nff discussions ...the independent voice of royal naval and royal marines families

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Hello Henry

Thank you for contacting us with your idea. There are many ways that serving personnel and their families communicate - free phone calls, email, snail mail, eblueys, record messages for serving personnel from families via BFBS, storybook waves recordings to name a few. Whilst I think families may well be open to even more suggestions, I would have to ask if there would be a cost attached to your proposal as the majority of the above are free of charge. If you would still like some consideration given to your proposal then please email me details at admin@nff.org.uk and I will pass it on.

Kind regards
Kim

could anybody reccommend any bed and breakfast guest houses in portsmouth. We won't have any transport so really need to be in walking distance to the city and HMS Victory etc. My son is HMS Sultan. many thanks to a replies. Ian and Fiona.

Hi Ian and Fiona - If you contact the Portsmouth HIVE Information Officer, Jo Gower, on 023 9272 2151 or email her at portsmouth@hivegb.co.uk, then Jo will be able to give you details of local accommodation to the Naval Base. Enjoy your visit. Jackie

We recently stayed at the Royal Maritime Club which was good value and had decent amenitie. It is right on the doorstep of the historic dockyard etc.

Nicky

Hello everyone,

We are trying to gather some information on access to dentistry and would very much appreciate it if you could take a minute to answer the poll on the homepage of our website.

Thank you!

Article for ‘The Guardian’ - Can you help – There is to be an article in the family section of ‘The Guardian’ on what it is like to be brought up in a forces family. The article talks to family members from all three services but still needs to understand the experiences of children growing up in a naval family. They are particularly interested in speaking to boys, aged between 10-12 years, as they do not yet have enough information from this category. The sorts of questions that will be asked are: In what ways do you keep in contact with the serving person while they are away? Are you close to other forces families? Do you go to a regular school or a forces school and what is it like? The conversational interview will be done over the phone with parental consent. If you would like to take part please contact Jo Mears on: 013 0650 1830.

I am starting a PhD in october, my subject is naval wives and families at the time of the Falklands. I need to send out some quetionnaires and conduct some interviews, so if anyone out there was involved please contact me: v.woodman@ntlworld.com.
Thanks.

Heroes' Ball
Friday 16th October 2009
At The China Fleet Country Club, Saltash, Plymouth
From 19:00—01:00
To include:
Three—course dinner
Charity Auction and Raffle
Disco
Tickets cost just £25 per person
Dress code for this event is formal and military personnel are requested to wear full mess dress.
For further information or to buy a ticket please contact Nicol on 07800569403 or e-mail
nicolsparkes@hotmail.co.uk
Registered event number: 20090123-1544-0712

Heroes' Ball
Friday 16th October 2009
At The China Fleet Country Club, Saltash, Plymouth
From 19:00—01:00
To include:
Three—course dinner
Charity Auction and Raffle
Disco
Tickets cost just £25 per person
Dress code for this event is formal and military personnel are requested to wear full mess dress.
For further information or to buy a ticket please e-mail
nicolsparkes@hotmail.co.uk or go to www.justgiving.com/nicolsparkes-heroesball
Registered event number: 20090123-1544-0712

Hi

Just a general query & a moan.

Ive been made aware that Paultons Parks gave 1000 free tickets to naval familys for this weekend.
Apparently they were for the Portsmouth Hive area & id like to know how they were given out. I understand from two people ive talked to that if you attend the local cockelshells community centre that they were given out if you called to request them. Both me & my husband both work full time & have 3 small children so i don't have time to attend "coffee mornings" thus not enabling me to know people to get the tickets.

Im very dissapointed that as a naval family that lives in the quaters i didn't have a fair attempt to get these tickets. Id be very gratefull if you could anwser the above query & maybe in the future when there are tickets available to armed forces familys that leaflets are posted throught our doors...... they have no problems posting leaflets advertising bbq's & discos!

Moan over!

Hi Debbie P: I will pass your query on to Jo at the Portsmouth HIVE. I'm afraid I don't know how the tickets were distributed although I'm sure it was done as fairly as possible with regard to any time constraints. I believe the HIVE were given just a percentage of the available tickets to distribute, and other organisations likewise. Really sorry that you were unable to benefit from these free tickets but hopefully if something similar happens in the future you'll find out about the event in time. Jackie

Re Jackie
I saw you when you came to St eval and just wondered how you got on with the complaint i had with modern housing solutions as i have not heard anything after i was told that they would be in contact with me. please let me know
Thanks sarah

Hi Sarah - thanks for the update re MHS appointment. Will email you away from the Message Boards just as soon as I have some news. Jackie

Hi, I have just had a phone call from my mother in law saying that Tesco together with the News of the World are giving toys to children of those serving in Afghanistan, I wanted to ask if you know anything about this and whether this is to purely Army families or to all three services?

Hello Sarah, My name is Emma and I look after the marketing here at the NFF. I have done a little bit of research regarding your question on the News of the World's 'Toys for our Boys' campaign. From the article on their website it is not entirely clear if the campaign is just for Army families or all Service families. I have therefore e-mailed the individual who wrote the article, and when I hear back I will post you an answer on this message board. Thank you for taking the time to bring this to our attention. Regards, Emma.