Service is resumed …

June 17, 2008 at 5:39 pm | In Work | 2 Comments

Im Back!

Its been a long time …

I have been busy working …

But even busier learning to kitesurf …

Its pure mental ahm tellin ye! … Costing me a bloody fortune … but ahd only spend it on some other shite anyway …

So welcome back to Harry Bawbags Blurt …

Get it doon ye!!!!

The Little Settlement

March 27, 2008 at 12:20 am | In Art, flexifoil, kite | 1 Comment

While out kiting at Slapton Sands in Devon yesterday I came across this …

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blodstonesname.jpg

Magic eh?!!!

The things people do!

I love it so ah do! … when I was a kid I would shrink the old style crisp packets under a grill till they were perfect minatures and then sneak them onto the shelves beside the original packets in the local R.S. McColls.

shop

I was a wee bit of a space cadet ye see.

Anyway heres a wee bit more of The Little Settlement …

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I found it quite inspiring … Im toying with ideas at the moment – Some kind of intricate sloganeering on random stones at beaches may be the way forward for me.

Watch this space!

As for the kiting …

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Owned.

Oh and by the way … after reading the Wikipedia entry on Slapton Sands I find out that it is a nudist beach … Really?!!!

There was no flesh on display that day … I may return for further investigation though!

Just the sheer thought of it … you know – being naked and walking aboot … Whits the attraction of that?

An all over tan?

Nah its no for me … its aw a load o shite.

Aw the best for the noo!

The Statue Of Liberty …

March 26, 2008 at 12:19 am | In Mr Johnson, Work | Leave a Comment

liberty

… thats what its like.

Ahm talkin about the catering industry.

Its like a beacon, a point of light, a refuge for the British underclass.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; send these, the homeless tempest-tossed … and we will turn them into kitchen porters and feed them “meals on duty”.

Magic eh.

Kitchen Porters are often a breed apart.

The unemployable become employed eh?

The thing I like about them is that they have history … imagine washing pots and pans all day long for 20 odd years … what must that be like? What does that do to a fellow human. Im fascinated by them. I find a certain romance in it all.

graft

Christ I need help!

Anyway …

Occasionally amongst the sea of kitchen porters a certain one or two somehow manage to float to the surface and make themselves known amongst all their peers.

Characters.

Thats the only way tae describe them.

And I think I may have stumbled upon another.

Mr Johnson is in his mid fifties and he is happy. He lives with his mother and step-father in a dive of a council estate. He is a wee bit tapped … but seems pleasantly aware of the ridiculousness of it all … life and living and all that stuff.

Mr Johnson has hinted that he has had a nervous breakdown and a marriage that lasted a matter of weeks.

muppet

Mr Johnson has eyebrows that mustve been stolen from one of Jim Hensons Muppets.

Ye gotta love the daft old bastard eh?

I like him a lot … he is simple in a good way.

I even work late sometimes just to give him a lift home at the end of his shift … he likes the craic and so do I.

I may spend a fair bit of time blogging him.

If I was in the trenches …

March 25, 2008 at 11:21 pm | In Hate, Work | Leave a Comment

Trench

I would be a goner!

If I had the group of chefs I work with at the moment behind me in any case …

Useless they are ahm tellin ye … absolutely zero work ethic.

Wankers too … get this -

So there I am 5.30 in the morning trying to show this “chef” how to do a breakfast service.

He is 19 … He if full of himself … and he knows sweet fuck all about cooking.

The sort of bloke that when you tell him to do something he asks you why?

When I issued him with his first rota he said “My name is third on the list – does that mean Im third in the pecking order?” … Ah told him there was no pecking order – you do what youre told and you dont worry about fuck all else.

Yip! … A True Prick of the Highest Order.

Bawbags has no truck with those types now … its the best way ahm tellin ye!

History has proved that to me …

Ye see when I was 20 – I was probably a prick myself.

And when I was 25 – I always felt an urge to inform pricks they were pricks.

But now Im 30 – I just let the pricks BE pricks – theyll get it in the neck eventually.

Anyway, I Digress …

So at 8.30am we are wrapping up the breakfast service and in walks the second chef. First thing he does is change the channel on the kitchen radio … it is his radio after all.

Prick Chef lifts his head from his bacon trays and blurts out “Oi you ignorant Cunt … I was listening to that”

Me and the second chef were absolutely aghast … Ah couldnae believe ma ears!

The second chef very calmly walked up to him and altough I didnt quite catch what he said … the words “take it outside” were definitely used.

