Prove my point then

Last night I spread the word about stupid people doing things when drunk.
Today we have a perfect example of stupid people doing stupid things... Possibly drunk.

Vandals cause massive power cut.
Burning tyres were thrown into a duct carrying high voltage cables.
A fire in an electricity sub-station started by vandals cut supplies to 27,000 homes in Birmingham.
By mid-morning on Monday 8,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity supplies.
Electricity officials said they were working flat out to restore power to the remaining homes.
Burning tyres were thrown into the sub-station in Saltley, starting the fire just before midnight on Sunday. Flames leapt 30ft (10m) into the air.
Homes in the Ward End , Bordesley Green, Erdington, Aston and Hodge Hill areas have been affected by the power cut.
By 1000 BST, 8,000 homes remained without power.

How stupid can people get, what's worse is the fact that they endangered lives in the process.

Electricity supplies at Heartlands Hospital were automatically switched to another source so that no patients were affected.
A hospital spokeswoman said that efforts had been made to keep demand to a minimum by using fewer computers and other electrical appliances so as to reduce pressure on supplies.

But what would happen if an ICU bed failed? Would the little bastards get done for manslaughter? Probably not.

With thanks to the BBC for most of this article.

I'm Back

10 days without a post. I almost feel guilty. But sod it.

I've been working my tits off at the hotel again. Finally I can now say that I never have to go there again. Well at least not until xmas.
I worked my last shift in the bar, which was a thoroughly enjoyable way to end my 3 years at the hotel. But as always someone had to make a twat of themselves.

First of all, one of the guests decided he needed to throw up, so he did it in the middle of the bar, 20 yards away from the gents. Cue sawdust and chemicals.

Second, after sufficient booze, one guest decided to destroy the forementioned gents, by ripping off every available pipe that he could see. Luckily the carnage was limited to the urinals, but if he could had gotten into the pipes under the sinks, I'm sure they wouldn't be there now.

The hotel had already decided to refurbish all public toilets at the end of August, looks like that will be brought forward.

The hotel is also on a major money saving drive, by cutting down on all hourly staff. This is for three reasons:

Toilet refurbishment.

The company is building a second hotel opposite, this will be cheaper at around £70 a night rather then £144-£166. But it will be more technology driven.

Because of the newer rooms that will be available, the 3rd floor of the hotel also needs major refurb, as thehaven'tent been touched in many a year and are frankly past it. There littlette or no working aircon on third. The rooms themselves are still with the original decoration too.

Also the fact that most major projects that are taken on, usually go over budget, over time and therefore get done a little bit cheaply. Ask anyone in the restaurant about the terrace roowasn'tsnt touched after restaurant refurb - ran out of cash), or about the new meeting rooms, possibly the cheapest and worst planned idea yet. (See conf ops)

Two bad nights at work in a row

WHY IS EVERYTHING CRAP?
WHY DO PEOPLE NOT SAY THANK YOU WHEN YOU HOLD A DOOR FOR THEM?
WHY WHEN I START TO FEEL HAPPY AGAIN DOES EVERYTHING GO TITS UP?
WHY DOES MAYONNAISE HAVE TO BE SO BAD FOR YOU?
WHY CAN'T I HAVE A PUPPY?
WHY DO I HAVE TO STOP BEING FRIENDS WITH PEOPLE I LIKE?
WHY DO I WANT TO SIT AT MY DESK AND CRY?
WHY WON'T PEOPLE JUST LET ME BE?
WHY DON'T I GET PAID THE SALARY OF A FOOTBALLER?
WHY IS EVERYTHING SHIT?

Itchy, sweaty, hot and tired.

Horrible day in work, have not long got back.


1) Woman fell in bathroom injuring self
2) Man blew all fuses in room by ironing
3) Same man decided to iron in corridor
4) Somehow an area not 30 yards from said man lost all lighting
5) Tour of 30 turned up with 45 huge bags
6) Tour turned out to be Israeli and were rude, arrogant and bastards, especially the tour organiser who is the only one who could speak English
7) Tour couldn't work out how to open bedroom doors and complained that keys didn't work
8) Driver informed us that tour are idiots
9) Tour complain bitterly about air con in rooms
10) Tour all demand fans as its still hot, 16 rooms 3 fans
11) Gents urinal in staff room blocks
12) I am sent into loft to locate stopcock... Which isn't up there
13)I am itchy from insulation
14) Its 30 degrees inside work

Irony

Bloody hell, a whole week since the last post. Nothing unusual on this blog I accept, however normally I can remember what's happened between blogs.
For the past week, there hasn't really been a day that I haven't been doing something work related.
I've either been at work to work, at work to collect or drop off stuff, or talking to work on the phone. The most time I have managed to be away from the place this week is 12.5hrs.

Now if I had an interesting job such as 'Tom Reynolds', or the writing ability of 'Weevil' I would always have something to write about. But I'm not... So there.

