Whit Friday ...

Uppermill on Whit Friday - you choose ...............

Got the phone call yesterday afternoon - "Can you get in work for 0700hrs ?" - no problem ... fully understood the reasons why i.e. Whit Friday. So ... turned up at the appointed hour - and my frame was EMPTY ! For those not in the know - my actual starting time is 1000hrs and my contracted hours are 4hrs 48mins - and when I turn up I should have a fully prepared frame (i.e. all letters in - and if lucky - ha !! - all parcels in as well). Experience has shown that this is NEVER the case, but to turn up to an empty frame - it's got overtime written all over it !

So .. did the business and was ready to leave about 0900 - so that's two hours done already - by the time all stuff was dropped off in the various "gardens" (such is a rural walk !) and having to fight our way through crowds of Christians and Brass Bands ... it was 0930 - so that's 2hrs 30 mins of my shift BEFORE A LETTER WAS DELIVERED !!! The REAL facer today was the 7 (SEVEN) registered letters - the ones that HAVE to be delivered before 1300hrs - and they were well spread out. So - it was time for logistical skills (which normally means tweaking/re-writing the layout of the walk .. which often means "dead walking" - in order to get everything done before 1300) - I cracked it for all seven (two of which no answer; therefore RED CARD !!), but with all the faffing about involved, I didn't finish until nearly 1400 hrs ... so two hours overtime will be suitably booked tomorrow !

Next problem - getting home. There were NO buses going through Diggle - so I ended up walking to Greenfield (and nipping into the Tesco for tonight's tea) - at least 1.5 miles. Shopping done had time for a beer in the "Railway" (plastic glasses only ... "police insturctions" !!) - caught train home to Mossley and now here.

To get to Greenfield I had to walk through Uppermill - a quaint little village, full of your normal touristy type shops - and home to a band contest on Whit Friday. Unfortunately these days it's also the main point for all the "townies" to congregate and drink huge quantities of alcohol and generally behave like complete t*ssers. Naturally the village was ready for the invasion. I counted no less than 12 police vans; loads of police and community support officers wandering around; the odd First-Aider ready for 'action'; people in hi-vis coats with "Acme Security" (or some such) roaming the streets; even the Conservative Club had some "thuggish looking" peeps with black tee-shirts and SECURITY tattooed all over their shaven heads (OK, I'm embellishing a touch here - but you get the picture) - yep Uppermill looked and sounded like THE place to be on Whit Friday night ... not.

We went to Friezland Band Contest in the evening - far more restrained (with a Real Ale tent as well dispensing Millstone Brewery beers !) - and I took the recently mended 85mm lens out to play - because it was getting dark. Will have a look through the pictures probably on Sunday night. Work OK today (drove through Uppermill at about 0730 this morning - the Council Cleaning Squad were in full swing clearing up the mess (and it WAS a mess) before today's "Beer Walk Crowds" make a similar mess ! Off to Derby quite soon (it's now 1500 hrs Saturday - despite what it says at the bottom of this post) returning via Stafford tomorrow (well it's Fathers Day innit !).

Next week's "posting" is a right ruddy mish-mash ... Oldham on Monday, Delph on Tuesday and then Greenfield Wednesday through Saturday - well that's the plan at the moment - we'll see if we stick to it ...
.