"Interesting jobs" drabbles by Richard Hunt

Paint - 8

Interesting jobs #4

The lift up to the roof disguised how high we had gone. Now I looked out over the rooftops of the main factory and could see as far as Sale, over there in the distance. Going to the edge there was a sheer drop of some 250 feet to the concrete road.

Fortunately heights don’t bother me, so the panorama was really great.

“You’re OK with heights?” Laurie asked.

“Fine.” I replied.

“So over here is where I test the paints.”

‘Over there’ was an area of about 200 squares of painted material, angled skywards, each about six inches square.

Paint - 7

Interesting jobs #4

Having sorted everything out and left a very happy John - not so sure about his boss, I continued north inside the factory until I came to the enormous north doors. It was a short walk in the open air to the building where Laurie worked.

It is a tall building and I knew that Laurie worked near the top. But there he was at the door, waiting for me.

“You’re getting yourself a bit of a reputation,” he said, “Good reputation. We are all going to watch out. So, up to the roof. That’s where I test all our paints.”

Paint - 6

Interesting jobs #4

I had waited in the little waiting area until John - that turned out to be his name - came out. He smiled at me.

“Thanks, Richard,” he said, “I hadn’t realised how dangerous it was.”.

“Are you OK?” I asked.

“Right now, yes, but he is phoning my foreman to tell him all about it and to recommend I get a week off on full pay, straight away, in case symptoms develop. All I have to do is to phone in each day to say that I haven’t got a cough or a tight chest. How about you?”

“I’m completely clear.”

Paint - 5

Interesting jobs #4

“Just let me tell my manager and I’m coming with you.” He quite sensibly said.

Together we walked to the Doctor’s office. It was quite centrally placed in the factory.

He saw me first and I explained.

“Never had to test for that before, give me a few moments.” He said, opening a book.

“Right,” he said quite soon, “into my consulting room, Richard.”

He listened to my chest, front and back and made me cough. “ any pain?”

“Not right now.”

“If you get a cough or any pain in your chest come back immediately. Now for your colleague.”

Paint - 4

Interesting jobs #4

“Can I help you?” He asked.

“No, I can probably help you,” I said. “I’m from health and safety”.

I could almost read his mind, ‘Bl***y interfering lot.’

“I have to tell you that arc welding using that chlorinated leak detector is dangerous.”

“Why not? It’s bl**dy good, the best I could find.”

“Agreed, but it also releases a toxic gas called ‘Mustard gas’, which endangers you and your colleagues … and me. The gas was used extensively in the First World War. I shall be going to see the doctor right now and advise you to do the same.”

Paint -3

Interesting jobs #4

As I walked the half mile through the factory, I kept my eyes open for anything which I did not like the look of.

After my successes with the marine turbine, paint shop and the coal mine transformers (there turned out to be several more cases which I solved without having to go to the mine) - after those I WAS being listened to.

And so when I came to a guy arc welding and liberally using a chlorinated solvent to check for leaks, my hackles rose.

I wasn’t wearing goggles, and so he stopped too and turned the welder off.

Paint - 2

Interesting jobs #4

Our factory was not small, about 1 mile wide and half a mile deep. As you walked through it there were numerous parts of power stations being built. You might look at Drax. All of it, yes, all of it was built by our company … more another time about Drax.

The building where Laurie worked was right at the back, and our labs were at the front. So through I walked, intent on consulting Laurie to find out a bit more about this paint.

Past turbines, enormous things, generators, past the paint shop where I had solved the ‘problem’.

Paint - 1

Interesting jobs #4

“One of the problems of building power stations by the sea is that the metal rusts before they can use it.” Fred said to me one day.

Obvious, I suppose, but remarks like that from my boss usually led to an interesting job for me. So I listened intently.

“Why don’t they build them further from the sea … or inland?” I asked.

“In operation, the station needs a great volume of water to keep it cool.” Fred said, “but with Laurie’s - in paints - help, I devised a paint which can be used during build, but is easily removed. ”

Working in a coal mine - 30

Interesting jobs #3

I turned back from this idyllic scene and got into the driver’s seat.

“Get me home, Richard, I’m knackered.” Was Fred’s request as I started the engine.

It was before speed limits on motorways. We were going up the three lane M6. Need I say more?

I reached 130mph very quickly and stuck there all the way to Altrincham.

I dropped Fred off and walked round to my digs.

Next morning I was in work again. Fred thanked me for driving and added “I hope you realise that you managed a fuel consumption of 7 miles per gallon coming home!”

Working in a coal mine - 29

Interesting jobs #3

There was the church, on our left, opposite the coal mine. I pulled into the side and got out.

It was a nice church, on the opposite side of a field to me. Over to the right of the church there was a bonfire burning. Immediately above the church tower a single cloud hung in the sky.

Other than that the sky was cloudless, many stars clearly visible.

It was altogether a really nice scene.

I sketched it.

I subsequently painted it. The painting hangs in my art gallery. You are welcome to view it if you are in Cambridge.

Working in a coal mine - 28

Interesting jobs #3

It wasn’t a difficult car to drive, it was a pleasure, but it had such a long bonnet and was so big and so powerful, compared to my bubble car.

