A Christmas Story for people having a bad day

[Chiz]

When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce
toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the
Pre-Christmas pressure.

Then Mrs Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed
Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were
about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out,
Heaven knows where.

Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the
toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.

Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of
rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drank all
the cider and hidden the liquor. In his frustration, he accidentally
dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces
all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found the mice
had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.

Just then the doorbell rang, and irritated Santa marched to the door,
yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas
tree.
The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a
lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to
put it?'

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas
tree.

[paraletic]

A Parents Night before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas
when all through the house
I searched for the tools
to hand to my spouse

Instructions were studied
and we were inspired,
in hopes we could manage
"Some Assembly Required."


The children were quiet
(not asleep) in their beds,
while Dad and I faced
the evening with dread:
a kitchen, two bikes, Barbie's townhouse to boot!
And now, thanks to Grandpa, a train with a toot!


We opened the boxes,
my heart skipped a beat -
let no parts be missing or
parts incomplete!


"Too late for last-minute returns or replacement;
if we can't get it right,
it goes straight to the basement!
When what to my worrying eyes should appear
but 50 sheets of directions, concise, but not clear,
With each part numbered and every slot named,
so if we failed, only we could be blamed.


More rapid than eagles the parts then fell out,
all over the carpet they were scattered about.
"Now bolt it! Now twist it! Attach it right there!
Slide on the seats, and staple the stair!
Hammer the shelves, and nail to the stand."
"Honey," said hubby, "you just glued my hand."


And then in a twinkling, I knew for a fact
that all the toy dealers had indeed made a pact
to keep parents busy all Christmas Eve night
with "assembly required" till morning's first light
We spoke not a word, but kept bent at our work,
till our eyes, they went bleary; our fingers all hurt.
The coffee went cold and the night, it wore thin
before we attached the last rod and last pin.


Then laying the tools away in the chest,
we fell into bed for a well-deserved rest.
But I said to my husband just before I passed out,
"This will be the best Christmas,
without any doubt.
Tomorrow we'll cheer,
let the holiday ring,
and not run to the store for one single thing!
We did it! We did it!
The toys are all set
for the perfect, most magical, Christmas, I bet!"


Then off to dreamland and sweet repose
I'm grateful went, though I suppose
there's something to say for those self-deluded-
I'd forgotten that BATTERIES are never included!

[mbg]

Thanks Lorna. That brought back some bitter-sweet memories of Amy's dad and I building her Playmobil dolls house one Christmas eve. Started at 10pm - finished at 4am. It was worth it though.:D

[Chiz]

Thanks Lorna. That brought back some bitter-sweet memories of Amy's dad and I building her Playmobil dolls house one Christmas eve. Started at 10pm - finished at 4am. It was worth it though.:D

Spent one year having to building Tracy Island & putting stickers on power ranger vehicles.
Thank god their older & you only need to wrap a CD & make sure there is a 6 pack chilling for them in the fridge when the turn up for Xmas lunch.:thumbs:

[Mad Dash]

For people having a bad day, well I think I've had the worst week of my life. Last Sunday got a call from the alarm people that we had an activation at the factory, I only live 5 minutes away so was on the scene in zip time. I was greeted half way down the road by smoke, so my heart was already pounding... turned the corner to be greeted by flames and a fully developed fire. Here's pictures of the aftermath.

In many ways we were lucky :confused: As the factory and production was unaffected, in fact the press room was totally smoke and fire free, so we managed to get full production back by Tuesday afternoon.

The offices, as you can see, are gone. The graphics studio which was upstairs survived, although some smoke damage was evident.

I've learned a lot this week. Building Control, they make specifications for a reason. The fire department, deserve every penny of their wages and should be paid DOUBLE. The police too, these guys and gals provide a superb job. Insurance loss adjusters are the biggest bunch of pretentious @rseholes that I've ever met, I almost had one by the throat today.

If you have your own business and don't have a disaster recovery protocol, write one NOW. It saved our @rse, by having all the procedures documented for this exact type of scenario meant that we followed a tick list and went from what you see to full production in 30 hours.

The culprit looks like a portable phone, if you have these in your house get rid of the b@stard thing. Next time you see one, feel the charger unit, same with mobile phones, same with power tool chargers. The fire brigade also said these plug in air freshners are a nightmare....

3634 3635 3636 3637 3638

[jimmyrosko]

Bl00dy Hell Stuart :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: Cant imagine what you were thinking driving into the estate and seeing loads of smoke and to turn the corner and see the front of your building on fire, At least no one hurt or killed,

Picture 2nd from the right, Is that the wee office we were in that night i was up there?

Wish you all the best in getting things back together mate.

[Chiz]

Bl00dy Hell Stuart :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: Cant imagine what you were thinking driving into the estate and seeing loads of smoke and to turn the corner and see the front of your building on fire, At least no one hurt or killed,

Picture 2nd from the right, Is that the wee office we were in that night i was up there?

