15th December

7 new bodies turned up today a section from 2 platoon, whilst the 5 lads are away on RnR, that means 3 on 6 off, that’s time to get some decent sleep, and parcels from home turned up today thank god, mega moral around the lads today. Patrol tomorrow into M1U as lead man again, can’t wait.

I got to sit down with Waldo today and have a chat with him, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I asked him how he thinks I’m getting on and if there’s anything I need to do to improve etc, and well he said that I was one of the best tom’s he’s seen, ‘for a new bloke your taking this tour by the horns and smashing it mate’ ‘for some reason you want to be point man which I respect, and the fact you do all your own training shows the caliber of solider you want to be, so keep it up mate’, we shot the shit for about 45 mins talking about his previous tour’s etc, and he said this had been the most kinetic tour since 2006, so we are right in the thick of the fighting at the moment, even if there are a few days where fuck all happens, but he seems to think that they just need time to regroup and get together before they hit us every time.