Well here we are February already. Where did the last 12 months go?. It seems like I looked out of the window and it was January 2011 and When I looked again it was Feb 2012.

I am, as usual, looking forward to the Reunion. Its always great to see all the familiar faces and this year it will be tinged with sadness for those who passed away last year.

I do try to make this site and the newsletters as interesting as possible but as you will have noticed I could do with spell checking more often. My only excuse is that I try to jot things down and add things in before they become ancient history and as a result I probably publish with out due care. In future I will send things to Taff Fisher to edit as he can usually find a spelling or grammatically error almost before I write it. I am not being sarcastic because Taff has been really helpful in keeping my worst mistakes in check.

Speaking of Taff between us we have been trying to find references and pictures of the time we were given the freedom of Ripon. After a lot of correspondence between Taff, Myself and The Assistant director (Library and community Services) in Ripon. We managed to track down a very bad photo copy of a march past for the Rememberance parade 1965 but it was only the regiment and the RAF that was mentioned. The photos that accompanied the article were so bad I would not be able to reproduce any of them.

There must be some one out there that took a photo because I remember instamatics galore as we marched along. Just as a matter of historical fact I hated marching in things like that especially if it was in No 2 Dress.

Thats all the meanderings I have for now so see you at the reunion.

Well here we are half way through another month. Dosen't time seem to fly past when you get older? I thought time would drag once I retired but the opposite has turned out to be true.

This month I am looking forward to a trip up to York to meet up with Geordie Marshall and Frank Hughes. Of course the will also be Pete Edwards and John Farrell who seem to be the Bedrock of the York get together's. As I have never been to York it should be interesting. I don't like the prices quoted for Hotels up there. I think 2 days in York would cost the equivalent of a weeks Holiday with plane fare to Spain.

I have had news of several of our number undergoing treatment with Chemmotherapy and I would like to pass on my best wishes and hope for speedy recovery to all of them. I did think that the place they all had in common was the far east but I have revised that since learning of people that were in Libya with the same problems. John Ashton always said That I loved a conspiracy theory and he was probably right.

Speaking to different people over the last year there seems to be an Idea that Ron and I organise the Reunion event at Chatham. Well organisation as always been the last thing we wanted to do.

Right from the start it was always just a get together and the only organising was booking the venue and advertising the date and time. The whole thing is kept as for from organised reunion as possible. I think most people agree that just seeing old mates for a chinwag is what its all about. As was said on the first evening two years ago, "If nothing else happens over the next 24hrs the last 3 hours have made it worth while"

People that turned up on the Friday evening were still discussing old times with gushing enthusiasm when they were leaving on the sunday morning. By that time most of them sounded a little hoarse. Yes we could organise a dinner Party with a top Table wearing medals etc but that is what we have tried to avoid. For that kind of thing you have the RE reunion and the RE association do's. Ours is just a few boring old farts talking about old times, Looking at old photos, catching up with what we have been doing over the last 40 odd years and having a good time.

Well thats about it for now.

Beef

Barry Duckhouse spoke to me on the phone last night and pointed out a small mistake on Page 2. I had put the date down as 1945 instead of 1965. I seem to make these kinds of mistakes more and more. I had just re-organised the page because I thought it looked a bit untidy as it was one of the first pages I had written and it got bits added to it as I went along. I found I had also written a rather strange spelling for Labuan, which I also corrected while I was on.

At the time of writing this the riots seem to have eased up a bit and my Son is going back to work although he is still limping a little. There is only one clear space on his body armour and the concrete block seemed to find it. Apparently it knocked him off his feet and dumped him like a sack of spuds. He then had to endure the embarrasment of being draged off the road by his mates.

We have lost four members of the black Ants this year and to add to that my Sister died after fairly short illness of Cancer and multiple stokes. It was only a year ago that she seemed so full of life and now she has gone. Her husband and Children and Grandchildren are devastated of course. It all make you painfully aware of your own mortality and brings life into focus.

The number of people who have said they will be attending the Reunion has already exceeded previous years so it looks like we will have an even better knees up.

