Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

Office looks nice...  

Lol, posh, eh?

I've moved TWICE since, though I cannot say the ambience has improved much.

Next month, however, we are due to move into the spanking new £90 million "Harlequin" building, though whether I'll survive that long remains to be seen. A lifetime of feeling insecure means I always think today may be my last day. One day, it will, & I'll be ready.

Mind games. 

[AlunB]

My gym gets H&S audited by an independent company every year and it's very extensive. Meh, I'm responsible for a lot of people and accept that I've got a duty of care towards my members and staff so I just crack on with it. However some of the stuff is insane. For example there is a big steel girder running through the middle of the boiler room, it's about 2ft thick and about 30ft long and it is painted bright pillar box red. If you don't duck under it you will walk into it. However, H&S law requires me to put a small A4 size sign on the girder telling people to watch out for the girder. My personal opinion is people who walk into that massive bright red girder thoroughly deserve to do so.

By contrast I've been watching 'Hunters of the Lost World' on Nat Geo, and this week the presenter Hayden was living with the Jahai jungle people, an ancient tribe who range over an area larger than London hunting monkeys with blowpipes. These guys use their heightened senses to track their prey through the forest, spotting footprints that are days old. They have developed acute eyesight, acute hearing and an acute sense of smell. They can run up the tallest tree like a monkey. They are skilled at avoiding danger because they share their environment with tigers and crocs. They hunt for their food everyday and use poison darts made from draining poisonous sap from certain trees. They are awesome people.

Watching the survival capabilities of people when their senses are heightened was great. Impressive to see how ingenious and resilient people are when put to the test. But in this country we have people dribbling on the ground as they walk into bright red steel girders and then crying about it because no one told them to duck. H&S does deaden the senses and that can't be a good thing. We are all the same people and we are clearly capable of better.

The trouble with all this IMO is that people just can't be trusted. If you give an inch they take a mile and this works for both bosses and employees. Not that everyone is like this. Not by a long chalk. But if you design a system to protect people you have to do it for the lowest common denominator or people will just take the p*** with it. It's annoying, but unfortunately there are too many people who always look to bend the rules and cheat and angle shoot in this world. You have to design regulations to be comprehensive or people spend all their time working out loopholes and how to avoid complying with them.

Just my cynical ¢2

[TightEnd]

Donald's caddie has the day off, btw, not a golfer, for the birth of his 5th


Allis is amazing for 81. His commentary has gone beyond parody back to being brilliant again!

[AndrewT]

Can't wait for The Camel to read all this Alliss love.

[AlunB]

I am SO with The Camel on this one.

[RED-DOG]

Watching the survival capabilities of people when their senses are heightened was great. Impressive to see how ingenious and resilient people are when put to the test. But in this country we have people dribbling on the ground as they walk into bright red steel girders and then crying about it because no one told them to duck. H&S does deaden the senses and that can't be a good thing. We are all the same people and we are clearly capable of better.

You made this point so much better than I did.

WP.

[tikay]

Found it!

See the "Did you know?" sidebar.....

http://www.peteralliss.co.uk/about.php



Peter set records from the moment he was born - he weighed in at a then European record of 14lbs 11oz…

[AlunB]

Office looks nice...  

Lol, posh, eh?

I've moved TWICE since, though I cannot say the ambience has improved much.

Next month, however, we are due to move into the spanking new £90 million "Harlequin" building, though whether I'll survive that long remains to be seen. A lifetime of feeling insecure means I always think today may be my last day. One day, it will, & I'll be ready.

Mind games. 

Just googled that. Looks a little bit like a mid-range French hotel. That's not a bad thing.

You should have been born Welsh Tikay.

[tikay]

Can't wait for The Camel to read all this Alliss love.

Just for Camel, might just tip him over the edge......

[tikay]

Office looks nice... 

Lol, posh, eh?

I've moved TWICE since, though I cannot say the ambience has improved much.

Next month, however, we are due to move into the spanking new £90 million "Harlequin" building, though whether I'll survive that long remains to be seen. A lifetime of feeling insecure means I always think today may be my last day. One day, it will, & I'll be ready.

Mind games. 

Just googled that. Looks a little bit like a mid-range French hotel. That's not a bad thing.

You should have been born Welsh Tikay.

Welsh indeed. I'm not pessimistic, just realistic!

Quite an interesting building, though few find buildings "interesting".

We already do the Shows from a Harlequin Studio, all very posh & hi-tech it is, too. Even has its own Costa Coffee concession. Would have preferred a Starby......

This piece about it was written during design & construction, I assume.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/sep/26/james-murdoch-bskyb-harlequin-architecture

[pleno1]

how many people work in your office area?

Is it huge open plan or each department very secluded to theirselves?

Do you use headphones at work?

Top 3 pet hates from colleagues?

[AlunB]

You should have been born Welsh Tikay.

Welsh indeed. I'm not pessimistic, just realistic!

Ah a much misunderstood aspect of the Welsh psychological make-up. We're not pessimistic, but pessimistically optimistic.

We expect the worst, but hope for the best.

'We're definitely going to lose today, but if we win it will be amazing. Come on Wales!' That kind of thing.

There are a few more modern welshers who have stopped doing the former and just started being optimistic. I find this all very unsettling.

[AlunB]

300 posts? Cool. Who wants to stake me?

[tonytats]

Bright young staff ( average age 27 ) ?

What's wrong with old n grumpy ?

[AlunB]

Bright young staff ( average age 27 ) ?

What's wrong with old n grumpy ?

They aren't willing to work 14 hours days for no overtime and no time off in lieu.