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Sixth installment

The next day I found out that there was to be another man in charge of our house and the first thing that he did was to change the guard system that had worked so well since I joined the unit, he changed it from six hours to four and from four men to two, this man may have had the same rank as me but at least I had some brains. The only good thing was that I was still allowed to drive the lorry for the time being, the trips down to the river were taking it's toll on the lorry as one day one of the batteries fell out of it's improperly secured locker on the side of the lorry and I got the blame and I got the blame as I was driving it at the time. While I was putting the replacement battery in I was getting more and more angry as time passed and eventually I would give the officer's next door a piece of my mind because they had now stopped me from driving, as it happened they were not there and that gave me time to calm down and although I knew this was the final straw, I had now had enough of this unit and it's incapable officer's. The following morning I told the commander of the unit that as soon as we arrived back in Osijek I would be putting in for a transfer to a better unit. Those left few days were spent just doing my guard and thinking about where I was going to end up next, I wondered if I would ever find a unit that was half way professional. That night while we were on guard it happened to be the first time that the enemy turned it's attention on us, I was sitting trying to talk to the other man when all of a sudden there was an explosion in the woods behind us and only about fifty meters away, we all headed for the bunker but as there was hardly any moon we couldn't see anything and in the process of getting to the bunker we were falling all over the place but eventually we reached safety, just in time as another shell landed even closer. We decided to stay in the bunker for the rest of the night as it was the safest place to be, occasionally I would go out for a walk but only because I couldn't sleep and I was constantly thinking that while we were in the bunker anything could happen but thankfully nothing did and the rest of the night passed quietly. We left the following morning and for me it was the last time that I would go to Babina Greda with this unit.
As soon as I got to Osijek I went straight to the main base and as I waited an old friend from 160br ebtered, his name was Dr. Hikky and instead of leaving when the brigade finished he had decided to stay on in the army as he thought that he would be of more use so he had transferred to the RRF, although he he only spoke a little english he always went out of his way to speak with me the same way that everybody else in town did. Whenever I went to the center of town there was always someone who would speak to me, maybe not only because of friendship but I was still in the Croatian army unlike so many foreigners who had left. These people were great and reminded me of the villagers back in Wales who were always willing to talk to anyone, I was beginning to miss my home in Wales more and more but after tomorrow there would be no way that I would be able to get home, I left to visit Paula where I said I would meet her before going home. It wasn't really the right thing to do for husband's or wives to visit their partners at work but I was the exception to that rule, at the school they were always happy to see me as I always behaved like an idiot and everyone would laugh at my attempts to speak Croatian but I never took offense. After telling Paula what had happened we went home. While I was lying in bed watching Paula sleep I started to think about what she had said to me earlier that month about not being able to buy anything for herself so I decided to rectify that by buying something for her but what? There was nothing that she really needed so in the end I decided to buy her a ring as women are supposed to like all jewelry. The following afternoon I met her from work,
"I want to buy you a ring, have you got any objections" I asked her,
"yes, it's a waste of money and you should keep it just incase we ever need anything urgently" she replied,
but after forcing the issue I got my way and we went to look for a ring. We went into various shops until eventually we found the one that she wanted, it was fairly cheap but if that was what she wanted then she would have it, she was happy with her choice and I was happy because she was happy. At long last I had given Paula something in a way repaid her for all the help that she had given me since the day we had met, I only wish was that I could get on with Diana because that would have pleased her even more but that was more difficult than buying a ring. 

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