Week five: Close call on kit inspection

3:21pm Monday 28th April 2008

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A packed week started with the dreaded Chief Petty Officer's kit inspection.

We had to lay all our kit out on our beds, cleaned and pressed to a very high standard.

Unfortunately we both failed - an item of Adam's kit was missing, and Nick had not cleaned his shoes properly.

We were both gutted. All our mates rallied round to support us and we had a second chance on Wednesday.

It was a close call. You only get three chances and if you don't meet the grade you are back-classed, which means your training is extended and you join another class.

Fortunately for us we got through at the second attempt.

On a positive note we passed a physical training test which involved 40 press-ups, 60 sit-ups and then seven shuttle runs of the gym, equating to 400 metres, which we had to complete in 59 secs.

As classes we also passed our weapons drill.

It's part of the ceremonial training and we had to learn a set routine of carrying and changing the position of the SA 80 rifle, in unison as we marched.

This will form part of our passing-out-parade when we will act as the ceremonial guard.

We had one lesson to learn the routines, then another marching, before we took the exam.

We were also able to practice during the evening with wooden guns in our division.

The actual exam on Friday was quite nerve-wrecking as our divisional instructors were out in force to watch.

None of us wanted to be the one that let the class down and we were all relieved to know we had passed.

There was more sport this week with a mini-Olympiad in the pool.

Port - Adam's class - won the event by three points.

On Friday we took part in the passing-out-parade again, which was great.

It's a fantastic atmosphere and nice to see all the families there.

We all put in maximum effort to look smart on the parade for those who were passing-out.

Highlight of the week has to be trying on our best uniform, known as 'Number Ones.' We felt really proud trying it on and it's now hanging in our lockers, waiting to be worn for the first time on parade during week seven.

This weekend we are off to Dartmoor for a night under canvas and a 30km walk.

We are really looking forward to it. We have heard so much about it from the other classes that we can't wait to experience it ourselves.

We both have sentry duties overnight - Nick is on watch between 10 and 10.30pm and Adam has drawn the short straw because his is between 1.30 to 2.00 am!

When we get back on Sunday there will be some 'newbies' in our division, which means we will become the senior class.

We are looking forward to meeting them to give them the benefit of our five weeks experience. Our advice will be to give 100% at all times.