I have been reading this thread with some interest since the beginning and finally decided to join in. It has brought back some fantastic memories, some great, some not so great.
A big thank you to PhamousPhotographer, who I remember very well from back in the day, for posting some of his fantastic records and photographs.
To see what has become of the FOBs, HLSs and Golf Towers is a real eye opener. It had to happen, but it still seems bizarre to see what became of them!
Anyway, in no particular order, some of the things that come to mind and might help jog other peoples memories of days gone by:
Aldergrove
The 'Happy Bus' going Northside
The 'Sad Bus' coming Southside
The Tiger's Lair
The Swift Retreat
The Rose Bowl on a Friday night!!
J.K's- I remember A.U being a regular patron of the Scooby Doo Burger (which had to be seen to be believed-it could harden arteries just by looking at it!)
The Top Corridor in the Mess- doors open, linked up chatrooms on certain websites (long before FaceSpace had been invented)
Helping organise the 2001 Mini Tiger Meet- NATO invades Belfast! (more to come later)
Down Town
Sponsored visits to RUC HQ! (never seem to remember the journey home!)
Shopping in Belfast at the weekend- turning right out of Queen's Castle car park! Only did it the once, after admiring the lovely murals on the blocks of flats!
The Fly!
'Mauds' for a Pooh Bear on the way home.
Temple P curry house where a certain Crewman would only order Omelette and chips!
Knutts Corner market to pick up the latest Cds and DVDs (allegedly!)
Armagh/South Armagh
MBP checks (in the Summer-you now what I mean!)
Calling Buzzard to put the kettle on when 2 minutes out
Under wires transits!!
"Red 850 Up the Tube, Red 850"
Confined Area landing in the Garden!
Hearing a GPMG open up on the pad!! (Outgoing-ish!)
Dropping a bollock (right outside the fence when a donk when bang!)
IMC road moves (How mad was that looking back on it?!)
The Greens
Rab and his 'special' deals!
Pizza deliveries at the gate for 10
Watching a Puma on the CCTV trying to imitate a Lynx landing on the HLS (ie no gear)
The Crewmans "stash" in the upstairs cell (often liberated back from the pilot's rooms)
Hiding the Sky card from TWA because you could
The 'lough run' from the South
The 'lough run' out to the North
Ambushing the romantics (don't think 'dogging' had been invented then?) at the car park lookout from below.
Border lottery at Belleek and Belcoo
Quarry visits with some interesting Underslung Loads and Paddy the Quarryman (same old boy appeared everywhere!)
Anyway, hopefully that has raised a few smiles! There must be hundreds more that haven't been mentioned (some probably shouldn't be!!) so would love to see them.
Tiger, Tiger, Tiger
Tweet,Tweet,Tweet
*Apologies for all the exclamation marks but they seem appropriate