Pipe Fitters United

Just nosing around a website and found out that one of the jobs held by one of the authors that I am presently reading (Mark Chadbourn) used to work as a Fitter’s Mate, which had me reminising.

About 20 years ago I used to work in a factory on power presses and kick presses, hard work, boring work, repetative work and low pay (£2.00 an hour as I recall).  I came home knackered every day after walking to work and walking home (5 miles round trip).

Then my father came onto the scene and after a while got me a job with him as a fitter’s mate.  I worked a total of 3 contracts, two in Texaco in Pembroke and one in Llandarcy in Swansea.  It was a different world by far.  Lots of money, hardly any work.  I was pushing a brush arouund and bringing home £500 a month on a good week.  I could not understand how people could get away with it either.  then I figured it out – Nobody cared

Some big guy wants a job done and hires a firm to do the job, they then hire another firm to do part of the job.  they then hire a site manager, who hires foremen, who then phone around for their teams.  End result, nobody really cares or has passion for it.  And the guy on the ground works as slow as possible so that they get paid for longer.

But the tales that they would tell you……..

Stim Drinks and the 3rd Night Shift

After chatting with some young people I decided to try a stimulation drink to keep me more alert nearer the end of my 10 hour shifts, or at least have it as a backup in case I need it.

Ha……Have you tried doing sudoku on a stim drink, I could not write the numbers down fast enough, and I was practically bouncing off the walls by the time I finished my shift.  Although overall it was certainly better than being half dozey.

Next time I think I will only drink half the bottle, and then only when my head starts nodding, not when I am just a little thirsty.

It also took me ages to calm down enough to get to sleep when I got home…..

I am now off for the next 8 days so no nights for a while

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Another night in the Foyer

Well this is my third night in the Foyer, first one on my own. Keeping myself busy…..

I will update this when the night is over and I am home, but just thought I would let the world know.

my first night shift

My Gawd man, I am like the living dead.  My body is like all shakey and my brain is refusing to cooperate with me in any way shape or form.  Managed to get through the night though with only a few dropey heads.  But I had not slept for a good 26 hours so fair enough.  Things will hopefully be a bit easier tonight being as I only got up at 2.45pm.

Well see you all on the dark side of the sun.

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End of Day 1

Well I did a short shift at the Foyer today, and I absolutely loved it.  Somethings are different, but I just feel like I never left.  I have a few more short shifts this week and then next week I start on nights, shadowing someone.

This morning I did some exercises and so far have ate responsibly, so far, off to a good start for the day, now all I need to do is light a candle and chill out this evening, perhaps I might even put out my medicine wheel and do some visualisation.

Well bye for the moment, I might blog later tonite or maybe in the morning

the last walk of a veteran tech

A long time ago, in a land far far away……..

Today was my last day in virgin media, yeaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

But hold on, am I actually cheering, not really

I am glad I have finished there but I am going to miss some wonderful people that I have bonded with over the last 11 months. The saddest part was reading my farewell card from the team

And here is a piccy of the card as it means so much t me

Bye bye all you wonderful people in Team Extreme

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The extension on the extension

Well, it seems that there has been a change of circumstances in work and they have offered me an extension on my job by 4 months, with the possibility of more.  The drawback is that it will be in Customer Services, not Tech Support.  However we will occasionally take tech calls which will keep us in the loop as it were.  So here’s to staying at Virgin media, and to keeping my staff package a bit longer than I thought I would of.

cutbacks in virgin media

Due to the wonderful success of the premium rate line reducing the amount of calls we get in the call centre, we have had about a third of the workforce layed off, 64 staff in the Swansea branch.  Unfortunately I, along with some of my friends, were some of them.

I can understand the reasoning why, although it does not make the pill any sweeter to swallow.  So as of October 13th 2007 I will be unemployed unless I can find some alternative employment in the next month.

Don’t get me wrong I will probably find something somewhere, but I always try to plan for the worst and then everything works out better than I expected.

I spent this afternoon working out my finances on my little spread sheet to see if it was feasable for me to remain at my present address, making my own way and paying my own bills with no help from others. And the intersting news is that I can pull it off, just.  I need to be strict, but it is possible.

So heres to Virgin Media, it was a fun ride (NOT), certainly an experience I will remember forever, and I look forward to the next challenge in my life.

On the positive side of things, I gained some friends who I hope to remain in contact with, I found a work schedule that worked for me, I lost a lot of weight whilst working there, I gain telephone skills and internet skills to rival the best of them out there, and actually felt part of something bigger, instead of the small work forces that I have worked with for the last 4-5 years.

Bye for now folks, see you on the other side of the sun

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A miscellaneous evening

While waiting for June for my last session of youth work at Bontawe Community house I was a little bit bored so started taking silly photos

My nose looks a little bit wide screen in this one

In my day i would of been glad if me dad gave me a pair of second hand trainers, and even then I would have to of been beaten around the head for a month just for the cheek of asking (needs to be said in yorkshire accent really)

And finally sunset from Bontawe, a very nice pretty piccy

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Perceptions and first impressions and over protectiveness

Today was a tour de force through my own perceptions of some of my work colleagues and also of the perceptions of my work colleagues about me.

One colleague said that I was the Tech head in the class, knowing everything about computers, she also later thought that I was a Biker too.

My perceptions of some of my colleagues have changed, finding out that they are married, living with partners.  One colleague, due to some stress related to finacial issues broke down for a short while, which always makes me feel so awkward, I always feel like I need to wrap my arms around a woman when they are crying, becoming that big strong protective person for them.

Why is it I become this person when a woman starts to cry.  I am sure that in todays era women are more than capable to look after themselves.  A few times in the last week or so there have been times like that, where I have felt the need to do that, but each time I always think that  doing such is so useless or false as it achieves very little.  However if you look a bit deeper sometimes actions are not what is required, sometimes just being there, feeling awkward is all that a person needs, and expressing your concern also helps, especially if you really do mean it.

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