Hello all,

I had a really interesting week last week. We went on a trip to Windsor Castle to see the changing of the guard and look around the castle. I had been there before, but this time I was researching the Military Knights of Windsor (a small group of ex-army officers) who are accommodated in cottages within the castle walls. This meant I had something to focus on and it was a lovely day out (in civilian clothing) and the changing of the guard ceremony was very interesting!

Most of the rest of the week we spent working on a presentation about the trip. We were aiming to have it last around 40 minutes, but when we finally submitted it, it was over an hour long!

Thursday evening it was announced that there was to be a new ‘Senior Woman’ for McTeague Flight. This is a role given to a female recruit (there is also a ‘Senior Man’ for the males) who is to ensure that everything is organised within the barrack block and any problems that arise can be dealt with more easily. The senior woman role was given to me!  The flight staff state that I am hard working, keen and organised.

So far, this has been quite a difficult job, as we have had quite a few inspections! This includes prepping and setting out all of our kit and a full barrack block clean. I had done many of these before, but never as senior woman. On top of doing my own kit and cleaning, I also have the responsibility of checking everyone else’s kit and checking over the block clean. I then walked around the block with the corporal and flight commander and wrote down anything that wasn’t completely correct. It was quite daunting, but helpful to see everything that they are looking for when inspecting.

My daily rehabilitation exercises are going well and stepped up again last week, as I started my ‘walk/run’ programme properly. I was walking for 4 minutes, and then running for 1 minute – repeated for 30 minutes. I didn’t have any pain, except for my muscles not being used to that movement at all!

We had home leave on the weekend, and I hadn’t been home for around 5 weeks, so it was amazing to get back, have a huge hug from Mum and just relax!

I’m looking forward to next week with more running!

Hope you are all well!

Alex