Saturday, January 8th, I was supposed to go on a walking tour in the city of Bath, but I was tired! Basically I have been going nonstop since Christmas Eve. I really needed some down time, so Saturday I slept in and it felt great! I went to Church here on base Sunday morning and then went to RAF Alconbury to stay for two nights.
I had my first briefing on Monday, January 10th, it went really well. I had eight service members present. That was a really small group compared to the briefings that I had in Okinawa. I usually had at least 20 service members in each brief in Okinawa. Tuesday, January 11th, I travelled to RAF Molesworth, which is an Intelligence Base, I don't have an office there, so I sat up a table in the NY Pizza Deli from 11:00 until 1:00. No one stopped by, so I started visiting the tables asking if anyone had any VA questions. I drummed up some business that way!
Wednesday, January 12th, I had my first telephone briefing with Bahrain. There were 18 service members present. It was different giving a telephone briefing. You can't see your audience, so you can't tell when they need a break and what their reactions are to the briefing. Bonnie, the TAP Manager at Bahrain, said that she received good feed back from the group, so I guess it went alright!
Immediately after my briefing I had to drive to RAF Menwith Hill, which is located at Harrogate. It took about four hours to get to there. I spent the night at The Sherwood House B&B. I told Morgan that was where I was staying, and she asked if I was in Arkansas. I guess she thought I was going to be spending the night at Martha and Bernie's Sherwood House!
It is really strange driving strictly by a GPS. I really had no idea if I was going right, I completely depended on the GPS. The drive to Harrogate was interesting, the road signs said "The North" and on the way back the sign said "The South". I guess they really look at it you are either going the North or the South! Getting back to the GPS, Thursday morning on my way to the base from my hotel, I was almost at the base and the GPS said to turn left. I did and ended up in the middle of a sheep field. So I decided that I just heard it wrong and so I turned around and made about a two mile block and when back the same way, this time when the GPS said turn left, I turned right and ended up at the base! I had a briefing at Menwith Hill and there was about 8 service members there. I had several interviews after the briefing. At 3:30, I packed up and headed home. Four hours back to Lakenheath, in the rain! It felt great to get in my bed that night!
Friday, January 14th, I had my first briefing at my home base, RAF Lakenheath. There were 18 service members and one spouse present. The briefing went really well. I got a few e-mails from participants with compliments after the briefing, which always make me feel really good - like I helped someone! Like I said on facebook, it doesn't matter how many of these briefing that I do, I still get nervous!
Wow, I made it to this weekend, which I spent in Rome. I will tell you all about that trip tomorrow!
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