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Louise's Blog

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New to the Royal Navy, newly married and first married quarter (GUEST POST)

For the last 11 months I have been living married but unaccompanied as Royal Navy wife in our pre navy flat, this has been difficult, hard and often spent Sundays crying.

I married Joe on 26th May 2017 we have been together for six years now. The first five of those years were on ‘Civvie Street’. It was about two years ago Joe decided that he wanted to join the Royal Navy which was great and we both agreed that we thought it would be great for Joe. Joe then proposed two years ago on the new years eve, I said yes and then started planning the wedding. Joe was unsure of his joining date and as some of you may be aware communication is not the best…. three changes of date later we got married on the 26th May 2017 and it was the best day of our lives, I enjoyed it so much and I just wish looking back on it that I enjoyed it more.

I feel a little bitter sweet looking back because I knew that the following day after our wedding was the last full day with my new husband before 10 weeks of separation without being able to see him at all except over a crap facetime. Let’s be honest….I never thought at the age of 25 my husband and his fellow peers would get phone bans and that was the hardest thing expecting a phone call and then nothing. In this time I lost weight, joined a gym and focused on making it through each day with friends and family that were understanding of what I was going through.

Fast forward to March 2018 and Joe found out that we would be moving to Cornwall on our first posting, this is when it was both exciting and nerve-racking. I had to let all control go due to a not being able to see the properties apart from on google maps, beginning of April was when the navy confirmed our new house address which was three bedrooms and had a garden, which was fab. Joe had Easter leave and managed to get some things done around the house however the sudden realisation of having to pack our one bedroom house and clean it before moving down was a massive headache. Luckily my mum and dad are amazing, dad is ex Army and well he cleaned my cooker so great it was cleaner than before we moved in! My parents saved me and I was so thankful for their help and support we both were. I had to move back in with them for a week and this was lovely to spend some time with them and my childhood dog Toby who means the absolute world to me.

On the 28th May 2018 I drove the 170 miles from Somerset to Cornwall to finally live with my husband!!!!!!!!

The house was better than what I expected, I knew beforehand that we had to go through the house and log all faults within 14 days. On a side note why do the military  provide such vile curtains?! this baffled me the most and quickly had to look on amazon….. we now have new curtains.  The quarter is 1970s prefab semi-detached house and its lovely but its still not feeling like home just yet but its getting there.  

So far life on married patch has been quiet, unless you have children then there is not much to do for married couples without children, I taken a positive and spent some lovely time with my husband. This week on Thursday I am  going to go to Military Wives Choir to try and meet some fellow spouses I am however not an Adele or Amy Winehouse by any means but I am going to be sociable.  I’ve started my new job and I have managed to complete my two uni assignments, I wouldn’t recommend moving 170 miles with two uni deadlines PLUS  starting a new job within two weeks….its not for the faint hearted!!!!

But we did it!

I feel that living on a military married patch everyone is on the same page as you and that makes me feel happier immediately. I am lucky for the moment as deployment is not the horizon.

My advice if you too are new to the military life, new to military housing is try everything and if its not for you that’s OK.  Life is hard enough and so therefore fill it with people and family and friends and activities that make you laugh, cry and love .

Lots of love Sian, you can follow me on instagram @Marriedtoamatlow  xxx

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About Louise

Louise herself served in the British Army and saw active service in Kosovo. Her husband is a serving soldier who has undertaken six operational tours of duty since their daughter was born in 2003. Louise is passionate about helping all the Little Troopers at home through the anxiety of deployment and also the stress of a long course or exercise having experienced first hand the impact it can have.

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