Belfast, March 08 - July 08

A 'Grenadier' Company arrived in Belfast in late March 2008 and promptly set about making the most of our new surroundings. The camp, a definite improvement to good old cavalry barracks had

• much better accommodation
• a better cookhouse, and
• more facilities such as the swimming pool and The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes bar (With the latter having more use than the former!)

In addition, the city of Belfast has welcomed us and in our humble opinion it deserves its reputation as the upcoming city in Europe.

Northern Ireland as a whole has been used to good effect with the company deploying twice down to Ballykinler

• once as preparation for Exercise Red Stripe, and
• once for a general purpose machine gun cadre in early July

Exercise Rum Punch

The pre Jamaica exercise, Exercise Rum Punch was 10 days of

• shooting

• fitness, and

• MATTS

The undoubted highlight being the fitness sessions on the beach which were enjoyed by all.

One low point of Exercise Rum Punch was that we finally said goodbye to the CSM after 2 years of service and we marked his departure with a few beers in the cookhouse on camp.

We wish him luck in his dream job as RQMS. In his place we welcome the new CSM, back from his American adventure, tanned and with a noticeable southern twang.

Other events

Other events since we arrived in Belfast have been the Inter Coy Sports Gala where the company won both the football and the rugby although unfortunately we did not hit those heights in some of the other events.

Finally, we congratulate all those recently promoted whilst we were in Jamaica.