Wednesday 21 October 2015

Second Day at Junipers Leisure

Hello Warriors,

made public the video of my second day at Juniper Leisure (First Day):

Maintenance work in a Chieftain? Check. APC nipples (yes, nipples) greased? Check. Camera came with me while I was driving? Check.


Had to be there by 6-7 am and performed the first parade and ready up the vehicles before the public arrival. Made sure Oil and Water levels were okay in the FV432, manually lifted the Abbot gun and just generally helped around when it was necessary and without being asked, just trying to fit in and not expecting any sort of special treatment as it was requested initially.

Didn't drive the Chieftain like I said that would, it was a busy day and to be honest got the best end of the bargain, Robbie took me over to do maintenance in one of the Chieftains instead, which in my opinion is way more valuable and enriching.

Although he is kinda of a shy and calm man, he does have a sense of humour and asked me, with a smirk on his face, to manually turn the Chieftain turret in order to get engine bay access. I absolutely complied but wasn't counting on how slow it turns and how much strength it required, at one point a muscle of my right arm completely gave up and froze, I had to slap it back to operations and at the  end, I was so warm and sweating that desperately took off my overalls in the comfort and privacy of the tank! Still, I'm not a wussie and offered to turn it back into place once we were done! As usual Robbie kept on explaining every bit of what he was working on and answered my questions.

It was nice to have Ed Francis who works for The Tank Museum at last minute deciding to come to Juniper Leisure to give me company and do camera work.  At one point I was so immersed in the vehicles that I started worrying that he'd gotten bored but I was given the chance to drive the FV432 with Ed as a passenger, another huge trust given by the staff, he definitely seemed to be enjoying himself in the commanders hatch! :)

Also check out what Ed Francis & The Tank Museum gifted me:


Precious "light studying"...

Things went very well but still have to go back to Juniper Leisure one more time to get my "instructor blacks". Enjoyed it so much that on the way back home couldn't stop feeling depressed and wasn't able to contain my sad kitty eyes when saying goodbye to Nigel, my instructor.

So yeah.. this is what your Rita does on her free time.

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