Last Working Day Of The Year

So this is it, my final shift of 2005.

I would like to think it has been a good year, and in many aspect it has been.

I've found happiness, I've found sadness, I've felt joy and I've felt despair, I've had a good laugh with some of my work mates and I've had major arguments with other colleagues. I've made mistakes (especially with my spelling), I've criticised my management, and been criticised by the public, I've even been self critical. I've ranted, I've raved, I've laughed and I've loved.

I've cried and I've even giggled. I've even met other bloggers. (keep them going people). I've dieted and lost 31lbs and will lose more, and I've joined a gym to get fit and sexy (well 2 out of 3 isn't bad is it). I almost went on strike then realised I was rest day.

But mostly I've really felt enjoyment at publishing my own personal blog.

I would just like to thank all my readers for taking time to read my drivvel. And for the comments left by you out there even those that have been less then happy with my rants at management, (hang on that's what management are there for).

So time for me to sign off for the year and see you in 2006.

Right time to get going to work, then afterwards I'll be getting quietly pissed, well not quietly probably quite loudly somewhere in the Kings Cross area, (time to ask for that drink tonight a triple bukkake and coke please).

My New Years resolution is to try and grow my hair, and look like other bald people with side burns.


HAPPY NEW YEAR

Put your self on the map

It would be nice to know where my readers are from.

So why not put your name on my map.

Lookin Frappr!

Crying Man.

As i travelled into work this afternoon, I was passing through Kings Cross to get my Met train, when i came across a man in the cross alley crying.

I felt like going upto him and asking if he was ok (and with hindsight i probably should have), but he was making such an attempt not to be noticed that I didn't have the heart to embarress him.

I do hope he is ok.

Suicidal Pidgeon

I was very busy today watching a pidgeon on my CCTV cameras playing chicken with the train service.

I sat here wondering what must go through a pidgeons mind, then i realised it was the Met train that just hit it.

Pidgeon Pie anyone.

It was a quiet bank holiday night

And nothing was happening, then as i went for a relief break i promptly locked myself out of the office.

Oh dear!!!

Then the service fell down, with 2 points failures with in 45 minutes of each other.

So all of a sudden i'm wishing i'm at home and wanting to get away from here.

Lastly as we have contractors in almost every night, a security guard appears at my door asking for Mr Ken, who is the main Site Person In Charge (spic) on nights.

My reply well if you get a plane to Copenhagen you'll find him there, One totally confused security guard leaves the office.

Christmas Time

Well it's all done and dusted, all i need to do now is see the new year througha nd then i'll be happy.

I'm off to a fancy dress party as I have the weekend off. I'll post a pic of what i wear next week.

Christmas Day and Boxing Day were pleasantly spent with my family. I drove to southend and saw my kids too.

They were happy with what they got from Dad, and had a good day too.

Ah well I'm at work at the moment and its BORING.

Christmas Day

And still at work. Oh well some has to see the trains off.

At least i get to see my kids today.

21:25

Christmas Eve 2005 total people on my station at this precise moment in time: 3

1 x Station Supervisor: SS
1 x Station Assistant Multi-Functional: Booking Clerk
1 x Customer Service Assistant: CSA

As i'm typing this, 2 trains have pulled into my platforms and the total now on my station is: 3

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish all my regular and non-regular readers a Very Merry Christmas.

Don't I Feel The Fool

And no i'm not talking about groping any of the DSM's.

Basically I was wondering why I wasn't getting any comments on my blog.

Then I realised that I had accidently moderated all comments left on my blog.

If you have left a comment on my blog since November, my apologise go out to you all.

If you haven't left a comment since November "WHY NOT"!!!

Shorter Working Week

I post this in response to my colleagues post on his blog The Station Master

This is a letter i recieved from the RMT Union in response to the SWW.

Be Bold, Be BALD

Rant time about bald people

Something that really pisses me off is bald people who try to grow hair, they walk around with these tuffs of hair stuck to the side of the heads looking like someone has stuck cotton wool to there heads with velco.

And especially the fools who grow pony tails only to have a tonsure like a mad monk standing out like a sore thumb.

Being bald myself i regularly shave my head completely. But when i see these poor unfortunates who havent excepted that they are bald clinging to there last vestige of hair really saddens me.

Be Bold, Be BALD.

Shave your heads today. if not completely at least go for a number 1 hair cut.

That goes for you too Doobrie. :)

Remember a Bald Head is for life, not just for Christmas.

