Sometimes Managers Are Nice

I received a phone call from one of my DSM's today.

It was just a customary call to do the managerial bit and check on my condition and if I was getting any better.

I told my manager I would be returning to work next Thursday the 3rd Jan 08, as I am feeling a hell of a lot better then I was at the beginning of December.

Around 10 minutes after I finished speaking to my manager, my phone rang again and once more my manager was on the phone.

Seeing as I'm only returning for one day before being on four days off again. I was supposed to be on leave and as my leave has already been covered my manager told me to take a days Annual Leave and return the following Tuesday the 8th Jan 2008.

What a result back to nights.

How To Leave Dad With A Lump In His Throat.

My 12 year old daughter has been doing a paper round to get herself some money for Christmas, what I didn't expect was a lovely little present from her that she bought herself.

When I opened the present, I was greeted by this little bear with the words "MISS YOU" written across the belly, I had a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat that was very hard to swallow.

It's stuff like this that makes me feel very happy to be a dad.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

I would like to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and my you all get what you have asked for.

What I would like is to see my kids during Christmas day, to get over this pneumonia and to have a new woman in my life.

Oh well two out of three is ok in my books.

So once more MERRY CHRISTMAS.

A Big Thank You

The one thing about being sick with Pneumonia is that my sleep pattern is completely buggered.

Take Friday night and still being awake at gone 3am and then being woken by a phone call from a friend just gone 10am, I then stayed awake all day and most of Saturday night, falling asleep on the sofa at 5amish.

My daughter has a lovely habit of calling her dad at wonderful times of the day, I don't mind when any of my kids call, however 8am on a Sunday morning is a bit rich.

No, I didn't have a go at her and I never will, but I have asked her in the past IE; last Sunday not to ring me to early as I might be asleep.

The only thing about the phone call that really didn't impress me was the reason for the phone call, my daughter handed me over to my ex wife, not always a good thing on a week day morning let alone 8am on a Sunday morning.

The fact that my ex was being nice is always something to worry about, and here's the reason why.

My kids have downloaded a serious Virus onto there home PC and can I give her some advice on which anti-virus software would be good for getting rid of it, and if she can't shift it, would it be ok if she called call me later today to help her reformat the PC.

So it looks like I will be getting a phone call sometime today to help her reformat the PC, there is only two reasons that I will help her and that's because it's for my kids and I feel a bit Christmassy.

Still No Work For Me

My doctor has written me off sick until the 2nd of Jan, I don't think my managers are to happy about that, but as I am sick I don't really care.

In 19 years of working for LUL, I've never had time off at Christmas so this is a first.

I spoke to my manager a few nights back and asked about returning to work on the 3rd of Jan as I'm supposed to be on annual leave from the 30th of Dec for a week, I will have to return for one day before I'm off for my long weekend and then back on nights, so that will give me a chance to get back into the swing of working again.

So roll on the 3rd of Jan 2008.

Getting There

I was at the hospital today for an X-ray on my chest, the good news is that my chest is now clear of any infection, the only problem I have now is breathlessness and listlessness.

It's a strange feeling to be like this, as I'm generally a health person who just gets on with things, however today at the hospital just walking back from the X-ray department to the A&E left me puffing like the bellows and sweating like a pig on heat.

It's happened a few times this week and that's just walking to the local Tesco which is around two hundred yards from home has left me completely shattered, even walking up my stairs to bed has left me knackered and breathing hard.

I really want to get over this infection as it's leaving me completely bolloxed and worse, I was supposed to see all my kids last weekend, but under doctors advice I didn't see them. Hearing my son crying and distraught left me in a very distressed state as it's not nice hearing your kids crying down the phone thinking there dad is going to die.
It's ok I put them right and my son although not happy about not seeing me is a lot happier.

All I need to do is get the Christmas presents some day soon.

Getting Better

Well the medication is working well and has truly kicked in, I had a good nights sleep for the first time in a good 10 days.

The doctor has booked me off for another week of sick, which I don't think work are to impressed about it, On Monday I will be going back to hospital for a follow up X-ray appointment to see if my lungs are clear of the Pneumonia so hopefully I can go back to work.

National Health Service

I know the NHS normally don't get a very good press but one thing I will say about today's events are this:

My GP made an excellent decision in sending me directly to hospital.
My Ambulance crew dealt with me in a superbly professional manner.
All bar one of the doctors and nurses at Kettering Generel did there best to make me as comfortable as possible.

So all I would really like to say is a big THANK YOU to everyone who dealt with me today.

What A Bloody Day

Well this morning I made an emergency appointment to see my local GP.

I entered the doctors office and was asked the usual questions, after giving him the answer he started to examine me.

Temperature: Normal
Blood Pressure: Normal
Chest: Clear
Throat: Clear
Blood Oxygen level: Low

Er what, apparently a persons blood oxygen level should be around 95/100, mine read 90.

After talking to me some more the doctor said he would write me a referral letter to Kettering General Hospital and he would give the hospital a quick call to, he asked me to wait outside and he would give me the letter in about five minutes.

