A lot of wind on Friday afternoon

Friday afternoon was odd because we had a guest speaker coming to address us in the canteen about “Changing Energy”. He blamed privatisation and the early running down of the coalmining industry. He mentioned alternative sources of energy, which would be many years away. A new nuclear power plant would take fifteen years to get up and running. Then he spoke against wind energy because he wanted to know where we would get our energy from when it wasn’t windy.

This brings me on to later in the afternoon. That was always Windy Miller’s problem wasn’t it, waiting for the wind.
George, Eric, Andy and one of the Steve’s were sitting around discussing the old TV programmes they watched as kids. Bod, Starfleet, Masters of the Universe, Captain Scarlet, Trumpton, Buck Rogers, Roger Ramjet Hong Kong Phooey they all got a mention. We’d got onto this through talking about how much money the bosses were on, so they could pay for their fuel without a worry. By the time the shortages and power-cuts come they’ll be emigrated to some beach somewhere without civil war breaking out. Jersey was mentioned, because that was where all the millionaires go to live. In fact you have to get a license to live there, and they don’t take any riff-raff. The only scum on the island are the ones who were born there and do all the work. This got us on to Bergerac, which leads us on to Midsomer Murders, and finally the declining state of television in general. Dan had never heard of Bergerac, so we said that we would have to see if Nige can get hold of it on DVD.

Andy: “I sit in bed on Saturday mornings having a flick about.”
Eric: “Too much information.” (smirking all round, so Andy repeats it).
Andy: “I have a flick about on Saturday morning….and I discovered the old Batman series. Eh? Biff!, Ker-pow!!”
Eric: “The Adam West one?”
Andy: “Yes.”
Eric: “What was the bloke who played Robin called…?”
Me: “Burt Ward.”
Eric: “That’s right. Didn’t he end up doing porn films?”
Me: “I don’t know about that.”
Steve (almost simultaneously fast): “Yes he did.”
Eric: “There was something worrying about the authority with which you told us that.”
Me: “He’s got the complete set on DVD.”

Comic Relief

Helen arrives at 9.40. We’re curious to see what time she puts on her timesheet.
Neil reckons that she came in on Friday at 10.30 but only put 10.10 on her timesheet.

Yesterday in the canteen, queueing up for breakfast, we were discussing what we should dress up as for comic relief day. Dan wanted to dress up as Batman. I suggested he get Fat Dave to dress up as Robin. (We laugh at the idea of the fat idiot in a green skin-tight costume, with all the rolls of fat hanging down over his utility belt).
Me: "It’s got to be the old sixties TV series version. All you would need is an oversized green leotard with a red vest."
Dan: “Robin was supposed to be yellow wasn’t he?”
Me: “ No his cape was yellow.” (later we have to go on the internet to prove what Robin’s suit from the old Sixties series was like. We also have a look on some sites that you can buy the costumes from, but they don’t do Xtra Large)

They’d already started coming round with raffles and stuff for Comic Relief last week. There was a constant flow of people from other floors we’d never seen before. Almost as if the company employed a separate department just for bringing raffles and other hair-brained schemes round the rest of the staff that actually did some work. I know I couldn’t spare the time to walk round six floors asking if people wanted a raffle ticket.

“Have you seen Dave’s belt?” Dan continues. “He has it sooo tight. It looks really uncomfortable.”

“It’s better than having his trousers falling down. It’s bad enough when his shirt becomes un-tucked and you get a flash of the side of his enormous gut. Can you imagine what he must look like with his trousers down? It doesn’t bear thinking about. Are you thinking about it? I bet that’s put you off your breakfast.”
Linda is a couple of places further up in the queue, and she smirks as she looks round, obviously having overheard the conversation.

Me: “We could all dress up as each other. We could all get oversize shirts and stuff them with pillows and come as Dave.”
Mick: “Yeah, but I can’t dress up, I’m going to the doctors first thing on Friday.”Me: “That would be good for you to go to the doctors with your shirt stuffed with pillows. You walk in and say “I’m feeling a bit bloated””.