Despite what the local area thinks about this week being a major headache for anyone in a 50 mile radius, it's turned out to be not that bad. On Sunday, Alex said that despite what he said previously about it going to be a busy week, it looked like it was going to be a busy few days. Starting today.
I'll prove how quiet it's been this week, I still managed to get my two days off. If it had been busier, I had previously been asked to work an extra shift. Turns out, I wasn't needed as the site was fairly dead.
As Archie has his day off on a Thursday, I've been put on with someone else. Someone who talks more nonsense than Archie (believe me, that's quite a feat.). Someone who was once caught on duty sitting outside Reception, on a deckchair with a mug of coffee in his hands by the previous manager. Yes, I've been put on with the ex-night warden. He's not called the ex-night warden for nothing, you know.
Last night was fairly good, I only had to speak to a couple of punters about the excessive noise. I also spotted a couple of tents (obviously together) who had a proper barbecue and three or four bags of logs, kindling and wood chips. A quick check of the barbecue revealed that they hadn't burnt any of it yet, so I mentioned it to Alex during the handover this morning.
I'm not going to say that it's going to be a quiet night tonight, because I know that this will be false. From around 7.15am this morning, punters started arriving to book in, by the time I left at 8, there was a queue of around half a dozen cars and motor homes waiting in the lane outside Reception.
When I was speaking to Alex, one of the Receptionist's came through and showed Alex a booking-in slip and said, "There are seven guys, adults, wanting to book in." Alex took one look at her and with a face that screamed "NO! Not on my park!" he said, "OK." Then he asked her how she was doing for sets of site rules. She went away to check and just as I was leaving the back door, she came back through and said she had run out.
I get the distinct feeling that Alex won't be getting a decent nights sleep tonight.
Thursday, 6 September 2007
Sunday, 2 September 2007
Free Pizza and Handcuffed Males
A fairly bizarre night, last night by all accounts. It started off pretty reasonably, before descending rapidly into madness.
The external car park, which holds approximately fifteen vehicles, was almost full last night. Most of them turned up not long after the gates had closed for the night and nobody tried to open them and drive onto the site. A 'civilised crowd' as Alex would say. At around midnight, the local pizza delivery van pulled into the car park and sat at the bottom with his engine running. I thought he was passing the time, so I decided to go and enquire what he was up to. Everything turned out to be legitimate though. He was waiting for the recipients of several pizzas which had been ordered and they were on their way to collect them.
I thought nothing more of the pizza delivery guy, until I returned to the gate twenty minutes later. He was still waiting. As I walked down towards the gate, he noticed me and walked over. He asked if anyone had come to me looking for the pizzas. They hadn't. He radioed through to his control room and asked what to do. Thankfully, the guy on the other end of the radio recently did some work on the site and decided to let us have one of the pizzas and the others would go to the pub for the bar staff. So, I'd like to thank the following people for their extreme generosity, even though they were probably unaware of it at the time:
The first group to arrive back were asked immediately to quieten down the moment they stepped out of the taxi. As they walked off, the volume of their voices gradually became louder and louder. We followed them, at a close distance, into the first tent field. Where they spotted a motorbike which took their fancy. Well, it attracted the attention of two out of three of them. The third male was more intent on urinating very close to another punters tent. When I pointed out the location of the toilets, they all looked confused. I pointed them out again, by saying;
"There are toilets just there, you know. There is no valid reason to urinate next to someone's tent."
I thought they had got the picture. I couldn't have been further from the truth. As they walked off, I warned them that if we had to speak to them again, Alex would be called. Myself and Archie walked along behind them and when they got to their tents, they were being louder than ever. Only this time it was coupled with the slamming of car doors and laughing. The males, when we spoke to them and told (not asked, it was beyond asking politely) them to go to their tents and sleep, they turned into arrogant, selfish and irritating fools. One of them told us that we couldn't put them in a Police cell. They are partially correct, personally we can't put them in a Police cell, but we know some people who can. The Police. Not Sting & Co. but the local constabulary. One of the males had one handcuffed wrist, at least this would have made the local constabulary's job a lot easier had they been called. They eventually gave up and went to bed quietly. Details were taken and I suspect they would have been given a rather rude and unwelcome awakening by Alex early this morning.
