Summer Ball

[Mightycrewseven]

What has been the best Summer Ball theme this year?

For those of you attended a Ball this year, where was it, what was the theme and what were the highs and lows of the Ball?

Do dodgems still make that essential appearance???????

[talk_shy_tall_knight]

I'm sure it's just me but I can't stand them any more. I'd rather be down my local with a few folk I actually like. So much easier. Wear what ever I've got on, walk in pub, order pint, pay, drink, smoke, repeat til squiffy, leave, eat Chinese, repeat nightly til dead.

Sorry, just can't stand Summer Balls.

[Gainesy]

On reflection, combining AOC's and the Summer Ball was not such a good idea.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v167/Gainesy/dance.jpg

[Wyler]

Best theme was Jungle Book.

Loved them when I was young, slim and fit. Drink all night, breakfast, quick kip and then the survivors parties.

The arrival of bumper cars, bouncy castles etc really lowered the tone.

Now, I am with talk- shy, rather go down the pub and enjoy company of my choosing.

[Wader2]

Quick kip, quick kip? Wot, no stamina, I don't know, these young pups.

remember an Akrotiri ball, well the highlights only I guess, breakfast in No 2 Mess. 16 year old daughter of, still on her feet, thought it had been magical.

Went home, parents still up, worried sick. She was upended infront of the guests and had her backside tanned. Poor lass. Sent the dad to Coventry IIRC.

[Satellite_Driver]

The bumper cars were great fun, although at Henlow a certain Air Cdre was so enamoured of them he commandeered one all night. The following year a one-star plate was just stuck on one to save him the bother!

[4PON4PIN]

Musta been '69 or '70'ish at Abingdon. Cracking Summer Ball giving it rooty-toot and big licks till the early hours. Then pile into 4 cars to drive down to Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice (still in Mess Kit). Drape parachutes over the carefully positioned motors to provide semblance of cover and privacy(!!)then mingled with the Druids at the rising of the sun.
Tell the yoof of today that was the norm and will they believe you? Nah!!

[FantomZorbin]

Aah ... Syerston in the late 60s, steel band manager pleading to be paid up front so that he could stump up the bail to get them released for the evening's performance!!

Bl**dy good band tho' :ok:

[BEagle]

The arrival of bumper cars, bouncy castles etc really lowered the tone.

How true!

Wader2, I trust you offered to kiss it better for her?

SUMMER BALL SOPs

Preparation: Spend several days covering perfectly good Officers' Mess decorations in bits of brown paper. Paint same according to required theme. Tell Fire Officer to f*** off on leave or something.

On the night:

1. Go to Boss' pad for some pre-ball sharpeners.
2. Spend a bit too long there and arrive rather shabby.
3. Find fish bar. Discover all the prawns have been eaten and there are only dubious looking bits of fish-smelling rubber left. Go to bar instead.
4. Discuss life, the universe and everything with chums at bar. Wimmin talk about knitting, kittens etc.
5. Miss the expensive guest band playing its 30 min slot.
6. Stagger in to second scoff sitting. Ply everyone and anyone with wine and bonhomie whilst attempting to eat rare cold beef without getting blood on shirt.
7. Corner unsuspecting wench and sway gently towards disco for some hopeful cuddling and groping. Explain opportunisitc wayward hands are result of affluence of incohol.
8. Retire wounded to bar. Repeat serial 4. If married, wench will probably be in favour of this as it will mean no 'in car entertainment' in some field gateway on the way home, followed by a 'summer ball brat' 9 months later.
9. Repeat serial 7.
10. Repeat serial 4.
11. Argue with WRAFs who refuse to wear Mess Kit - even if it is some polyester nightmare which makes them look like sacks of spuds wrapped in turquoise crimplene.
12. Hang around until breakfast is served. Full fry plus a couple of pints - snagless.
13. Stack.
14. Attempt to locate items of mess kit, hat etc some days later.
15. Agree that Summer Balls aren't what they once were.

[kluge]

........this all sounds dangerously familiar to the current annual RHKYC ball.

The last semblance of Empire perhaps. :{

[teeteringhead]

BEags

as one would expect from yourself, a succint and accurate description of The Way We Were ..

