That's a negative ghostrider, the pattern is full
Last weekend I had a rather interesting 3 days considering that I was at work rather than having fun like everybody else on a bank holiday weekend.
I was working on site having been sub contracted out by my company to help one of our rivals with a major re-signalling commissioning. This is a nice situation to be in, because you know that if the job overruns and the railway is not given back to the operator on time for the morning rush hour on the Tuesday then its not a big deal because it's not your company who will have to foot the bill!* I can't say I worked any less hard than normal, just that there was no stress when one sensed that things were going a little tits up!
We were put up for the weekend in a hotel in Gatwick's North terminal. Unfortunately as it wasn't exactly the most expensive hotel in the world, there was no AC. This meant that I had to leave my window open over night so that I didn't cook in my own juices.** The up side to having my window open was that I was woken up by the sounds of jets taxiing past my window, spooling up there massive engines and accelerating down the runway. The first morning in a slumber confused state I momentarily thought I was on the set of the introduction scenes from the film Top Gun. By the 4th night I had an overwhelming urge to go and purchase myself a Harold Faltermeyer CD so that I could play it in the background to complete the experience.
Saturday was spent mainly waiting around for the civil engineers to construct and erect the equipment that I was supposed to be testing. I feel I may have abused my responsibilities of being a team leader when I sent one of the guys working for me to the local newsagents to get me a copy of The Times so I could do the Su Doku.
Samurai SuDoku in 29 minutes flat, fastest yet!
The other guys on my team called me a “posh nerd” for reading The Times so we agreed to swap and I read the Sun and the Daily Fascist while they were pleasantly surprised at the readability of a "heavy" newspaper. I meanwhile secretly enjoyed certain aspects of The Sun that are not featured in such publications as The Times.
On Sunday the weather was unusually hot for this time of year but I spent most of the day in an Air Conditioned equipment room wishing I was out trackside frolicking in the sun. On Monday my wish was granted as I was given a work pack that would entail my walking from Horsham to Billingshurst, a distance of about 10 miles. The weather was even hotter and the sky was even bluer. Within a mile I realise that this might not be such a perfect day as I had no access to any sun cream or any protection for my head or back of my neck, that were consequently getting a complete roasting from the sun. I spent the whole day literally feeling the skin on my neck getting burnt, but being able to do nothing about it. Needless to say Tuesday was a day where I would have quite happily traded my agonising pain for the relative comfort of child birth at the first opportunity. It's OK'ish now but I still can't do my collar up.
*As seen on News24 yesterday morning, Horsham station was not open until 8.30am, 4.5 hours late, causing major disruption.
** I've just read that sentence back to myself and think in retrospect I shouldn't have worded "getting hot" in such a way, but what can you do!?!
I was working on site having been sub contracted out by my company to help one of our rivals with a major re-signalling commissioning. This is a nice situation to be in, because you know that if the job overruns and the railway is not given back to the operator on time for the morning rush hour on the Tuesday then its not a big deal because it's not your company who will have to foot the bill!* I can't say I worked any less hard than normal, just that there was no stress when one sensed that things were going a little tits up!
We were put up for the weekend in a hotel in Gatwick's North terminal. Unfortunately as it wasn't exactly the most expensive hotel in the world, there was no AC. This meant that I had to leave my window open over night so that I didn't cook in my own juices.** The up side to having my window open was that I was woken up by the sounds of jets taxiing past my window, spooling up there massive engines and accelerating down the runway. The first morning in a slumber confused state I momentarily thought I was on the set of the introduction scenes from the film Top Gun. By the 4th night I had an overwhelming urge to go and purchase myself a Harold Faltermeyer CD so that I could play it in the background to complete the experience.
Saturday was spent mainly waiting around for the civil engineers to construct and erect the equipment that I was supposed to be testing. I feel I may have abused my responsibilities of being a team leader when I sent one of the guys working for me to the local newsagents to get me a copy of The Times so I could do the Su Doku.
Samurai SuDoku in 29 minutes flat, fastest yet!
The other guys on my team called me a “posh nerd” for reading The Times so we agreed to swap and I read the Sun and the Daily Fascist while they were pleasantly surprised at the readability of a "heavy" newspaper. I meanwhile secretly enjoyed certain aspects of The Sun that are not featured in such publications as The Times.
On Sunday the weather was unusually hot for this time of year but I spent most of the day in an Air Conditioned equipment room wishing I was out trackside frolicking in the sun. On Monday my wish was granted as I was given a work pack that would entail my walking from Horsham to Billingshurst, a distance of about 10 miles. The weather was even hotter and the sky was even bluer. Within a mile I realise that this might not be such a perfect day as I had no access to any sun cream or any protection for my head or back of my neck, that were consequently getting a complete roasting from the sun. I spent the whole day literally feeling the skin on my neck getting burnt, but being able to do nothing about it. Needless to say Tuesday was a day where I would have quite happily traded my agonising pain for the relative comfort of child birth at the first opportunity. It's OK'ish now but I still can't do my collar up.
*As seen on News24 yesterday morning, Horsham station was not open until 8.30am, 4.5 hours late, causing major disruption.
** I've just read that sentence back to myself and think in retrospect I shouldn't have worded "getting hot" in such a way, but what can you do!?!
posted by Nurton at 12:15 am
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