Pay Rise in April

We had a pay rise of 3.7% this month, which is a shock in its self. Yes we do have a pay rise every year but we normally have to wait for our April pay rise until October or November.

This is the first time in 17 years of actually getting my pay rise at the start of a Tax Year.

The thing about getting our rise in October or November is nobody actually knows when we are going to get it, the amount of speculation between staff is quiet amusing.
Are we getting it this month or next, normally the next.

I know some people out there are going to think 3.7%, thats a lot, not considering i have 3 kids to maintain.

Yes i know other people out there have kids too, but unfortunately due to unforseen circumstances, I don't see my kids every day so when i do I spoil them like any dad would.

Tale of the DEFECATIVE TRAIN

Whilst giving a Meal Relief to a colleague. A female customer walks up to us and says that she has just travelled from another station, and some one has had a POOH in the train that just left.

So i used the tracker (see my colleague The Station Master for a picture and explaination for this equipment) to see where the train is.

So I rang through to the LC (see previous blogs) and explained the situation, he told me he would get the train searched for the offending POOH.

A little while later, the phone rings and its the LC informing me that the train ghas been taken out of service.

Isn't it really nice to know that the some of the travelling public are such nice and decent people.

We don't use the word fire.

Well it was a quiet day until 12:45, when all of a sudden the service fell over.

There's a report of a smouldering (can't say fire no more) at Euston Sqare Station, and the service has been suspended between Edgware Road and Aldgate for the H&C and Circle Lines, and Baker Street and Aldgate on the Metropolitian line.

5 minutes later we're on the move again, and is back to normal service until we get a call, saying there's a DMT (underground jargon for Duty Manager Trains) to Euston Square.

So after copious amounts of fire extinguishers being used 5 in total, we're on the the move again.

Next thing is the call goes out, we're suspended as the London Fire Brigade (to the general public) or LFCDA (London Fire and Civil defence Authority) to us underground staff have arrived at Euston Square and aren't to happy why it took 5 extinguishers to put out the smouldering. SO SERVICED COMPLETELY SUSPENDED.

Almost an hour later 13:53 to be exact we are finally on the move

Hooray.

American Films.

I'm sorry if this going to offend anybody, but I just watched a film on sky called THE RATS.
Why is it that when American Producers/Directors get and idea to remake a classic book like THE RATS they can't keep it to the book but have to add bits that have nothing to do with the book.

THE RATS is actually a book by an English author called James Herbert, (http://www.james-herbert.co.uk) he is an English born writer and all his books are set around real places in England.

Other authors i recommend that you read are:

Raymond E Fiest http://www.raymondfeistbooks.com
Terry Goodkind http://www.terrygoodkind.com
David Gemmell http://www.davidgemmell.com
David Eddings http://www.eddingschronicles.com

These are 5 authors who's books i think would make great films

What an OUTLOOK on life.

Oh what fun it was today at work, absolutely nothing happened, one of the most boring shifts i've had the pleasure of working.

The only thing that actually did happen was a Station Supervisor at Canary Wharf station, whilst in a disgruntled mood with his GSM, emailled the whole of the London Underground network and completely bolloxed OUTLOOK EXPRESS. (woohoo) That's one email to over 10'000 people in one hit. Now that's what i called disgruntled.

What a weekend off it was

I have just had one of the best weekends of my recent life.
It was my sons 6th birthday and as i'm divorced now, my son's birthday was lucky enough to fall on my Friday rest day.

So i finished work on Thursday evening around 5pm, and off I pottered to collect my kids from my Ex, I arrive at Southend around 7pm and as soon as my kids see me they were out of the car and into my arms, as I only get to see my kids every 6 weeks, I try to have as much fun as I can with them.

So when I finally get home to my own place with my kids it's 10pm and we are all shattered, and after a quick pizza my kids go to bed in my double bed whilst i get the sofa bed (are'nt I genorous).

Friday for me starts at 4:40am when my middle daughter decides she can't sleep and joins me on the sofa bed.

I love having my kids with me, but one thing I've never liked is, as i'm a bit of a large man, is having any of my kids in bed with me (fear of crushing them).

