Christmas at work!

[Knobhead]

Any of you on continuous plants will know this senerio

At Christmas production and maintenance would work 6-2 only. 2-10 and nights would just have production skeleton crew on. But if it was you due shift and you were needed you had to go in.

Christmas day was special, I didn’t mind going in. all the plants had kitchens attached to the control rooms and it was decided before hand who was cooking what.

• Plant 1 turkeys and the gravy (the biggest plant so it had two ovens).
• Plant 2 roasties and veg
• Plant 3 even more roasties and veg
• Plant 4 plum duff and rum sauce

When it all came together the fitter and I were charging around like blue ar*sed flies in land rovers transferring food. I don’t recommend driving with a big pan of veg water from plants 2 & 3 to plant 1 to make the gravy.
We all clubbed together to pay for everything, but we had a lot of local small holders in the workforce, all the veg was home grown, the turkeys arrived on site a couple of days before still live and were killed and dressed on nights.
A full Christmas dinner 50p

Then I had to go home and face the wife’s cooking!


Even on normal shifts the food was cooked in the control room kitchens by the guy’s themselves. On 2 –10 I don’t know how we did any work! A typical menu:

• Roast pork
• Stuffing
• Roast potatoes
• New potatoes
• What ever veg was in season
• Gravy

It helped having a butcher’s son, a gamekeeper and 3 small holders on our shift. If there were no breakdowns the fitter and I would go and take over running the plant while the lads got the diner ready.
The works manager got wind of our afternoon repast and paid us a surprise visit. Rather than everyone jumping up all he got was, ”there’s a plate in that cupboard, knives and forks in the draw”. He became a regular visitor to our shift. By god could he eat, but he always chucked his money in the tin!

 

[johnboy6083]

The closest we get to that is our engineers buying us a brew! Lol.

 

[DurhamSparky]

luckily when was on duty with navy we had a chef...!!!

now in civvy life im working xmas night so will knock some thing up!!

 

[johnboy6083]

ive only ever worked one christmas and once on my birthday. bot times were doing guard duty when i was a sapper. both crap, and freezing our bits off!

 

[Amp David]

Feel hungry now after reading the op

 

[DurhamSparky]

sappers!!! was on rehab with 2 of them .... total loony tunes!! one was a plumber who also suffered from shell shock and the other was a mechanic...!! crazy bridge building maniacs!!

 

[johnboy6083]

i no longer build bridges, but i loved the lifting and building side of being a sapper. i still enjoy doing cable pulling, and getting agressive at it.
its amazing what you can achieve with a little bit of knowledge coupled with some common sense. Health and safety would never let us get away with what we used to do when building improvised bridges by hand.

 

[johnboy6083]

oh, and i can be a little bit of a loon.

 

[DurhamSparky]

oh, and i can be a little bit of a loon.

mate i think any one who served in forces who had a proper "trade" were partial loons...!! takes a special breed of person to undertake our type of work in some of the most undeserving and awkward environments going!!

 

[johnboy6083]

Thing is, I didn't serve. I only did just under 4yrs, and spent 8months of that with a broken leg whilst being MD'd. I did my basic training which was a yr at junior leaders, then my combat engineering, and the rest learning to be a spark. it still made me who I am though, and I do miss it. However the banter on site is just as good, and the fella I work with is a loon too.

 

[Knobhead]

This is one of the places I worked

View attachment 7260View attachment 7261View attachment 7262View attachment 7263

 

[millwall ken]

ive only ever worked one christmas and once on my birthday. bot times were doing guard duty when i was a sapper. both crap, and freezing our bits off!

Stop whinging Johnny Boy, My dad spent a christmas in a covert OP just outside Forkhill, freezing cold and snowing. And back in the 70s kit was very basic to say the least. Poor sod was also in Belfast during that long hot summer of rioting in '76.

 

[Guest123]

Only ever done one xmas shift, 02 I think it was. Worked every birthday since leaving school though.

 

[millwall ken]

Only ever done one xmas shift, 02 I think it was. Worked every birthday since leaving school though.

Same here mate, but I've always seemed to work EVERY OTHER xmas - bloody weird!!! And yes, I working this christmas as well.

 

[pmac10]

Stop whinging Johnny Boy, My dad spent a christmas in a covert OP just outside Forkhill, freezing cold and snowing. And back in the 70s kit was very basic to say the least. Poor sod was also in Belfast during that long hot summer of rioting in '76.

stop whinging Ken, some of us frekkin live there. (and much respect to your Da by the way ; )

 

[malcolmsanford]

Though I was topside I managed to get a few Christmas morning shifts, but none beat the underground "pump" duty.

A sparks and a fitter would get the pump duty to check that the water pumps below ground were ok, as if they failed it would not just be Christmas day that the face had off, so down @ first shift in overalls, only time underground wore them, as they had their clothes on under them, once round the face and up again for 8 hrs treble time and day off in lieu. Then second shift and back shift did the same.

The only time I did it was when a lad broke his leg, and luckily I did the first shift, in/out an hour, back up into the canteen, which opened only for the emergency shifts like us, to a full English, free as emergency work, and becasue it was skeleton catering staff, no coffee just tea, and only choice was the full English ...............wonderful, made the pub by 12am for the 2 hour drink............can still taste the full English

 

[Des 56]

How many I wonder, realise how frighteningly quiet it is in a mine, when your the only one wondering around down there

The absolute and complete darkness if you turn your light off,the total silence except the creaking of the planet as it compacts the strata

Most miners never experienced the above, it was an experience for electricians
Those shifts were well paid,but it was nerve racking to say the least

 

[pmac10]

How many I wonder, realise how frighteningly quiet it is in a mine, when your the only one wondering around down there

The absolute and complete darkness if you turn your light off,the total silence except the creaking of the planet as it compacts the strata

Most miners never experienced the above, it was an experience for electricians
Those shifts were well paid,but it was nerve racking to say the least

know what you mean Des,
travalled down a disused mine in Wales years ago and the silence is deafening!
as for the blackness, frightening! you've never been in the dark 'till you witness that.

 

[Knobhead]

I fell for (I was railroaded in to it) Christmas and Boxing on 24hr call out. So informed the manager that he’d better have some contingency plans especially for Boxing day (birthday), I will be bladdered. Sorry it’s you on call unless you find someone else, fat chance of that! He phoned me up at 11pm to see if I was still sober! I was in a club completely off my face!

Called in to office in the New Year and it wasn’t for a party.

 

[millwall ken]

stop whinging Ken, some of us frekkin live there. (and much respect to your Da by the way ; )

Aye, My old dear hails from Dundonald mate.