The Army

It’s the last days of November and still no snow on the ground. Just a bit of frost met me on my way to work this morning.

I’ve had another day with number 13, or Clemens, as we have named our truck. It’s a brand new thing, as I upgraded the green truck the other week. Now I’m driving a grey Scandia spaceship! It’s the most expensive vehicle I’ve ever had – worth similar to a pimp studio flat in W11 – with seats that make me feel like a queen on the road.

The truck is my full time occupation right now, and it’s a rather weird feeling to go to work and do nothing but drive and learn about this heavy monster. From Monday afternoon to Friday lunchtime, it’s my 100% focal point. If all goes well I will know my pimp ride inside out in two weeks time and nail the C-license.

One negative thing about my current focus is the sitting down. I think I’m developing a short hip muscle as a consequence, and to prevent pain I’ve started standing up whenever I can. I’m sure the sitting down is a common problem for truck drivers. Also, when the iliopsoas muscle gets short, it can lead to lower back pain! Clearly no good. However, you can prevent this with hip stretching, or yoga.

If driving a truck were my full time job, the sitting down part and all the ‘greasy spoons’ along the road would kill me.

Thinking about it, perhaps there is an investment opportunity for a new food chain called ‘the healthy fork’ – for the new generation of truckers on the road, like me? It would serve raw food only and be associated with a gym, and it would play 80s rock music, which is great for truck driving and aerobics! People would stop by just to see the waiters - inspired by Madonna in her 'Hung Up' video.

Well, there is not much else to report from The Army.

For now, I’ll just keep driving.

After a week and a half of driving a truck, loading a truck, calculating the weight of a truck, backing and parking a truck, I’ve come to the conclusion that life is too simple in the seat of a truck. It’s been a tough realization.

Perhaps it would be different if I was taking passengers or being responsible for a certain load, but when learning how to drive and manage the vehicle, there is no such added function. I’m not saying that getting a truck licence is easy, however, I just don’t feel a huge amount of motivation for bagging one. Now when I think about it, nobody even asked if I wanted to get this licence – I was told to take it.

Well, I can’t just go with the flow any longer.

In the past couple of weeks I’ve been feeling the November blues. And ever since getting back from Italy I’ve felt stressed too. Having had another bad night’s sleep with flu symptoms, I skipped driving this afternoon and went to the doctor’s. Having ventilated my situation and talked for over an hour I finally know why I’ve been feeling so stressed, (great doctor by the way).

It really is fundamental to feel heard and understood when thoughts grow too large for one head to handle. Do you feel needed and valued and appreciated? Not just at home, but also at work? For example: as a presenter on the radio you entertain and get immediate feedback from the audience. You may or may not always be appreciated, but you’ve filled a function and done a job that someone value, (since it’s still your show).

I’ve realized I don’t have a purpose at work at the moment. Plus, constantly being sent to courses is making me tired, and ever since Italy – I fill no unique function! Currently in the military, I just do what someone of a higher rang tells me to, and it’s getting old. Now I drive a truck. Once that’s done, I’ll be told to do something else – without consideration for my capacity, or my knowledge and skills.

Will I need to wait for a new mission to do my job again? What about my day job, now when NATO has decided it is peace in the world?

I want to make use of the time that passes by and never comes back again in a way that feel meaningful to me. Besides, I didn’t sign up to the Army to be a soldier. I signed up to be an executive producer of media. Unless I see some signs that I’ll be building a new media platform next year, I may hear London calling.

Today was a relaxing day at work. On the third day of learning how to drive a truck, it was time to go for a ride. The sun was low in the afternoon and the frost made the roads slippery, especially in the forest where the pine trees stand tall and closely packed.

So far we’ve been two on each truck but my driving partner was off sick today, so it was just my truck and I.

Whilst the sun was setting, number 13 and I must have made at least eight laps on the country road. The driving instructor came along for two of them – I was doing fine on my own.

Everything goes slow motion when driving a truck. You have to put the gears in slowly and remember to brake beforehand, otherwise it won’t work – the truck is too heavy to slow down for the correct gear to jump in. The corners are the best though. It’s an art to get the truck placed just right to not cut the lane on the opposite side. Plus, there is something very satisfactory about turning the massive steering wheel… I’m not sure why!

Life is simple and pretty beautiful in the seat of a truck.

My medal read: “For International Achievements”, in capital letters. And at the back: “OUP Libya, 2011”. I received my Army bling by the Supreme Commander, Sverker Göransson, in a ceremony at the Air Force base in Northern Sweden last week. Göransson is a four star General, which is the highest military officer in the country. Only the King of Sweden share the same rank.

I’ve been part of writing Swedish military history with Operation Unified Protector, which ended on 31 October. Historical since our pilots has flown in an International mission for the first time since Congo in the 1960s.

All together, psyops supported the mission with over 12 million leaflets dropped over Libya, as well as radio messages. Psychological operations in this respect, is a means to end a conflict without using weapons. It has also been called Psychological warfare. Probably since carefully crafted words can be viewed as ammunition... especially if they are fired off at analyzed targets (groups of people) to influence their behaviour.

If there is one thing I've realised since joining the Army, it is that the conflicts of the world today are too complex to think you've ever got the full picture to take a stand on what is right and wrong, good or bad. The more involved you get, the more often your mind will change standpoint - if it is so inclined.

Apart from picking up several bottles of wine and some ceramics, I also picked up the Italian flu on my back to Sweden. As a result, I’ve been spending my one-week holiday laid up in bed with a fever and sore throat. I also haven’t seen the sun for over a week, so I sense a challenge in keeping my energy levels up from now until March... Sweden is tough this time of year.

Well, at least I’m healthy enough to be back at work again. A new course is starting on Monday and over the next five weeks I'll be studying for a new driver's licence - for a heavy truck. Yes, I will be learning how to drive a truck. A big Swedish truck.

As I am starting to realise, life in the Army is very practical and the constant training is getting exhausting. By now, I was hoping to finish the Creative studio and start delivering some Swedish media projects. However, someone has decided I’m getting trained for bigger and better deals. The question is – am I up for it?