MPA bars
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MPA bars
Can anyone remind me of the names of the bars around MPA? Especially can't remember Bristow's place, 1312 (whoosh) I got - the Queen Vic, what are the others?
And what's the big accommodation block called, wher the messes etc are? I'm getting old...
And what's the big accommodation block called, wher the messes etc are? I'm getting old...
One end of the Death Start was 12 Facility, the other end was 38 Facility, they became collectively known as 'The Facility' at the back end of 99.
Eng Wg HQ had Timmy's bar.
Eng Wg HQ had Timmy's bar.
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As well as The Goose, 1435 also has the Eyrie Bar which is now held in the former Castaways, and The Swamp, which is the SNCO's bar.
Sharkey's, The Crab and Sprocket, Timmy's, Steamers, Lot 22....etc..
And the stackers friday night bar, the name of which escapes me?
Sharkey's, The Crab and Sprocket, Timmy's, Steamers, Lot 22....etc..
And the stackers friday night bar, the name of which escapes me?
Another BEagle original! I originally christened it the 'Deathstar' during OP. LAMPUCA in May 1986.
The name seems to have stuck!
I'm not surprised that the 'Vic' met its maker - it was getting out of hand and living on borrowed time when I last did time in the Islas Malvinas as Dep OC Air Wing.
The name seems to have stuck!
I'm not surprised that the 'Vic' met its maker - it was getting out of hand and living on borrowed time when I last did time in the Islas Malvinas as Dep OC Air Wing.
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Not only the Vic that met it's maker around that time,
Most of the bars on MPA were shut down strangely around the same time as the NAAFI's were refurbed. Some were beginning to open again at the end of last year, but the fact that the Vic was a sh**hole, and was falling apart was a major nail in it's coffin. Timmy's was also closed indefinately, despite probably being one of the best bars on camp.
Besides the Goose and The Eyrie of course!!
Who are we????
Most of the bars on MPA were shut down strangely around the same time as the NAAFI's were refurbed. Some were beginning to open again at the end of last year, but the fact that the Vic was a sh**hole, and was falling apart was a major nail in it's coffin. Timmy's was also closed indefinately, despite probably being one of the best bars on camp.
Besides the Goose and The Eyrie of course!!
Who are we????
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D-IFF_Ident - The one you asked for in the original post (the Bristows bar) is 'Erics'. Not that well know as it was strictly an invite only bar. However, like all of the bars I doubt if a female ever got turned away!
The greatest loss to MPA had to be 'The Lot 22' or as it was billed 'The South Atlantic's premier Nite Club'. It opened on a Tuesday night. The doors were shut when it reached 240 people (fire regs!) and there would often be another hundred turned away.
Infamously called Lot 22 because this was the lot number that the original Portacabin had in the surplus sale after the MPA original build before it was 'borrowed' by a Chinook from 78 Sqn!
The greatest loss to MPA had to be 'The Lot 22' or as it was billed 'The South Atlantic's premier Nite Club'. It opened on a Tuesday night. The doors were shut when it reached 240 people (fire regs!) and there would often be another hundred turned away.
Infamously called Lot 22 because this was the lot number that the original Portacabin had in the surplus sale after the MPA original build before it was 'borrowed' by a Chinook from 78 Sqn!
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Ahhhh, the memories.........Erics on a Wednesday night (back in the early eighties) was the "in-place" to drink. It was a terrific place until the F4 jocks came in all dressed up in their grow-bags, sleeves rolled up, wearing sunglasses (at night?????) telling us all about how they did this or how they did that etc........ Loved the place.
It says a lot about how cr@p the 'official' mess bars were that so many of these 'drinkers' sprang up on Base Aerea Gringo, Islas Malvinas.
The damn Goose should have been $hitcanned years ago. It frequently caused smoke alarms to go off at ungodly hours and the unnecessary evacuation of the Deathstar. And as for the 'pole dancing' that went on.....
