Saturday 26 December 2009

Busy at Kilmorey Mausoleum - for a change!

I hope you have all had a good Christmas, and wish you a Happy New Year, whatever you get up to!

I thought that I would get a few more entries in my blog, before the New Year, and at last I have got a bit of free time to spare.

I don't believe it! I actually made it to the Mausoleum about a week ago, and the weather actually allowed me to get some work done on Saturday and last Tuesday.
There was quite a lot of outstanding work to be done, and I spent the two days clearing up many wheel barrow loads of leaves off the paths, and 'feeding' the large composter to just over three quarters full now.





Have also left a large mound of leaves by the leaf composter, and I wonder if it will all fit in?
As usual three robins kept me company, by following me around the Mausoleum grounds, cleverly picking up the small worms and insects disturbed as I was leaf raking.




 


Also the meadow in front of the Mausoleum is undergoing management, and will soon be in the process of replanting in places. And the local foxes have been doing their best to dig up and excavate parts of the meadow as well!





A blue tarpaulin has been fitted to the Mausoleum roof, covering up a leaking skylight, and just about managed to stay on, despite the recent gales we have been having, though some bricks on the tarpaulin did get blown off! hopefully a permanent skylight repair will be carried out this time - eventually? I've updated the Kilmorey website, and more information can be found by visiting it.




So it has been a busy couple of days for me, and I felt quite weary after the cycle home, but it's
good physical exercise, and more fulfilling than a workout at the local gym! 


Tuesday 1 December 2009

B.A. Or my Life?!... The first Chapter - The Interview.

Chapter One continued.      The Interview.....

The long delayed next part of my story is at last here! I'm sure that you've all been waiting out there with expectation and excitement?! Maybe that's going too far? Just perhaps, a yawn? "Oh no, not another lot of waffle published on yet another a blog to read!"

Well, here's my latest lot of waffle to peruse, for what it's worth, set way back in 1979! I'm amazed to think that thirty years have passed now, since these events happened in an ever dimmer and more distant past.

From the security gate; that short asphalt pathway I was walking along, by the raised brick plant beds, was potentially the path to a career in aviation, and I didn't have a clue at that time where it would lead!
Since I hated suits, and didn't possess one and also disliked the traditional collar and tie look; at the time, I must have looked a bit like a German 'U Boat' officer extra from a wartime film, but without the peaked cap! with my thin white polar necked white sweater borrowed from my brother's wardrobe back then, and a dark blue jacket and trousers, and black shoes. The look I suppose, was meant to be smart casual, but at least I looked a bit different and memorable from the typical M&S suited 'interviewee fodder'. 

At the entrance, I saw the sign saying "Comet House" by the glass fronted heavy double doors. Taking a deep breath, and with a light tingling feeling in my stomach, there was no turning back now.
I opened one of the doors  and noticed a pay office counter, a bit like one found in a bank on my right, and also noticed a sign for interviews that were being conducted on the first floor. In front of me were some steps that I went up, winding round to the first floor corridor. The floors were pale greyish green polished lino, and there was a noticeable odour around of the typical office floor polish used. It reminded me a bit of school!
I still was a bit early for the interview, and looking along the corridor I could see the small office that was being used for the interviews. The glass paned door opened and I met the interviewer. He greeted me, shook my hand, and ushered me into the office. It was the typical plain small office layout, with a filing cabinet on one side, a desk in the middle and two chairs, and a large window looking out onto the access road and the main entrance, and in the distance, the West Engineering Base Technical Block D  (TBD) hangars and apron.
He introduced himself as Mr. Tutt from Personnel and Recruiting; a balding man in his late forties or maybe early fifties dressed in a typical corporate grey suit with dark tie. He seemed pleased that I was on time, and maybe a little bit early for the interview. Also came across as an amiable and possibly quite shrewd type of interviewer, trying to put me at ease.

