One More Shift Left

So I will be up tomorrow at 04:30 and on my way to work know full well that after 3pm tomorrow I wont see my building site for 3 whole weeks.

So what will I do, I haven't got a clue, might take some photos, seduce a couple of woman, play the fool, and enjoy my 3 weeks off.

The only bad point, it's my birthday on the 15th and I found out that my kids will be away with there mum on my birthday in the Isle of Wight. But such is life, as I had them on hers.

I might blog, I might not we shall see.

They Broke My Station...

I go away for a for a few days, and look what they did...

How To Cook

EGGS

The Colour PURPLE (And NO Not The Film)

It was a strange day at work today, everywhere I looked people were wearing Purple.

During the evening peak I must have seen well over 100 people wearing the colour purple today.

It came to the point that I was pointing the colour, every time i saw someone wearing purple, much to the amusement of one CSA, and much to the agreivement of the other CSA.

This all started off with my seeing one woman dressed head to toe in purple, and as a side note she even had a purple hand bag.

Purple must be the IN colour this year.

The only bad thing about it was I kept singing the Purple People Eater to myself all night.

Over Slept

After spending my rest day after nights messing with my PC all day, I finally hit the sack after having no sleep since Monday evening.

Even though i felt tired I was overtired and couldn't settle down. So I started reading my book, and after 5 minutes, my eyes started to close. Off went the light, and into a coma I went.

08:30 my alarm started to sound, and I thought, sod it and turned it off.

All of a sudden I heard a noise outside my house, my eyes flashed open and I looked at the clock.

13:15 argh:

20 minutes to wash, dress and get my train to get me into work.I made it with 2 minutes to spare, so I settled down on the train and 1 was 15 minutes early Phew...

Fecked Up Rest Day

I arrived home this morning feeling refreshed after a week of nights.

I sat down at my PC to check my emails, and it promptly went bang, black screen of death, flutter flutter, ping.

Bollox I thought, thats all i need.

So after reformatting the bloody thing I had practically no drivers, no modem, no sound, no nothing. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

So I just gave it all up and took it to the shop, 118 faults later, you name it viruses (bloody kids), componants missing and everything gone.

So much for a rest day.

Totally Confused

I just got off the phone to my colleague who works at my station.

After speaking to him about my station, I put the phone down and thought, wtf is he on and wtf is he on about.

I can't really go into it because I still don't know what he said, (he has an A level in gibberish i'm almost certain) something about slip tests, cleaners, contractors, platforms, contracts manager and ticket office, and in no particular order.

Roll On Saturday

It's annual leave time again, so I only have to wait 5 more shifts and one of which is an O/T shift (god bless the 35 hour week, the biggest cock up of rosters and coverage by LUL in present history) then i can get my body clock back into shape.

I'm also happy that I'm on leave for my birthday too. So hopefully will have my kids for that weekend, and have a nice weekend, maybe even a BBQ if it's warm enough.

Blogger V Wordpress

I had a little go at wordpress today, and although the Old Station Master swears by it, it only confused me and I swore at it instead.

I have been having fun screwing with my template, and by screwing with it, god only knows what I do to get things working.

So my little experiment failed and long live this one.

I would like to apologise for all my tinkering and tampering, I was looking for a different template, I would like a decent 3 column template that even I can use.

Service Information Update:

Not to say that i was bored tonight, but I had to find something to do at 02:00 keep myself smiling.

Engineering Information Follows

Because of planned engineering works taking place this weekend:

There is no service on the entire Hammersmith & City line.
There is no service on the Metropolitan Line between Baker Street and Aldgate.
There is no service on the Circle Line between Baker Street and Liverpool Street via Kings Cross only.

There is no service on the Northern Line between Camden Town and Kennington via Charing Cross.
There is no service on the Piccadilly Line between Wood green and Cockfosters.

There is no Westbound service on the Central Line between Newbury Park and Leytonstone.
And no service on the entire Waterloo & City Line.

