Coffee time ballet

Posted on 07/09/2015 by bighair63

The kitchen at work is tiny. There’s an unwritten ‘cat swinging’ rule which stipulates one must NOT swing one’s cat, unless of course you no longer want it.

Peak times in the kitchen are challenging. The first hurdle is how many people dare to enter at the same time? Most people will stop at 5, which is far too many in my opinion. The hot water boiler is located on one side of the kitchen and the fridge on the other, which means there’s a high degree of toing and froing and an increased risk of scalding someone as you manoeuvre your coffee from one side to the other. The coffee-making flow is interrupted when more than one person is in the kitchen, but when there are five caffeine starved people, it’s like one of those sliding puzzles… or indeed an intricate modern dance!

Gin Festival

Posted on 05/09/2015 by bighair63

There’s a gin festival in Sheffield this weekend. I took part last night. It went something like this…

Super Ben

Posted on 02/09/2015 by bighair63

After Mackerel Man’s debut the other week, his son was quick to request a drawing of himself as a super hero (minus the fishiness). I had a bit of free time on my hands sooo…

Job Secured

Posted on 20/08/2015 by bighair63

Well, what a roller coaster of a ride these last few weeks have been. It was down to the wire – the gladiatorial battle for the job was due yesterday, but on Monday, everything was turned on its head and we both come away with a job without having to wrestle “naked in a skip” as one colleague put it. Both of us will now be working four days a week and we can once again get back to being bezzie work colleagues, eating cake and drinking wine! (Note who has what in their hand!). A four day week is just the best news for me. I have been daydreaming about my rise to fame, or what musical instrument I’m going to master. In all seriousness, I will relish the time and head space to be creative. WHOOP WHOOP!

Fringe superheroes!

Posted on 14/08/2015 by bighair63

This is one of those ‘you had to be there’ moments, but I’ll tell you anyway. A colleague of mine managed to get a fishbone stuck under his fingernail, causing it to go septic. This sparked a rather raucous conversation about the fish equivalent of Spiderman. It started out as Sardine Man, with the ability to fit into tight spaces but I thought Mackerel Man had a better ring to it (and theme tune).

Clearing

Posted on 13/08/2015 by bighair63

Today I had a taste of what it’s like working in a call centre as I manned the phones for University clearing. Hopeful young students nervously gave me their grades and waited with baited breath while I calculated their credits before putting them through to a tutor for the final decision, or told them they hadn’t met the minimum criteria.

It’s heartbreaking when you tell a young person their grades aren’t good enough, especially when they beg you to consider the fact that they really, really want to do business studies and if they could ‘just talk to the tutor’ they could possibly negotiate their way in… I can sympathise – I know what it’s like when you don’t get the grades you hoped for!

What’s worse though, are the ranty parents who don’t understand why little Billy wasn’t accepted on the course and “What are YOU basing YOUR criteria on?!!!”. Not surprisingly I came away with a rather large headache and an overwhelming desire to lie down. Despite this, it was an enjoyable experience and great to be directly interacting with young people!

Gladiators ready?

Posted on 10/08/2015 by bighair63

My friend and colleague and I are currently in a rubbish situation at work. Our two jobs are being reduced to one and we’re being both being interviewed for the remaining post. It’s a horrible position to be in. Surely it would be better if we could choose our competition event.

Gladiator style?

Sumo suit wrestling?

Tiddlywinks?

Portaloos

Posted on 27/07/2015 by bighair63

Having recently been to a music festival, this situation is fresh in my mind. Using a portaloo is one of my biggest fears and one of the reasons I rarely do weekend festivals. The dark, dingy box which is too small to manoeuvre without touching edges that shouldn’t be touched. Too dark to be sure whether the liquid substance you brushed against was ‘water’ – undoubtedly not but I try not to think about it.

They are inevitably lack toilet paper so the person before you who didn’t think about taking in a handful of ’emergency loo roll’ has had to use a paper towel instead (if they have one) and that is now stuck in the bowl. And the smell….oh the smell…

well anyway… it made me draw this picture.

How do you escape the heat?

Posted on 02/07/2015 by bighair63

When asked the above question by @OFFLIFE_comic for tonight’s #quickdraw theme, I figured a band of well trained monkeys couldn’t hurt! We were given an hour to draw a response…this was my quick effort.

Geocaching and dashing

Posted on 01/07/2015 by bighair63

So I’ve been doing loads of geocaching recently! We’ve been scrambling over hill and down dale, sticking our hands in murky holes and dangling over walls! Geocaching is great fun! Thought I’d do a quick sketch…