Beef

Thought I would just put in a few words just to keep the blog ticking over.

I have been getting my grumpy old man vibes this week with all the hoo ah about the Olympics. Of course Zeb Coe and Boris are full of enthusiasm saying how wonderful it is going to be. (In Zeb Coe's case he has £10 million worth of enthusiasm because that's how much he will be making out of it and that is only what they are telling us about)

There are more fingers in more pies so that Little Jack Horner would have been squashed. The Tory press are well in line with the gravy train. The Daily Mail in particular has a sycophant per page toadying up to the organisers. the only little snag was when their masters couldn't get them tickets, then we had a little discontent in the ranks.

When this first began the affected parts of East London were told there would be lots of jobs for local people and these would carry though to after the Games. When questioned yesterday Zeb Coe said that 14% of jobs in his firms had gone to local people. What he did not say that most of those employed on the sites have been from other countries. They claim that they use foreign Labour because Local People won't work for the same pay. That's not really the case. It is just easier to employ foreigners on short term contracts without any real security. I suspect there are quite a few illegals working for these firms too. If you ask questions like that around the site you get very evasive answers.

Another thing we heard a lot about before the first bit of ground was broken on the site was the affordable tickets for Londoners from the area and all the affordable housing that would be in the area afterwards. What they never said was who would be able to afford them.

The whole lot is elitist from start to finish. They are content for the tax and council charges plus lottery money to pay for everything Lining their own pockets but they don't want us to enjoy it unless we are part of their select few.

Well thats a lot off my chest and I feel a lot better.

Beef

Well its been a bit of a sad month with the two old mates passing on. I attended John Ashton's Funeral Service and I will be attending Derek Keetch's funeral on this coming Thursday. Also at the funeral were Alastair Brownlie and Mary, Tony Allen and Julie, Pete Edwards and Sue, Frank Hughes, John Farrow, Myself and my Son Robert.

I understand that quite a few of us will be attending Dereks Funeral too.

On a lighter not I have managed to speak to Both Brummie Duckhouse and Bob Adams.

Bob persuaded me to go on to the Skype set up and the process was relatively speaking quite painless. So all you skypers can now contact me free of charge.

As I sit here writing this the temperature reading is 31C. Mind you this room does hold the heat because it gets the full glare of the afternoon and evening sun. I only mention this because Bob Adams was telling me it was 30C in Spain. Still I suppose Spain will be more consistent throughout the summer.

I have attempted to put the first ten newsletters into one PDF file and put it on the archive page. I don't know yet if it has worked yet. If you are reading this and found that the pdf file did not work then bear with me I will have it working by the end of the week.

Thats it for now I hope you all enjoyed the last newsletter and dont forget I am always looking for bits to add and Pad so send me a few emails and stories.

Beef

Well we have just had our 4th reunion and as usual everyone seemed to have a good time.

We had a few new faces this year and there were a few that could not make for reasons of health etc. There are of course some photos added to the reunions pages with more to come as people send me their own pics taken on the day.

I hope to have a newsletter out by the end of next week but life seems to be getting in the way of all the things I want to do and all the things that need doing and it seems to take twice as long to do the things I have planned. (Don't Tell anyone but I think I am getting Old)

This last twelve months have been good for renewing old freindships and on return from the reunion I had contact with Bob Booth. I have his email should anyone want it.

I think if we are holding the Reunion at the same place next year we will have to try for a room without the pillars so that people do not get shut off from each other and we can get better views of the computer slides.

Well thats all for now

Beef

I see that I have not done a blog for quite some time. I think it is because I seem to put most of the news on the first page when I put the update info on.

Well at the time of writing Christmas is over and we are heading to the new year so Happy new year to one and all.

Just a recap on the latest contacts, Geoff Slack, Les Painting, Bob(Jock) Morton, John Weston and Tony Walker have all joined us over the last few months and all say they will be at the next reunion.

There was a report that the King Charles was fully booked for the reunion. Well that's not strictly true. There are no more single rooms left but there are plenty of Double and twin rooms left.