So I'm awake early (my daughter having fallen asleep cuddled up to me) and all i'm waiting for is my son to wake up so we can start the party early.

Hey presto my son and the eldest are rudely awakened by there nan at 8:30 with the HAPPY BIRTHDAY call. But as my kids are still all asleep, I told my mum i'll call her back when there all awake.

Less the 30 seconds later, all of my kids are awake and my son is tearing his presents apart, to get at the gifts. (and yes I did get him to ring his nan)

A special thank you goes to my Big Sis for the money that i used to get my son some sandels with.

For the remainder of the day we drove over to my girlfriends and had a lovely time at her house.

Saturday rolls along with a surprise for my son.

BOUNCY CASTLE TIME now i guess your wondering who is the bigger kid, me or my son :)

So it was bouncy castle and also BBQ time with a few friends over for my son to have fun with.

Sunday is finally here and my muscles have all seized up from jumping on the bouncy castle.
I took my kids down to see there Nan and had a lovely dinner with there nan, And i drop them back at there mums for 8pm.

Monday was just a rest and relaxation day for me. To catch up with all the energy I had expended over the weekend.

East, West, North, South, Outer, Inner, Clockwise, anti-Clockwise

Going on a colleagues blog,

Did you know that the Circle line travels east, west, north and south, depending where you are on the Circle.

Going from Edgware Road to Liverpool Street is Eastbound, From Liverpool Street to Tower Hill is Southbound, from Tower Hill to Gloucester Road is Westbound and finally Gloucester Road to Edgware Road is Northbound, or to sum it up this is the Outer Rail, Clockwise service.

Now if you reverse this, Its called the Inner Rail, Anti Clockwise service. How imaginative is that.

So next time you here theres a problem on the clockwise, outer rail service now you'll know a bit more info about it.

Peaceful late turns, there killing me

So far apart from a bit of action on Friday and Monday these have been the most boring set of lates i've done in ages.

No arguements, No drunks, No managers being a friggin pain in the arse.

CHRIST I'M BORED, roll on tomorrow as after work i'm popping round and staying at my dear old mums for the night.

Wow an early night for once.

This is the one thing i hate about this weeks shift pattern, generally i finsh a week of nights on a Tuesday, have 2 days of and then start a whole shift of 8 late turns, which is a bind i'll tell you.

My body clock has been screwed up for a number of years because of the shift patterns i work.

So getting back to my late turns, Depending which SS is relieving me (i'll rephrase that i think), depending which SS is turning up for the night turn, depends on what time i get home.

Unfortunately Thursday to Monday night I have a so called colleague who doesn't work with the programme and normally takes me off at 22:45 which unfortunately for me is a bit late for me to get an earlier train home (as i commute over 70 miles to work). So when the fool is on duty i normally get home at 01:00

However from Tuesdays I have the gentleman of the underground on nights, who takes me off at 22:05 which means i can actually get home by 23:20.

I just got home

Well i did a 16 hour shift yesterday and boy what a shift.

The first half went really peacefully, nothing happened to make my morning shift go any quicker.

Then guess what.

17:50. Theres a knock at my office door.

Much to my surprise its the ERU again. Hello i says, what are you back for, yes its another TSR to be put in exactly the same place as the one on Friday.

So its back to working for a living part ii.

I was lucky this time, because of the practice run on Friday, I knew exactly where it was this time and hey presto, services are returned and the ERU off site with in 45 minutes,

Told you it got better.

Right now time to go to work again, I wonder whats in store for today.

Oh and my colleague from the next station missed all the fun again, the lucky bugger is on holidays.

Nice Weekend

Saturday

Well after doing a 16 hour shift on Friday night, i got home on Saturday morning, and instead of hitting the sack straight away I stayed awake until 11:30, which is the norm for me after a night shift.

So i awoke at 3pm and make moves over to my girlfriends place as we are off out for the night to a school disco, and what a good night it was, i was finally able to really let my hair done after a week of nights and a few other problems in between.

Sunday

I had a lovely restful day on Sunday, I did nothing until my girlfriend got home from work, I cooked us dinner and then went to bed early ready for the next day.

The only problem with having this weekend off is that i knew i was going to face another 16 Hours shift on Monday morning.