The second chef turns his back and walks calmly away … but Prick Chefs pride has been hurt … throwing a pack of bacon at no one in particular he shouts “Lets fucking go then mate … reckon Im scared of you?”

He should of been scared – it would have been a pasting … a seven shades of shit pasting.

Time for Bawbags to grasp the poison chalice that is kitchen management – I would of loved to have seen this pasting occur but in my role as Head Chef it would not have been looked well upon by the upper echelons.

“Right ye fuckin idiot … get the fuck oot ma kitchen … who in the name o fuck de ye think ye are … ye canny be kickin aff like that in here – theres too many fuckin sharps aroond … nae tellin whit yell do ye pshyco”

begbie

I go straight intae Begsbie mode when it comes tae shite like that.

In a GOOD way that is.

If thats entirely possible.

Needless to say Prick Chef is no longer in the companys employ.

But the other 4 or 5 still are.

Slowly Slowly Catch The Monkey … constructive dismissal is the way to go.

shh

The Child In Me …

February 29, 2008 at 10:44 pm | In Bawbags Health | 1 Comment

peter pan

… is alive and kicking ahm telling ye!

The other day me and the missus escaped drudgery, compromise and countless other tenets of modern human civilisation … How did you manage that Bawbags?

Well it was easy really – we just went to Cornwall and flew a kite!

Simple!

On the recommendation of a certain Mr William Deed I found myself punching the name Porthleven into a TomTom and making the 2 and a half hour drive down into the depths of Cornwall.

Driving through Cornwall using a TomTom is a baffling experince … it often indicates that you are not infact driving on that nice new stretch of road, but actually driving in a field and heading in the wrong direction to your destination.

I really must update that bloody thing.

Anyway … the destination in question was this …

loe bar

The Loe Bar Sandbank.

Yes Mr Deed you are right! … It is kinda sublime!

It wasnt the kinda weather for a picnic as he had suggested … but it was the perfect weather for dusting off the old kite …

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Luckily the sandbank was deserted so there was no chance of me maiming an innocent bystander through my kite flying rustiness. It ragged me all over the place for a couple of hours but I got back onto the swing of things eventually.

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At one point I very nearly tripped over this …

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How inconsiderate are those artists …

I mean really?!!!

Anyway it was a great day ahm tellin ye … Meditative.

So meditative in fact that I never felt my hands being messed up …

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… and I didnt even know that I had amassed a miniature pebble collection in ma size 9s!

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Who needs gurus, shaman or the Pope eh?

All ye need is a kite!

Ahm seriously think ahm gonna get back itntae it … you know, the kiting and that.

The bairn that I am eh?!

Lifes too short tae grew up.

More Blogroll Additions!

February 27, 2008 at 12:05 am | In Blogroll | 4 Comments

Check out my Blogroll for three Blogs of note that I have recently stumbled upon.

One Hundred Pounds – Its a study in skintdom and is excellent.

Excellent too are Bits Of Bobs and Whats The Skinny Macca? – blogs kept by two of the wonderful Mr Woods cohorts.

Check them out!

Into the tunnel …

February 26, 2008 at 11:30 pm | In Hate, Shopping, Work | 2 Comments

jere we go

Thats what it feels like to me.

Yip! Another season of catering madness looms over me. The thought of all those miscreants that will turn up at the door claiming to be “hard working” chefs and kitchen porters is already making me feel weak.

Last season I had one guy turn up – fully qualified and good references – Magic!, I thought.

Until his first day of work when he rolls up looking like a bag of shit and smelling of booze.

And then he tells me that he wont touch any raw meat …

“You fucking what?!!!”

“Yeah” he says, “it just makes me feel queasy”.

I told him he was in the wrong game and there was a pile of dirty dishes with his name on it over in the sink.

humour

“I wasnt born to clean” he sneered at me.

Bold As Fuckin Brass!

“Well ye werent born tae cook either pal … so youre nae use tae man nor beast!”

Thing is – the way that this company works … I had to put up with the flake for 4months … couldnae get rid of him cause there were no other applicants.

Mental.

Anyway, the seasons no come into play just yet so Im kinda just setting things up before the aforesaid miscreants turn up and fuck up my life for the rest of the year.

Apropos of which a brand new oven turned up the other day …

A Rational, thats kinda the cream of the crop as far as ovens go within the catering industry.

Fifteen thousand pounds of quality German Engineering.