Five minutes later:

The doctor comes out of his office and tells me "The ambulance is on the way, go around to the treatment area as we need to put you on oxygen".

"I beg your pardon"

"We need to get you to hospital so we are going to blue light you over the Kettering hospital"

It's amazing the things that go through you mind when you get told something like that.

So I enjoyed my first journey in an ambulance since I was three, and all because I was suffering with respiratory difficulties.

As I was whisked into A&E and said goodbye to the nice ambulance crew, once more I was having my temperature, blood pressure and blood oxygen levels, and everything else that I've just answered at the surgery and in the ambulance, because I'm allergic to Penicillin, the nurse put a nice red tag on my right wrist with my name, date of birth and allergic to written on it.

The doctor came in a short time afterwards and asks me some more details and tells me he will send me for a chest X Ray and he will draw some blood from the artery at my wrist and from a vein on the front of my hand.

"Why two different places" I asked

The doctor replies "To make sure you haven't had a blood clot"

"Sorry"

Apparently the doctor needs to take blood from my artery to make sure that I haven't suffered a blood clot which would mean I would have to have surgery.

The second site is so the doctor can draw blood and leave a Cannula which helps if other medication is required.

So after having my blood taken and my X rays taken, it's all down to waiting.

A while longer goes past and the early staff go home and the late staff begin, my late shift nurse reminds me of Mad Mary from the Phones 4 U adverts, and all the grace of a Walrus.

A short while later a senior doctor arrives and tells me there's a shadow on my lung and that he will give me some antibiotics, as he wanders around checking in on me every now and then I asked if he knew what my chest infection was.

"oh yes you have Pneumonia"

So that's whats wrong with me, all I need to do now is get my self better.

Getting Worse

Well I've been fighting this bloody cold type thing since last Sunday but unfortunately I'm fighting a losing the battle.

My cough has got worse and when I get a coughing fit I literally double up and can't get my breathe, when I walk upstairs I breathe heavier too, so I think it's moved to my chest.

I've eaten twice in four days, those two days being last wednesday and friday (which for me is always a bad sign).

I know I haven't drunk enough water so I'm dehydrated, I'm also light headed, I hate feelling like this.

Tomorrow I'm off to see my doctor and see what they say.

Not A Well Man

I've been fighting the dreaded man flu since Sunday, I went into work on Sunday and Monday with a voice that deep and raspy Barry White would have been proud of.

Even my night turn DSM was surprised by my voice and the fact I was in at work. However when it came to 2am Tuesday morning and I had to put on my blazer and turn up the air conditioning in the office to 27 degrees just to help me stop shivering, I knew that this was going to get worse before it got better, especially when one of my regular first train customers asked if I was ok because I don't usually wear my blazer when I open up the station in the morning, normally I'm in shirt sleeves.

So after fighting a losing battle since Sunday and my temperature raising and lowering and leaving me shaking uncontrollably, I've called in sick and I'm taking a couple of days to recuperate.

Much Appreciated

When I arrived at work last night my late turn colleague apologised for not finding out the information about the N18 buses, it was only a small thing but at least he had the openest to apologise.

Oh I Did Laugh

I arrived at work and like any good Supervisor I started to read the log book, I can't write what was actually written as station log books are classed as legal documents.

Now the reason for me laughing was that some pretensus person up high has had a brain storm and without (as far as I know) consulting the staff, have divised a new plan of monitoring SATS (Station Assistant Trains Service) on the platform, this entails station staff being on the platform and waving those lovely big white ping pong bats at train drivers, this is also to monitor dwell times at a station (basically how long a train has to wait before departing).

Now someone in there infinite wisdom has decided that my eastbound platform should be monitored for a grand total of (wait for it) 15 yes 15 minutes during the morning peak.

The fact that none of my station staff have ever used the bats or indeed carried out platform duties since I have worked here doesn't seem to matter.

So this morning luckily we had a reserve member of staff who often works at the big station next door so they do have the experience.

When my early turn colleague sent the member of staff to the eastbound platform ready to carry out SATS (Station Assistant Trains Service) duties and the precise thime, the plan completely failed as all three train services through my station were suspended due to a signal failure at Aldgate.

What a nice result for the first day of monitoring.

UPDATE:

I just received this anonymous email instead of a comment:


So you had that talk about the good ol' SATS too? It was Sunday when we all found out about it - some poor bugger on the group who is a CSA trainer was made by the DSM to go to all the stations on the group, made to see the early, late and dead late turns to relay the message about this SATS business. Poor man got it in the neck from most of the staff at all the stations except one (***** *********, which does SATS anyway) in the form of 'Don't tell me how to do my job.'


I don't know whether the circumstances are the same with your group too though - our DSM has said that should we pass the mark for all this, we'll get £250 each, which I find very hard to believe, as well as the fact that he added if we should get more than the pass mark, we'll get £500 each. Surely, this can't be true? The bulletin he has sent out is very unclear, and no further clarification has been made over the the matter. Have you been told something similar?