We also discovered a few ilicit 'drinkers' in the accomodation roof spaces....and some very nearly catastrophic fires caused as a result.
My opinion was that ALL the non-Mess bars should have been closed. Not because I'm a killjoy, but because they were bŁoody dangerous!
The damn Goose should have been $hitcanned years ago. It frequently caused smoke alarms to go off at ungodly hours and the unnecessary evacuation of the Deathstar. And as for the 'pole dancing' that went on.....
We also discovered a few ilicit 'drinkers' in the accomodation roof spaces....and some very nearly catastrophic fires caused as a result.
My opinion was that ALL the non-Mess bars should have been closed. Not because I'm a killjoy, but because they were bŁoody dangerous!
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LOT22
Max Cont:
Lot 22 originally came from navy point (Stanley) January1987.
As we were shifting portacabin after portacabin across the bay they were having a lot no painted on them. We tasked the hooker at the receiving end to sort out a likely cabin for our proposed facility. He designated it by placing his bergan on it. At the end of the day we hooked it up and it magically appeared outside 78, 30 mins or so later. Next day there was a complaint made to us that a portacabin was missing and there was now a gap between lots 21 & 23. The white painted lot no was quickly painted over in green following a hasty HF call. When I left in the March (2 weeks after the opening) there was a brass plaque on the lot in memory of the 7 guys who met and untimely end on 27 Feb that year, 2 of whom had been on the aircraft when we "relocated" the lot.
There were pews and old wooden seats from one of the settlements who accepted some of HMG's finest plastic chairs in exchange. The Juke box was rebuilt by the loadies and hookers after it had been smashed by one of the regiments leaving fox bay. The beer fridges were intercepted and exchanged for old medical stores fridges whilst on return from fox bay. aahh the days of RAS-ing.
Is Amos's wall (a monolith of a stone BBQ) still standing? There was also a Mirage tail plane as a BBQ table.
Lot 22 originally came from navy point (Stanley) January1987.
As we were shifting portacabin after portacabin across the bay they were having a lot no painted on them. We tasked the hooker at the receiving end to sort out a likely cabin for our proposed facility. He designated it by placing his bergan on it. At the end of the day we hooked it up and it magically appeared outside 78, 30 mins or so later. Next day there was a complaint made to us that a portacabin was missing and there was now a gap between lots 21 & 23. The white painted lot no was quickly painted over in green following a hasty HF call. When I left in the March (2 weeks after the opening) there was a brass plaque on the lot in memory of the 7 guys who met and untimely end on 27 Feb that year, 2 of whom had been on the aircraft when we "relocated" the lot.
There were pews and old wooden seats from one of the settlements who accepted some of HMG's finest plastic chairs in exchange. The Juke box was rebuilt by the loadies and hookers after it had been smashed by one of the regiments leaving fox bay. The beer fridges were intercepted and exchanged for old medical stores fridges whilst on return from fox bay. aahh the days of RAS-ing.
Is Amos's wall (a monolith of a stone BBQ) still standing? There was also a Mirage tail plane as a BBQ table.
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BEagle, my money is on you being a killjoy.
Close all the non-official bars? RAM IT. They're the only thing that stops MPA actually being a prison. Other than the fact that prisoners are entitled to better accommodation standards and do less than 4 months.
Most of the really dodgy bars were closed ages ago on the first round of Morale Extraction after that bull***t article in a poorly informed Red Top tabloid. The rest are fighting for survival in an over-administrated, Big-Brother existance.
"S**tcan the Goose".........what?............ Were you not interesting enough to be invited to The Goose where 1435 Flt were having fun, making too much noise for you to watch your Betamax videos of Back To The Future?
The only thing dangerous about The Goose is the little bits of slightly jagged Mirage, A-4 and GR3 wreckage exibited in the place.
Ray.
Close all the non-official bars? RAM IT. They're the only thing that stops MPA actually being a prison. Other than the fact that prisoners are entitled to better accommodation standards and do less than 4 months.
