Persian Gulf Serenades

I have just participated in our Christmas Choir’s first practice that was held on the flight deck. For starters, there aren’t many people who can say they’ve sung Christmas carols on the flight deck of a warship, but we were practicing our scales while the helicopter (Sea King) was being scrubbed down after her last patrol flight. The backdrop was the choppy seas of the Persian Gulf, the horizon only broken by the occasional silhouette of an offshore oil rig. There is something to be said about belting out “The First Noel” in 24 degree heat at dusk on the open water. Is it silly that the solitary orange flames kissing the evening sky from that huge rig in the distance actually made me think of Stony Plain? Maybe being on the other side of the world really isn’t all that far away after all.