Or for the official version just click HERE

Friday Before Home Time

It was 05:00 and the day had just started and pop, Kings Cross didn't open because of defective fire equipment, but surprise surprise within four minutes we were up and running again,life was fine and peaceful until 06:00when the Northern Line decided to fall over, but luckily only minor delays were occurring.

At 06:15 as I sat and pondered my next coffee the pager bleeped and thephone rang, oh dear I thought, and I was right to think that way, because atthat precise moment the Circle Line had just been suspended in both directions between Edgware Road and Aldgate via Victoria because of multiple signal failure in the Gloucester Road area.
Then like a bolt from the blue the District Line thought that it would come out in sympathy with the CircleLine and suspended itself eastbound only from Earls Court to Embankment.

By 06:20 the Circle Line had been suspended throughout, and the DistrictLine still suspended eastbound.

Good news finally arrived at by 06:50 the District Line had resumed to severe delays (Good news I hear you say, he must be mad) but the Circle Line was still suspended.

So the PA was rattling out, there were no passenger complaints, and all was happy in my peaceful little world.

It was then that I knew that I was very very tired from lack of sleep as Iwas writing all this crap.

Tattoos And Piercing's

One thing I didn't expect to be discussing tonight was Tattoo and Piercing's, however as I have a few of both I started chatting with a contractor tonight about his tattoos, as he has a large tribal tattoo on his arm.

We started talking about pain thresholds and which tattoo hurt most, all of a sudden he tells me that he had a small English Rose tattooed on his chest after England won the rugby.
Next thing he tells me that it hurt more then when he had his nipple pierced, now I'm sat at work wondering how the hell I got onto that topic, I'm talking about tattoo's he's on about piercing's.

Saying that I have been pondering getting another tattoo on my left arm, but I'm not sure what to get, suggestions are welcome, and no train related or rude ones.

Phew...

After piss balling about with my template for the past few hours, ok since 3 am this morning.
I finally got the icons in the place that i want them.

As you can probably tell I'm a genius with codes (as in i got very lucky).

Last night at work was fairly peaceful apart from a few contractors. The only real problem I had was when one of my contractors decided to bring down a gas canister onto the platform whilst trains were still running.

This is a big NO NO.

I spoke severely with the Person in Charge (PiC), who suitably bollocked his workman (I will say this now I am not a politically correct person, so I will call a workman a workman not a work person) and advised him not to do it again.

As this had put my back up slightly, I decided that I would go over his method statement and Hot Works Permit thoroughly, much to the point that the PiC was sweating by the time he left the office.

Any way as I'm supposed to be asleep and after leaving work late through my own accord (I was gas bagging) i think I'll hit the comfort zone.

Disturbing Sort Of Day

I hit the sack about 9:30 this morning which is early for me.

12:21 I'm sound asleep when my eyes flash open in a mirco-second, what had disturbed me I wondered.

I checked my home phone nobody rang, I checked my mobile no calls or texts (sad life really), so now I'm lying in bed wondering, when ....... my next door neightbour just happens to be doing something in her bedroom, DDDDDDDDdddddrrrrrrrrrrr go the hammer drill into the wall.

So now I'm trying to get to sleep with a great big drill attacking the other side of the wall.

After 15 minutes I dozed back off, and at 16:10 my niece rang me, then panics as she forgot I was working nights this week, to ask me what times do the last tube trains run, and what about National Rail.

I told her the general times any time between 00:00 and 01:00 for tubes but not sure about National Rail.

SO it's 16:25 and I'm lying in bed awake, so being the sort of uncle I am, I get up and check the details for my niece as I have the timetable for her trains home already, and call her back.

Oh she says I wont be coming home until 3 in the morning, do you know what night buses I could get.

I realised after I wrote this that it sounded like i was annoyed with my niece. Far from it i enjoy hearing from my nieces and nephews.

Nights And The Pratt On The Train

I hadn't even arrived at work and I had a clash with an over indulgent England fan.