Wish you all the best in getting things back together mate.

Same here Stuart. Wishing you all the best & a quick recovery for your business & no doubt your blood pressure.
I was wondering why you had not been on the forum for a while.
Now it is all apparent.
What can one say. Hope everything gets sorted ASAP. I can imagine the amount of paperwork you are filling in right now.
Glad the business can tick over. I assume you will be working out of portacabins outside,or at home to ensure the business does not suffer.
Again hope you get the paperwork mountain sorted & can get back to some form of order at work.
Chiz.

[69jme69]

Not good Stuart ,,,both lorna and myself hope this wont dampen your Christmas too much and that you will move on from this to make 2009 a prosperous and happy time :thumbs:

[dlloyduk]

For people having a bad day, well I think I've had the worst week of my life. Last Sunday got a call from the alarm people that we had an activation at the factory, I only live 5 minutes away so was on the scene in zip time. I was greeted half way down the road by smoke, so my heart was already pounding... turned the corner to be greeted by flames and a fully developed fire. Here's pictures of the aftermath.

In many ways we were lucky :confused: As the factory and production was unaffected, in fact the press room was totally smoke and fire free, so we managed to get full production back by Tuesday afternoon.

The offices, as you can see, are gone. The graphics studio which was upstairs survived, although some smoke damage was evident.

I've learned a lot this week. Building Control, they make specifications for a reason. The fire department, deserve every penny of their wages and should be paid DOUBLE. The police too, these guys and gals provide a superb job. Insurance loss adjusters are the biggest bunch of pretentious @rseholes that I've ever met, I almost had one by the throat today.

If you have your own business and don't have a disaster recovery protocol, write one NOW. It saved our @rse, by having all the procedures documented for this exact type of scenario meant that we followed a tick list and went from what you see to full production in 30 hours.

The culprit looks like a portable phone, if you have these in your house get rid of the b@stard thing. Next time you see one, feel the charger unit, same with mobile phones, same with power tool chargers. The fire brigade also said these plug in air freshners are a nightmare....


Hope you get sorted out soon.
Reading your post has just prompted me to do a downstairs tour unplugging 2x mobile chargers, laptop charger, Air fresheners,steam cooker also turned off dish washer and washer that where on standby and my cheap bike battery charger in the garage. Eight high risk items within 10 paces from where I,m sitting!
I should know better as I did a NEBOSH H&S course alongside 3 or 4 firemen, whom I vividly remember telling me mobile chargers, air fresheners and TV,s on standby are the real risks of fires in houses these days-cheap chinese electronics anyone?
Take care out there.

[Mad Dash]

Thanks for those kind words folks, I'll thank those posts when I get back into work, on the blackberry at the moment. Very lucky actually as we managed an almost seamless return to production on Tuesday, that's down to the planning we had done and a great bunch of staff too. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger as they say

[Gizmo]

Not something I'd want to go through Stuart, from sounds of things good planning prevented it causing too much disruption. Do you run with off site backup software/server space? its something we'd been considering even though backup disc goes home with a member of staff every night.

[alane]

...If you have your own business and don't have a disaster recovery protocol, write one NOW. It saved our @rse, by having all the procedures documented for this exact type of scenario meant that we followed a tick list and went from what you see to full production in 30 hours.
....

MD - good luck with the recovery, don't forget the complete set of titanium golf clubs that must have gotten melted in the office.

A Lot of insurances insist on DR documenation now.
Where I am at moment have off site portacabin/servers written into the procedures should there be a fire.

[Mad Dash]

Michael, all our systems data is web based, so we were covered with that. We have about 10 terraytes of artwork files, they too were backed up so all that we lost was the printed copies of order forms and a lot of paperwork. You can plan for this, but trust me nothing prepares you for this. I was down at my mum and dads today, they have one of these portable phones, the charger was so hot it was almost untouchable.... If you have them get rid of them

[mbg]

Sorry to hear the bad news Stuart but glad you're being so positive about it. Hope you'll soon be back to 100%.:D

All this talk of portable phones has got me worried. Mum has one - main phone in living room - second unit in bedroom. These are necessary in case she takes ill through the night and has to phone me. I have the same set up with two extra units. I have checked the base units on all the phones and there is no heat whatsoever. Is it all phones of this type that are dangerous or are some safe?:confused:

[alane]

After the horse has bolted an all that, and considering you have a veritable tinder box, you could consider VESD fire alarm system if you are getting new installation. Rather than the detectors 'waiting' for the smoke to infiltrate their detection scope some VESD's use sniffer ducts to actively sample air and pass them through a laser detection area. Some VESD's also just use the laser detection across the large floor areas. Primarily I have spec'd the VESD design for undefloor of computer rooms dealing with credit card dealers, but depending upon your 'worth' I'd say its gonna be either your call or more to the point your insurers call.
Best of luck with getting it all back together. :cheers:

[gordj65]

hope you managed to throw the accounts on the fire before they put it out ;)