Inconsiderate

There are different levels of inconsideration, such as not looking behind you as you walk through a door, to see if you need to keep the door open for someone behind you. For some reason, that one really get’s to me. I think it’s because I lived in Germany for 4 years, and the boxheads never do it. They just walk through and let it slam in your face, but don’t get me going on boxheads.

Anyhoo, one of my moments on utter inconsideration, came whilst I was in the Army and had been tasked with providing the signal’s or radio support for the Army Cross Country Ski Marathon in Austria. These athlete’s had been training for a year to build up their stamina and endurance for what is a gruelling 100 km course in minus 15 weather conditions.

Anyway, the night before the 4.00 am start, I briefed everybody on their locations, call signs, SOP’s etc and thought we should all go for a beer before hitting the sack and getting an early night.

Of course, if you get 12 Army lads, just going for a quick beer and then bed, well then you haven’t really got 12 Army lads. Our quick beer turned out to last several hours and we finally got back to the Camp at 3.00am. As everyone was meant to be getting up at 4am we decided it wasn’t worth going to sleep, so we sat around chatting and finishing off some beers.

Of course the competitors weren’t impressed, and kept shouting at us to shut up, which we would for 2 or 3 mins and then start getting louder and louder.

Anyway, I would like to apologise to all those who took part in the Army Cross Country Ski Marathon around 1988, I’m sure the last thing you needed every 20km was some hung over, beer stinking squaddie breathing all over you as he clipped your Checkpoint card.

Sorry