250 Kilogrammes of Stainless Steel, Fans, gas piping and high spec electronics.

It had been made to order by a crack team of engineers over the space of two days …. tested for excellence by rigorous quality control experts.

Then carefully packaged within a puzzle of high impact polystyrene, cardboard, shrink wrap and plywood before being carefully loaded into a freighter at the Hook of Holland for superfast efficient delivery to the UK.

10 hours later it rolled up at the back of my kitchen … it was in the back of a shitty looking lorry amongst a bunch of DVD players and cappucino machines destined for Argos.

The driver, about five inches smaller than me and about half the weight, got out wearing a food stained t-shirt, five oclock shadow and breath smelling like death.

“Awrite mate … have you got a fork lift then?”

“You Fucking What?!”

I find myself saying that A LOT regarding catering.

I may adopt it as bona fide catchphrase.

I had to run around and hire a pallet truck, get it on site, and then Mr Muscle and I managed to wrestle the thing onto the lorry heist which groaned loudly under the strain as it lowered it to the ground.

“You got a problem here mate” the driver shouts at me.

I took one look and almost went back home to bed.

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The bloody thing wouldnt even fit in the door.

Ah wis scoobied!

We took of all the packaging and it still didnt fit!!!

Ah phoned the General Manager and told him what was going on … “Cant you turn it on its side?”

I caught myself before asking him “You Fucking What?” – it may have affected my employ in too negative a manner.

“Eh… No … Its almost 300kilos and I aint had ma porridge this morning … and it did cost Fifteen Thousand Pounds and ah wouldnae like to take the grief if I damaged it”

The cavalry soon arrived – a team of maintenance men including a joiner who nonchantly hammered the door frame out in such a manner that some of the brickwork above caved in.

“Fuck” he said.

Here we go ah thought.

“Better get the bloody thing in before the wall goes”, he says.

k

Health and Safety At Work Act 1974 … where are you now?

I woulda taken photos but they all seemed kinda protective over their little mistake.

Anyway, to cut a long story short we got it in and the wall was fixed and the door frame was conjured back into existence.

Ah needed a break after aw that and decided tae take a wee trip tae the local Sainsburys tae see what CDs the have on offer at the mo.

I parked the car and saw this …

blogpooch.jpg

Its a portable dog shower.

YOU FUCKING WHAT?!!!

The world turns eh?

Aw the best fae BawBags.

No, but really … How was Madeira?

February 23, 2008 at 7:36 pm | In Blogroll, Food, Madeira, Wimmin | Leave a Comment

Listen …

I could go on and on telling you about Madeira and its mountains, levadas, people and culture.

But I certainly aint a Rough Guide and I dont look that much like Judith Chalmers!

So lets just say I found it all rather good for my soul and it was just what I needed – it served its purpose.

So lets just have a wee photo show BawBag stylee …

One of the things thats first impressed me while stumbling about all over Funchal was the fact that people grow Bananas in their gardens …

blogbananas.jpg

… nice eh? Certainly makes a change fae crabby apples and rhubarb.

The fruit they had over there was AMAZING though! I didnt realise they had about 10 different types of Passion Fruit. I needed to sample them as soon as possible so we went to the fruit market and got absolutely fuckin stiffed by one of the stall holders …

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Cost us a bloody fortune … mustve looked at the whiteness of ma body and thought “Tourists!!!”

The Fish Market was just next door so we took a quick look in to see Madeiras famous Scabbard fish. They serve it in all the restaurants out there and I had it a few times – its like a very deep strong Cod flavour – nice … but I reckon you couldnt eat it too often – youd get sick of it … and I mean that literally.

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Thats them there … Bloody ugly things with huge eyes and teeth. Apparently they live very deep down and when they are netted and dragged up to the surface their intestines spew out of their arse because of the change in pressure … lovely.

One day we journeyed out to the other side of the island … the trip there was pretty hair raising – imagine the bus at the end of the Italian Job, teetering over the edge of massive cliff … well the opportunity for a re-enactment of that scene seemed to be just around every corner!!!

Anyway we survived it and got a chance to walk around a spooky little town that was tres religious … as this nativity scene demonstrates …

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And then I stumbled upon a toy shop with this display …

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Mibbe they come alive at night and go on some kinda murderous crusade?

Are kids supposed to PLAY with these???

Anyway …

Another cool thing about Madeira was that there was loads of these wee critters running around everywhere …

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Ah desperately wanted tae catch one and put it in a matchbox and smuggle it back tae Blighty.

The missus talked me out of it.

Ho Hum.