The whole thing has caused an uproar at ********* unfortunately, what with e-mails flying round from staff member to staff member - it's causing an awful lot of discord (SAs saying that it's unfair that everybody will get something, even though some members of staff have nothing to do with SATS, and other arguments). As we have ****** ***** at our end, it's all so political it's untrue! A chance for LU to not get fined by the Powers That Be at ****** ***** by attempting to provide 24TPH. Like you mentioned (with the failure at Aldgate) if a reliable service is not happening at the time SATS is being carried out, it's hardly efficient for both the member of staff carrying it out and the Train Op. (as he's not going to be going anywhere anyway if he's being asked to hold).


And as far as I have known it - raising the baton does not mean the Train Op has to depart, no? I thought it was an indication that the train is now safe to depart - at the end of the day, isn't total dwell time down to the driver, since he's the one who has full control over his doors and departure? If we're standing there with the baton raised, but the driver's not going, what else are we supposed to do? Tell him to move?


Sorry, just thought I had to get this off my chest, as the whole situation is mad! I can only assume that the people from Broadway who have suggested this are mad!

*This email has been slightly altered by myself*

Hooray No More Nights

So that's it, as 2007 draws to a close, I've only got one more night shift to do until 2008, and tonight is that night, easy shifts and plain sailing up until December 29th when once more I'm on leave.

So come tomorrow morning I'll be relaxing on another day off.

Not So Happy To Be Back

This is due to a multitude of things

Firstly, after two weeks of being off on annual leave and the last week being very strenuous and exhausting, I arrived at work feeling totally and utterly knackered and also the starting to feel the beginning efects of a cold.

Secondly, I found out one of my gate line staff has been sacked and is no longer in employment with LUL, I wont go into details as I can't really say anything.

Thirdly and this is what pissed me off most, my late turn colleague said that the meal relief SS has asked for me to look up the times for the N18 bus to get my late turn CSA home.

Why am I pissed off by this you might wonder, two simple reasons both of my colleagues could have done this quite easily just by picking up the office phone and ringing the Information Assistant at Broadway and getting the infomation required, it took me all of five minutes to find out the information myselfy and was done before I had complete 15 minutes of my duty, the second simple reason, the late turbn CSA starts at 15:30 so what the fuck had the meal break supervisor been doing until he finished at 8pm and what the fuck had the late turn supervisor been doing until I arrived at 22:25 so that they couldn't do it themselves.

Saturday Night

It started off badly but in the end I had a bloody good night out.

At the start of the night I was thinking what have I done, and why am I out in Northampton town center with these children who allegedly can hold there drink.

We entered the first pub and the music was so loud that I couldn't hear what the barmaid said but in the end I realised what she was asking was what did I want to order?.

After ordering my first pint of the night we wandered off to another pub and because the service was so shite we decided to go else where, but as I stood waiting to try and order, this little pip squeak looked up at me and said "I think I could could take you on". I thought, here we go another drunk wanker, I'm 40 years of age, over 6' 2" tall and I have this drunken wanker of possibly 5' 7" tall, pissed and trying to pick a fight with me.

I've been drinking since I was at least 15 and in all those many years of drinking I've only had one spot of serious bother, and that was from a member of the Permanent way (Pway) staff who tried to pick a fight with me because I'm a Tottenham Hotspur supporter and he is an Arsenal fan.
The stupid thing about this problem was Arsenal had beaten Spurs in a semi-final in the F.A Cup and because he was pissed , he decided to try and take it out on me as he was celibrating.
During this slight problem I ended up holding his arms straight out by the wrists and taking a few head butts to the shulder, the DJ in the pub said I dealt with that well but why was I holding his wrists (please note that whilst this was going on, it was spotted by the DJ who didn't try to help me out).

The reason for this is obvious, I know that this particular person carries a blade (Stanley Knife) in the back pocket of his jeans and by holding his wrists he couldn't do anything until the so called bouncers finally arrived.

Back to tonight, seeing as I wasn't enjoying my night I was feeling slight belligerent, so basically the little pip squeak got the following answer, "Your pissed, I'm not so if you want to attempt to take me on, go ahead, but be prepared to be hurt when you try as I'm not in a good mood".

Now at 4o years of age and slightly over 6' 2" tall and weighing in at 18 stones, I think this might have swayed the reasoning in my direction because, I'm not exactly a small person and I am rather broad and menacing if you don't know me. The little pip squeak replied "I guess I'd better not then" and wander off.

On to the rest of the night.

The friend who I am staying with tonight is so bunged up with a cold she decided to go home early, however I stayed out drinking with a couple of other young ladies.

After my friend went home and because I do worry about my friends, when she text me that she had arrived home safely, I finally relaxed and enjoyed my beering session, so after a good few more beers and a good laugh with a my other friends, I finally arrived home safe and sound and looking forward to a good nights sleep.

As I'm writing this I was considering having a few beers with some of my readers, so if you fancy a pint or 12 let me know and I'll set up a date for a jar in a local pub down near my work.
I know that two or possibly three of my colleagues might be there as long as our shifts match, so if you want to meet up send and email to stationsupervisor@gmail.com all are welcome except senior management above GSM level and I'll give you a date in the new year to have a few drinks with me .