday according to two separate magazines and I touched Aphrodite’s rock...all I can say is it didn’t work rubbish!!. We also went up into the mountains, Nicole and I found the house of our dreams with fantastic views (Maybe that was my dream fulfilled that week?). Visited a family winery and tasted the wine lovely then on further up to visit a monastery at Omnodos beautiful. Mooched in the village as well bought some handmade lace. We ate a variety of food everything you can’t get in Afghnistan!. Greek one night and had an Indian takeaway with wine from the winery it was great. We also found St Nicholas Monastery for the cats. It was great to see cats hanging out in their own environment; it was amusing for half an hour or so just spotting them in their various sleeping spots. Went to the Flea Market and found a lady doing 5 min manicures so had a quick rescue of my cuticles excellent for the image moral! Still have to suss out the soft water out here and my “fuzzy” hair. We finished on Sunday on the beach talking to people we had met and I ended up hand delivering parcels to her husband in Kandahar 2 days later. It’s a small world.
So as I say I am in Kandahar for the TAC week, living out of a bag again. Well not quite true I have unpacked into my room complete with wardrobe and TV, actually having had the opportunity to watch a bit of TV here for one evening my choice I don’t need it!!! It has been nice to catch up with the news but in truth I did that by reading a discarded copy of the Economist on the Tri Star Sunday. You realise how much the news is repeated on the TV and radio. Kandahar has changed there are much fewer Brits here and many more civilians. I guess I am not at home anymore and there are smaller numbers of us... 3 to be precise instead of 14. I did get up and do my fitness test yesterday yeh, I qualify for my Bounty now. I hate doing the test and this week was probably the only opportunity to do it before the end of March so I really pleased when Sega said she was getting up to do it so I tagged along without any chance to fret about it. The bleep test really just fills me with despair. But it’s done down for 6 months.
Have got back to Afghanistan and the temperature has just gone up so much its 34’c during the day and 14’c at night. We were baking just taking a slow stroll around yesterday but sat in the shade at Tim Horton’s with a doughnut and coffee who can moan...I won’t. Squaddie suntan on the way. (that is face, neck and forearms only).
I think that’s all my news for now. Take care

Lots of love Amanda xx