Fri’ Aft - Sat’ Morn ’

Now - with me being out on site for the past three weeks, it means there’s a whole load of photo’s and goings on to write about , but alas they are not written
up / Photo shopped at the moment , and with my holidays looming - unfortunately I really haven’t got the time………. sorry …………………...

Talking of holidays - I’ve got the odd vague plan for my three weeks off , which definitely include a few days in London to go see The Futurists Exhibition ( 22nd ) , amongst other things , although the less trod path seems to be a good idea , both in London and the U.K. ……. I’ll just have to wait and see……………



To start my holidays off - I’m going to an event called The Big Meeting on Saturday , which is a traditional social gathering ,originally started by local coal miners in 1800’s.

Now this usually consists of - brass bands , banners , political speeches and a fair , which is all pretty traditional stuff and doesn’t really appeal to me - to be honest , although saying that as kids we went every year without fail , and yes there’s a million stories to go with that , if I can ever get in to my floppy disc of memories :).


Now for some strange reason - which is beyond me :) , I’ve got an inkling to go this year , complete with my camera to try and capture some interesting images , and this is probably why on reflection , and not some new found - social responsibility to my community - and try saying that when your drunk :)



I’m finishing work at 11.15 am today but I promised a member of staff I’d come back to work to attend a meeting with management with them……………………………

…………………………….never mind a women’s work is never done……………. :)


That’s it ……………cu all in three weeks

Nu World

Car ownership has really opened up a completely new world to me , especially as I’m used to doing all my own maintenance on my Harley’s - indeed the majority of my own bikes from the tender age of 17 , but unfortunately my car is still under the manufacturers warranty , thus I have to let my local friendly Honda dealer carry out the servicing - for the moment :) .

The Honda is a little different from the bike’s I’m used to working on , but basically it’s a machine , and all you really need is - aptitude , a workshop manual .and maybe the odd set of tools :)

The plus point of dealer servicing is all the warranty work is carried out free, which is probably just as well and my car needed a new battery and ecu this time , which would have cost a fortune if I had to pay for it myself

The minus point is the total f**k wits you have to mix with in the dealership when you drop your car off , don’t get me wrong the Honda staff are excellent it’s the
“mid life crisis - I’ve got a Honda S2000” – brigade- I can’t abide , and does the phrase……….

…………….. “ do you work at being an ass hole or is it purely natural “ ………..

……………being directed by me at one of them - really , really - surprise any of
you out there :)


Harsh words you may think , but then again there was the small matter of this guys absolutely ridiculous behaviour towards the Honda Staff and other customers , which we English just seem to tolerate , and what this guy was obviously used to.

So my words came like a baseball bat to his face , which I suppose is better than the real thing :) .

I later found out this guy was indeed an institutionalised bully , and I know my own words , to an extent were too , and although it does not excuse myself , the old adage of “fighting fire with fire “ was somehow highly appropriate in this instance .

Terrorist Central ???

Hell’s teeth !!! - it’s the “ T “ word again……. I’ll have MI5 kicking my door in at this rate :)

No seriously - It was on the news a month or so ago , that anti terrorist police had raided the house of a supposed - white supremacist in my area., and I don’t know what surprised me more – an actual white supremacist living in my area , or the fact it was the anti terrorist police kicking his door in .

Now as I said , on the face of it , I personally wasn’t sure what anti terror and racism had in common , but apparently this guy had a jar with suspected - minute traces of the nerve agent …… …………….Ricin ………….in it ….!!!.

In these type of cases where anomalies occur , and it all goes subsequently quiet ,
I always tend to dig past the shock/horror headlines , and in doing this a few questions arose ……

Like how did the police know that this particular guy , from what is a quiet , backwater , actually had this jar in the back of his cupboard ???

Why did they immediately suspect a highly dangerous substance , without analysis ??? , as the jar had apparently been sat there for two years unopened , and the ricin was found only in minute quantities around the rim , in the subsequent investigation .

The bigger question is –

If this guy got the Ricin for his dirty deeds over two years ago ……. ……………

……where did it all go , and to be totally unsubtle about this ( sorry ) ………

………….. where’s all the bodies …??? ……………..



Today’s Quick Humour ??
--------------------------------------------

I walked in to a conversation at work yesterday which had FatAl , lecturing Ray one of our guys about ………………and wait for this …………………………….

……………..Second World War tanks …!!!…………………………..

………….and had been doing so for at least half an hour .

