Hello to all the hard workers out there.
Ever had a boss that you despised and some how in an effort to help him it all came undone?
Here is a yarn in which you might get a cheap laugh from. There is an saying in Australia the higher North you go in Australia the crazier the people are. And the distinction between a place of worship and a pub gets a little burred so to speak.
In sweat and dust of a cruel summers day when sun burns you through your clothes. there was nothing better in the hottest part of the afternoon to retreat to the nearest bar for a bit of relief from the relentless sun.
The bar was usually filled with a various collection of all excuses of humanity. Miners drillers, bushmen cattlemen from all walks of life after one thing air conditioning! that of course with the mandatory beer or two!
In the bar you find the usually lot playing pool or sitting up at the bar telling the same old stories moaning about work. In an eagerness of a horse running to water I stumbled my fly blown carcass into the bar. To be hit with a wave of coolness from the fully cranked up air conditioner. In my moment of relief I turned and saw my old mate shankie wobbling at the bar like a tall skinny human version of a prey mantis, already a few drinks ahead of me on a mission of destruction.
Shankie knew his job like no other. He knew his drilling job so well people said he would still be able to do His job dead. He was a alcoholic who sweated alcohol so much people feared to smoke around him, least he catch fire. In all his faults companies turned a blind eye to his drunkenness because he always got things done.
"Ah matey" he cried "just the man I wanted to see come and join me in my celebration! I shuddered at the invitation as drinking with Shankie always ended up with me driving the porcelain bus! Celebration I asked? Yeah come and help my celebrate me losing my job he mused with unexpected pride. How did that happen I inquired? "Ah I gave old bull dog an head ache" Laughed Shankie with a wink exposing a broken row of yellow teeth. It seems a little harsh I quizzed?
Bull dog was a man I had once worked with and knowing the character of the man who you loved and hated at the same time.There was no harder supervisor than Bulldog. he was a giant overweight alcoholic with two hanging jowls for cheeks that made him look like a bulldog. He had a very forceful and domineering persona. He clashed with many workers and I saw him many a time break a man he had taken a dislike to, especially when he was going through the dry horrors, withdrawals from Alcohol that is. Strangely enough I never really had a problem with him.
Shankie pulled me down to a table and ordered a round of drinks and told me the sorry tale.
We were working out on the lease out in the Nugga Nugga just south of the gulf channel country. Being sub contractors our task was to drill core samples at the site under the supervision of geologist and survey team. Access was to the site was through a very rough road through sometimes bulldozed through very harsh country.
Some time in the course of achieving the desired location the drilling rig or support vehicles would get bogged in the red bull dust soil of the Nugga Nugga. It was in one such episode that the drill rig broke down. leaving the drilling crew idle and left to camp out that night at the place of breakdown.
Old Bulldog was a man of the Bush. He had grown up among the cattle stations of the North and always barked out orders like a drill Sargent. People skills was not his strong point. Being an old man of the Bush he had a habit of sleeping in a Mexican hammock usually slung under the truck of the Drilling of the drilling rig.The other drilling crew member slept in their swags, sleeping bags.
As hot as the day is the desert at night temperatures can get real cold. Bulldog an overweight giant of the man in his hammock with his bottom off an inch or so off the ground. Bulldog was such a man who slept like log and snored like a chain saw. Shankie one of the crew members woke early one morning and glanced across the temporary campsite to bulldog snoring away in his hammock under the truck.
Shankie said he did not realize at first that his boss's backside was touching the ground in the hammock. Shankie blinked and stared realizing that it was not his backside touching the ground but a snake that had come in during the night when temperatures have dropped and curled up into a coil under Bulldogs back side for warmth.
What do you do? Shankie laughed. Do you wake him and have the possibility of him being bitten by Tipan which would most result in certain death! Being a time and place long before the days of Occupational health safety supervisors wrapped their employees in Cotton wool. They would would cringe in horror today if they knew the crew was carrying a firearm.
And so Shankie in his infinite wisdom decided to use the firearm on the head of the snake asleep without waking up Bulldog. Shankie put the rifle to the snakes head and fired killing the snake.
Of course the effect was devastating as one could imagine to poor old Bulldog. Being awakened by the sound of gunshot about an inch from his back side as he slept in the hammock under the truck. Bulldog wide eyed sprang upright smacking his head on the bulk head of the truck, knocking himself out and splitting his forehead open.
One could also imagine that changed the entire concept of the job of one now arranging of their boss to seek medical attention in these isolated regions are an expedition in its self. Thus affecting the validity and position of the contractor on the mining lease. Hence Shankie's loss of job.
And so Shankie said with and intoxicated smirk that's how I gave my boss a head ache!
Hardluck
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« Last Edit: January 12, 2010, 06:46:58 am by hardluck »
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