News of John Ashton. John has had his operation an apart from one or two set backs he is recovering and may even make the reunion this year.

Its sometimes hard to explain to people why the Reunions are so great. On the face of it we do not do much more than sit down and chat about old times. However I think everyone who has attended the previous Reunions knows it is a lot more than that.

One comment on the first evening last year just about summed it up for everyone, " I have only been here two hours but I have already had 4 times the enjoyment I expected and the weekend has already paid for its self."

Dave Hamilton said he would ask the RSM of the RSME to maybe "pop in" to our reunion and give us a talk on the modern day Corps. I thought this was a good Idea. Then  when I replied to Dave's email saying I would run it past everyone else because we had always tried to keep our Reunions more about Freindships rather than the military and Corps side of things. Maybe it would not be everyones cup of tea.

I think Dave took that the wrong way because his reply was a bit Terse to say the least.

For the record, we are still connected to the modern Corps with Children and Grand children who have also served or are serving.

Thats about it for now

Beef

Just had two new contacts to add to our evergrowing number.

Geoff Slack living just outside Doncaster. Paul Coddington found an old number and passed it on to me and I am glad to say that it was still in use. I had a nice long conversation with Geoff and he tells me that after he got out of the army he joined the RAF for a few years. Finally ended up with the Prison Service.

Had a shorter chat with Les Painting who lives in Telford Shropshire. so I did not find out much about his movements after 51 sqn. Hope to speak again with him some time in the future.

The latest newsletter has gone out via emails and snail mail and I think I am slowlly working towards a more proffesional looking publication as I find what seems to work and what doesn't. Also it helps as I get more news worthy emails and stories from people like Roy Pinnock and Tony Allen.

In case you are thinking of submitting something for the newsletter and are not sure of what to write. It is always interesting to find out what people have been doing since leaving the army. Even if you just did a nine to five job I am sure that something will have happened in the last forty years that will be worth writing about.

Some of you will have sons, Daughters and grand children serving in the forces so be proud and let us know.

Thats about it for this time.

Beef

I have not had much chance to write a blog for a while because I have had other stuff to do, like the next news letter, the garden etc. I don't know where the time goes you look out of the window its summer and the next time you look its winter again. (OK may be it doesn't go quite that fast but you get the picture)

This month there have been three new contacts, Dereck Keetch, Alan Warne and Brian Richomme. Brian was the CofW on The famed Changi Car Park amongst othe major jobs.

I have booked in to the King Charles Hotel for the next reunion. The reunion this year will be 26th of Feb. I am booked in for the Friday and the Saturday nights. If you want a single room its always best to book early.

Ron sugguested we have the reunion in the Isle of Mann in 2012 and most people I have spoken to seem to be in favour so far. As a lot of people live in the Chatham area there is a possiblity of booking a coach trip with pick up points on the way there. That can be discussed at the next reunion and if Bernie and Trev are at the next reunion we can pick their brains about a venue.

Holidays this year were a none starter. I was too late to book a camping site and I didn't fancy driving some where just on the off chance so we did not go any where in the end. However I did take the grandson on a open top bus tour round London which included a trip on the thames from Westminster to Grenwich. It was a hop on hop off bus with the  tickets valid from 9am to 9pm. Very expensive but well worth the money for tourists as you get to see all the sites of interest. Althougth I live in North London I usually avoid the city so It was a good day out for me as well as the grandson.

Thats about it for this time

Beef

Just to say the latest newsletter has gone out. If you have not had your copy yet let me know. If you have problems reading or opening the pdf file I can send it to you via snail mail as long as you have provided me with an address.

I now have a contact email for Ken Blachford so if any one would like to contact him let me know. We are now up to around 80 contacts and I have written to Al Warne at an old address and am waiting hopefully for a reply.

Still having problems contacting others but I may consider purchasing the UKInfo list that gives the details of millions of people in the UK from the voting lists. Of course that will only be of help for those that have remained in the UK.

As its the holiday season I supose contacts and correspondance will be a bit slower until about September but maybe on their travels some may meet old Sqn members if you do please point them in our direction.