stripey999

Mines called Bagel... shes a Beagle.

I was in charge of the money in Kabul for British military. I had $4,000,000 on an average day with about £50k sterling. One day I made a chair out of all the dollar bundles and sat in it like a fat cat. Didn't feel like real money though.

Welcome to PW... and Gloucestershire.

I have worn over ear aides for a few years and so glad I do. My hearing was damaged in the forces but I never really noticed as it happened over a long period. Your GP has to refer you then the hospital test and decide if you need them or not. I lost the higher frequency sounds and a fair bit of lower ones. The technician plugs the new aides into a PC and there is a graph showing the range that you can hear. The technician then adjusts the aid to allow you to hear the frequencies and volume that you have lost. Absolutely brilliant but for the first few days, having a pee is terrible. The sound of pee hitting the water in the loo was deafening. For the first few months they encouraged me to drop in for adjustments. The aid picks up sound from front and back and I couldn't tell where sound was coming from as it seemed to be all round me. I had them adjust the pickups so that I pick up 60% volume from the front and 40% from the rear. Now I can tell where the sound comes from. The loop at home sounds great. I use Howard Leights for shooting. The NHS aides don't like water (or sweat) so Howard leights are great for shooting but I am deaf when beating. NHS gave me one for each ear and supply the tubes free whenever I damage them but the aide itself is £70 if damaged or lost. Batteries last about 10 days and they are free from hospitals or chemists.

Welcome flyboy

Jesus, I did 28 years and got out 2 years ago. Better check my insurance policies!

I wear Howard Leights too, brilliant bit of kit. On a daily basis I have to wear hearing aides in both ears as a result of hearing damage from the forces. When I am shooting I use the electronic Howard leights which allows me to have normal conversations (the volume takes the sound up higher than normal conversations so great for those like me with hearing problems) and when a shot is fired the sound is greatly reduced to a thud.

Nice bag well done.

I was told by my old fella not to volunteer for things when I joined up. Ignored his advice and volunteered for every course and trip I could. I had a great time and long career. Just be a little weary when on a course and they ask for volunteers... I remember on one early course that the instructor asked if anyone had a driving licence. Shot my hand up in the air as quick as lightning... great he said, get the brews in, doh.

Mate... I don't know much about the back nipple, but you need to sort your pubes out... they're growing up your back!

It is amazing how much cheek some people have. I have been shooting with a mate for about 5 years that I met through PW; turned out he lives just down the road from me. I don't have permission of my own (despite knocking on the doors), so really happy to go along on his when invited. He was good enough to ask one farmer if it was okay for me to go to one farm on my own (which farmer said yes to). In my wildest dreams I wouldn't think of going behind someone's back to steal anyone else's permission. It can backfire on you AND your mate. I have moved around quite a bit with work and before moving, always took others out on my permissions to gauge peoples integrity. When I was sure someone was trustworthy, I would let the farmer know that I was moving away and recommend the one person that I felt would not let him down. You have to wonder about the integrity of these people and their suitability to have a licence!

I use HL too. I wear hearing aides but leave them at home when shooting as the Howard Leights does a similar job. Never had any interference. I have connected mine to my mobile and at other times connected to walkie talkies. I can't ever remember any interference.

That was an unbelievable shock Phil. Considering the amount of tablets you and I take, you would have expected Lewis to be carrying our kit for loads of years to come! He was the most healthiest, fittest bloke around here. Such a shocking shame and a real nice bloke too. I can't imagine what his wife is going through. As for your brother-in-law, if there's anything I can do to help, even if it's to take the dogs out for a walk to give you breather, don't hesitate, I'll be there.

We have a Beagle and a snake but the unusual pets are two Axolotls. An Axolotl is a salamander that is in a permanent juvenile state. They are both white and their unusual trait is that they can regrow their limbs! we now have to keep them in seperate tanks because the larger one keeps biting the leg off the smaller one and eats it. It takes months for the leg to regrow back.

I am unfortunately wearing 2 hearing aides, not age related but hearing lost through shooting and other noise related activities. I now use the Howard Leight ear defenders as they amplify the sound (so can leave the hearing aides at home) and dampen the shot sound. Mine were from ebay but from a seller in the states and delivered for £34 in about 8 days.

