Disappearing white stuff and super heroes!

I went to Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008. Both times I was there I worked at Kandahar AirField or KAF as it was known. . 

This was a huge airbase of up to 40000 personnel at a time. It consisted (and probably still does) of thousands of containers turned into accommodation offices and storage, combined with concrete buildings everywhere - particularly the Americans who built as if they were staying a long long time. There was so much concrete that there were 4 or 5 concrete factories ON SITE churning out enough concrete to build whatever the hell you wanted. It was a stark, desolate, hot, sandy and dusty place. (Ok there was a 24 Hour Tim Hortons, KFC, Coffee shops and supermarkets as well as a massage parlour and a boot hockey rink)  But it was a desolate, hot, sandy dusty place...Far far far from home....

Except for one little area....

In one corner of the huge airfield was Camp Baker - Its where the Australian forces were based. 

In one corner of that little camp is an oasis. A beautiful, manicured lawn about the size of a tennis court. It stands out as the only piece of grass in the entire airbase and it is wonderful. 

The lawn (at least in 2008) was kept in pristine condition - cut by hand, watered multiple times a day and reseeded whenever patches appear. There was a group of soldiers whose job it was to keep the grass immaculate - and they did a fantastic job. 

Here's a couple of photos of that grass - one during an early morning Anzac day ceremony and another when US and Australian forces got together for a BBQ.

Why would someone go to all the trouble of getting soil and seed all the way to Australia and building such a thing in eth middle of a dusty hot desert? Well take a look at the photos and you will see - Sitting on the green soft grass instead of a hot dusty hard ground. 

Feeling clean without the constant battering from blowing sand and grit - It gave the soldiers a taste of home and somewhere to go when they needed reassurance that they would soon be able to go home walk on their own grass in their own yards or gardens, - That very soon,  this would all be over. 

The couple of times I went inside Camp Baker I took the opportunity to take off my boots and walk barefoot on the soft, cool grass and it was wonderful. The 4 or 5 other people who were doing te same thing thought so too. It gave an enormous sense of normality and lifted the multitude of feelings that you get from being trapped in a warzone in the middle of South Asia for months at a time. 

So why the hell am I going on about this now?

Well, I got the same feeling today. I went for a run at lunchtime and the sun was bright in the sky. The temperature was about 3 or 4 degrees Celcius. Just enough for water to be dripping from every rooftop and where the suns solar rays reached through the gaps between houses and to the north side of the street, the 3 or 4 inches of frozen packed snow that has covered the ground for the last couple of month has begun to disappear. As I ran I crossed the street and ran, for the first time in weeks, on solid, hard, grey concrete/tarmac or whatever the sidewalks here are made from. It was wonderful and reminded me of the few minutes of peace and calm that surrounded me when I removed my boots and walked on grass in Camp Baker, Afghanistan. The winter/war is nearly over. No more snow/rockets. Soon I'll be back in the sunshine/at home. Different in so many ways, but just the same too. 

I love love love springtime!

One thing that springtime does mean is fewer roads in Canada, Weirdly for people who live in normal temperatures, there are far more roads in Winter in Canada then there are in summer. That is because Canadians are crazy and build Ice roads in Winter to be able to drive to places they can't drive to in summer - Driving on the lake, river or whatever else they feel like driving on. Its al very weird and feels so wrong to do. But, if the chance arises and you ever decide to drive on a lake - this is the place to do it. 

I mention this because last week, me and Buffy did just that. There is an ice road built on the lake where the family cabin is and on my final Monday away from work, the weather was beautiful and we took advantage of Jon and Susans babysitting offer to drive out to the cabin - literally  - for the first time. 

It really is weird driving down a slope to the edge of the lake and then to continue onwards, past boats parked up in the snow and seeing the same view we normally see from the boat, but from the inside of the car. We weren't completely confident that we weren't going to break the ice, so windows were down and seatbelts off - so we could escape easily if the road disappeared into the lake. But as it turns out it was just fine. Even with huge cracks in the ice and parts where you could see the thickness of it down to the cold dark water below, the ice held and we had fun driving a couple of miles along Lake of the Woods towards Kenora (Where apparently you can now drive to the boat dock at Safeway - yep Safeway in Kenora is accessible by boat and being winter you can drive to the boat dock, which is next to the car park - its all a but wrong ain't it!?)   

Here are a couple of videos of the drive on the ice road.

We spent a couple of hours at the lake - visiting the cabin and taking some photos as well as getting the drone out and doing a flyby. Unfortunately, the drone is very lightweight and the wind got a bit strong and the drone ended up getting blown away into a snowbank - in summer it would have ended up at the bottom of the lake, so that was lucky!

It was a really fun day and the first time Buffy or I had driven on an ice road - apparently, that makes up proper Canadians now!

Anyway, with the nice weather, it probably won't be there for much longer. In a couple of months we will be heading back to the lake, but this time the final crossing will be by boat. I wonder how weird that will now feel. 

In other news the kids are both doing great - Hannah is quickly learning her alphabet and is getting to be a right cheeky fun kid. Oliver seems to recognise his name now and looks around when you say it. He actually slept for nearly 7 hours straight a couple of nights ago - which would have been amazing if me and Buffy weren't awake wondering what was going on!

Hannahs favourite things at the moment are Batman, Spiderman and the cardboard robot we made for her. She has Batman and Spiderman books, clothes and even the old theme music to play! She loves them!

That will do for now. I have to go and get a beer to celebrate United beating City today! Brilliant!!