7. Corner unsuspecting wench
.. surprising you did not mention the use of the "Two O'clock Crying Steps". Principle for (unprincipled?) bachelor was that by 0200 at least one previously accompanied lady had been deserted by escort or she had found him:

a. Unconscious and/or

b. In flagrante delicto

and was sitting crying in frustrated rage on steps of Mess, grateful for sympathy and a shoulder to cry upon ....

... said slighted lady's revenge on her man could be ..... both interesting and enjoyable .....:E

[A2QFI]

Top post Beagle! Reminds me somewhat of the style of the "Day in the life of Flying Officer X" articles we used to get in Air Clues in the 60s

[Jumping_Jack]

Used to have some top Summer Balls in Akrotiri in the early '90s. Seem to remember even having a 'goldpanning' stream running through the anti room on one occasion! Each year we would suceed in running the Island out of Triwalls used to craft the decor....

One of the best was a 'Disney' theme with an amazing 'Sleeping Beauty' made from a 'Resusi-Annie' from the GDT section. :ok:

[SirPeterHardingsLovechild]

'The Fairground' theme is always a winner.

Judging by the amount of tatoos on show last Friday. Chav's in posh frocks. Mutton dressed as lamb. I'm still having nightmares.

My god, I'm turning into BEagle

[BEagle]

Judging by the amount of tatoos on show last Friday.

Tatoos? Tatoos?? In an Officers' Mess?? Good grief, are there no standards any more? Why weren't the people with such things told to f*** off in fine pitch?

I can accept that pirates and some nautical types in the merchant marine have a tradition involving tatoos, but common chavs attempting to display such things in an Officers' Mess should be firmly booted into touch.

Or preferably, shot. For a first offence.

Whilst wasting a few weeks as S/L (Air) at Base Aerea Gringo, Islas Malvinas, I was astonished to see some fat WRAF in the Scruffs' Bar with a bare midriff displaying some piece of scrap iron attached to her blubber roll. Simply appalling.....

A2QFI - how kind of you! I too remember those excellent articles in the pre-'air power':yuk: Air Clues - my inane ramblings are as naught compared to the fine prose of those articles. Back in the days when we had an Air Force worthy of the title, that is....:rolleyes:

[Melchett01]

I remember being a baby F/O with the drinking stamina of half the Scottish Drinking Team combined (God it's depressing getting old :uhoh:) and going to several balls north of the border which were a blast. In order to protect the guilty, I shall refrain from names / locations.

One evening, was in the bar repeating Beags' serials 4,7 & 8. One chum was chatting to a lady who became quite taken with a younger Melchett and was becoming increasingly insistent on repeating 4,7 & 8 on a more personal basis. As she dragged me off to the dance floor I turned round to see my chum chatting to another chap who had suddenly appeared. The lady in question looked over my shoulder to see the 2 of them in conversation and whispered "that's where my husband got to" in my ear which prompted a sudden change of step not entirely in keeping with the band's timings.

As we walked back to the bar after much more shuffling everyone was smiling. Melchett was onto a promise, said lady was equally chuffed as she usually found her husband to be a drunken bore at these events, but most of all my chum was grinning like a Cheshire cat. When I asked him why he was grinning he started to laugh before explaining that the reason the husband didn't mind his wife being 'looked after' was that it freed him up to enjoy the evening with the people he really wanted to be there with. Plus as he was the local bomb disposal officer, he would have his revenge the next morning!

Queue Melchett diving into an empty room for the rest of the night and a very very careful check for suspicious objects hanging off the car the next morning!

[MrBernoulli]

Live elephant? Perhaps Beags's "fat WRAF in the Scruffs' Bar with a bare midriff displaying some piece of scrap iron attached to her blubber roll" could be persuaded to substitute for said elephant? :ok:

[alwayslookingup]

Teeteringhead

"The Two O'clock crying steps"

Yuk, there's nothing worse than being kissed through salty, snivelling tears, is there?

[Rossian]

Alwayslookingup
Do get a grip. Wipe away the salty tears with specially brought handkerchief, all the while murmuring "There there.... or maybe even - there" and then......."would you like to use my room to repair run mascara and cool water to reduce puffy eyes?" And who knows what might come of it?
Worked for me.
The Ancient Mariner

[BEagle]

Live elephant? Perhaps Beags's "fat WRAF in the Scruffs' Bar with a bare midriff displaying some piece of scrap iron attached to her blubber roll" could be persuaded to substitute for said elephant?

