HIC - Nil Points !!!

[vintageteacups]

Blimey - just phoned the housing info centre relating to the area where we're moving to ask did she know when our very-tied quarter will be officially offered (vintage is going nuts waiting) and she sounded so uninterested it was untrue.

Definitely nil points on customer service today! She was spluttering down the phone and fobbing me off saying that until the guy books a move out app, she cannot offer the quarter (fair enough I thought).

Then she said there are no available quarters there at the moment until someone books a move out! I was like "er, no, the house is completely tied to the job so that will be the house we move into". She was just grumpy from then on so I smiled (virtually down the phone to her) and said "thank you for your help". If she had been all chirpy and pleasant I wouldn't have needed to have written this - why can't DE/HIC/MHS buck their ideas up and actually do some customer service training???

first one to pm me with my name wins, erm, a box of maple fudge? that does mean you have to out yourself to claim it!

don't they say there are only 6 degrees of sep for everyone in the world? i think we could probably all do it in two at the most...

i actually de-regged and re-regged at one point, because i was aware that there was really only one person in the world with madwomanintheattic's particular credentials, all of which were splashed over mn. so i posted under loads of other names for a year or so. then begged tech for madwoman back.

god, if you do know who i am, for goodness sake give me a ring and tell me to stop mning and get back to work! actually don't. i'd rather live in ignorance that way i won't have to namechange...

I can't guess who you are - without looking at other threads, I can't even remmeber which service your dh is in -.

In namechanged a while back as my NN was very obvious and things got rather strange on certain posts so dh made me change.

I'm terrible at being subtle though.

Off to think you could be and if I know you......

madwoman have just looked at threads with your NN and on one, you actually gave out your email address! I now feel a lot more subtle than I previously thought .

BTW - madwoman - do you know who I am in RL?

not a scooby.

did i really? that must be a really old one. you don't get any fudge for that...

i use an mn e-mail address now... you wouldn't be a doll and report it for me and ask them to delete would you?

that's really funny actually. i know i used to ages ago. i think everyone did... i had kind of assumed they would have disappeared into the archive by now! ha!

you're very honest. you could have pmed me and said, you are xx. and i would have been completely in awe of your amazing stalkery prowess eek!

but like i said, it's really obvious if anyone does actually know me, so i would have been racking my teeny tiny brains to think of who you could be...

i haven't looked btw - i just thought it was funny earlier, and remembered doing it a few years ago when ll and hf were frequent posters.

you may well be being more subtle these days.

okay - reported it for you - it was march 2010 (the post).

Going to pm you about something...... if that's okay?

yep.

seeing as you know who am i and all... you could even e-mail me

thanks for reporting.

was it really really my real one, not madwomanintheattic one?

must have been drunk under the weather...

it was the madwooman one - sorry - didn't read your post properly. It was the MW definitely.

So I don't have a clue who you are

ah, fab. the maple fudge still on offer then.

i thought it was too recent to be my rl one! i did put it on here a few times aeons ago though.

i re-regged using an mn-only e-mail address when the fb and twitter buttons were added. because clearly i'm allowed to out myself , but no-one else is allowed to do it for me, and i don't trust technology.

I think I've found out your name.....pm-ing you for some maple fudge

whoops - think I'm wrong

mwah ha ha ha.

offline and vintage might there be a 'I havent got a scooby to do with my soon to be born first DC club?

Lk there is a good mums and toddler/babies group in the next village along, with the speed limit and long road (now you know where I mean) and one in the community centre (but I always found that one knew where you had walked from and could be a bit cliquey). Not sure if it is still running but last time vintage and I were there there was a music with mummies group. Oh and the pool in town does very good mummy and baby swimming lessons. We did also for a while have a 2 o clock toddle, i.e. all wives with new babies strolled off up towards the blokes work and back followed by a cuppa at someones house after, sadly I had to stop this as older DCs needed picking up from school :(

pimms Lk isn't living there yet .

LK- I tried to infiltrate the mums and toddler group for one session to gauge how much need there was for BF support - let's just say, it was all very frosty .

I'm not planning on running the music with mummies thing but may do if there's a need and nobody else is doing it (although one of the other wives, like me, does have a toddler - so let's hope she's doing it ).

