30 years ago tonight..
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30 years ago tonight..
.. I began a long relationship with a hand floor buffer.
At various points during the day, people started questioning my metabolism, genetic credibility and parenthood, and I asked myself if going to Uni would have been a better idea after all.
Nah.
At various points during the day, people started questioning my metabolism, genetic credibility and parenthood, and I asked myself if going to Uni would have been a better idea after all.
Nah.
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I began a long relationship with a hand floor buffer.
I was at Uni; getting laid, drunk, and laid again.
I would be another 18 months before I discovered that toothbrushes had in fact been designed for cleaning Ablutions. Of course it was very cushy by then; we were allowed a second toothbrush for teeth.
I would be another 18 months before I discovered that toothbrushes had in fact been designed for cleaning Ablutions. Of course it was very cushy by then; we were allowed a second toothbrush for teeth.
1983? Kin Rooks!
In the Winter of 62/63 it was the only way to keep warm at St Athan....
Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian
In the Winter of 62/63 it was the only way to keep warm at St Athan....
Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian
30 years ago tonight..
.. I began a long relationship with a hand floor buffer.
Glad to say that I know that Al R used to wear light blue since, in the dark blue, the buffer is the chief bosun's mate ......
Jack
.. I began a long relationship with a hand floor buffer.
Glad to say that I know that Al R used to wear light blue since, in the dark blue, the buffer is the chief bosun's mate ......
Jack
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Probably an electric one..
St Athan 76
Bumping the floor and messing about one of the guys tore a v in the Lino about an 1 inch long and right in the centre aisle....
Mass panic, then senior man grabs hold of said V and tears it about 5 foot long.. Quick tip your beds and lockers up he says, stunned at what he has done we blindly follow his advice..
Ten minutes later gathering of us looking distraut at the guardroom telling the Orderly Sergeant we have just got back and our room has been wrecked...
Ord Sarge..Ord Officer..SWO.. Wing Co and several other visits later rest of H Block on extra Duties / inspections and we are excused them until new Lino is installed..
Sorry guys
.
If that's what we called a "bumper" then I knew her when she was much younger but I'm sure she matured well
Bumping the floor and messing about one of the guys tore a v in the Lino about an 1 inch long and right in the centre aisle....
Mass panic, then senior man grabs hold of said V and tears it about 5 foot long.. Quick tip your beds and lockers up he says, stunned at what he has done we blindly follow his advice..
Ten minutes later gathering of us looking distraut at the guardroom telling the Orderly Sergeant we have just got back and our room has been wrecked...
Ord Sarge..Ord Officer..SWO.. Wing Co and several other visits later rest of H Block on extra Duties / inspections and we are excused them until new Lino is installed..
Sorry guys
.
Last edited by NutLoose; 19th Jan 2013 at 04:39.
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Not long after being introduced to this wonderful device at Halton, one of our entry found that it had a secondary use..... as a deterrent...notably by dropping one from the top floor of the block in the direction of another entry who had decided to pay us a social visit one evening.
Clearly, this was not the most astute move ( although strangely enough, we never had any more social visits after this one ) given the potential for a lot of paperwork had said bumper made contact with a human first, rather than the tiles at the door entrance.
Said member of my entry was later "offered" a move...to the Reg't.
Clearly, this was not the most astute move ( although strangely enough, we never had any more social visits after this one ) given the potential for a lot of paperwork had said bumper made contact with a human first, rather than the tiles at the door entrance.
Said member of my entry was later "offered" a move...to the Reg't.
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I must be officially old then because 30 years ago, (1983), I had served my for years military service, then completed flight school, mech school, college and had been flying/mech-ing for 7 years already. Military floor buffer….? Never touched one. I used to clean the urinals.
Last edited by Temp Spike; 19th Jan 2013 at 02:56.