Me Uncovered

This is what i looked like at 07:30 this morning after a hard 16 hour shift, ok I admit that after the trains departed, I had no contractors, so a peaceful night was had by all.

I Worked For A Living Once

Well my 15:00 shift started off peacefully, when all of a sudden i get a phone call my fellow SS at the station next door, telling me the ERU (underground jargon for Emergency Response Unit), are on the way to his station, as there is a broken rail between his station and mine.

So imagine my surprise when the ERU turned up at my station instead.

As is the norm, there is a mix up in communications and the information we are given is a broken rail on the inner rail side. After speaking with the DOM he confirms its actually the outer rail that is defective, and it's not a broken rail but a twisted rail.

So this is when I finally get to do some real work for once, and everything goes into auto pilot mode.

As I've said in my first post I've worked for LUL for almost 17 years and in that time I've seen a hell of a lot of things most people would not believe.

So basically the ERU are with me for just over an hour, they have ridden on the front of a train, trying to find this rail by a measurement of 45.2km, which means absolutely nothing to me the ERU or my fellow SS, after some baffled looks from us all we finally realise that the fault isn't even at my station but at the first station that my colleague is at.

So off the ERU go again, the first pair of ERU travel to the site and bolt a notice onto the sleepers to all Train Ops, telling them there is a 10mph TSR (temporary speed restriction) in place, after the first to are clear, the second 2 ERU travel to a distance 100 meters prior to the actual fault and bolt a 10 mph sign onto the sleepers as this is the start of the speed restriction.

After a bit of research, i actually found out where the 45.2km came from. This is the distance from where the track fault is to Ongar Station.

I believe Ongar is used as it is the furthest station from central London on the Underground network.

Short Codes made easy

Incase you might be wondering LUL work on a simple system of giving everything just initials.

So here are just a few that week deal with everyday.

GSM: Group Station Manager - Our over all boss

DSM: Duty Station Manger - The bosses underlings

SS: Station Supervisor - The men in blue who are in charge of the station during there shift on a day to day basis, making sure the traveling public, staff, tenants and contractors are safe.

SSMF: Station Supervisor Multi Functional - Exactly the same as an SS but they work from a booking office.

SAMF: Station Assistant Multi Functional - Your lovely friendly ticket seller.

CSA: Customer Service Assistant - The people who you first have a go at when your service is bad and who work mainly on the gateline and on platforms.

LC: Line Controller - The man who sits in an office at Baker Street and runs the whole of the Metropoliation, the Hammersmith and City, and part of the Circle line,

DOM: Duty Operations Manager - Sit near or around the LC and makes sure there are no cock ups by the controllers.

TO: Train Operator - The train driver

TO: Technical Officer - The TO deals with the day to day signalling problems around the underground. Don't worry, each line has the own TO's.

PUT: Person under a train - the answer is in the title. So far I have had to deal with 2 one unders in my time on the underground.

ERU: Emergency Response Unit - They deal with the day to day major emergencies, like broken rails and a person under a train.

LIA: Line Information Assistant - These are alledgely supposed to give us up to the minute information, depending who you deal with, you get 2 great information assistants and the new bloke who is a dickhead.

2 other blogers

In case you might be wondering, there are 2 more blog artists out here, who are also Station Supervisors, for LUL (underground jargon for London Underground Limited)

You can read there blogs at
http://www.thestationlogbook.blogspot.com/
http://onthedistrict.blogspot.com/

The first blog is from a fellow SS who work at a station next to mine, Although his station is busier then mine we each have different problems,
The second blog is from a colleague on the District Line.

So i hope you enjoy our 3 different points of view of life on the underground, and dealing with day to day life as we know it.

16 Hours to go

As i'm off out tomorrow night i needed to ask a couple of favours from two of my colleagues at work.

So today and because of the Drugs and Alcohol at works act, Monday(I always leave a good day for my body system to recover from a drinking session,) because i would rather keep my job then loose it over a few beers, and incase you might be wondering NO I don't drink a lot, as a matter of fact i still have beers in my fridge at home from before christmas.

I will be doing two 16 hour shifts in the space of 4 days.