“I would like to stop and have a look at the church, I promised them down there that I would.”

“OK, but don’t mind me if I fall asleep. You remember where I live.”

“Yes, of course. Just round the corner from me.”

I stopped when we reached the church.

It was dark, a clear sky except for the odd small cloud. Wonderful after the heat and humidity down there.

Working in a coal mine - 27

Interesting jobs #3

I knew I was insured. It was a company rule for all employees who used the internal car park to insure the car for anyone with a driving license … including me with my yellow Isetta bubble car.

After letting Fred recover a bit from his drive up here, I suggested that we go. I told him that, out of courtesy to the Barbershop quartet, I wanted to stop and have a look at their church.

The accelerator on the XK150 is very responsive. Not so the brakes, which were NOT power assisted!

But it was a pleasure to drive.

Working in a coal mine - 26

Interesting jobs #3

This was the time of the Cuban missile crisis and the ‘four minute’ warning, so getting a ship out of a harbour quickly made a lot of sense.

“They took me the whole length of the Channel, then back again. Reckoned the new fuel mixture was just right, thanks to you, Richard.”

I didn’t know how to reply and wonder if those fishermen who were complaining about us boiling their canal were aware of what it was all about.

“Anyway,” Fred said, “after all that I am knackered, so you are going to have to drive home. You are insured.”

Working in a coal mine - 25

Interesting jobs #3

I walked out of the lift chamber into the cool, fresh air of night, over to the supervisor’s office where Fred was sitting, looking knackered. I commented.

“Well,” he said, “it’s been a long day. Long but very rewarding, like yours, I hear.”

“I hope it’s fixed.” I said.

“Confidence, Richard. It will. Like your tuning up of the mixture on the marine turbines. That’s where I’ve been, down to Dover then into a frigate for a live test.”

“Crikey, that was a long way to go.”

“Worth it. Great to have the XK150, made the journeys fast and easy.”

Working in a coal mine - 24

Interesting jobs #3

I walked along the seam, coal passing us on the belt on our right, on its way to someone’s fireplace. Very satisfying.

Turn right at the end, under the belt, and over to where the train would be. Waiting. Sweltering hot and so humid.

Up two levels and into the lift.

Out of the lift at the top into the clean, dry air of night. Over there was my boss Fred’s red XK150, waiting.

“So this is as far as I go,” Phill said. “Once again thank you so much, you are a saviour. You know where to go now?”

Working in a coal mine - 23

Interesting jobs #3

“So I will take you back to the surface.” He continued “… after a cheer from the others.”

He turned and called out, “Hip hooray for Richard. Hip, hip, hip …”

So I got three cheers. “Well you did make our jobs a lot easier.” The manager said. “So, let’s go.”

“I can find my own way.” I said, picking up my bags.

“No, we’re not allowed to let people wander about unescorted. I think they’re worried in case you pick up some illicit coal! A joke. Mind your head on the support beams.”

So I went, followed by him.

Working in a coal mine - 22

Interesting jobs #3

He phoned the surface and told them they were starting again. Then lights came on, the disk started cutting and the belt started moving.

“Right,” he called out, “everyone back to your positions.”

Then to me, “We shall know the worst or the best in about twenty minutes. I need to get back to work, you stay here.”

So I did. Despite all the noise of the coal, I could hear the hum of ‘my’ transformer.

After 40 minutes it was all still working!

“I’m satisfied,” said the foreman. “Well done, you’ve fixed it. It would have failed by now.”

Working in a coal mine - 21

Interesting jobs #3

“Tell you what,” the leader said, “it’ll be dark outside, so we’ll sing ‘Ar hyd a nos’ for you.”

“Great,” I said, “lovely tune, well suited to you. Are you going to sing in Welsh?”

“You know what it is then?”

“Yes, ‘All through the night’”

“In Welsh, then, we were going to sing it in English.”

So they sang it in Welsh.

“Right, then,” the leader said - I had forgotten his name, “time to get back to work and see how your fix has worked.”

Although I was quietly confident, I didn’t know what I’d do if it didn’t.

Working in a coal mine - 20

Interesting jobs #3

And I told them about the time I met and shook hands with Sir Edmund Hilary, who had only very recently climbed Everest for the first time ever.

Then I asked them to sing for me and this time let me join in.

Apart from waiting the time for the equipment to cool down and for condensation to do its evil worst, my Boss, Fred, who had brought me down in his Jaguar XK150, would not be back from his meetings until 5:00 ‘earliest’, by which time it would be dark up there.

So we sang ‘Swing high, swing low’.

Working in a coal mine - 19

Interesting jobs #3

So time passed and we swapped anecdotes. Apparently they didn’t sing when the power was off … it wasn’t the same.

I told them of the tremendous thrill of a day when I sang “Oh for the wings of a dove” solo in the nave of the Cathedral to a packed congregation, including the Lord Mayor of Norwich and his Lady.

I also told them about learning ESL (English Sign Language). Talking during services was forbidden … so what better way to communicate with your friends?

They told me about singing barber-shop in the Church. What fun it was!