"If you want the rainbow..."

That's right!!! Winter is gone, summer is here, I've got 20ish days left in the Navy and things are starting to look good. Our training is all but finished, only some classroom sessions left to go. On one day last week I watched 3 episodes of LOST, which I have been waiting to catch up on since I finished at camp last year, so we haven't exactly been busy. But I'm not complaining about being bored at all, it gives me a chance to get things organised for when I get out of here.

Two weekends ago (19st-21st) was Juhannus, basically a huge mid-summer holiday that they celebrate in the typical Finnish fashion. We went to Raumanmeren Juhannus, otherwise known as RMJ 2006 which is the biggest summer music festival here in Finland. I went with Heidi and Toni, they're friends who live here in Finland, as well as Mike, another guy from here at the base. Lundy, a friend from home (same guy from South America), was traveling through Europe and came to visit for the weekend, so he came along as well. It was in Rauma, on the southwest coast of Finland, and we luckily had some amazing weather for it. We arrived around Friday lunch time and stayed until Sunday morning, camping about a 10-15 min walk from the concert area. Now, I'd never been to a big outdoor music concert/festival before, so I had no idea what to expect, but we had an amazing time. Everyone was so happy that it was summer, and just there to enjoy themselves. Finding each other when we got seperated took a little effort though. Conversations on the phone generally went along the following lines:

Andrew: Hey Mike, where are you?
Mike: (huge amounts of background noise) WHAT??
Andrew: (Yelling into the phone) WHERE.... ARE....YOU?
Mike: AT THE FOSTERS BAR.
Andrew: Which one?? There are like 10 Fosters Bars!!
Mike: THE FOSTERS BAR!!
Andrew:YEAH, WHICH.....ONE?
Mike: AT THE MAIN STAGE.
Andrew: THERE'S LIKE 3 AT THE MAIN STAGE!!
Mike: WHAT??
Andrew: WHICH...ONE...AT...THE...MAIN...STAGE?
Mike: WHAT??
Andrew: (becoming frustrated) I'LL SEND YOU A TEXT!!
Mike: I CAN'T HEAR YOU. WE'RE AT THE FOSTERS BAR NEAR THE MAIN STAGE!!!.
Andrew: REALLY!! Beep...Beep...Beep.

So the age old traveller's method of speaking louder and slower to people who don't understand you didn't work here, but 6 text messages later we finally meet up. Lundy didn't even have a phone, so if he got lost he was screwed. Here are some pictures from the festival website. Perhaps it was a little too good, because I've now almost convinced myself that I've got to go back next year. (I think Lundy has a bunch of photos, so as soon as I get those from him I'll put them up as well, Lundy...)

Anyway, a few other things that have been happening.

At the beginning of April I went for a 3 week hoilday back to Cairns (pretty sweet eh?). It was great to catch up with everyone there, but I spent most of the first week sleeping and just doing nothing really. It was so good to not always have to be somewhere or doing something. When I left from Finland, there was still a lot of snow on the ground, but when I got back summer, or at least spring, was in full flight.

We've also had a couple of pretty cool camps lately. On one we got to do explosives training, basically they gave us blocks of TNT and told us to go blow a heap of things up, fantastic stuff. I never really had an appreciation for how powerful it was, until I saw a boulder completely blown to bits by about 400g. We even managed to start a small forest fire. And yes, somehow I still have all my limbs and digits.

On our final shooting camp we actually got to go over water in boats, I thought it would never happen and we're suppose to be in the Navy (granted, most of the time the sea was ice). I was luckily enough to get to shoot a real bazooka there, one of the 5 that were ordered. First we shot practice ones that had these flare type things in them, so the thump from the real one after that was a little unexpected. I got a nice scrap on my nose from the sight kicking back at me, it came complete with loads of blood but looked a lot more impressive than what it actually was. Regardless, it was worth it!

I still haven't really decided what I'm going to be doing when I get out of here. I'll have at least 5 weeks to make any sort of decision. In some ways I'd like to stay here for a while, keep learning Finnish, so I get it to the stage where it's actually useful, and not just being able to understand bits and pieces here and there. On the other hand, I know winter is coming back... yeah, not too keen for that. Although I'm sure it's much better when you don't have to be outside doing push-ups in the snow. Ehh, I'm flexible. I'm sure it'll all sort itself out, it usually does anyway...

I guess, some words of 'wisdom' from Mr David Brent always put it best...

“...and that’s it you know, you never know what’s round the corner. But it’s all good. ‘If you want the rainbow, you’ve gotta put up with the rain.’ Do you know which 'philosopher' said that? Dolly Parton. And people say she’s just a big pair of tits.”

Enjoy the Summer.

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