So I waited till Fat Al had gone and said to Ray in all seriousness…

………….“well Ray based on what you know……………….. “

To which Ray looked at me as he thought it was going to be a work conversation , so I continued………………

………what would you have - a Sherman tank , Tiger tank or T34 ???………:)

He didn’t think it was funny ……….. huh !!! …… some people have no sense of humour :)

Chinese Water Torture…………….

No this is not about Guantanamo Bay , although after that particular day , it probably would be much simpler if I took a holiday there :)

Joking aside - I decided to sit on the back doorstep a few Sunday mornings ago , and this was probably a good move as it brought a slight dripping sound to my attention , which was coming from behind the washing machine , which had just stopped spinning .

The drip as it turned out was a leaky hose , and then of course the totally and utterly , absurd thought of calling a plumber out on a Sunday morning !!!! , passed through my mind in about a millisecond :)

So I sensibly I just disconnected it myself , and off I went in search of another hose…………

A question ……..why do things always break on a Sunday when all the shops are
shut , i.e. the plumbing places , which usually supply the trade and thus don’t open on a Sunday ……….. ……as I bounced off the firmly , barred and locked doors of the two local ones……YOUCH … !!!.... :)

It was only then I noticed the big signs which gleefully announced ……..
……Closed on a Sunday …………!!!

The thoughts of …..“ closed on a Sunday …..in a recession ….. surely not “…..
still going through my head as I wandered off - I then wondered if I could modify the hose to fix it , but considering it has water at full pressure running through it , I decided not to as I’d been very lucky finding the original leak before any damage had been caused and the repaired ? - hose flying off with the washing machine spinning was not a good situation to be in .

So - very reluctantly the next port of call was the local DIY hypermarket with its “highly trained” weekend staff manning the corporate helm - great on greeting customers , not so good on product knowledge , and even worse on plumbing supplies is all I’ll say on this point :)

.The fix it myself thought came back in to my head as I walked out empty handed , the thought of dirty clothes - haunting my every step :)

Later on , I had some rubbish to drop off at our local tip and guess what was sitting in one of the skips as I arrived , yes you guessed it - an identical washing machine to mine , and a princely sum of £1.00 later , I was walking away with not one but two hoses , the thought of wonderful clean clothes - now - caressing my every step :)

Intravenous De Milo

I saw a couple of rock /metal - orientated DVD’s this weekend , but don’t switch off as its not strictly about this subject :)

One of which chronicled the latest uber successful - Iron Maiden world tour and was “imaginatively “ entitled Flight 666 …..sic sic sic …more like :) , and the other was the history of a Canadian band called - Anvil .

I would say - contrast is an understatement to use in describing these two DVD’s , and
“poles apart” being a more apt portrayal , so I’d better not say Nicko Mc Brain’s golfing !!! - accident is the most exciting thing on the Maiden one ……………
…………………..honest…………:)

I’ve actually seen Maiden several times but not Anvil , although I thought at the time - like Maiden , they were British , and were some kind of hangover from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal ( NWOBHM) of the late 70’s / early 80’s……
…………….……………..errrrrrrr ……..wrong……………….. :)

The parallel of the rise ( or lack there of ) of fortunes in these two bands is so stark , as they both had fairly equal status back then , but Anvil’s music was in a word – crap ….sorry guys….. , and Maiden’s wasn’t very much better – either , but they were certainly better musicians ,, which is not saying very much :)

I must admit , out of the two - the Maiden DVD was highly predictable , with singer Bruce Dickinson - flying his f**king plane and shouting his mouth off as per usual , but the Anvil offering was truly enjoyable , and yes even quiet touching for a film about …METAL… , this I must say is probably from an “English support the under dogs” point of view - i.e. mine :)

Seriously – watch it , and take out the fact that they are a metal band if you wish and concentrate on the human aspect - you’ll love it , and of course I’m now just wondering if this movie will propel Anvil to the heights of Maiden , and due to their found fame , would they ironically - start behaving like them ……………???

……………….I some how think not……….. :)

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Down on the west coast of the U.K is a city called Bristol , which amongst all the other various attractions has a local zoo .

Now for the past thirty or so years , visitors to the zoo have been quiet merrily paying parking charges to a guy who is sat on the gate of the car park next to the zoo, who no doubt looked official and dispensed tickets in the process .

This particular attendant would be there six days a week , regardless of the weather, having never ever being off sick for even one day in those thirty years – thus seemingly the model employee.