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Basic training in 1991 at Swinderby was when I first took control of a buffer floor manual. I had to move it from one part of the room to another and was advised it was very heavy, so with all my might I picked it up by the very long handle and realised it wasnt that heavy as I had just banged the end of the handle through the ceiling. I yanked it back out of the ceiling and you can only imagine what landed on the freshly polished floor and how amused everyone was as it as close to morning inspection. Couldnt beat the electric ones though for who could stay on the longest.
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Sun Who and Wander00,
Swinderby for me. We weren't trusted with the electric bumpers until our final week of recruit training (its the little things!). Until then, we had to use the manual floor buffers that give me cold sweats every time I watch Curling. I don't know who had the contract to supply them but with the training machine at full pelt then, they should have made a fortune.
Our course starting coincided with our Sgt's final few months in uniform; he told us he was finishing his 22 years and was about to be pensioned off ('pension', what's a pension?). 22 hours seemed a lifetime, 22 years just didn't compute. As we waited in the dark outside Gibson Block, some SAC in a flasher mac walked past and started screaming at us for, I don't know, breathing probably - I forget. I don't know if it was contrived or not, but the SAC then got a bollocking by our SNCO who appeared out of the dark, for having a go at 'his' men. Every Wednesday night, the NAAFI had an 'exotic dancer'. It was only the early 1980s and that, to me, is still modern. But reading that makes me feel I'm tapping away in black and white whilst happily munching on a iced bun and quaffing a refreshing mug of steaming tea. WRAFs had just started to go through training there then - I don't imagine any suggestions for Chippendales equality would have got particularly far.
It is maybe a reflection of the times that my Flt Cdr is now a LinkedIn connection but we then received a visit from our future instructors at Catterick who threw an extra pair of boots at us and who put us through a day of gym tests and various runs. I wouldn't have been so eager to leave if I knew what was in store. Debussing at Catterick, resplendent in Number 1s and doing bunny hops around the airfield with a bedpack on my back before doing shuttle runs up and down the main drag with a Gimpy, hurt. I think we lost 2 within half an hour but we probably all went into some form of medical shock.
26 of us started (which cast Swinderby in a golden wash of nostalgia - rose tinted spectacles, as a teenager??) and 4 or 5 finished. The attrition rate may have been due to having to break the ice at 0400 after being chucked out of bed to do Swale river crossings or it may have been due to the relentless section battle drills across a sleety airfield - or maybe we really were useless! We had 'leccy bumpers at Catterick (which also had to be bulled up of course) apart from the final week (when no one cared). Then, the lofty heights of being an LAC though, well.. that was a completely different story. But even as LACs, we used to sit to attention when an SAC walked into a room (that may have been a peculiarity of my trade tho'..).
Roland; we are of similar vintage then, but alas, I didn't graduate - I merely passed out.
Swinderby for me. We weren't trusted with the electric bumpers until our final week of recruit training (its the little things!). Until then, we had to use the manual floor buffers that give me cold sweats every time I watch Curling. I don't know who had the contract to supply them but with the training machine at full pelt then, they should have made a fortune.
Our course starting coincided with our Sgt's final few months in uniform; he told us he was finishing his 22 years and was about to be pensioned off ('pension', what's a pension?). 22 hours seemed a lifetime, 22 years just didn't compute. As we waited in the dark outside Gibson Block, some SAC in a flasher mac walked past and started screaming at us for, I don't know, breathing probably - I forget. I don't know if it was contrived or not, but the SAC then got a bollocking by our SNCO who appeared out of the dark, for having a go at 'his' men. Every Wednesday night, the NAAFI had an 'exotic dancer'. It was only the early 1980s and that, to me, is still modern. But reading that makes me feel I'm tapping away in black and white whilst happily munching on a iced bun and quaffing a refreshing mug of steaming tea. WRAFs had just started to go through training there then - I don't imagine any suggestions for Chippendales equality would have got particularly far.
