Same shit, different day. Sometimes I get some different shit on the same day.

Saturday, August 28, 2004

Let's get ready to rumble!
On wednesday I went to see a bloke I know in the cabling dept to "borrow" a cable, while I was there he said he was selling his wife's biker's outfit including a pretty good helmet all nearly new and hardly worn. I was interested in the lid but he said someone else had first refusal so that was that.
So yesterday the phone rings, I answer and hear raised voices, the cable guy comes on and says "Mick is that you?, when was it I showed you that crash helmet?" (more raised voices in background)
"wednesday" I reply.
The cable guy says " it was in perfect nick wasn't it, no marks or scratches?"
before I could answer I hear lots of shouting and swearing he asks the question again and I say "not that I saw" (more shouting etc)
"Mick can you come down and tell this cunt that........" Before I can answer the level of shouting and swearing goes up, the phone his end gets dropped and I can hear all shorts of swearing and scuffling and shouting. What should I do? should I go down and assist?, should I phone security? in the end I chose the only sensible option, I put him on speaker phone.
Yes we are all individual's.
In the bank where I am one of the resident engineers, the client has decreed that from next week we will have to wear uniforms.
This has been in the pipeline for a few weeks now and has caused a right old tear up. The printroom droids have now been told they don't have to wear it but the 3 of us, the messengers, the Ricoh engineer and the fax engineers do.
The idea is apparently so that people know who we are when we are strolling about the place in pursuit of excellence in the field of copier repair, hence the printroom droids don't have to wear it as the clients come to them.
Cap'n bob, as usual, doesn't have much of an opinion and just shrugs his shoulders a lot, I don't want to wear the uniform but at the end of the day the client wants it so wear it or leave the site!. The BCH on the other hand has started a one man crusade to get out of wearing it. E-mails have been flying fast and furious, there has been much cutting and pasting from the websites of people such as citizens advice and the HSE, his list of demands include lockers, changing and washing facilities.
So far he has managed to piss off just about everybody, he has undoubtedly made matters worse and has also managed to get us banned from changing out of our bike gear (BCH is a biker aswell) in the room we have used for the last 6 yrs!
Any way the "stylish" uniforms consist of a shirt with "corprate services in association with (company name)" and our company logo written on them, dark blue chinos and a fleece with the same writing.
I enjoy quite a good position here, I am well thought of by the client and get loads of overtime, so the uniform is not that big a deal for me. I don't want to wear it but they say I have to so that's that. The BCH has painted himself into a corner and is fully prepared to leave the site and go back to pounding the beat in the city again, which is looking quite likely at the moment.
This raises a another question, if the BCH goes who will replace him?

Let's get ready to rumble!
On wednesday I went to see a bloke I know in the cabling dept to "borrow" a cable, while I was there he said he was selling some bikers kit including a pretty good helmet all nearly new and hardly worn. I was interested in the lid but he said someone else had first refusal so that was that.
So yesterday the phone rings, I answer and hear raised voices, the cable guy comes on and says
"Mick is that you?, when was it I showed you that crash helmet?" (more raised voices in background)
"wednesday" I reply.
The cable guy says "it was in perfect nick wasn't it, no marks or scratches?"
before I could answer I hear lots of shouting and swearing, he asks the question again and I say
"not that I saw" (more shouting etc)
"Mick can you come down and tell this cunt that.........?"
Before I can answer the level of shouting and swearing goes up, the phone his end getsdropped and I can hear all shorts of swearing and scuffling and shouting. What should I do? should I go down and assist?, should I phone security? in the end I chose the only sensible option, I put him on speaker phone.

Saturday, August 07, 2004

Home and away
The 1st week of the course went smoothly, there are 3 others on it all of whom are OK. The format of the course is standard fare for technical training; -
instructor gives over view of machine, students become drowsy,
instructor tells student to complete workbook or CBT, students sleep,
instructor tells students to carry out practical tasks as per workbook, students wake up and ignore the set task and proceed to strip the machine to component level and put it back together (with less screws).
In the evening we managed to eat and drink and hog the pool table for 1 1/2 hrs at a time, we also managed to get out and see Spiderman 2 which was excellent.
On my way home last friday (30/07) I was on the M4 just starting to overtake a lorry, when Mr Lorry driver (from this point on to be referred to as "the tosser") suddenly indicates and starts to move over at the same time. I had to brake hard ,the hired Fiat Punto I was in fortunately had reasonable brakes (which is about the only good thing I can say about it) the tosser saw me and moved back into his lane. As he was still indicating I waited just behind him for a minute, he didn't move again so I overtook him. As I went past, the fucking tosser had the nerve to stick his hand out and give me the all powerful wanker sign, which was a bit rich as his other hand was clamping his mobile to his ear!. Isn't funny how people like him are never in the wrong.
Anyhoo, saturday 31st, wifey and the boys went off to sunny clacton with her parents to stay in a caravan and I was home alone WooHoo!
Week 2 of the course was considerably slower and consisted mainly of loading software on the machines and the colour servers. We went bowling on tuesday and saw a preview screening of I, Robot on thursday. I, Robot was not bad, quite enjoyable but lacked the thrills and excitement of Spiderman 2.
So, back reality wifey and the boys are due back any time and I'm looking forward to seeing them, and back to real work on monday ho hum!