The Journey Home

I was chatting on the train home tonight with a British Transport Police Officer about our home beat officer who sadly passed away last week, as covered by the Station Master.

He was running the bleep test, which is running between two points before the bleep sounds.
During this exercise his heart literally burst from a heart attack, after a post mortem, it was discovered that he had, had at least 2 heart attacks prior but hadn't realized.

He was buried at Hither green on Monday. My thought are with his family at this time.

On another topic, the journey was quiet good apart from the few drunken fools around at this time of year.

As I walked through Kings Cross Mainline station, I noticed a young woman so pissed up that she was holding on for dear life to the beams outside the WAGN ticket office.

Her 2 mates were trying to pries her off the beams but she just wouldn't let go. I unfortunately laughed out loud at this and got sworn at for my troubles. Cheek.

Also just to upset my night turn colleague, who to put it bluntly is a pain in the arse, I let the contractors start work at 22:00 in the Supervisors office.

When he arrived, the poor chap had nowhere to sit or work from, as the office desks where out in the middle of the room.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

3 Shifts Left

I only have 3 shifts left at work before Christmas, but then I'm off for 2 days unlike my Colleague the Station Master.

As I'm working late turns over Christmas I told my night colleague not to come in on Christmas Eve as i'll lock up.

So i will be finishing work at 12:45ish on Christmas Morning, and going to mums for Christmas.

I get to see my kids for an hour on Christmas morning as i have to drive to Southend, and as my Ex is such a bitch, I have to take then out and about around town for an hour.

Her suggestion "oh take them to MD's" which everyone knows is closed on Christmas Day.

Thick bitch.

I'm very happy today

As you might realise from the title, this has nothing to do with work

I set my self a target of being under 16 Stone (224lbs) in time for Christmas.

At my last weigh in of the year i made it. I now weigh 15 stone 13 lbs or 223lbs, so i'm very happy today.

The Last set of nights until January

Sorry i haven't posted for a while, but i had an eventful set of nights.

All week i've had a running battle with my cleaners, talk about a crap cleaning service. However by Sunday normal service had resumed.

What with my usual amount of contractors, it was pretty hectic all week, and by this morning I was dead on my feet.

The only good thing this week was that I have invented a new drink which i'm going to ask for in the pub next time i'm out for a beer with the Station Master.

So only 3 more shifts left at work this week and then back in to work on the Tuesday. At least i have New Years Eve off.

You've heard of Dogging

Why not try Toothing:


Bored UK commuters are arranging impromtu rumpy-pumpy via their Bluetooth phones and PDAs.
The new craze - known as "Toothing" and certain to displace dogging as the sexual flavour of the month - began on a London commute when a flirtatious bluejacking escalated into a meeting in the railway toilets.

According to a report on Reuters the first toother was a chap called Jon, who also goes by the exceedingly clever handle "Toothy Toothing". He says that he was flirting with a fellow commuter via Bluetooth for a couple of days on his normal train journey. Eventually, she suggested nipping into the lav for a quickie, and toothing was born.
Oh, the glamour.

Bizarre as this sounds, Jon estimates that there are thousands (yes, thousands) of toothers on trains in the UK. The message boards on his site are certainly busy.
We at Vulture Central were a tad suspicious about this being the latest, greatest way for geeks to meet girls. After all, look at the profile of the classic early adopter and it is far more likely that there will be more boys with toys than girls. (Please note: we said likely, not certain. No letters, thanks.)

A quick scan of the toothing message boards finds more than one posting supporting this theory: "Looking for gay sex in Amsterdam Airport" says one. Another, calling himself "InterSlutty" (most droll) says that the London to Brighton line is best, but adds that he is "Not sure about straight toothing, though".
But this isn't just high tech cottaging: girls can play too. Jon says that part of the fun is working out whether you are flrting with a girl or a guy. "Steve", another enthusiast, says he met up with a girl through toothing. He told Reuters the hobby fills him "with a real buzz". Perhaps he has not figured out how to disable the vibrate function on his phone.

Fancy getting jiggy with it with anyone on your commute?

Perish the thought, but hey, it takes all sorts!!!

In case you are wondering

We are one of a number of stations having a refit, and as you can see from the pictures, we need it.

These pictures are all of the same room.

Picture No1 is how the room should look, with dry walls.
Picture No2 & 3 are what our walls actually look like.
Picture N04 is condensation running down the inside door of a Station Switch Room.