Today i will leave home at 13:20 and not arrive back until 08:30 tomorrow morning, and what i found out yesterday was that I will have some trainee's with me too, all cramped into and office which is about the same size as the box room in a house!!! Oh Joy.

Whilst on Monday i will be getting up at 04:30 and not be getting home until 01:00 Tuesday morning!!! Oh Double Joy.

A Belch from the past or Ginger Pubes part II

I was chatting on the phone to a colleague and fellow blogger, when all of a sudden my colleague let loose this horrendous BURP down the phone which stunned him and sent me off in gails of laughter.

Unfortunately I do have a very bizarre sense of humour and as i have mentioned in a previous entry it runs on a different tangent to most things.

My colleague just didn't know what to say.

Ah Gate Line Duties

GOLDEN EARRINGS

Whilst covering the gateline, to give my CSA a meal break. I was approached by a lovely Brazilian woman who told me that I have lovely earrings.
There has been a lot of contention with some of my past managers about my earrings, I have been wearing my earrings since i was 16 years of age and now some 21 years later i'm still wearing them.

Some bright spark up at head office obviously had to much time on there hands one day and decided that we need a new uniform code of conduct, and placed having earrings on the list of things to interfer with.

So needless to say IT WAS WRITTEN that all staff are only allowed to wear either hooped or studded earrings. As i have 3 earrings my managers always said i had to take 2 of them out, and me being the law abidding Supervisor i thought "yeah right"!!!

Now after some 4 GSM's (underground jargon for Group Station Manager. GSM's are in over all charge of a number of station, not just one) I have finally met one who is worth calling a manager.
The GSM in question is the only Manager who went out of there way to look in the earring matter properly, and told me that i was ok to wear 3 earrings as it doesn'tr actually say how many you may wear. I wonder what would be said if my manager also knew i have both my nipples pierced as well.

LOST TICKET.

Whilst i was still on the gateline a young woman on departing my station, threw her rubbish away in one of the rubbish bags at the top the stairs near my gateline.

I thought as it was a paper sandwich bag that you normally get from a Deli it was nice for someone to dispose of there rubbish properly for once, instead of leaving it on the platform or on a bench.

All of a sudden the young woman in question stops dead in her tracks, turns around and walks back to the bin and retrieves her paper bag, I'm now sitting in the GLAP (underground jargon for GATE LINE ATTENDANTS POSITION, ticket collectors box to you and me) looking perplexed and confused.

All of a sudden the woman rifles through the paper bag and retrieves her ticket, which she has thrown away at the same time.

Late Turns

Well its Thursday afternoon, and it the start of another week of grief , sorry i mean work.
Time to deal with those lovely public, so i will let you know later on tonight when i get home at around 01:30 how i got on.

Rest Days Alledgedly

As i said in a previous post, today and Wednesday are my rest days. Well Tuesday is supposed to be a rest day but as i finsh at 07:30 its a bit hard to call it that.

What i normally do on my first rest after nights, is catch up on my housework, potter around the house, watching TV, playing the playstation and until just recently watch Most Haunted on LivingTV and then hit the sack.

But as i have a lovely new woman in my life, i now tend to do my housework and drive over to my girlfriends and spend 2 days there before coming home on a Thursday to get ready for starting and 8 day shift of late turns.

Tuesday night i took my girlfriend and her 2 girls out for a celebratory meal, it was in a lovely quaint little pub, by a river.

On Wednesday far from having a rest day i was doing electrical work all day putting in a ring main circuit (which means as you install one socket after another, you take an electical wire from the main board or consumer unit and run the cable from one socket to another socket, all the way around around and back to the main board, hence the word ring).

Then i just relaxed for the remainder of the evening until going to bed.

Have you ever been happy to receive a letter from a Solicitor

Well its Tuesday and i've finished a week of nights, and as i walked through the door to my home i received a really pleasant surprise.

My Decree Absolute was waiting for me on the floor, this might sound a bit sad but, I skipped and jumped around my flat like a little school boy.
The last time i felt this happy was at the birth of my children.

The first thing i did was ring my girlfriend (sounds strange for a man of my age), and told her the good news to her answer phone as she was at college.

How to upset a colleague

You might have guessed from my blog that i'm fellow who sometimes works on a different tangent.