Although he may feel that he is able to control the illness and has never had a problem, serving in the military will bring many challenges that even normal people will struggle with. Training is designed to try and simulate the conditions you would experience in the real world. There are many training courses where you are deprived of sleep, food, shelter and other home comforts and it is how you cope that separates the boys from the men. How would he cope if on a forced march or worse, recovering from a fire fight basically running backward whilst dropping and giving covering fire to his mates. This recovery could go on for a couple of miles and take hours. There would be no opportunity to drink (other than with a camelback) so stopping to eat or take medication is out of the question. Having served for over 28 years and doing my bit in war zones, I have had enough to think about without worrying if one of the guys hasn’t monitored his insulin. There are many people who become ill during their service who are downgraded and can no longer deploy. They have done their bit and allowed to continue at a home base. If we let in others that have a potential problem, we would run out of deployable troops. I wanted to join the police force as a youth but they refused because I was colour-blind. I am afraid he will need to realise that there are some lifestyles that he cant experience due to his genetic makeup. He may not think it fair but needs to grow up and look at the bigger picture.

I don't want to poo on anyone’s parade but you are sailing close to the wind here by publishing someone’s service number, name and address on a public forum. I am coming to the end of a 28 year career in the forces and would not be happy for this amount of detail to be published (does he even know?). If you send parcels without a named person on the address, they wont be sent as they could be suspect parcels (all the Afghan mail ends up at Mill Hill and the military then send it to Afghanistan so won't send them without a name). However, sending to one person like this is not recommended either as there is no mention of when he returns to the UK, ie the end of his tour. When he returns, the BFPO will have to redirect these comfort parcels back to where he is based as it is assumed they are personally for him. To be honest, if you wish to send them out to guys that don’t get mail (and there are loads), then do as Puggers said, you should contact help4heros, parcelsfortroops etc. They have an understanding with Mill Hill who will fill up a plane with these comfort boxes when all the named mail has been sorted. Can you imagine how popular this Sergeant would be if all the mail one day was only for him with no one else getting any because the plane was full? And before I get slagged off for daring to question what is a genuine offer to help, think of the bigger picture here, his safety is more important than a pack of wet wipes and we are reminded when we go out to these desert tours not to put anything on facebook etc that details who we are or where we are based that can be used against us.

As MiLisCer said, they can go in the armoury. I am just coming to the end of 28 years in the RAF and have been shooting all that time. He cannot store them in any type of barrack block or married quarters other than overnight at weekends but what they dont know eh (deffinately wouldn't keep then in a barrack block)? When posted, I always made contact with the station armoury and applied to store them there - he can also do this if he decides to rent a private house if the landlord doesn't want them in his property. This is a pain though because you have to arrange to get them out when the armoury is open during office hours and I have had two stocks damaged by overzelous armourers. Having said that, it is the safest place really and would make it easier when answering questions at the licensing interview.

Billy, I'm not trying to get into a slanging match with PC versus MAC as I have limited MAC experience. I am genuinally interested to know how you can play the Call fo Duty games on a Mac. Is it through an emulator or is a MAC version now available?

Welcome

My kids were both quite young as I have always said you can't say you don't like something until you have tried it. My daughter at 3 or 4 would help skinning the rabbits and was happy to eat whatever I brought home. She did go off all types of game around 13 - 16 but started a really healthy attitude to food around 18 and now only eats lean meat (so most game). She was over the moon on Wednesday when (thanks to activeviii) she shot her first pigeon and although I was the one to breast it out, she insisted on cooking and eating it.

That always annoys me too. Why go to the bother of picking it up only to dump it or worse, swing it up a tree.

140 grams of sugar sounds about right for what I did. I prefer mine to be sweet but I did leave it all in the kilner for about 4 months and it worked out pretty well if I say so myself.

Also, I think that the horses poo is not such a problem with germs as they dont eat meat.

Just tasted some raspberry brandy that I made months ago and forgot it was still in the kilner, very nice. I dont like brandy and had a big bottle that I won in a draw ages ago. I think its gonna get used up now.