I jumped on the train at Kings Cross to travel to work, where I come ear to ear with a drunken pratt blasting an air horn in the carraige, I'm feeling tired and ratty, having woken up at 8:45 this morning, so this was a great start to the night.

All the passenger are looking pissed off, the fan is acting the fool and I have a headache to kill.

"OI F**KWIT" I shouted, "will you stop making so much fucking noise because, no only are you pissing off your fellow passengers your really fucking me off too".

A bemused look from the football fan and all of a sudden I'm facing an agressive drunk, (which with me being a big fellow doesn't really bother me). It wasn't until he noticed that I was wearing my work uniform that he quietened down.

The only thing that made it worthwhile was the old lady looking slightly distressed, leaning over to me and saying "thank you"

So not really the best way to start my week of night shifts.

Family Reunion

I spent a lovely day at my sisters in the company her kids and my brothers kids, I haven't seen my brothers kids for at least 3 years, what with the eldest being god-daughter (the one in the middle).

We spent a pleasent evening eating pizza, drinking beer, talking about family, life and everything else we could come up with.

Whilst chilling in the garden my brother in law started up the chimera and to tell you the truth, I miss having a garden of my own where i can just relax with a open fire going.

I want one and I want one now.

So I've had a good weekend off and seen London twice during my 4 days off.

A Lovely Weekend Was Had By All

I had my kids all weekend and we had a great time.

Apart from a lot of travelling 6 hours on Friday and 5 hours driving today, we all had fun.

They all argue over who has the front seat of the car, who goes first on my PC the Playstation and TV, so 30 minute change-overs applied.

We went to the Northampton Carnival yesterday and im almost certain that I saw Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley there.
My kids had a good time except that my friends daughter decided that whilst on a ride, she would vomit over my two daughters hitting both with one chunder. I went on rides with my kids and my son wanted to go on the outside seat (reserved for the biggest person) of the twister.

I love going on fairground rides and now that #2 daughter enjoys them too, I can see a trip to Thorpe Park coming up during the summer.

Also on the plus side I upset the ex wife, she wanted my kids to ring her boyfriend/partner and wish him a happy Fathers Day, As if that was ever going to happen, so I sent her a text saying the kids wouldn't be doing that. They also bought him an Ipod

Her reply he's there step father, no he lives with you and you have your own child by him but when it comes to my kids calling anyone dad, that man is me.

I also said to her how would she feel if I was living with someone, how would she feel if I asked the kids to call my girlfriend/partner and wish her a happy Mothers Day. She replies that I had our kids over at my exgirlfriends place on Mothers Day, the reason they were at my ex's for Mother's Day, it was my weekend to have them and she had just had a baby. Also they didn't buy my Ex anything or wish her Happy Mothers Day.

Her reply "I'm pathetic" my response, I turned my phone off.

The Weekend Starts Here

After an exhaustive week at work (yeah right) my long weekend has arrived.

I have my kids this weekend and its been 12 loong weeks since I last saw them.

The plan of action, I will be taking them out to a fair tomorrow over in Northampton and then going to a mates as they haven't seen his kids in ages, so a bit of a BBQ and a couple of beers to flow.

After that it will be back to work on Tuesday and I'll be working at the SM's station so iI will be seeing him on Wednesday morning.

So I might not get a chance over the weekend to blog.

A Strange Day Today

A couple of things occurred at work today, not just at my station but on the Central Line too.

Apart from England playing at 17:00 and my evening peak being dead, my SAMF took more funds tonight then usual, for some reason the foreign tourists were out and about, and he never got a chance to watch footie.

Around 18:00 the Central line is suspended between Marble Arch and White City because of a passenger action.

Around 19:00 I had 6 BTP walk on to my station and ask me if I had any reports of somebody taking photos of the trains, the sargeant could tell from my utterly blank expression that I hadn't a clue what he was on about.