During the summer we are lucky enough to have a water fall, running down the rear wall which gives us the only station on the Underground to have an indoor sauna.

More Contractors

This is my office at 2:30 am this morning.

My station is one of the lucky stations to be going through a refurb, thats why there have been so many contractors on my station over night. Alledgelly, we are supposed to be moving into a new office by this weekend, but I can't see it happening.

Getting back to Contractors.

I think I put a jinx on myself this week.

I said yesterday that I was hoping for minimum contractor involvement, well it wasn't to bad.

ONLY 78 of the buggers.

So did i get any rest, no i bloody wel didn't.

Well its now 11:20 so time for bed said zebadee.

Night Night.

Mistaken Identity

I almost called the British Transport Police (BTP) last night, as I thought one of my contractors was drunk.

All contractors have an ID Permit to allow them to book on at stations.

One contractor came to my office last night, and when I asked for his Entry Permit, I was told "but you checked it last night".

"No I didn't as I wasn't here".

"Yes you were I spoke to you last night" (Monday) says the contractor.

"Er no you didn't as I've only started my nights tonight (Tuesday).

"Oh" says the contractor "Sorry you look like the SS from last night.

Now this has got me intrigued, as my colleague is obviously my mirror image.

"You Look the same" says he.

Considering my colleague is around 6` Pony tailed hair style, and a beard, and I'm about 6` 3" clean shaven and a SHAVED BALD HEAD. I would like to see where he gets the resemblance from.

His Reply, "Well your both tall"

I then slapped my forehead and crashed to the floor in utter shock.

Welcome to our world

So finally a Duty Station Manager has got on the scene, and started his/her own blog.

Well if he/she reads any of ours, he/she will probably find out how disenchanted us Ststion Supervisors are about management and life in general on the underground.

But enough complaining and welcome.

Back to nights from tonight. oh well almost christmas and hopefully the contractor involvement this week will be at a minimum. Probably not but here I go again

Feeling Shattered

I did 2/3rds of my Christmas shopping on Friday,even helping out my ex-wife with getting some presents for our kids, only because she couldn't get them in Southend.

Yesterday I over slept and was supposed to be on my way to Southend by 10am, if it hadn'[t been for a nusiance call waking me 12:15 god only knows what time i would have got there.

So after picking up my kids i headed off to London to take them to see my mother (lovely lady) and we stayed over night, I had to share the spare bed with my 6 year old son, never again, I was kicked in delicate places, slapped in my sleep, made to sleep on the edge of the bed.
This from a bloke who is 6`3" tall. NEVER AGAIN I SAY!!! ok until next time they stay at my place then.

I finally got home from dropping my kids off in Southend at 23:45 this evening, and i'm off to the gym tomorrow. So i'll be tired again tomorrow, but roll on the nights i say.

Get The Abbey Shabby

I was out Christmas shopping today, and got all of my presents except for 5. So I was running short of money and went into the Abbey to with draw some more out.

I entered the Abbey at 13:30 and over 20 minutes later I finally was serviced by a cretin saying "SORRY TO KEEP YOU".

Well if your so sorry why don't you put more bloody staff on the friggin window to serve.

Oh dear now i sound like a passenger now!!!

Sorry for the rant, but the best thing was to happen next.

I was next in the queue of 20 plus people when finally another cashier decided to pop round the corner to open a second till, only to find out she couldn't serve me as another dozy prat had taken the key to her till and she could only take deposits.

AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!


On another note I would like to thank the readers of my blog as I just noticed that i had over 11,000 hits on this page.

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Dieting The TV Way

I was watching a program's on TV tonight called THE BIGGEST LOSER UK.

I have been watching it for the past few weeks, and after the week I just had on my diet, it's given me one hell of a buzz just watching it.

Basically the program's is about 12 contestants who are all overweight, every week they have a weigh off against each other, in the beginning there were 2 groups. Red v Blues, then after 6 weeks they are all up against each other, tonight was crucial as the last three left are all in with the chance of winning £25,000.

During the weigh in, one of the contestants was a re-entry by the name of Nat.

She really pissed me off, because as one of the blue team members and a re-entry she is exempt from the final result tonight.

One of her team members Aaron knocked out a terrific weight lose of 15lbs in one week.
congrats to the weight lose Aaron.

However Nat was really smug about it, and said in a side line interview that all the contestants in the final weigh off will all be blue members.

Then up stepped Mark, who is the only member of the Reds left in, and he pulled off a stunning weight lose of 17 yes 17lbs.