However

One of my fellow colleagues who has a blog too always gets upset with me when i mention "GINGER PUBES". I know i will receive a phone call from him tonight and a mouth full of abuse.

But he know i do it only to wind him up

Customer Complaints

The one thing that all Supervisors love are customer complaints.

However on a particular lovely shift a customer came up to me to complain about the train service.Unfortunately I was in a fairly frisky mood so in the end I was left with one very confused passenger,

Customer: I want to make a complaint

Me: You want to complain, look what i have to wear, this nice blue uniform, and look at these boots and the way they make me walk(paced back and forth in front of the customer), and i can't do a thing with my hair. Have you seen these bags under my eyes. My kids kept me awake al night, oh and getting in to work was a joke too.

Me: So how can i help you

Last Night Tonight

Ah the joys of a week of nights.

It's almost another week over and just the final one to go. I have been driven mad with the complexity of sitting on a station all night with nothing more interesting then as station cleaner for company this week.

I'm looking forward to my have my 2 rest days on Tuesday and Wednesday, so i don't have to face the vigours of work.

The inane drivvel of a couple of stuntmen.

Well its Friday morning and after tonight i'll be on the downhill part of week, which means that 4 shifts are over and only 3 to go.

Not a lot has happened since tuesday morning, most of my shifts apart from the Wednesday morning have been peaceful.

Apart from Bozzo and Beaky the 2 witless drunks on my eastbound platform, who for shear stupidness pretend to be stuntmen (and i use the turn loosely). So Bozzo and Beaky decided to pick each other up (one at a time i might add, laws of gravity do prevail on the Underground although its sometimes it's like a black hole for tourists) and promptly throw themselves at my walls on the platforms, (why did lemmings now come to mind).

So whislt pondering life at these to clowns, I promptly to the aghastment to my collegue who is on the phone to me, us the P.A. and politely inform these to clowns. "STOP BEING SUCH A PAIR OF PRATTS"

All hell breaks loose.

Well i've opened up my station ready and eager to deal with those oh so friendly people, the travelling public. It's all quiet ( i knew i shouldn't have said that) when all hell breaks loose at Whitechapel.

Firstly 5:15am an annoucement comes over the BBMS (internal speaker from head office). Because of a late surrender (underground jargon for the contractors have buggered up again and they haven't finished on the track yet) the Hammersmith and City line is suspended between Moorgate and Whitechapel and the Circle line is suspended between Moorgate and Mansion House.

At 5:21am this is amended to include the District line being suspended between Plaistow and Mansion house. with and EROS (underground jargon for Estmated resumption of service) given as 5:30am.

At 5:23am this is now amended to Hammersmith and City suspended Barking to Moorgate, District Suspended Plaistow to South Kensington and the Circle line suspended Moorgate to South Kensington with and EROS of 5:35am.

At 5:25am the Circle and District reverted back to the original plan with the EROS remaining the same.

Guess what 5:34am Eros now 6:00am.

At 5:50 the Metropolitian Line was feeling left out so decided to terminate all Aldgate trains at Harrow on the Hill.

Finally the service resumed at 6:50am, just in time to get my train home.

Not the start of another week.

Well i started my week of 7 nights and only 6 more to go, (and in case you might wonder, all the station staff on LUL work a 5 day week spread out over 7 days). Yes i know you will be shocked, but unfortunately when the stations close for the night, not all staff go home, as this is when all the major works takes place.

So I started my shift with all the expectation of a peaceful nights work (I never use the QUIET word when i'm there) !!!. And hey presto at 1 am the contractors promptly arrive to spoil my shift.

1st there is the AC man ( air condintioning) who chats so much i can't even do my own work.
2nd a large gang ok 4 men turn up to work in the tunnels. 3rd is the man from the fire alarm system installing a fire supression system for our tenants. And finally the men from Cubic who i dread working on my station as the are here to clean the UTS gates (ticket machines), only because the machines at my station work fine until they arrive, and promptly crash about 2 hours into the working day.

So what with all these contractors on site, and me ringing my colleague at another station just next door and hurling abuse at him most of the night, boredom finally settles in by 1:05am.

you can read his rambling blog at http://www.thestationlogbook.blogspot.com