Arrogant, ignorant and not Royal.

[Dave.Mil]

gone

[Cav-Lad]

Flo and Clionda.
No hard feelings.
There's good and bad in all walks of life. At the end of the day it all depends on the attitude of the Regiment and the Families Officer and NCO. Maybe the Navy as a better policy for families which makes life better for you all.
The estate I live on as families asociated with just two Regiments so everyone knows each other through the Regiments. But there are some estates ie Catterick, Tidworth to name a few that contain families from many,many different units. And maybe this does leed to a clicky atmosphere. If the husbands are sticking to there own side, then so will the wifes.
But there is one rule that is abided to quite well i've noticed. The Rank stays at work.

Anyway all the best.
Cav-Lad

[Guest]

and on a lighter note, the use of :fadein: 0X these little babies helps to show some type of emotion on the way what has been said is understood.....if that makes sense ?

[Doc]

So is the swing up yet ?? on tender hooks here

runs to don kevlar and get my jabs upto date incase theres a backlash!

[Shoulderholster]

Cav Lad,may I refer you to your post in the Op Fresco 2 thread.
Its a good job I didn't take offence to your sweeping generalisation.On my station out of 28 blokes.There 1 ex Para,1 ex Bootneck,1 ex Bomb Disposal,2 ex Matelots.Between us we have 3 GSMs,2 SAMs,and the NATO Bosnia medal.
We live in the real world,so stop being so bloody sensitive.

SH

[Cav-Lad]

Yes, OK I accept that. It was wrong to say that Fire-fighters don't live in the real world, Of course they do, and they do a very worth while job. But you must admit your demands for the first strike were well out of order, you can't expect a 40% pay rise. And what I heard that the reason the Fire-fighters in Manchester went on strike was because they would not use a new bit of kit unless they got paid more money. And my argument was we all get asked to do a bit extra now and then, you just have to get on with it. But now I've learned that there's more to it than that, and if the Government have double crossed you then I support the Fire-fighters 100%. But I'm not going to start editing what I've wrote in the past because I've said it now.

As for being sensitive, I admit I speak or in this case type before I think. And I do regret now having a go at Flo, because I took her comment the wrong way. But I've said it now and that's that.
It's just that I get really angry when arrogant people on this site look down there nose's and make stupid, unfounded comments about the Army. P~ss taking, and constructive criticism yes by all means. But people who think there better than everyone really gets to me.

[BenChug]

Its always "What rank is your husband?" or "what is your husband?"

Someone needs to remind these ladies that they don't wear their hubbys rank. Thats the benefit of bases in Canada although they are in quite crappy places except Gagetown and Edmonton, biggest base only sits with 2 battalions in it and a armoured regiment.

[flo]

With regards to wives wearing rank on their handbag, when myself and Jed first got married i made the effort to visit the local hive(help information volunteer exchange). I was asked down by my next door neightbour who was a Sgts wife, when we arrived at the HIVE we were greeted very nicely by a woman who worked there. She recognised my neighbour but then asked me who I was, my reply was Fiona she then said in a school maam manner ( no offence to school maams) 'no dearie who is your husband?'. Being quite nieve i replied he is a marine, she then asked what rank. I told her again that he was a marine. At this point she said to my neighbour please make yourway upstairs and then told me to go into a different room. I pointed out to her that we came together and her reply was sorry love but we mix in different circles. At this point i lost my temper (slightly) and informed her that if the Hive was rank orrientated which i was not, then perhaps she should know that i was a petty officer in the royal navy. Oh said she - F**k off said I and promptly about turned and stomped off.

Never did get my coffee

In my years on married patches i have noticed things have changed but it is still the Old school wifes that ask the question.

As a wife i respect who i am and those around me regardless of rank, religion, race. But yes there is still a problem with the question of 'whats your husband.' and unfortunately it will always be like that on married patches, but one reason for that could be that it is an opening to make conversation....either that or just nosey b***ers.

[Andy O'Pray]

Staying with the thread, which is most unusual for me. When in Singapore we lived on a married patch surrounded by pongo families from all sorts of Corps and regiments.

As sure as God made little apples, when I was up the ulu, or elsewhere things would go pear shaped at home. One day the wife was trying to get rid of a snake out of the house by poking it with an umbrella, to no avail. She went to our next door neighbour, John, REME I think, had just returned from work. John came into the house with his machette and told the wife to take the kids out of the I'M A SCAMMER SPAMMER!!! and close the door. After a bit of banging and shouting John emerged from the I'M A SCAMMER SPAMMER!!! with a chopped up cobra.

On another occasions my wife and kids returned home to find that the beautiful flowering vine, which covered our fence and car porch, was covered with munching locust. In a panic she went to another neighbour, Int Corps I believe. He spent about three hours cutting away the vine and getting rid of the vine and the locusts.

