Mouldy Quarters at RAF Brize Norton.
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SRENNAPS
I'm not letting that slip past unchallenged! Not quite a 30 year career,[25] but as of D-Day the 6th of June I, that is we, celebrated 42 years of happy marriage, though perhaps the only time we were ever in Service MQs was in this little pad in Singapore!
Give me a shout if you can look back on 31 years of very happy marriage and a 30 year career in the RAF making do with what ever comes. Not that many here could boast the same I feel.
I'm not letting that slip past unchallenged! Not quite a 30 year career,[25] but as of D-Day the 6th of June I, that is we, celebrated 42 years of happy marriage, though perhaps the only time we were ever in Service MQs was in this little pad in Singapore!
Join Date: Aug 2007
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I have proof that the PMC of old had one serious sense of humour, it did not happen to me but to a guy that arrived at Lossie the same day as me.
He and his wife(a WRAF) decided that it was time to buy a house, started looking around at properties in their price range. They decided that as he had already been at the station for some time that they would check with Handbrake House and PMC trade desks, if he (or she) were on any lists for posting off station, in the foreseeable future, the answer was NO.
So off they went ,found a place and started the process of buying. Come the day of exchanging contracts he had gone into work that morning and asked his Chief for an hour off to go and sign all the paper work, it was agreed and off he went, 1 hour later he was back, as he walked through the door he was told that Sengo wanted to see him.
They never moved into that house, just put it straight back on the market
He and his wife(a WRAF) decided that it was time to buy a house, started looking around at properties in their price range. They decided that as he had already been at the station for some time that they would check with Handbrake House and PMC trade desks, if he (or she) were on any lists for posting off station, in the foreseeable future, the answer was NO.
So off they went ,found a place and started the process of buying. Come the day of exchanging contracts he had gone into work that morning and asked his Chief for an hour off to go and sign all the paper work, it was agreed and off he went, 1 hour later he was back, as he walked through the door he was told that Sengo wanted to see him.
They never moved into that house, just put it straight back on the market
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Samuel,
nah, 48 years service, 40 years marriage, one quarter, two houses
PN
nah, 48 years service, 40 years marriage, one quarter, two houses
PN
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Blimey PN that's what I would call a settled life.
I was in the RAF for the first 15 years of our 53 years of marrige, during which, we lived in a mixture of 12 MQ's and Hirings in the UK and O/seas.
When we moved into our present house, our 15th abode, we said 'that's it'. We've lived here for the last 34 years!
I was in the RAF for the first 15 years of our 53 years of marrige, during which, we lived in a mixture of 12 MQ's and Hirings in the UK and O/seas.
When we moved into our present house, our 15th abode, we said 'that's it'. We've lived here for the last 34 years!
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Those houses came with a bit of history! Built for senior RN Officers before the war and occupied by Japanese during it! Then when the Brits left they were taken over by the NZ part of ANZUK. Very comfortable. Prior to being allocated that one, I had an ex-RAF MQ at 12 Hyde Park Gate at Seletar!
I was there for a short time just after the NZ Inf Bn and the Hueys left. Work was being done in the kitchen area and a Japanese poster, encouraging the locals to assit the Japanese, was found down the back of the larder - the house had been occupied by senior Japanese during the war!
Join Date: Oct 2002
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And a good house 12 Hyde Park Gate was in the late nineties. Alas I do not think it is there anymore. Sg govt seems to think industrialization and dual carriageways are the way forward for Seletar.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Mould! What about mushrooms? Miss PN found mushrooms in her kitchen and cloakroom. She is second in priority for fixing as one of the AMQ had a ceiling collapse.
Not BZN but not a hundred miles away.
Not BZN but not a hundred miles away.
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Sharp End:
Ah ha, I thought that my comment would generate more than just a few lines about mould in MQs
Of course, one should never borrow more than one can repay. But greedy bankers twisted our arms to do just that, then winged to HMG to bail them out when their customers fell on bad times.
But there are always silver linings.
1. Houses have never been so affordable nor so easy to purchase. But they will not always be.
Ah ha, I thought that my comment would generate more than just a few lines about mould in MQs
Of course, one should never borrow more than one can repay. But greedy bankers twisted our arms to do just that, then winged to HMG to bail them out when their customers fell on bad times.
But there are always silver linings.
1. Houses have never been so affordable nor so easy to purchase. But they will not always be.
New homes are not 'more affordable' because income hasn't gone up and the prices haven't dropped any further. However, very recently, new subsidies and underwriting possibilities make them attractive for key workers. Thankfully, New Buy and SPACES are steps in the right direction.
NewBuy - Housing - Department for Communities and Local Government
Ministry of Defence | Defence For... | The Service Community | Housing | Joint Service Housing Advice Office (JSHAO)
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Finally, its easy to blame bankers (I'm not an apologist for them at all - I despise their personal greed and incompetence as much as I despise the state spendthrift mentality that got us in this pickle). But who shoulders the blame for simply forgeting the basics about financial common sense, and simply spending for today and not saving or investing for tomorrow?
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“‘My other piece of advice, Copperfield,’ said Mr. Micawber, ‘you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.”
David Copperfield (1850)
David Copperfield (1850)
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
But is that true?
After a struggle with the building society I was eventually able to arrange a mortgage where I had a 15% deposit and my borrowing was about equal to my pay 1:1. The struggle was two way: a struggle to get the mortgage and a struggle to pay the mortgage.
Who drove up prices? Greedy builders? Greedy home sellers? Or building societies and bankers making loads easy?
If loans had remained tight then sellers could not up their prices and only those that saved could raise the deposit and then repay the loan.
May be it was us but collectively who was prepared to say I will save for my house and buy when I can afford it while watching prices increase daily?
I recall in 1990 that my house was earning more in a month than I was.
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I was being general.. there were some bankers who remained conservative and diligent as well, just as there were private savers who did do all the right things. I wasn't suggesting that any one part of the formula was 'wrong' in its own right; rather, each part of this troika (state/banks/borrowers) had faults which together massively added to the problems of parts of the others which didn't.
