Firstly, to the OP: I'd advise your friends to seriously consider selling their white goods rather than putting them into storage. When we went to the States for four years, all ours went into storage (care of Whites, iirc). On our return, they were covered in mould, despite our following the instructions for cleaning, drying etc. Unsurprisingly, there was no sympathy; the reply was (fairly, I suppose), "Well, they must have still been damp when they went into storage." The mould that appeared on our sofas was also explained away in the same manner however; they were in such a state that we had to throw them away and buy new.
I'm on my second overseas tour now (first to the USA and then after a couple of years in the UK, to Germany), and there have been a whole host of ballsaches and setbacks to contend with. Amongst others:
- We had ten days between the day we found out that we were going to the States, and actually leaving the UK.
- Our PEs were airfreighted out to the States, but due to a change in contract they were sea-freighted home (taking a good six weeks).
- DIO were not able to source us a suitable house in time for our move to Germany, so we spent the first three months of the tour moving around from one holiday home to another while they found us something suitable.
- LOA has been heavily reduced, once by 40% while we were in the States, and last month by about 70%.
Despite this, I don't understand why more people don't apply for overseas tours. Even with the LOA reductions, I have had a much better standard of living than I ever had in the UK (although admittedly my wife has always been at home with the kids so there's no second wage to consider. Despite haemorrhaging money for the first year in the USA, we came home well upon the deal, and it's looking like it'll be the same over here as well.
The kids have had a 'better' (IMHO) education than they would have got in England (plus becoming fluent in a foreign language), and with boarding school looming before we move back to the UK, the doubling of the number of school children's visits is welcome. We also have the opportunity to do far more travelling than we ever would have done if we'd have been in the UK for the last 10 years.
There's plenty to grumble about overseas, but equally Prune seems bereft of people waxing lyrical about how life in the real RAF is improving at the moment and how the budget cuts aren't affecting them. It really isn't all doom and gloom. I've still got two years to go over here and I'm already working on how I can extend, and where the next overseas adventure will be to...