Did I hear?

That`s one way of getting something nasty dropped in your beer.

bigmal wrote:

Talking of BATUS, when did it all start and did the Centurion ever grace the Suffield Plains as a gun tank?

The advance party arrived in Suffield January 15 1972, it was minus 38c and dark, it had taken us 12 hours to fly from Brize to Calgary via a quick refuel in Gander.
As for the centurian, it did indeed grace the prairies, the British army bought a whole pile of them from an outfit in Calgary. Once we got them here we got them all running and drove them out to the training area. Once they were all in their alloted places we blew the turrets off, [ to make two targets] and left them where they fell. They were the 'hard' targets that were used for the first 2 years. we also had a cent arv which we used to pull and push the dead chieftains into and out of the workshops. there is one surviving Cent from those days, it is sitting outside the headquarters building all painted up in Canadian colours. And yes, we had/have bridge layers here. Point of interest, we didn't so much as drain the fluids from the target tanks, there is no way we could get away with that these days Ian, ps, as a matter of interest, today is 'D' day for Prairie Thunder2, [ previously known as 'med man'

bigmal wrote:

I well remember my first visit to the `Sinbin` and ordering a beer only to be given two small glasses, when i asked about this i was told that is how it is served.

I can also recall, when on an R&R visit to Edmonton with a friend who had relations living there,
Entering a late night `Disco`, opened at 2200hrs and closed at 0500hrs, only to find that no alcoholic drinks were available at all, the strongest drink they served was coffee.
Weird place, 3/4 of the customers were `Ethic` and kept staring at us all the time, most uncomfortable.
We took the hint in the end and left early.
Never did find out what the place was all about.

Ahhh yes....that would have been "an after hours club". Many were illegal "booze cans" that moved from location to location after the cops shut them down. Others were legal, or at least quasi-legal, and yes -- did not serve alcohol. What you did instead was order a pot of tea -- served in a large stainless steel pot like those found at hotels ,not 'tea' of course. The code, as I recall, was to ask for a pot of ice tea and it'd be coke (the brown liquid variety NOT the white powder stuff!) -- into which you added your own booze, discreetly kept in a bag/purse/backpack under your table. So long as staff didn't see you actually pouring or see the bottle, all was cool. Of course they knew, but what they didn't see they didn't see....

Went to a Pub like that in Hull many years ago.

Oh yes....In Ottawa, which is just across the river from Hull (now known as Gatineau..."Hull" was far too English!), and in Ontario, the bars closed at 2am. In Hull, which was in Quebec, the bars closed at 3am so there was always this mass exodus across the Sir John A. MacDonald bridge from Ottawa into Hull/Gatineau.

Ottawa is of course a 'government town' and quite white-collar. Hull/Gatineau,on the other hand, was heavily Francophone and blue-collar. The after hours bars there tended to be a tad on the rough side! Quite the education for fresh young -- and usually drunk -- university types!

Errrm.........Hull, Humberside.



(Probably twinned with the Bars in your Hull, Stephen)!!

Ref Bars & Booze & the like............, The squaddies who were carrying the coffin of a mate at a funeral were refused a drink , a soft drink, in a Coventry bar before the proceedings. Against the bar's dress code, or some such nonsense, it's said. Sad, but that's not the query.......... The article also says that military law bans uniformed members of the Forces from drinking alcoholic beverages in such an establishment, unless it's at a private function. .......
Does it ???

If that's so,..... and maybe I should know so don't jump on me,..... if that's the rule, how come I wasn't hauled inside for tasting the waters in Osnabruck, where Watchdog patrolled the streets in predatory pairs, in the vicinity of Woolwich depot where local Courage ales was passed off as strong drink, or in later years when the OC held O Groups in pubs on the fringes of Salisbury Plain ? Is it the old Kipling thing ".......... we serve no Redcoats 'ere" ?

Mind you, the reporter also recorded that the burial party also had highly polished brass buttons, so maybe his imagination can run amok at times.

Bustard? I have often been chucked out of Pubs whilst wearing uniform but, that was normally after I had quaffed vast amounts of the stuff! Maybe it's a new regulation.