Falkland Islands Deployment

Not long before this becomes reality! But, back to professional blogging, We've just left Madeira. Madeira was just not important. OK, so it was great to taste some incredible fortified wine, and I perhaps had a glass too much... though that ended up being a good thing, since there was a tattoo parlour looking increasingly beckoning outside... fortunately I just missed the opening times. Phew! When we parked up actually, we were completely dwarfed by this big cruise liner called "Panama", made by MSC Fantasia. It brought a brilliant comment from Nath who in response to my bewilderment at it's size, stated "Yeah we'd still take that out..." -yes, very true, we would. One missile. Well folks, look out for a Captain N. Sawtell in the next few years, I wouldn't go planning any cruises!

Madeira, from my pretty pathetic experience of it, is like a classy island where you can be completely English because everyone speaks English. Which, in my opinion, is highly irritating, especially after coming from Brazil where you have to learn a bit of Portuguese, which I far prefer (yeah, you heard that right- I'd ACTUALLY prefer to LEARN). But with people's mood at the moment, we couldn't care less. I pretended I was a wine connoseur for the afternoon, and contemplated buying a bottle of Madeira which was made in 1908. It only cost £950, which is er... nothing. To be honest though, all this stop is here for, is an excuse to have a meal, a few drinks and get some duty free while the ship refuelled in the port. The mood is simple. Get Home, don't die. We're now carrying out "OP HOUND" which is a very cleverly named operation derived from 2 words. See if you can guess what the 2 words are. Golly, this Royal Navy hierarchy really knows how to have a jolly old laugh! Actually they do appear to have gone mad. I mean, the DMEO is directing our weapons, and the Logistics officer is running the Operations room!?