A Week Of Trainees

So far this week I've had three sets of trainee Supervisors, so seven trainees in total

I don't mind having trainees, as this means I can pass on my years of experience as an SS it also means I have company for the shift.

Generally I don't worry about the trainees, but every once in a while someone comes along and you can tell that the person will struggle when it comes to the tests and when/if they finally pass out as a fully qualified supervisor.

Today I had one of these types of trainees, he was a lovely fella but just to fretful and nervous about being an SS. The best thing about todays trainees were the amount of questions they had.

You name it they asked it.

That's A First

I had a meeting with one of my DSM's today, the reason for this was because of two items of sickness since July, three days off for a migraine and four days off for a upset stomach.

As I spoke to the manager, I fully expected to be given a warning for my attendance which lasts for six months.
Much to my surprise and due the the fact I hadn't been off sick since April 2006, I was given suitable advice and a suspended warning.

I all my time on LUL (and I must admit that in the past I have taken the piss out of the system), this is the first time I haven't been issued a warning over sickness.

S.O.S = Shower Of Shit

That's what I thought about Midland Mainline staff this morning.

I woke up bright and early and made my way down to the station only to see the 06:02 train to London pulling out of the station.

Now you may be wondering why I would be upset about this, however as the time was only 05:55 I was a bit shock to see the train leaving.

As I made my way across the over bridge to the London bound platform, I asked a member of Midland Mainline staff where the 06:02 train was.

Her reply "Yeah that was it, they re timed it".

It would have been nice for the member of staff on Saturday morning to tell me that, especially as I asked her specifically what the service for Monday would be and get told "it's a Saturday service so 6 O'clock as normal". What's makes it even more frustrating is that I had asked earlier during the week as well if there are any timetable alterations.

I also found out that the 05:29 train also ran, so instead of being early to take my night turn colleague off, I was actually 15 minutes late.

So tomorrow morning hopefully I will be in by 06:45

Bank Holiday Weekends

If there is one time at work that I truly hate, it's the Bank Holiday Weekends, what with boredom, tedium, engineering works and every other stupidness going on, Bank Holidays DRAG.

The fact that I have to get up at Stupid O'clock doesn't particularly bode well either.

Friday, up at 4:15
Saturday, Up at 5:10
Sunday, Up at 6:00 (much to my better half's enjoyment at being woken that early on a Sunday morning, and then taking greater joy in telling me she was going back to bed again, just as I went out the door to work).
Monday, up at 5:10
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday back to normal and up at 4:15.

All this for a 7:30 start.

Roll on Friday when my rest days start and which will probably see me awake around 8 am whilst my body clock returns to normal and gets used to three weeks of annual leave (laying in bed).

I'm Off

That's it I'm off to pastures new.

No I'm not moving blog location, I've actually decided to move home, from the depths of deepest, darkest Northants, to Southend, I'm going to become a CHAV (yeah right).

Seriously I've decided to move to Southend in May 2008 so that I get to see more of my three kids.

At the moment I only see them every six weeks, that's due to my roster at work and the 120 miles distance between us.

So far looking at renting property in the Southend area will cost me anything from £750 to £800 a month which will see an increase in rent of around £300.

So sorting of finances and looking for properties is a must.

If I'm single that might be a struggle, but hopefully my better half will come with me and that should help.

A New Supervisor

I've been working with a new supervisor, who has recently transferred onto the group.

It's nice to know that I'm not the only nutter on the group.

Bad News

I've been wondering whether to blog this post or not.

About two weeks ago, I woke up and checked my mobile, I noticed that there was a missed call and a message on my answerphone, as I listened to the message and realised it was from my mum I started to fear the worst.

"John, I have some bad news, I can't say it on the phone but I have some bad news, it's bad news".

Immediately I started to worry as I have quite a few elderly aunts and uncles and my first thoughts were that one of them have died.

I rang my mum and all I got was her answerphone, so I left a message for her to call back, I then decided to call one of my aunts, hers being the only aunts number that I ever remember off by heart.

My cousin answered the phone and I thought "oh shit it's my aunt or uncle".

As I spoke to my cousin, I found out the details.

Her sister had been in a serious car accident, her car had hit a tree and landed on its roof on a busy A road in the Watford area, after taking her to hospital she was pronounced brain dead at 6:30 that morning and they were just waiting for her daughter to arrive before they turned the machines off.

As soon as I got off the phone I started crying like a broken hearted child, this is one of my cousins who I have grown up with, she is only 50 and leaves a husband, two children and a grand child.

I was left reeling, all day long I didn't know what to do with myself so I attacked my better half's garden and thanks to my better half she just left me to my own devices as she could she I was in turmoil and needed to take my mind off of my cousins death.

Some Good News

Around 6:30 that night I got another phone call from my mum, she told me to sit down.

When my cousins daughter arrived, the hospital asked about my cousin being a donor, and if they could have some of her internal organs for donation.

My Cousins husband and daughter agreed to this, however when a doctor came around to check my cousins vital signs again, my cousins brain functions had returned, so my cousin is actually alive.

The hospital then started to actively treat my cousin.

As I write this up, my cousin is still in intensive care and is still fighting.

It's A Funny Old Service

I was amazed to hear an announcement from Network Operations Centre (NOC) today.

"Minor delays are now occurring on the Hammersmith & City (H&C) line".

The reason for the amazement, I hadn't seen a H&C train for the previous 10 minutes and even checking on Trackernet thier is nothing visible on the H&C for over 25 minutes.

How can there be only minor delays then.

*At the time of writing this post a Circle line train sitting in my platform was reformed and diverted onto the H&C.

A Bit Of A Surprise

I had my two youngest kids over the weekend and on Monday after I dropped them back to there mums I picked up my eldest and dropped her off to our friends in Northampton.

I was supposed to collect her this Saturday morning and put her on a train back to her mum on the same day.

However last night I received a text from my eldest asking if I could pick her up on the Friday night instead of the Saturday morning, being a typical dad I asked why (thinking that she wasn't enjoying herself at our friends).

Her reply "Because I haven't seen you in a long while and I want to spend some time with you".

Considering what she told me a few weeks back, I was pleasantly surprised.

Oops

I only just realised I haven't blogged for over two weeks, so I apologise for that.

When I finished my nights, I spent to wonderful two days at the better half's lapping up the sun and messing in the paddling pool until three or four in the morning and clearing up the garden.

When I went back to work, I started feeling ill over the weekend and ended up going sick for a few days.

Today I was back to work for the first time in over a week, and luckily it was a very peaceful shift.

Hopefully now I will remember to blog more.