Misery loves B Company

Well, I am back living in the shacks and the Defensive FTX has been passed, completed, and is now just a blurry memory of digging a lot and falling asleep while standing up. At the end we completed "the Death March," which is a Rite of Passage of sorts for being an Infantry Officer. On the last day of the exercise, the CO and RSM show up and all of B Company marches 16km with full kit and defensive stores, etc.

Here I am upon my return, looking rather emaciated. 9 days of no sleep, not enough food, and a lot of digging / ruck marching takes a toll on a person. I started this course at about 200 lbs and in this pic I am 175 lbs.

After a few celebratory beers and a full night's sleep, the next day we headed to Saint John, NB for some seafood. The Saint John Ale House had a good variety, so we basically ordered a bunch of appetizers and went to town. Clams, oysters, mussels, scallops, and then some. This was my first time having raw oysters and steamed clams. I was a little disappointed with the oysters, they have zero taste... the clams I was happy with, they taste exactly like mussels (which I love) except there is more meat! Big win.

After walking around Brunswick Square, we headed back into Fredericton for the real night of celebratory drinks at a few places... these adventures shall remain classified. ;-)

Oh no! An Infantry Officer with a Blog!

Well, this is something I've wanted to start for a long time, although I fear I will be inconsistent at best. My own little corner of the earth to rant and roar about all of life's up's and down's.

Allow me to explain the major theme surrounding this blog. I am currently wrapping up my training to be an Infantry Officer with the Canadian Forces. If everything goes as planned, in December it will be complete and I will be posted to a battalion (where I will continue with more and more training).

This is why it's a "Gentleman's" blog, in a purely sarcastic tone as I pride myself in being anything but a gentleman. My job title, "Infantry Officer," is an oxymoron all on it's own. While Officers are traditionally referred to as "gentlemen" in the Commonwealth, the Infantry Corps are known as "grunts" for their profanity, hygiene, dark humour, and other "not very gentleman-like" qualities. The marriage of the two leads to one big walking talking soup sandwich of contradictions, aka me, the profane, insensitive, unshaven gentleman.

Anyone that knows me will agree that one of my favourite things to rant and roar about are politics/religion/money/etc, all things someone of my job title shouldn't rant and roar about on public platforms such as a blog (hence the address, "public affairs nightmare" .blogspot.com) Because of this, I will unfortunately have to try and keep the good stuff to a minimum on this page.

So then what is the god damn point of this blog then? Well there is no specific point really. I will post as it pleases me, always attempting (and probably failing) to keep my loud mouth in check. I hope it at least provides you with some entertainment!