It is maybe a reflection of the times that my Flt Cdr is now a LinkedIn connection but we then received a visit from our future instructors at Catterick who threw an extra pair of boots at us and who put us through a day of gym tests and various runs. I wouldn't have been so eager to leave if I knew what was in store. Debussing at Catterick, resplendent in Number 1s and doing bunny hops around the airfield with a bedpack on my back before doing shuttle runs up and down the main drag with a Gimpy, hurt. I think we lost 2 within half an hour but we probably all went into some form of medical shock.
26 of us started (which cast Swinderby in a golden wash of nostalgia - rose tinted spectacles, as a teenager??) and 4 or 5 finished. The attrition rate may have been due to having to break the ice at 0400 after being chucked out of bed to do Swale river crossings or it may have been due to the relentless section battle drills across a sleety airfield - or maybe we really were useless! We had 'leccy bumpers at Catterick (which also had to be bulled up of course) apart from the final week (when no one cared). Then, the lofty heights of being an LAC though, well.. that was a completely different story. But even as LACs, we used to sit to attention when an SAC walked into a room (that may have been a peculiarity of my trade tho'..).
Roland; we are of similar vintage then, but alas, I didn't graduate - I merely passed out.
krystal n chips, 213 entry raided the first mech entry in 69/70 and one of those was dropped as you say, it was a short raid from the then senior entry, but we did get our own back before we left 
Bumper fun
At the Towers in '68 The small Welsh member of my hut (139) was swinging the thing backwards and forwards by the sinks one night, when the end shot off.
Twenty odd pounds of metal wizzed across the floor before rapidly disappearing into the "serry" toilet cubicle.
Then followed the sound of exploding porcelain which immediately preceded a miniature Tsunami of water across the floor from the smashed pedestal.
The toilet water level having thus been critically lowered, this in turn was followed by a massive belch of sewer gas into the hut, itself merely the advance guard for succeeding perfumed surprises ........
Oh, how we laughed.
Twenty odd pounds of metal wizzed across the floor before rapidly disappearing into the "serry" toilet cubicle.
Then followed the sound of exploding porcelain which immediately preceded a miniature Tsunami of water across the floor from the smashed pedestal.
The toilet water level having thus been critically lowered, this in turn was followed by a massive belch of sewer gas into the hut, itself merely the advance guard for succeeding perfumed surprises ........
Oh, how we laughed.
Last edited by Haraka; 19th Jan 2013 at 10:21.
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30 years ago my Dark Blue phase was a dimming memory and my Green phase was in full swing. I was at the LRRP school at Weingarten in 83. Two nights in a snow hole, anyone?
AA said:
I was on 230 then, and supported the funny boys down there a couple of times. Did I give you a lift (5 mins sitting still, in the warm, no shouting) perchance AA?
CG
I was at the LRRP school at Weingarten in 83.
CG
Ah yes, Haraka, bulling one's SBL hut up for inspection, what utter fun that was. And woe betide anyone who actually used the cere' bog or shower!
In 1968, we normally used the manual bumper, but then discovered an electric polisher lurking in the bat cave. So it was duly hoiked out and switched on....
Clouds of dust and crap shot out of every vent, which the alleged polishing brushes then ground into our almost pristine floor.
Yells of "Switch the bŁoody thing off!" to the slowest moving person in the hut, one Flt Cdt R**s V****r, who you will undoubtedly recall. He wandered over to the socket and did as asked.
"Err, BUGGER!" was the next comment; we then spent ages clearing away the damage and repolishing the floor so that it would pass Uncle Les' eagle eye inspection the following day.
In 1968, we normally used the manual bumper, but then discovered an electric polisher lurking in the bat cave. So it was duly hoiked out and switched on....
Clouds of dust and crap shot out of every vent, which the alleged polishing brushes then ground into our almost pristine floor.
Yells of "Switch the bŁoody thing off!" to the slowest moving person in the hut, one Flt Cdt R**s V****r, who you will undoubtedly recall. He wandered over to the socket and did as asked.
"Err, BUGGER!" was the next comment; we then spent ages clearing away the damage and repolishing the floor so that it would pass Uncle Les' eagle eye inspection the following day.