On the other side, when I was lying in RNH Plymouth after being wounded in NI. My wife and kids lived in MQs in Plympton. My wife who was unable to drive at that time had to bus it with two small children to visit me. Not once did anyone offer her a lift into the hospital.

Aye - Andy.

[El Prez]

Flo, whilst in Numbnutswich last weekend Stix kept telling the assembled Gronks that he was a Lesbian. Now I'd like to see Madam Stix explain that one away to the MFLO.

On the subject of petty minded small worlds, which every single base appears to be, how about the Parry method.
Arriving at various locations as the only Royal, keep smiling, even when openly being messed about. Keep going longer, faster and better than your new 'friends' and 'comrades'. Ensure that everything you do is immaculately organised and turned out, just be better than them, it's not difficult, they're chuffing pongos.
Keep a mental log of every sideways look/comment or attempted wrong-footing.

Get even, not mad. mad doesn't work, getting even is sooooooooooo nice.

Start where you mean to go on. The Corporal who mis-directed you. He could probably benefit from 3 months in Norge, attached to a Bootneck unit! Nothing is impossible, get Jed working on it, call it cross training, or career advancement. (just bear in mind the joy with which his wife will greet him, not) Failing that a month of extra duties should cool his enthusiasm for fun at your expense. Be creative, and go for it.
Remember to tally these little slights up in your head, and get even girl.

[flo]

Just goes to show that every MQ patch is different. I have been lucky this is the first bad one we've had.

And doc - The swing is built, but it wobbles only a little bit, but the ground anchors are still chucked to the side as i have given up until his nibs comes home.

[Sticky Blue]

Flo,
I know EXACTLY where you are coming from!
I have seen both sides i.e. Nasty and Nice.

When me and the ex fist got married we were in RAF MQ's. We were walking into the flat one day (probably within the first week) and a guy stopped us. "Hello, I'm Wally and this is Betty, we live at number 6, please pop up and we'll have a chat".
As he was a fair bit older than me we complied. We knocked and were made very welcome. He was a WO in the RAF and asked what I did and never mentioned the rank thing. We were given the rota for sweeping the stairs, house numbers and first names. Neither of them ever asked what rank I was and we attended loads of parties etc and were always introduced to people by first names. One day we went upstairs and there was a guy I recognised as the Station Warrant Officer, I called him Sir. Wally piped up "There is no rank in my house or on the patch, we are all equal".

Now the other side of the coin!

I had my heels together once for calling an officer's wife by her Christian name "You will call my wife ma'am or Mrs ****** do I make myself clear?" I asked him what he would call my wife and what my wife should call his wife. "You will notice that I will never have cause to call your wife anything and if I should I will tell you to attract her attention. Your wife should call my wife Mrs ***** or Ma'am". I wondered off shell shocked. Needless to say, at any function they were at, we weren't!
There are of course exceptions. One of our past Colonel's wives was brilliant, she called all the lads by nickname and insisted we called her by her Christian name. She even washed and sewed a button on my shirt when we were away because she knew I was running around like an idiot trying to sort things out and didn't have time myself.

[El Prez]

She even washed and sewed a button on my shirt when we were away because she knew I was running around like an idiot trying to sort things out and didn't have time myself.

Famous film lines.
Dierdre Thunderbox to Sticky Blue

Oh Sticky, let me sew your buttons on for you, you silly boy for loosing it in the first place. Pwomis you will wemember me, and white evewy day!

Sorry, that should have read Dierdre Soapbox to Bootneck.

[Doc]

I moved into married quarters at Chivenor and my ex once met the COs Missus at the local shop, got on as equals, no problems at all. Even met the CO at church (the padre married us on camp and the deal was 6 church attends after marriage) and the missus was called Mrs Doc which made me chuckle. Nice bloke, until he found out the rear fence security camera could be angled to get a look into his 16 year old daughters bedroom by a pervy royal one rear party evening
never had a problem on the patch even after I left the Navy. We lived in MQs for 8 months after I left until we had saved a deposit to buy civvy side, Royal welfare did a sterling job and I´ll never forget it even if the marriage went sour.

The strangest MQ story was when 59 duty NCO got a lift down to Crownhill MQs from Seaton from a bootneck duty driver. He found out Mrs Duty NCO was bagging off out of watch and when he arrived at his house he emptied a full SA80 mag into the brickwork! Got sent down for that one and the duty drives recieved a make n mend for "trousers cleaning, for the use of".

[Mince]

Thats Perce all over I'm afraid babe.

I really don't think you should've said that; it just ain't fair. Those people in the original post shouldn't have done what they did but you cannot extend their condemnation to the rest of the army. Saying this is an RM forum is not an excuse, not when it's on the public section of the site; you can expect 'Perce' to take exception to such sweeping inaccuracies, and rightly so.
I don't want to kick off a fuss but it irks me that Cav-Lad's getting stamped on when he's done no wrong. He hasn't criticised Flo (and she hasn't had a go at him). If you're sensitive about getting bitten back then keep your comments in the 'RM-drip only' section.