Sunday 11 November 2012

Backpacking to work

Got driven back into Newbury after helping out with the 2012 Bone Hike which I organize with 2 other guys, it's essentially a night-hike for scouts who are not quite confident enough to do larger district competitions so we ease them in with a simpler course. However although it was very easy for me and a 27 year old to walk the course in 45 minutes, one group managed to take upward of 4 hours with multiple phone calls to HQ, the best of which started with the brilliant sentence of:

'We are really, really lost. We are by some buildings and we all think we are in London...'

So after spending a night in a room that felt like a walk in fridge within Pingu's Ice Cave and warfing down a breakfast consisting of chocolate milk and an ice cream I was back at work on the day of Remembrance no less. All the staff got in quite early and we were briefed on the necessary procedure for the two minute silence where we re not to serve anyone or do anything distracting ourselves or others from the silence. The firebell rang briefly at 11am to mark the beginning of the service, a few kids were making nose but that is expected as they are 3 and don't really know what's going on but about halfway through, I could hear the phone ringing at reception. Naturally everyone ignored it but then it rung again, still we didn;t pick it up because we didn't want to disgrace the honour of those who died for our country. FInally the phone rings for a 3rd time, this time down by the cafe, to my immediate right, now the silence has just ended so I pick up the phone. I already know who it's from, the director of the company, the big cheese calling from London:

Me: Hello?
Darren: Hello, it's Darren calling, how is everything doing in Newbury
Me: Oh, it's doing ok, we just had our 2 minute silence
Darren: ...Oh yeah, that was today.'

While this is an amusing anecdote it is still a little bit pathetic that the director of our company can't keep up with what day Remembrance Day is supposest to be.

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