It’s not all been gear and bikes, I’ve been grafting all the hours available as well to try and catch up with work so I can go to Ft Bill next week with the reassurance of invoices submitted and warm pipes where once there were cold pipes.
It’s getting there thank Jimmy.
As I was making my way back to the boilerhouse from Greggs (they know me in the Dumbarton Greggs now, help ma’ boab) with my lunch today, yes Saturday, a bloke in a boilersuit approached me from the roadworks on the other side of the street “D’ye no remember me?”. With some prompting I did, he worked for me over the summer, ten years ago. We used to take on school leavers as temporary labour on maintenance contracts to give them work experience and of course to lend some much needed extra hands. It worked well for years, the Careers Office were delighted and the youngsters got something on their C.V. and a referee.
A combination of contract changes and increasingly difficulty in getting the right people meant that we haven’t done this for a few years now, and I always did wonder how a lot of the boys did after their time with us. Some showed a real interest in learning the tools, some wanted to know if they still got paid when they went off sick tomorrow (which would be their second day with us…), some you wished well on their last day and some stole your Stanley knife out of your toolbox.
However, the chance meeting today was good news, after moving through a few jobs over the years he’d started on his own and was building his own business up. Magic.
I had a wee revelation earlier on his week too. I’m sometimes very surprised by the people around me. You think you know yourself well, but then what initially seemed like a strange gesture or an odd gift, later turns out to be a stunning piece of insight. Never underestimate the powers of those close to you.
What is it with Stanley knives going? I’ve tried buying flouro pink ones etc because I thought it was me misplacing them but I’ve slowly come to the conclusion people ‘borrow’ them. Lost count of how many I must have bought over the last 28yrs.
The heating firm my lad did his time with must have taken on over thirty lads in the last 10/12 years and only two of them actually made it to the end of their training, that’s shocking when you think about it. Most drop out in the first six months… usually when they realise the stories in the papers about earning 1000k for working part time are slightly exaggerated. Only slightly exagerated mind ;-)
Our last apprentice lasted two years. No more, too expensive for me now, I’m just a tuppeny ha’ppeny operation.
I don’t understand the attraction of Stanley knifes, dangerous bloody things. I’ve got a Victorinox Rucksack instead these days, and that’s got a sawblade and eveything.
And a toothpick.