My Falklands Diary

1115  Arrive Portsmouth

(The end of my diary is a total anti-climax, with no entries for the last two days other than 'appointments'! I stood on the deck as the ship came in to Pompey. I waved and shed a little tear. I was a different person when I came back. I was angry, I had no patience, and didn't realise it. I was met by my Mum and Dad. It took three years to diagnose my diabetes, and when they did I weighed just over 7 stones. I was very fit, and used to run most nights, so it was difficult to work out what was wrong with me. I don't think naval doctors can handle anything other than broken bones and flu! In fact, it's a long standing naval joke that they prescribe Lemsip for everything, even appendicitus or a sprained ankle! I had two episodes, which I now know were hypoglycemic 'attacks', while I was still in the Navy. I didn't know what was happening to me, and nature or chance fixed it each time. First time I went into a cafe and second time I ate a sweet, for no particular reason. Each time I just 'felt better' and that was that. But I dwelt on it though - it didn't make me feel to good, for many reasons.

I think I have enjoyed putting this diary on here! It has actually made me feel a bit better about that whole chapter of my life, even though the demons in my head don't actually surface in the diary.

On the advice of a friend, I will try to make the diary more readable by putting together a dedicated web site. This free site has been a good way of publishing it, but it's made the diary difficult to read for some. If you're reading this now, thank you for taking the trip with me! It was a journey into the unkown for me, and when I do sort out a permanent home for this diary I'll add a lot more notes to make it a bit more interesting. I realise there were many long boring parts - they certainly were boring for me back then!

I was inspired to keep this going by someone who said that these events had to be recorded at all levels. I was just a bloke on a ship, who did very little. My war wasn't particularly exciting - just two or three episode of frantic activity. But I can understand that in the future it will be good to know what happened at every level.)