Originally Posted by napier

Your 5 are the same as my missus went through to a tee. And if yours is anything like mine, it will be followed by a brain dump of all things military, resulting in questions that anyone with the briefest of acquaintances with the forces should be able to answer.

They're QA, C'mon. They did have the briefest acquaintance...

If you're an ex-matelot the transition includes tolerating the civvies in your new workplace dropping in Nautical/Village People references in EVERYTHING they say to you.

You forgot the final stage: nagging thoughts about re-enlisting that will last untill you either do or die.

Done that too. No doubt the O.C will dream of running a ward in Helmand soon.

Originally Posted by Stoat_10

I left in 2001, the missus has just turned Civvie after 22. It's struck me that she is going through the very same identifiable stages of 'transition' as I did.

1. Thank f**k for that.
2. I thought I'd have more time on my hands...
3. Why doesn't anyone tell me what's going on? (Well sweetheart....)
4. I never got a Regimental / Corps plaque...
5. Don't throw those away!! (Random bog standard course notes on some obscure aspect of Army Nursing with a foreword by Florence Nightingale)
Discuss.

Having cleared out my garage this past weekend, I can certainly associate with 5. Having found a sizeable amount of crap (mostly course related materials), I initially decided to get shot of it, so it all went into a black bin liner and sat by the door awaiting transportation to the recycling centre with the rest of it. As I ploughed on with the main task, I found myself taking a couple of minutes here and there to read snippets from the damp smelling, dog eared contents of the bin liner. In a nutshell, I've kept them. I've found a place in the garage for them. They may never see the light of day until the next major clear out, but I'm glad didn't get shot of them. They hold some good memories, even though I wholeheartedly agree with Point 1.

Originally Posted by Victorian_Major

One major sign is a slow retreat from needing to check Arrse on a daily basis for the 'green' hit.

In my case increased ARRSE usage as I now have the time, have caught up with old Oppos and miss the humour...

Also recently just about wore out a shredder disposing of a whole shed load of RESTRICTED stuff which, in retrospect, whould only have been of use if the GRU had got hold of it around the time the Wall came down.


Sent by my runner with a cleft stick to a bloke who has a computer.

Not sure where in the process it applies, but I realised that I was both a civvy AND ancient when I visited a museum and saw kit on display that I'd worked on when I was in...

Depot Troop Royal Sigs Catterick(now Tescos) circa 1983. Playing snooker endlessley waiting for the feild phone to blurt into life to A,"Take this to the COMCEN"..B,Go get ragged off the R.S.M at Helles("because you ain't out yet"..C,Nick all 60 SQN R.C.T. cookhouse stores and D, after much too'ing and fro'ing jump on a train to home town.There is more but it would take a thread of its own.Richmond was a god send. .

I have all my course notes from my B3 Sapper all the way through to my A1 POM and everything in between. I just can't throw them out, no matter how hard I am nagged to do so.

Even your civvy mates start using military speak back to you, like "say again", and " doing my admin". They also start pointing with two hands when they need some "kit" repositioning. Fixing their car bodywork with black nasty that they have "robbed" from you means you have become officially "bezzered".