After a station check by the BTP, nothing was found, (much to my surprise) and the BTP decided to leave my station. As the Central was still suspended, I asked the BTP if they knew what was happening, apparently a prisoner had escaped and had used the Central as an escape route. Fianally the Central resumed about 20:00.

Oh and apart from England winning nothing much else happened except all talk of bowel movements stopped.

Pebbledash The Underground Way

I was sitting in my office chatting with the gentleman of the group. When all of a sudden he pulls out a prune yoghurt and a tube of grapes.

He also has a bag full of peanuts in the fridge and after the usual comments by me about him being careful, I then have to endure a 5 minute conversation about his bowel movements and how he can block a toilet.

I can now state that I think of this colleague in a totally different way, and thanked him for his moving story.

Thats It, I've Lost The Plot

I'm now sat here crying, because after and hour of messing with the template again, I make one posting and everything comes back. Even though whilst previewing nothing was showing up.

Whimper, Sob, Sob,

Damn I can't even have a beer.

Oh I'm Pissed Off

After spending all last night tampering with my template, I went to bed at 4:30 and everything that i had changed was working well.

I fired up my PC this afternoon to check something else and find things are now missing.

I cant even get my technorati icon onto the template page.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!! Hmmmmffff, sigh.


I'd try to pull my hair out if i didn't have less then Doobrie

Uncle Dave

I arrive at St Pancras Station to get the train home, and bumped into a DSM from a different group, "I've been reading your blog" he says, and has read a couple of others too.

After chatting about blogging he said he might start his own one as well.

After chatting on the train for a while, I remembered his wife was doing the Tesco Race For Life, he told me that she was moaning for days after walking the 3.5 miles, and even his youngster said doesn't mum moan a lot.

All of a sudden the DSM told me that his wife is going to do a 10km run in the near future, after picking himself off the floor, he said you moaned a lot about the walk what are you going to be like after the run.

She said to him that she needs to loose a bit of weight first, at which point I said she's just big boned.

His reply "No, shes a fat bitch"

I will expect the email from Uncle Dave tomorrow.

One More Shift Until Rest Days

I knew I was going to have a long day today.

Firstly as I'm lying fast asleep, I bolt out of my bed at around 06:30 with a severe cramp, I limp around my bedroom after getting only 3 hours sleep (bloody broadband).

I collapse back into my bed only for the alarm to sound at 08:30 signalling its time to get up and get ready to go to the gym, I dragged myself out of my nice cosy bed and thing "ah bollox wheres that bed again" and promptly try and crash for another couple of hours.

My eyes closed and the phone rings straight away. "Hello this is a prerecorded message from BT, your broadband service will be connected by 13:00 on friday"

Now I'm lying awake thinking well how did I get on line last night, did i dream of broadband.

I get up out of bed and make my way downstairs and just vegitate on the sofa thinking "feck the gym I'm to bloody tired"

3 hours later and I'm still thinking "feck the gym" when I look at the clock and realise I have only 45 minutes before I leave for my train to work.

3 minutes befotre walking out the door I'm brushing my teeth when i remembered I left the kitchen taps on. I ran downstairs to be greeted with a flooded kitchen floor.

I whisk out the mop ( I didn't know I was such a dab hand with a mop) and then I'm off to get my train only to find it is running 10 minutes late "phew"

I reach work only to be sat bored all evening. The hi light being that I spoke with my niece who I haven't seen in ages and will be meeting up with on Monday.

We are going through a refurb at the moment and we have had a new AC unit installed in the gents staff toilet, after starting the thing up today we all thought a Harrier Jump Jet had arrived on my station. The noise was horrendous and blasting. (How will I be able to sleep with that din)

The Met, Circle and Hammersmith and City all behaved themselves.

The only thing that has annoyed me all day that I still have a twinge in my calf from the cramp this morning.

So just tomorrow to see off, and then I get to see my 3 kids who I haven't seen in 12 weeks.

What A Wanker!!!!