I was so happy for Mark and it made me realize that I might have had a shit week on my own diet, but I can still loose it.

Now go on Mark and win the competition.

Another week of earlies bites the dust

Sorry I haven't blogged much this week, but I've just been to tired. What with getting up at 5 every morning and not sleeping properly, I feel shattered.

The good news is I have the weekend off now, and I get to see my kids on Saturday. This will be the last time I see them this year, as they are at there mums all Christmas. And I'm with my family. Oh the joy of being a single man.

Because of various things this week I have been getting home every night late, Monday was because of a trackside fire at Cricklewood which suspended my service home (see even we get effected too).

Tuesday I got held up at work filling paperwork after a young handicapped woman was caught up in the doors of a train. Much to her distress.

Wednesday I thought hooray I will be able to get away a bit early. However my new Group Station Manager put that on hold when he told me that they were having a meeting at 14:30.

Today it was physiotherapy as I'm suffering for a bad back and a trapped nerve in my leg.

But hey at least I finished for the week.

Oh and the worst thing is, I gained 4lbs on my diet, I was wondering what went wrong.

Then I realized it was probably the Chinese, Kebab, McDonald's, loads of bread.

However I'm back into it from today.

Sunday Night and the 16 hour shift

I walked into work on Sunday night to find out, that one of my fellow Supervisor colleagues had, had a brain wave whilst i was off on leave.

Because we have on average 60+ contractors a night and my station takes on more of a building site look. He decided in his infinate wisdom to ask for a hard hat for the Station Supervisor.

I don't mind that, as safety comes first, however I am not going to look like a pratt wearing this.

Back To Work Tomorrow

Well i've been off for the week, and I've had a pretty relaxing time of it.

But I'm back tomorrow, straight into a 16 hour shift. However it's my own choice as it saves me getting up extra early to drive into London.

So this is my last leave off 2005 and now i have to wait until February 2006, can i wait or will i go sick.

Only the future can tell.

Looking for a Search Engine

Try

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Ripping Yarn

As I sit here by my PC wondering why haven't I gone to bed yet, the truth is I'm actually bored, and can't sleep so I've been ripping (copying) tunes onto hard drive.

And I was actually pleased I did, as I've come across some great tunes I forgot were in my pile of CD's.

Try Gene: Speak To Me Someone, Stereophonics: a 1000 Trees, Faithless: Insomnia (I know that feeling), Black: A Wonderful Life and The Cult: She Sells Sanctuary (with air drums & guitars included).

I forgot how much I liked these songs as I'm sat here with my headphones on, singing to myself and forgetting I was singing quiet loudly (sorry neighbours).

So apart from my usual downloads of music, I have a differing taste in music, basically you name it I'll listen to it. Except Ragga.

So now I have to remember what I downloaded on to my PC before and to make matters better, I received an email off of my #1 daughter with a list of stuff I have to download for her.

My kids are lucky, they listen to alsorts, as they get it from me and there mum. My Ex is generally into Garage music. (Why she hangs around car parks I'll never know, and no I'm not meaning DOGGING either) and I'm generally into the heavier stuff, anything from The Cult through to Slipknot. So the kids get a different choice. I'm lucky, my son is taking after dad's choices in music.

So in the end I get asked by my kids to download all sorts. Which keeps me sort of upto date with the current scene.

Daughters List:

1 Eminem: When I'm Gone
2 Black Eyed Peas: I'm Gone
3 Jay z & Linkin Park: Encore
4 The Game: Dream
5 Madonna: Hung Up
6 Pitbull (who???): She's Freaky
8 Pussycat Dolls (hmmm tasty): Stick Wit It
9 Pussycat Dolls (again): Don't Cha
10 The Game: Hate It Or Love It

I'm just waiting for the next 10 tunes to make up a disk.

Now that's just buggered up blogger spell check.

So time for bed I think. Nite Nite

Last bit I'm still on my diet and doing well. I'm current just over a pound off my 2 stone mark, or 28lbs to some.

G Mail and another transit sytem

I've been chatting on Gmail to a young lady in San Diego after she contacted me through my Gmail Address, and I said i,m thinking of leaving the UK for California and have they got a Metro System there. So i might apply to Metropolitian Transit System and see if they have any jobs availiable.

Just think sunshine and no snow.

On a serious note if you want to add me to GMail Messenger contact me: TheGreatOrme@gmail.com