Nope - I think she went off to live with the rest of her kind elsewhere in the Malvinas:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/WRAFs.jpg

An Air Engineer's idea of heaven!!

[Romeo Oscar Golf]

What a sad thread.
I just loved Summer Balls. Fortunately for me and the late Mrs ROG, most of them were overseas,( Singapore, Germany ) which may have much to do with it.
Although there were some exceptions, the uniforms were splendid and the ladies and their outfits simply divine. Decorations were amaturish but ours, music and dancing sufficiently varied for all tastes and the food. whilst predictable, superb.
We chatted and flirted energetically but safely, unanimously disliked the conduct and dress of the civilian "associates", deplored the few members who invited too many "guests" who could not understand the military way ( and cleaned up the fish bar in the first 15 minutes), and stayed with it to breakfast.
I miss that almost as much as the flying.
Oh well, back to the 21st Century........

[4PON4PIN]

Some posts seem to suggest that in the 60's -70's it were some kind of sh*gfest which possibly continued to the current day...surely not !!?;)

[BEagle]

Not really...

Incidentally, I don't know about the '60s, but I'm pretty sure that we didn't have kiddies' amusements such as bouncy castles, dodgem cars or other such nonsense in the '70s.

And we most certainly wouldn't have tolerated cheap women displaying tatoos in an Officers' Mess....:yuk: The very thought.....:uhoh:

[cazatou]

4PON4PIN

Must have been '69. I don't remember that one as we answered the most stupid question I have ever been asked "correctly" when we disembarked from a C130 after 10-12 hr crossing from Lyneham to Antigua.

The question was:-

"Are you the crew that's come to do the Tour of the Carribean?"

Yes or No - difficult isn't it?:ok::ok:

[Tankertrashnav]

( and cleaned up the fish bar in the first 15 minutes),

Rog mentions Singapore - wonder if he was at the Seletar summer ball in 1967. The fish bar was set out a couple of hours before the ball started - you only had to walk within 10 yards of it to realise it was going to be bad news. Unfortunately no less than 75 guests were too pi$$ed to notice - at least that's the number that reported sick with food poisoning the next day. Happy days!

[SaddamsLoveChild]

I recall the tale of a rotary god in the late 90's, who, having invited a truly gorgeous couple of phillies to the Aldergrove Ball chanced his arm and was turned down by one of them. She, on arrival in mates room and having dis-robed decided that she was lonely and said aviator was worthy of her attentions. Unfortunately for her the scoundrel had already taken matters in hand and was unable to resurrect himself for her enjoyment.

It is rumoured she then returned to the bar in search of an alternative and was non too subtle in telling assembled chaps of the reason for her reappearance:\.

Isnt it the last RAF Aldergrove Ball this month?

[Romeo Oscar Golf]

Some posts seem to suggest that in the 60's -70's it were some kind of sh*gfest

Only in the free spirit of the sixties "revolution" as far as I knew. However I was also unaware of the OMO tricks apparently rampant in OMQ's throughout Germany in the 70's.
I heard about the Seletar fish bar disaster, but was across
the Country at Tengah at the time.
Anyway for those of you still serving, enjoy the Summer Balls, because, in the 27 years since I left, I've found no comperable civilian functions which come close.

[cazatou]

A2 QFI

Fg OFF X was one of my Instructors at Acklington. :D

[PlasticCabDriver]

SLC, I remember it well!

They were comely enough but I think a

a truly gorgeous couple of phillies

rather overdoes it a bit! Worth a pop though (and they both turned me down - bitches).

[SaddamsLoveChild]

You obviousely werent as drunk as me...........

[Willard Whyte]

Judging by the amount of tatoos on show last Friday.

Tatoos? Tatoos?? In an Officers' Mess?? Good grief, are there no standards any more? Why weren't the people with such things told to f*** off in fine pitch?

I did once remark, while gesticulating toward some young 'painted lady', to a fellow at the bar of the last Ball I attended that there were a large number of tatoos on show these days. Said fellow remarked young lady was his wife.