LK - I did used to go to book club but never seemed to finish the books in time for the next. Also, I always know if I'm going to like a book and can't make myself plough through it just for the sake of giving my opinion at the end - preview on Amazon - that's the trick!

The Mess do TGI Friday every week where you can wear jeans and go for tea. It's a really good atmosphere and the food is really good. I plan never to cook at home on a Friday!!!

In the town I told you that was 8 miles away, there is a really busy Children's centre where you can weigh the baby, get support for lots of different thinngs and weekly stuff like messy play, dad's tea and toast and baby massage.

......and as a doula, you can always ask me anything .

oooh getting more excited already pimms Vintage has been a godsend helping with the saga that is us trying to get a quarter. Latest is the UWO is supposed to be speaking to the useless housing centre today but DH is in the states again until Sat so we wont hear anything till next week. I've put my foot down about a hiring so think we'll need to wait until any changover in Aug. Prospect of moving at 7m pregnant doesnt fill me with joy but rather that than going into the middle of nowhere with DH away A LOT

BTW, love your description of Fridays in the mess, DH's was 'there's always kids running riot and mums looking frazzled

I was easing you in gently!!!

when we were there last time, everyone got a bit of a telling off about bringing in their dog!!! Also, that the kids needed to be kept under control some saw it as a night off from the kids and let them run riot. My kids would have probably done the same but we made sure they behaved. It was quite stressful though, having to go and search for ds (then 2/3) only to find him completely wrapped up in one of the floor length curtains!

This time, I will ensure they take their DS .

You know that the UWO can ring and speak to you and you him? If he knows someone not in a tied quarter who is going to be moving, I think you can put down that quarter and kind of arrange to have that, after checking they don't have anyone earmarked for it.

LK why don't you try emailing the UWO, I would copy it to DH and then they will prob email you back quite quick. I agree moving at 7m is not good, I have done it a few times although if DH is away whilst you move then the movers are suddenly very helpful with emptying boxes especially if you do a few big sighs and rub your back a lot . Would it be possibly to go into a lower size quarter, they are all "specials" so are actually quite big if you only have the one DC then you might get on the list quicker. I do feel for you but at least they are no longer doing the live in "x" 45 mins away and after a year you can move over to the main camp as they did with us the first time we were there. vintage is a very helpful person so I am sure once there you will be fine and have fun together :)
Friday night in the mess will be great for you as everyone will want to play hold the new baby and you won't see them all night so more all round

tee hee - idea of wine is SO appealing right now . I didnt realise I could email / speak to the UWO....def a good idea, will get on the case when DH back - not sure I'll even get to speak to him this week. We went down the smaller quarter route and got told they 'werent sure' if there were any available - see? useless .....i'm going to ignore it all this week as was getting quite wound up about it, but am also in the process of planning 2 weddings so prob need to focus on that ! thanks all ....

Lk you are also entitled to ask for next grade of sfa up if they don't have your size, you do have to pay the extra but it's not a huge amount.

mrss we were under the impression that we could get booted out if we did that and then said grade of officer needed one? of course, we know nothing so that could be wrong ...

MrsS you can have the next grade up but if it is because they have given you a non availability chit then you don't have to pay the extra, she says laughing at the fact that sh is currently sat in a lovely kitchen courtesy of a quarter 2 grades up you do however pay grade 1 charges for it, even if it is in a s**t state (our downstairs loo has been broken for 5 months now, sorry different story get off my soap box). You cannot get booted out we have been upgraded twice now (yes sometimes 4 DCs have an advantage) once you are in they have to wait until you leave, if someone of that rank wanted a quarter and there were none then they get a non availability chit and a hiring.

Mrssnaplegs and lk - that's true but where you're going, all the major's quarters in that nie sqaure are in fact lt col quarters anyway (or same grade anyway). And the 3 tied houses for lt col's are tied to the jobs so it's literally move in/move out iyswim?

Pimms - dh told me the other day that you can have a grade lower and then not get booted out but if you have a grade higher, then if that quarter was needed by that rank, you have to move. pimms in that sqaure where I live/going to live, one couple were put inot number 10 then had to move when the CO needed it.

All I'm saying is.........don't nick my house!!!