I feel like Pete from Big Brother (who I want to win) as I've been calling myself a wanker for the past five minutes.

I arrived home from work at 23:30 and promptly switched on my PC, as i moved in only 2 weeks ago I haven't got broadband up and running yet.

So I switched over the phone line and started to use my dial up connection as i'm waiting for my wirelass router to arrive in the post on Friday.

At 02:40 I thought oh well bed time.

As I powered down, I switched over my phone lines only to see my bloody broadband light flick on.

Curse, Swear, Mutter Mutter, A happy bunny I am not. Bollox

What A Nice Day It Wasn't

I walked into a crap service today.

Hammersmith and City suspended Liverpool Street to Barking because of Communication equipment failure (train radios off line) and temporary speed restrictions between Plaistow and Barking.

Circle Line completely suspended in both directions because of the above.

The District was completely suspended in both directions, for 10 :25 until 13:35 I'm glad I started work at 15:00 with that one)
.
By 16:00 I was already on my 3rd black coffee to keep me going, then NOC fell over with a power failure and all systems went belly up.

So no info was being sent via the intranet, no staff taxi bookings were being excepted and a multitude of other things as well.

At one stage during the evening peak I had a 35 minute plus gap for a Hammersmith train and the the Met Line went into minor delays. Later on during the peak the East London line came out in sympathy with the rest of SSR (Sub Surface Railways) and had a signal failure.

By 20:00 I was on the gate line giving my staff there 30 minute meal relief, when all of a sudden I hear a voice say "Oh my god it's The Great Orme" I looked around and then down as beside me is *Version 3.1

I say look down because she is only about 3 foot tall, and a bit tipsy, and as soon as i see her camera drawn from her bag, I vanish.

By 20:45 all the lines except the Hammersmith and City were running a good service.

But apart from that it's been a pretty quiet day. and i'm now just waiting to go home.

More Cheese Gromit

One thing I forgot about last night, just as I was finishing work, the night turn Supervisor arrived bright and early and after a general chat and handover, he reached into his bag and pulled out his sandwich box.

"Oh damn" I hear him exclaim.

"What" says I.

"I've only left my sandwiches at home and brought in the bloody cheese box" showing me a large wedge of cheese.

It's Damn Hot Down Here.

Please remember, if you are travelling anywhere on the tube over the summer, take fluids with you as the temperature can rise to unbelievable heights in the tunnels and on the trains.

If you start to feel unwell or feel faint, alight at the next station and inform a member of staff.

We don't mind and we will be able to look after you better.

Here We Go Again.

I arrived at work this afternoon in a positive fame of mind, only to be stabbed in the back by some pratt from upper management.

At present I work at a station that has 6 Station Supervisors, now some bright spark has decided to forward a new roster with positions for only 5 Supervisors, so one of my colleagues will be shown the door.

I don't know if it's from my own GSM or from a dickhead up at 55 Broadway in schedules. What will the unions do, bugger all as usual.

So all the positive outlook I have had lately has just gone out of the window. So back to being hostile I think.

My own position here is safe as I have been here the 2nd longest of the 6, but it still means one of my colleagues have been sticthed up again.

Oh well, only 3 weeks left until I'm on holiday again.

Lovely Customer

A lovely female customer arrived at my gate line and asked my member of staff for the use of a toilet.

Unfortunately, we don't have public toilets at my station so she was pointed towards the local pub.

After she left my colleague notice a strange odour in the ticket hall area.

All of a sudden he looks down and notices a puddle on the floor, hmmmm I wonder.

Not Work Again!!!

Well after a lovely week spent relaxing at East Ham station doing ATOR, I'm finally back in the world of blogging.

I had a good time there, taking the piss out of some of my fellow Supervisors.

One Supervisor got so carried away with how good he is, that by the end of the week I was convinced of three things.

1, I would hate to work with him.
2, He hasn't got a clue what he does in any given situation, and thats scary.
3, If the limelight is taken off him by anyone else, he gets upset and spits his dummy out.

