Thread: On the move?

There is much excitement in the adult part of the Tree household tonight. Pending the assignment order (i know thats a big if but TPTB are all confident its en route so right now that's good enough for me) Mr Tree is being posted to Hereford!! It's only 2 hours from my mummy trees and although I'm not a home bird as such it will be nice to be close enough to just hop on a train and say hello after 2 years of barely seeing any of my family. It's also only an hour from the tree in laws which means free babysitting wooo hoooo. And my eldest will get to see a lot more of his paternal family so location wise I'm not sure we could get anywhere better for us.

Anyway I've had a look on patchpedia but due to where it is there isn't a heck of a lot of info on it. Obviously as soon as I've got the paperwork I'll be onto the hive and getting in the car for a personal visit too (control freak much) but I am impatient so was wondering if any of you lovely lot had any personal experience of the place?

Not me I'm afraid, but there are at least 3 facebook groups dedicated to patches and I see Hereford pop up on there regularly enough. If you want links let me know and I'll sling them up.

It makes a change to hear someone happy about a posting! Our next one has massive pluses and minuses and I can't quite get excited about it yet.

I don't have facebook. Mr Tree and I decided it was the route of all evil and deleted our accounts a while back (i highly recommend it to anyone!)

Where I am now we have a post office, a hairdressers, a shop, a pub and a chinese and that's about it. The bus is hourly and not too reliable and it costs me a tenner just to go to the city to shop. We also thought we were going to be here for mr tree's whole 22 with no escape so any posting was always going to be met with an element of delight! It could also reflect very well on Mr Tree and jump start his career.

Ask me in 2/3 years if I'm excited about coming back to where i am (cos we have to :'() and i might not be quite so hyped about it! How long have you got to muster a bit of enthusiasm for it?

Only 12 months so there's hope for me. It's not a bad place at all, lots of employment opportunities for me so that should make me smile but the thought that we may have to move entire area again within that 2 year posting means I just can't quite get my head in the right place!

S_T yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay for you.

Bodger, that sucks.

My hubby is on his final 4 years when we get back so we will probably move twice in two years for our ds's education and to settle somewhere (anyone want to take bets on how long before my feet start itching?)

So we went and did a recce in Hereford today......

Oh my gosh its extremely easy to get lost around the Cheltenham/Gloucester way!

Didn't find out a heck of a lot to be fair but at least now we know that for the most part the quarters aren't in the back of beyond or anything like that.

What's the shortest notice anyone has ever had for a move and how successful was it?

Yay for you ST. I did a very short stint at Hereford and loved it, but I was in the block. (god I got around a bit!!!)
The shorted notice we've been given was told of move on 22th Feb, hubby started on 12th April. It was all a bit of a rush as it was back from Germany - it took 2 weeks to get the quarter details and march in date so we couldn't even book removals or anything like that - and there was Easter inbetween when the whole place shuts down and bugger all gets done!!!

We're having a similar problem. Having issues with getting the assignment order. One bloke thought we already had it so didn't bother chasing it up. We have now been told we'll have it by the end of next week but well, not to be cynical but they said that last week! Everything is pointing to the posting beginning in early March so panic is starting to settle in with me now.

Obviously from 16th Dec til 3rd Jan all bets are off while everyone has their xmas hols. We were told today there is a shortage of housing in hereford but they 'are doing their best' so getting a house might be emotional. Obviously until we have an address we can't book removals, I cant apply to schools or anything. I asked my welfare office if they could do anything to chase up the assignment order and was told no but its ok because if we have less than 3 months notice i can retain the quarter here for up to 6 months. Thanks but not really helpful when I don't want my family to be split up if they don't have to.

I have now resigned myself to the fact that I cannot do anything to speed things up so am trying to focus on the realities of making a short notice move happen successfully.

We had a short notice posting last Christmas, hubby nagged Glasgow for the AO and then faxed 1132s to HIC few phone calls later and eventually got SFA address, removals booked, proxy takeover of SFA and we moved in on December 17th, all in all about 10 days.

It's nice to know that it can be done!

All nagging of Glasgow is being done on our behalf as Mr Tree is a Lcpl so can't do it himself. Are the 1132's usually faxed or posted? How did you go about getting the kids in schools? And finally (end of the inquisition) how on earth did you not lose the plot trying to organise that lot in 10 days?!

Also thanks for mentioning the proxy takeover. Mr Tree is very taken with the idea and relaxed visibly when I read your comment out to him!

1132s can be done electronically via Dii, my kids are at boarding schools but if you have any issues getting school places contact CEAS they are superb at school admissions.

I'm not a stressy type and tend to just get on with it, wine helps

It has arrived!!!!!! Assignment order was printed off JPA and will be on its way to have the welfare officers signature put on it in the next few minutes. Let the chaos begin!

Scrap all this....thought the CEAS would be shut for xmas but they're not. Just spoke to them.

We lived in Hereford 9 years ago and I loved it. Wasn't too keen on my husband going away at short notice but other than than it was fab. We lived on the Stirling Lines side so it was great for walking into town. I was sad to leave really. I think it's one of these places you either love or hate though.

Good luck with the move x

Thanks gladrags.

We'll be on the same side. The LEA were kind enough to tell me in advance that the only school walking distance to Credenhill had no space so if we were housed there my 6 year old would have had to go on a senior school bus to go to school in the next viillage so we specifically requested a house on the south side and were lucky enough to get it.

We went over on New Years Day so we could have a look at the quarter and general area. Mr Tree practically had to make me get in the car to come back home I loved it so much! There is still soneone living in the quartr so we couldn't nosey through the windows or anything lol but I know its a 3 bed and the only things I pray for from a quarter are 3 beds and a decent kitchen so fingers crossed there!

I aam used to last minute with his current regiment. Drives me insane that even when they do give notice they change the date 3 or 4 times before he even goes! But the area in Hereford makes everything accessible to me easily even without a car so i'll be able to just miss him because he's not home rather than stressing and panicking about not being able to get to this place or the other which will be a nice change.

Good luck with the move S_T. Exciting times!

South side is definately much better, it's so easy to walk into town. In fact it's much better to walk in than take the car I found. Although, things will have changed as it has been a while.

What schools have you decided on? Ours went to the Catholic school, it was a very good primary, but it's quite hard to get into. The other one close was St Martin's.

We used to get free swimming at the leisure pool because we weren't able to use the one on camp which was fab.

It's a great night out too x

I think it looks like it might still be a nice walk into the town and i doubt Ill want to go in the car much. From what I've seen I am definitely happy to be on the southside and even better because it's so far from camp the rent is much cheaper than what we pay on our current quarter.

Oooh hope the swimming is still the same, I knew there was free use of the pool on camp but didn't fancy the 6 mile trek getting to it.

Will PM you Re schools as I'm not sure how that sits on the whole PERSEC issue x

Get Mr ST to take you to Gilbeys for a not too dear night out or the Castle House Hotel for a posh nosh!! Both are fab xx

I'm googling them now!