While strolling around a supermarket in Funchal I came across this mens grooming product which kinda has an inverse result when translated intae Portuguese …

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Magic eh! … It stops ye gettin yer end away.

Now that TICKLED me!

If you wanna see pics of Madeiras scenery there are thousands already on the web.

If you wanna get more of an idea of Madeiras culture check out this blog that I found – its obviously run its course but Ive read it end to end and its brilliant. Its in ma blogroll.

Bravo brave Orlaith … I wonder where she is now?

Im going to round it off with a pic of the missus in the mountains which I will probably have to remove when she finds out I have posted one …

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Awrite Doll?

Bawbags 10 – Life 0 … Final Score.

Onwards

So how was Madeira?

February 23, 2008 at 4:57 pm | In Madeira, Wimmin | 5 Comments

It was magic as it happens … Ta fir askin!

As it was a VERY late deal Bawbags got from First Choice the accomodation was going to be “allocated on arrival”.

I had prepared the missus for the worst by recounting stories of having to sleep in holes in walls and food poisoning while backpacking in Morrocco. After getting her suitably prepared for the worst we were shocked when we were taken to the 4 star Hotel Panaromica which overlooked the whole of Madeiras capital Funchal.

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It wis ace ahm tellin ye.

Now lets get this straight at this point … I was breaking new ground for myself here – Bawbags is NOT the Package Holiday kinda guy … and this was the first I had ever been on.

Thoughts of a regimented itinerary, bus tours and the like were kinda freaking me oot a bit … but it turns oot that you could do whatever you liked if you wanted to – and thats exactly what we chose to do.

Apparently Madeira is for the Newly Weds and the Nearly Deads … all honeymooning couples and Old Age Pensioners.

After scruitinisation I found that analysis to be half true – I couldnt see any Honeymooners – it felt like we were the youngest holidaymakers on the island!!!

Take the hotel for example … it was full of Dutch and Germans in their socks and sandals, cargo shorts and hearing aids.

It was surreal – but in a nice and gentle way.

God only knows what they thought of us pair.

Now heres a weird thing – the hotel didnt pipe the normal smorgasbord of Muzak into the lifts … Nah, none o that shite … they had somehow managed tae get a hold of a recording of 80s AOR heroes Tpau in concert … and thought “This shit will do”.

Random or What?!!!

That old tart Carol Decker would be delighted she still has an audience!!!

Muzak

I even serenaded the missus with a heart felt singalong to “Heart and Soul” until an elderly Dutch couple entered the lift and just stared in silence at us – I carried on regardless.

On another occasion the missus went for a swim in the outdoor swimming pool on the roof – when she came back she was slightly pertubed and told me that a big fat old German bloke had approached her and asked her where she was from.

She had told him that she was from Poland and that kinda drew a blank from him.

“Next time he speaks tae ye be more specific”, I said …

“Tell him youre from Auschwitz!!!”

Aushcwitz

Watch him squirm!!!

Who would be German if you had a choice eh?

No me ahm tellin ye!

Needless to say we didnt spend much time at the hotel – it was great though – people staying there were paying up to three times what we paid.

Ha!

Everyone cheer First Choice with your “Accomodation allocated on arrival” !!!

the clap

Bawbags 1 – Life 0

A wee break

February 21, 2008 at 10:23 pm | In Bawbags Health, Wimmin, Work | 5 Comments

Nah … ahve no givin up on the old blogging.

Ahve been away ye see.

On my return to the English Riviera my heart had just sunk … and with the thought of another season of catering madness bearing down on me, ma spirit was going the same way.

Ah needed a wee break … ah deserved it ah thought.

Fuck it Bawbags! … Get yoursel doon tae First Choice pronto!!!

agadoo

Heres the remit ah gave them – not too hot and not too cold … not too touristy and not too remote … somewhere where ah could just chill oot and maybe even walk around withoot the possibility of being happy slapped, stabbed or kidnapped.

Oh … and I want to be on the plane before the weeks oot!

Ah wasnae expectin any joy – it was Thursday already … and it was First Choice after aw!!!

We have a cancellation for a package to Madeira flying out on Monday ah wis told …

Magic!!! … Ill take it.

Its for two people sharing sir …

Ahm takin the missus.

Isnt there anymore details you need to know asked the sales girl while the printer was spewing out all the confirmation bumpf.

Eh … Naw … Well … Aye … Where exactly is Madeira?

It was that quick.

Ah swear.

Well it felt like it.

And cheap as chips too!!!

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