One thing that did happen today though...
I went into work 15 mins early for a meeting on Health and Safety in the Workplace. It took about 45 mins, and was my boss basically stating the obvious. However obvious or not, accidents do happen, as I so ably demonstrated only 4 hrs later.

I was carrying a modesty board to the cupboard that they belong in, when my bleep went off. Its a bit like a crap mobile phone, and has the ability to send voice calls only; but only when in range, and there seems to be no range on the thing at all.
Anyway it went off, and it caught me by surprise, sending me stumbling, only to headbutt the fore-mentioned piece of timber.

For my troubles... A developing black eye, and a shattered ego.

Something to remember

As we are all aware, a year has passed since the incidents of the 7th of July. Indeed while this was a major incident, and I am in no means trying to belittle anyone involved with it, and certainly in no way intending to insult the dead, I too have my own story of sadness that took place one year ago. 450 Miles from London.

At precisely 00.00.40, the cousin of a friend of mine, who also happens to be a good friend, took his last mechanically induced breath. He had been in hospital in Inverness for 3 weeks, and for the last 48hrs had been on a ventilator in ICU. He was born with major deformities in his heart and lungs, and despite the best treatment by doctors all attempts to save him failed.

In the 17.9 years of his life, he had ignored opinions of how long he should live, the first being only 6 weeks, then 6 months then 6 years. After that the doctors just gave up, he was going to be one stubborn bastard.

During these years he had been selected for transplants, with eventually all of them being rejected by his body. The last attempt was to replace one lung when he was 16, this failed. He was then left with the inevitable thought that he wasn't going to live a full life, by this time he had learnt to accept this.
A week before he went into hospital his health took a threatening turn for the worse, he became housebound and the prognosis was not good.

He then took the slightly obscure idea of having a brief video conference with his friends as to the situation. We all tried to remain upbeat, as did he, however everyone knew what the outcome was going to be. For his closest friends the hardest part was a request by him to ensure that his funeral and his wake lost none of his character. Immediately suggestions of a piss up were given much to general amusement.

We decided on the creation of a CD to be played at the wake, with everyone choosing one or two songs that summed up our collective personalities.
Here are a few of my favourite suggestions that made the list.

See you later alligator
Who wants to live forever
Baba O'Riley
The show must go on
Jerusalem
Wake me up before you go go
Staying alive
You win again

As you can see we all have a very warped sense of humour.
The funeral was in a very picturesque town just north of Aviemore in Scotland, with the wake in Inverness. (don't ask)

So whats the reason behind this post? Its a reminder that life goes on (or not in this case) outside of what is on the news. For me 7/7 isn't just a moment of national unity, but also a moment of personal reflection outside of what everyone else may think. I received the news of my friends passing at 14:40 7/7/2005, by which time we all new of what was happening in London. However none of that seemed significant, and for a small time I didn't care either.

On reflection I realise that this is just one of many that died that day, not just in the UK, but around the world. But for me 7/7 will always mean more for me than a state of collective grief.


P.S apologies for the waffling, but this is the best way I could think of putting thoughts to text.

Tripping

Scotland was good, spent a lot more than I should have. Always a sign of a successful trip :) Not too hungover either.

Today I travelled north once again, however this time a more subdued 80 miles to Birmingham. Why....? Why not? Travelled by train, and took advantage of the upgrade to First Class for £10 deal. So after complimentary snacks, drinks and wider seats I was ready to see what was so great aboutEngland'ss second city.

After negotiating Birmingham New Street Station, and emerging from its cavernous internals, I was faced by the Bullring. Theydon'tt seem to have made a total hash of it like Wembley. Inside its huge, three floors of 160 stores, with some departmental stores reaching 4 or 5 floors. Names such as Debenhams and Selfridges, Dixons and Starbucks create an all together pleasant experience. It seems very bright and airy inside, way better than the Galleries back home.

After wandering around inside for an hour or two we headed out to find if there was a 'High Street' to speak of; only to exit and then walk straight into another shopping centre. So another hour of browsing and contemplation of how to get suchextravagance'ss back to the train. By accident we took a wrong turn and appeared on the High Street itself. Walking along in the 30Celsiuss heat we tried to make sure wedidn'tt look too much like tourists.

Surpriseesurprisee we ended back at another mall, this time slightly smaller but with more high street names. More astonishingly enough was another mall that we didn't venture into, as it compiled nothing but eating establishments.

So it would seem that Birmingham centre is infact a number of malls that are interconnected by areas of Non-Air-Conditioned street sellers. I say this because although there may be a high street to speak of, theres guaranteed to be a way into the same store via the door from the mall.

In other news, England are out of the World cup; as I speak someone is driving around tooting their horn, while an ambulance screams away to pick up the latest suicide victim. Ah well only another 10 weeks til the rainy season, then we can go back to being the miserable bastards we usually are :D