The Beginning
1 The Beginning
A friend advised me to start writing a book about my journey into the British Army a few months ago. I thought it was a terrible idea at first, but then I got thinking… why not? Okay, so this isn’t a book but it’s just as good, for now.
It all started back in November ’09 when I received the Overseas Application Forms from Her Majesty’s Service’s in the post. I was required to go to my local GP and do a simple medical, get a police clearance, passport photographs and of course fill out the endless forms.
Luckily I knew about the police clearance and had applied for one 2 months prior to receiving the forms. I say luckily because things don’t run as smoothly as we’d like them to in South Africa, especially when you dealing with a government department. It took a little under 3 months for my clearance to arrive. 23 November was the date I sent the forms back to England to the British Army. After pestering the online careers office recruiters for a month I finally received the letter I had been waiting for. I think it was 9 February.
I was invited to come over to England to start the actual application process. This includes a number of interviews, waiting around, going into the recruiting office numerous times and each time for something different (small things that you think could easily be done over the phone and all at the same time) but, it’s a process which they have to stick to which really gets on your tits, like it or not it has to be done that way.
I had always wanted to join the army. It was the only thing that ever stuck in my mind and it’s the only thing that I feel I’m best suited for. I have always loved exercising and because of that love for it I have built up a pretty decent level of fitness. From age 16 I started running and cycling a lot. I went to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere and I felt the best thing to do was to use and explore the endless farms and plantations. For the last two years of school I would run and cycle between 50 and 120 km a week…more or less anyway. I was never a very good or bright student and running and cycling were also a good way to clear my mind and loose myself in another world. I loved it.
I’ve been exercising ever since, nearly 10 years on. I started swimming a lot, body boarding, Shoalin Kung fu and my favourite, running with a weighted bag on my back. The heaviest I got to was 30kg. This all ended on 1 April ’10 when I twisted my ankle. I had a 14kg bag on my back and was 2km from home. I thought about the long walk home with the extra weight and screamed “BALLS, FUCKING BALLS!” It’s now over 9 months and it’s still not completely healed. I really screwed it up!
Flight tickets were booked everything I needed was packed into a single backpack which only weighed 16kg (girls please note, you don’t need a 100 pairs of shoes and clothing when travelling :) ). Pack what you can carry.
4 May I set off to Durban International. From there I headed to Dubai, changed planes and land at Heathrow on the 5th.
I was excited. The beginning of the next step of living my dream was to commence. However, little did I know what lay ahead.