That was until one day - recently - he didn’t turn up , and of course the zoo phoned the Local Authority up and asked for them to send another car park attendant as the usual guy hadn’t turned up for work ……………

The very bemused - local Authority then said they didn’t have anyone working at that particular location and they had checked – the land the car park was on actually belonged to the zoo…………………strange huh …………………………

Well It turns out - this mysterious “employee” had apparently taken it upon himself - thirty years ago to start collecting money from the car park , and had not been challenged by anyone in all those years , so £3,000,000 ( yes that’s three million £ ) later - he obviously decided to retire :)

Hilarious :………….and I’m sure if he gets caught by the authorities, they will let him off if he pays the money back ………….not ………. although if he was an M.P. carrying out one of their other numerous jobs ………………:)

Root of all Evil ???

Now before I get started - I’ll just point out that I f I talk about what I call serious subjects on here they tend to be months old and have all come to a satisfactory conclusion , and of course the names , personal details have been changed to protect the innocent :)


There’s a couple of guys called Tom and Ray, who actually work for another department , but seem to have latched on to our workplace, and. we reckon its a means to avoid work , thus using the old - “ between workplaces “ – excuse.


Anyway - to set the scene - Tom is the senior guy , and Ray is a hired in driver - from yet another department ! , and It seems there has been a falling out between these two , with Tom saying Ray is unsuitable for the job - after four years doing it !!!

The situation did get fairly serious , with management and personnel
involved , reports have been written , meetings arranged …etc… etc… etc …

Certainly - and from a neutral point of view , all of what Tom was saying about Ray to get rid of him , is unfortunately - not work related , and in my professional opinion as a union rep’- you could simply not use this in a formal situation , and to be frank if it was pertinent , what he is saying is so flimsy it wouldn’t stand up to any form of scrutiny .

The other side of the story is a totally different situation involving the loan of £500.

Now - Ray had supposedly - loaned Tom £500 and the ” falling out” is apparently a way of getting rid of him , in the vain hope of not paying him back.

This explanation , on the face of it seems a bit harsh even to me , but the thing is Tom has already asked Alan , his new hired in driver , for the loan of £100 !!! , so you can draw your own conclusions from that .


The funny part of it all was - Tom phoned up one of our guys and asked if someone could pick him up from home - in works time using a works vehicle , as he had no money to get to work ………………………

…………..I think the second word in the reply was………… ” …. off “ …….. :)

Democracy down the Barrel of a Gun

The much quoted “freedom to operate in a democratic fashion” , seems to be the most often used phrase to justify our political masters lack of rules and regulations in their daily goings on within the U.K at the moment - noble words – but oh so empty .

This way of thinking is fine and good in a world free of corruption, lies and deceit , and I’m sure all things being equal we could all live under this ethos………..
………………..in Utopia……….. :).

The thing is , as you all know, human nature takes hold , and that’s why we have legislation to tame these excesses in the real world , we do something wrong we take the consequences and do not try and hide behind any kind of meaningless ( in this context ) “words of wisdom”.

This is all in the wake of yet another revelation that a substantial amount of our M.P.’s have second jobs , which they are apparently not happy about the public knowing about , for some strange reason !!! - maybe the message that they are paid by the public to actually democratically represent them , and not sit on the board of Mc Donald’s in public time doesn’t register with the “duck house set “.


Pragmatics - who I will cynically label - politicians , will vehemently state say there is currently no other alternatives to the political system we have in place , and pushing all the current scandals too hard , will undermine that system to the detriment of the country , hence my role reversal title of - Democracy Down the Barrel of a Gun , which fits this situation perfectly .

Personally I reckon - you can forget your historic bleatings and rose tinted spectacles in this particular case , about parliament being the mother of all democracy …etc ….etc , yes - maybe in the past it was , but now – I think not .

My main problem is statistically out of our 600 or so M.P’S , it seems an extraordinary amount of them seem to be corrupt, if the recent revelations are to be believed , and I just wonder what would happen if for example - the police let all the criminals they had caught in the country - off , if they paid back the money they had stolen , because in essence this is what is happening in Parliament , and this goes from the top to the bottom of all political parties – bar none.

I’m honestly sick to f**king death of writing about this subject – yes really – but not as sick of the hypocritical , untouchables who sit in their ivory towers dispensing their “wisdom” to the populus - thus I’ll persist ……………………………….