RNH Stonehouse Reunion 2010

It happened, it was a blast and if you didn’t attend - where were you ?

Sinbad ( Steve Edwards ) would be able to tell you the exact amount of people that attended, but including Friday night I would say it was about 350.

That's amazing and certainly more than Haslar have managed to do so far. We beat them a lot in the interports and we are way, way in front on the reunions. He he !!!

When Lesley and myself arrived on the Friday the hotel was already buzzing, I can guarantee the bar takings were up.

Pam, and I’m sorry Pam, I’ve forgot your surname? Was sitting in the same chair in the front foyer that she was sat in when we left the hotel 2 years ago ! A person of habit me thinks,  but it made us feel as though we had never been away lol.

Now we stay in Holiday Inn’s about once every 2 years but the guy on the front desk said, when were were checking in, would you like to join the “Priority Club Rewards” sir, and you will get 2 free drinks today in the upstairs bar ! It took me about 1 second to make the decision to join and once we had dropped off the cases, we were in that bar. Some things never change! Lesley tried to get me to go straight down the barbican, but we were going no where till we had, had that FREE drink. I somehow suspect a few others did the very same thing!

People attended from New Zealand, Texas, Australia, Spain and France as well as Devon, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Scotland, Wales, London, Portsmouth and many more places I forget, I suppose that was the alcohol that messed up my memory of all the other places that people came from!!

Friday night followed the usual format.

Bar of the mariner suite for drinks and good old fashioned chat and gossip with past and present friends and oppo’s.

We actually have full use (and paid for ) of the mariner suite ( 20 tables and dance floor that holds 330 people ) but no ! What do we do? Cram 200 into the small bar - what's that all about - it was like an oven in there, but no complaints, it was like the Commodore Club or Mr Harry's on a Saturday night - great times.

We talked about oppo’s who had not attended the do, how the hospital was now in such disrepair, what ever happened to big Carol ( what did happen to big Carol ? ) how Tom Andrews was now walking the boards and had lots of love’y friends, yes he’s become an Actor ! As well as never appearing to age we could be seeing Tom in Macbeth at the old vic or God forbid, in the East enders or Corro ! But from all of us good luck Tom and break a leg. I think that's the right actor speak ? Mitch Sneddon invited a few of us for drinks on his boat the following day in the Barbican in fact I think he invited everyone ! But a few of us attended and had a very chilling Saturday afternoon. Thank you Mitch and what a great SHIP ! Can’t call it a boat it was massive lol.

Sinbad, as ever, was meeting and greeting and appeared to know everyone on a personal level ! He has an email list that Google would pay good money for! I only wish I had a memory like his for places and names of ex RNH staff, amazing !

Saturday Night followed the usual format.

Arrive and cram everyone into the same small bar lol. Mitch, Bob Barkely and myself went to the pub next door and bought our drinks! Cheaper and quicker!

Must have been a good attendance for the dinner because I noticed we had an extra bottle of wine on each table!.

Sinbad read out the list of past colleagues that had crossed the bar in the last 2 years, some of which were fairly young and we knew them well, RIP.

We said prayers for colleagues who had crossed over, lit a candle in remembrance then Belinda Nunn stepped up to make a speech.

Sinbad, has been organising the RNH Stonehouse reunion for over 10 years now and despite the numbers involved, always manages to pull it off.

For the past year he has been without a computer !! During the last 8 months he has been using the local library and the works NHS computers to put together this years reunion, which has been no mean feat. So Belinda, with the help of the world wide web and Facebook, managed to get a collection going in order to purchase Sinbad a computer of his own. So on the Saturday night, up stepped Belinda and presented Steve Edwards with over £ 500.00 in PC World Vouchers.

He is now the proud owner of a dogs bollocks computer and ready to organise the reunion in 2012.

He also mentioned at some tiime, that he would like to visit family in Trinidad (Correct me if the location is not quite correct )  

Mitch and Bob came up with the idea of having a secret collection on the Saturday night which was duly set in motion.

We managed to collect over  £900.00 and when this was presented to Sinbad his tears said it all and we were all well pleased that we had hit the spot.

Sinbad, we all thank you for all the work you have done over the years, in bringing all of us together at the Stonehouse reunions and long may it continue.

The worrying thing for me is that one day you may be reading my name out as crossing the bar and that will piss me off no end because I would hate to actually miss being there amongst friends and colleagues  who I shared some of the best years of my life with. The Royal Naval Medical Branch from 1968 - 1980 went through some of the best years ever and we will all remember those years with great affection.

J.R