A second Supervisor had a story for every scenario, so you name it, it's happened to him.

So basically I he is one of these people who had a story once.

It's My Blog

And I'll spell how i want to.

My spelling really irritates the Station Master, so I'm just putting in this nonsense drivvle, just to annoy him.

Also he will not be restarting his own blog, as he has been thinking of deleting it for a while. He has got a new blog but its a secret.

After reading this, as we are on nights together, he just called me a retard...

A.T.O.R. Time

Unfortunately I wont be blogging for a week as I will be doing my Annual Test Of Rules.

Every year all members of front line staff do these tests as they are basically refresher courses for you job. Hopefully the CSA course reminds my CSA about his roles and responsibilities.

As my broadband hasn't been transferred over at my new abode, I wont be able to blog until Sunday 11th June, when I hope to be back with a vengence.

The Joy Of Work?

I was chatting with a manager tonight about the situations at my station.

As culprit 2 has gone off sick yet again, he has been ringing around and asking if other staff want any over time at my station. He was turned down by most of the staff as they found out they would be working with me.

Later on I spoke to the Station Master and told him the latest up date, and as I pointed out I only have to work with these people, not be there friends.

If they don't like me then tough shit.

There are only 2 members of staff I would consider as good friends on this job, the rest are just colleagues.

He Quit! He Left! He Buggered Off!

As you can see my colleague The Station Master has shuffled off this mortal coil.

So Bye Bye SM, come back soon, all will seem better when your rubbed down with an oily rag.

Rude Awakenings Part II

So my name is now dirt, my staff no longer talk to me, am I worried?

NO.

They now realise that I am no longer the easy go lucky SS who they have always worked with.

The time for taking the piss is well and truly over.

The main culprit who caused me to really lay the law down, is now trying to shift the blame Back to me.

For a grown man he is acting very childish, to the point where he has sent a memo to my DSM about me going home 20 minutes early, and also that I let the cleaner go home early too, this ended up with him being summons by the DSM.

there's 3 points of contention with this,

1, I arrive at work to start my night shift at 22:20 (and I do this every night), a good forty minutes before my official start time of 23:00

2, I was officially relieved by the early turn SS.

3, There is an unwritten rule that between SS you generally take off 30 minutes early.

I have since learnt that he has asked for a nomination form to transfer elsewhere. It just proves a point that my staff have had to much of an easy ride.

The 2nd culprit has now booked off sick 2 days running claiming to have vomiting and headaches. All because I wont let him get the last train home.

Let me explain that a bit better.

Basically he would need to leave my station at 00:35 to walk to the next station and get a Northern Line train home. However LUL supply staff taxis which take staff to there nearest station.
If I let him go home this early I'd would have a choice of 2 things.

1, Close the station as I wouldn't have the man (and I use the term lightly) power to keep the station open. And booking him missing from duty

2, Break the law and keep a station open with only one member of staff on site.

Now what would you do.

Luckily enough I wont see culprit 1 for almost 7 weeks, so I wont have to worry that his child like anguish becomes to much

Moving On

After finally having moved in to my new place, I still feel totally exhausted, luckily I'm on nights.

Apart from dealing with 50+ contractors, telling certain contractors that no you can't have a key to a room as a QAF 54 number written on the back of your glove isn't acceptable.

Bollocking Dalkia engineers, who are testing my new fire alarm system with a naked flame (a lighter held under the heat detector) with out the use of a hot works permit.

And seriously pissing off my CSA's where it has come to the point that I might have a grievence taken against me, just for asking the members of staff to do there work.

Bicycles On The Tube

Whilst quietly viewing the CCTV at my station, I noticed a fool on a bike decide to ride into the booking hall area, through the open manual gate and straight down the stairs without getting off.

When I accosted the young fool, and told him sod off and ride home, he actually apologised for acting a tit and quiet left.

Even though he was under the influence of alcohol he seemed totally contrite, and enjoyed his ride home.