Most of the really dodgy bars were closed ages ago on the first round of Morale Extraction after that bull***t article in a poorly informed Red Top tabloid. The rest are fighting for survival in an over-administrated, Big-Brother existance.
"S**tcan the Goose".........what?............ Were you not interesting enough to be invited to The Goose where 1435 Flt were having fun, making too much noise for you to watch your Betamax videos of Back To The Future?
The only thing dangerous about The Goose is the little bits of slightly jagged Mirage, A-4 and GR3 wreckage exibited in the place.
Ray.
I shall not rise to your bait of abusive personal comment, RoC, which in any case is utterly irrelevant.
Examine the original raison d'etre for the 'unit' bars. That no longer exists. As I wrote earlier, it is the state of the 'official' bars which deserves scrutiny. When I was first there 19 years ago, the official mess bars were very popular and social life thrived. But over the years people became increasingly disenchanted with everything from the bar prices to the stupid dress requirements; as a result, the unofficial drinking dens became increasingly popular. Regrettably, those who ran them didn't always do it well - and the disruption to the many caused by the antics of the thoughtless few in the Goose very nearly led to its closure after the third evacuation in 2 weeks caused by smoke alarms. However, it was given a gypsy's and things improved for a while.
That was the effect. Perhaps the cause merits further assessment? Why, for example, should anyone some 8000 miles from civilisation be obliged to abide by a dress code more formal than anything required at their home base? That just drives people into an alternative society, not a particularly healthy state of affairs.
Of course the fact that people are thousands of miles away from home defending the place from a non-existent threat doesn't help.
Examine the original raison d'etre for the 'unit' bars. That no longer exists. As I wrote earlier, it is the state of the 'official' bars which deserves scrutiny. When I was first there 19 years ago, the official mess bars were very popular and social life thrived. But over the years people became increasingly disenchanted with everything from the bar prices to the stupid dress requirements; as a result, the unofficial drinking dens became increasingly popular. Regrettably, those who ran them didn't always do it well - and the disruption to the many caused by the antics of the thoughtless few in the Goose very nearly led to its closure after the third evacuation in 2 weeks caused by smoke alarms. However, it was given a gypsy's and things improved for a while.
That was the effect. Perhaps the cause merits further assessment? Why, for example, should anyone some 8000 miles from civilisation be obliged to abide by a dress code more formal than anything required at their home base? That just drives people into an alternative society, not a particularly healthy state of affairs.
Of course the fact that people are thousands of miles away from home defending the place from a non-existent threat doesn't help.
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Speaking as an ex-baldric who spent most of my time 'Down South' on the Mountains, on my rear trips into MPA I tried not to drink in the NAAFI
Yes Beags, the messes might have been OK if the rules were relaxed (and one of my SNCOs at the time complained about the antiquated rules in his mess too) but where were us pondlife to go? The advantage of the small bars is that they were all-rank, cheap, friendly and you could keep the Pongos out.
Unless you wanted to fight the RIC and pay outrageous prices for out of date drink in a part of the complex that was even more soulless that the rest of the Death star the NAAFI was a place to avoid.
Yes Beags, the messes might have been OK if the rules were relaxed (and one of my SNCOs at the time complained about the antiquated rules in his mess too) but where were us pondlife to go? The advantage of the small bars is that they were all-rank, cheap, friendly and you could keep the Pongos out.
Unless you wanted to fight the RIC and pay outrageous prices for out of date drink in a part of the complex that was even more soulless that the rest of the Death star the NAAFI was a place to avoid.
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Whilst I fully agree with BEagles comments, the better run bars such as the Queen Vic, Lot 22, Timmys etc, provided an excellent boost to the various section funds. This enabled them to provide us with some of those home comforts which made life just about bearable.
In addition the regular refurbishments provided a much welcomed diversion for the inmates
In addition the regular refurbishments provided a much welcomed diversion for the inmates