Left Behind

It’s a big situation to face. You’ve got a lot of high value items that have been left behind. Sometimes it’s one or two items; other times it’s a whole cage. But these are the numbers which are affecting our results. Do we take the hit of expenditure to show our effectiveness in putting the delivery away? Or do we whisk the items away as fast as we can to show our efficiency is better than stock value? Either way, some sort of target is going to be affected by our decision. We have to look at our figures in advance and try to decide which factor is going to take the hit. We need a middle measure here, or at least some better sort of guidelines. Fortunately, this year they’ve changed the rules slightly so that we can write off the stock while reap the benefits of getting the delivery completed. Finally faultless. Providing it turns up on time.

The Beer Snatch

Annoying, isn’t it? It’s the end of the working week. You’ve worked hard to get money in the bank and time to spend with those that you care about. You’re sitting in a restaurant enjoying a great conversation with a friend. You’re both getting rowdier and more animated as you’re getting into the topic of your conversation. You let go of that precious glass of nectar in front of you as you let yourself go. Then suddenly, the glass starts to move away from you. You turn to the hand that collected it which says, ‘sorry, I thought you’d finished with that.’ Once it’s gone, it’s gone, especially if it was the last pint of the barrel. It’s especially annoying with kids’ drinks. Not only are they ridiculously overpriced, but they’re upsetting even more people, especially when they don’t have the confidence to argue back. So don’t do it, or at least if there’s a huge pile of glasses on the table, at least ask us before you do. You might even be as polite to offer us another and make us part with some more hard-earned cash.

Back to Front

There’s a new process that we have to follow at work. Once a week, we must send extra stock back to our local depot to ensure that they have stock to sell. We might get the same item back later in the day, but at least it keeps the items in a place where they’re most likely to be sold. Of course, it then means that someone must pick the stock, even if it’s a case of sending a hazy picture to another manager to tell them that they need to delegate someone to perform this task. The other unhappy part of this task if that you’ve got to load up all these items onto a van. You’ve then got to hope that the driver will be co-operative and help you to load it all up. Unfortunately, we pack the larger items up in the back to secure the space in the cage. This means that we have to plan for space at the end when we’re loading.

Class

This was a very dark spin-off for Doctor Who. It had some excellent well-thought out monsters which portrayed a viable plot at the start of the series which gave you enough motive to see it through. Then at the end you’re just as confused as the characters in the show; shocked by what you’ve seen and trying to make sense of it all. I hated the fact that gay love is thrust into your face as you watch. Tanya’s lack of social skills combined with her advanced intelligence isn’t really made clear until much later in the series; so we don’t really get to know how she came to Coal Hill or learn much about her. The characters are far too serious apart from the sadistic sarcasm of Quill but her vicious delivery is portrayed as more of an insult than a joke. It’s a shame that future episodes were cancelled as it looked like it was properly getting to sync up with the rest of the Whoniverse.

Animals Behind Bars

It may seem quite a tradition to have a brass horse’s head behind the bar, but in some countries a horse’s head can be quite traumatic; especially if it’s found left in a bed. This one’s guarded by a German Shepherd if you want to try and get your hands on it. Hares are also popular at this time of year, so it’s common for breweries to use them to promote their beers. And is it never too late to be an early bird? Maybe after last orders. Getting served by these creatures would make for a very interesting bar. Pulling handpumps may be a bit difficult but they could be trained to operate the buttons for the fonts. A piece of string may do the trick. Then all that’s needed is a smaller hatch where the beers could be slid out once payment has been taken. Might take a while to train them though.

Water Worries

We’ve been having a lot of trouble with our upstairs water supply lately. As well as the toilet not flushing as powerful as it should, we’ve now got problems with the hot water tap in the sink. It turns OK, but it only puts out a small trickle instead of a powerful stream, and it’s very difficult to turn off again. It takes the use of a towel on the top to shut it off again, and you have to tighten it to the point that you feel that you’re crushing something. And then there’s the shower. Sometimes it only runs to a trickle in the summer months when it’s hot; though that could be when someone else uses the downstairs or outside tap. Is the age of the taps or is there something else going on? We’ve got the plumber coming around to service the boiler next month, so with a bit of luck he’ll be able to sort something out.  

The Unknown File

This may just look like an innocent black square, but the mystery is what the camera was trying to capture at the time. I’m not sure whether it was a picture or a video. When I transferred it to the computer, it recognised it as a picture, but the picture editing software wouldn’t detect the file, so there was no chance of brightening the image to see any hidden blurs. What I didn’t do was open it in a universal media player to see if that made any difference. It was a morning photo taken just after a friend’s visit during a lot of snow. In the same week, I took a lot of pictures and did a lot of googling beforehand to work out what was open and what was not. Maybe it was a corrupted image that someone sent me through a message application. Whatever it was meant to be, we shall never know.