After that, it was quiet until around 5am when the shop alarm went off. In this situation, an alarm sounds next to Alex's bed and he is down pretty sharp. After calling him on the radio several times, he answered. Once the shop had been opened and the alarm silenced and reset, the perpetrator of the problem was sourced. The same kamikaze loaf of Kingsmill bread as last time (probably a different loaf, but the same location.)
Alex disappeared into the sunrise, back to his warm bed and the land of slumber which I had woken him from five minutes previously and all was back to normal on the site.
During the site check in the morning, I found a £5 note on the ground. At least us night wardens won't be short of coffee and milk for the week.
The external car park, which holds approximately fifteen vehicles, was almost full last night. Most of them turned up not long after the gates had closed for the night and nobody tried to open them and drive onto the site. A 'civilised crowd' as Alex would say. At around midnight, the local pizza delivery van pulled into the car park and sat at the bottom with his engine running. I thought he was passing the time, so I decided to go and enquire what he was up to. Everything turned out to be legitimate though. He was waiting for the recipients of several pizzas which had been ordered and they were on their way to collect them.
I thought nothing more of the pizza delivery guy, until I returned to the gate twenty minutes later. He was still waiting. As I walked down towards the gate, he noticed me and walked over. He asked if anyone had come to me looking for the pizzas. They hadn't. He radioed through to his control room and asked what to do. Thankfully, the guy on the other end of the radio recently did some work on the site and decided to let us have one of the pizzas and the others would go to the pub for the bar staff. So, I'd like to thank the following people for their extreme generosity, even though they were probably unaware of it at the time:
- The Pizza delivery company (driver and radio operator)
- The group of hungry punters who ordered the pizza
- and Nescafe, who provided unto me a coffee which washed down that pizza. I'd much rather be thanking Arthur Guinness, but unfortunately, I can't drink on duty.
The first group to arrive back were asked immediately to quieten down the moment they stepped out of the taxi. As they walked off, the volume of their voices gradually became louder and louder. We followed them, at a close distance, into the first tent field. Where they spotted a motorbike which took their fancy. Well, it attracted the attention of two out of three of them. The third male was more intent on urinating very close to another punters tent. When I pointed out the location of the toilets, they all looked confused. I pointed them out again, by saying;
"There are toilets just there, you know. There is no valid reason to urinate next to someone's tent."
I thought they had got the picture. I couldn't have been further from the truth. As they walked off, I warned them that if we had to speak to them again, Alex would be called. Myself and Archie walked along behind them and when they got to their tents, they were being louder than ever. Only this time it was coupled with the slamming of car doors and laughing. The males, when we spoke to them and told (not asked, it was beyond asking politely) them to go to their tents and sleep, they turned into arrogant, selfish and irritating fools. One of them told us that we couldn't put them in a Police cell. They are partially correct, personally we can't put them in a Police cell, but we know some people who can. The Police. Not Sting & Co. but the local constabulary. One of the males had one handcuffed wrist, at least this would have made the local constabulary's job a lot easier had they been called. They eventually gave up and went to bed quietly. Details were taken and I suspect they would have been given a rather rude and unwelcome awakening by Alex early this morning.
After that, it was quiet until around 5am when the shop alarm went off. In this situation, an alarm sounds next to Alex's bed and he is down pretty sharp. After calling him on the radio several times, he answered. Once the shop had been opened and the alarm silenced and reset, the perpetrator of the problem was sourced. The same kamikaze loaf of Kingsmill bread as last time (probably a different loaf, but the same location.)
Alex disappeared into the sunrise, back to his warm bed and the land of slumber which I had woken him from five minutes previously and all was back to normal on the site.
During the site check in the morning, I found a £5 note on the ground. At least us night wardens won't be short of coffee and milk for the week.
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