When we sat down, I noticed through the window behind him in the distance, the white and  green Boeing 707 that I had looked at earlier, and it helped me my concentrate my mind and forget my feeling of nerves!
Looking business like, I took out a notepad and pen from my black holdall, with some pre-prepared questions to ask. Whether this impressed him at all, I don't know?!
During the interview, in which time seemed to fly by, and it may have been up to an hour? he asked me about my interests and achievements, and about me going gliding at the Dunstable Gliding Club. One of the questions I remember concerning this, was that if some friends turned up in a car, asking me to go gliding with them, and I knew I had to study for exam that was coming along in the next day or two; what would I do? Would I drop the books and go off for a day's gliding, or would I refuse their offer and put the exam studying first. He laboured the point a bit, and I knew what he was implying!! Anyway, I said the right thing which seemed to satisfy Mr. Tutt.
He also asked me if I had any relatives working in the airline, and I told him about my father working over at Catering at the Central Area at Heathrow, and an old friend of his who worked on Concordes.
About my qualifications, he seemed more than satisfied with my exam results, and continuing on, he asked me some technical questions; such as how an aircraft wing works, and provides lift and demonstrate it with some paper provided on the desk. I just about managed to convince him with my then very basic knowledge of aerodynamics! A much simpler task for me, was when he asked me to identify several airliner types from pictures provided - easy stuff now!
Other things I seem to remember, since I wanted to be trained in avionics, was a question about how to wire a domestic three pin plug, and calculating the wattage of a one bar electrical fire with the figures provided, and the size of fuse in amps, to fit in the plug.

We chatted a bit about the apprenticeship, and the job opportunities provided, and he suggested that working on aircraft in the hangars, on big maintenance checks at the engineering base, was the best place to get a good 'grounding' of experience; even though I told him that I wanted to work over on the Central Area in the Tech units, doing short checks and turnaround work on aircraft. Little did I know that he was right, and I would end up doing what he suggested in future years!

Now it was my turn to ask questions, and I enquired about pay and conditions, annual leave holiday entitlements that would be expected during training. The type of course I would be on and the training involved.
I think he seemed quite pleased with the way the interview was progressing, and I was relieved when it was coming to the end!
We got up and shook hands, and he told me that I would be notified fairly soon if I had got the job of apprentice avionic technician, but he seemed to give the impression that I had a good chance.

Leaving the office, I felt happy that it was all over, and had gone quite well. Retracing my steps, I found myself outside Comet House again, and decided that I would visit the perimeter area; this time to the other side of the Dunlop building near Hatton Cross, and see what aircraft were around at the airport.

Comet House was quite a large sprawling brick and concrete rectangular office building, built in the late 1950's, which housed the B.A. pay offices and some other administration offices, such as aircraft scheduling at LHR for both B.A and other airlines. I was to find out more about this, when I decided to look for another job many years later.
It was disused by the late 1990's and demolished along with Speedbird House in the spring of 2000. Now the large ugly run-down area is just used for storing building materials, and has been a rubble strewn building site ever since, at the entrance to the engineering base - criss crossed with large galvanised steel mesh fences and coils of razor wire, it looks more like the former boundary to East Berlin during the communist days! Such is so called progress! and sums up what has been recently happening to British Airways.

Walking along by the perimeter fence, towards the long evergreen hedge near the landing lights by runway 28 Left I, could see some of the airport 'action', with aircraft coming and going on their regular daily schedules. Once again, the distinctive smell of burnt jet aviation fuel Jet A-1 was filling my senses, with the background distant 'whine' of jet engines. One aircraft I remember that stood out from the usual visitors that afternoon, was a white, orange and silver scheme Martinair DC-9 (a Dutch charter airline), not a common visitor and most probably operating on a KLM flight, taxying out from Terminal 2 in front of the 'Echo' Stands. In those days, aircraft parking stands were designated in a logical alphabetical order, followed by a stand number.
It was nice to see something a bit different that day, and for some strange reason, the tune of 'Street Life' by the Crusaders, which was in the record charts and being played a lot on the radio at the time, was 'going around' in my head, whilst I was walking along.

Time to go back, and the occasional B.A. Trident jet thundered over my head, leaving a semi-transparent greyish black billowing trail in the air, of exhaust smoke from the three rear mounted Rolls Royce Spey engines, as I passed by the line of runway landing lights . Aeroplanes were certainly more dramatic back then, with their noise and exhaust emissions!

But there were many fewer airliners in those days, with a lot less aircraft movements (take-offs and landings) during the day, and virtually no night flights, compared to today.

Arriving home in the late afternoon sun, it was time for an early dinner since I was starving! and I had macaroni cheese in the (sounds posh in those days!) house extension used as a conservatory.
It's a strange fact that as I type this blog, more memories 'flood back' than I had ever expected!


I put away the holdall, and the stuff I had taken with me for the interview, and tomorrow was just another day, back to the normal routine and school life eventually!

Stay around for the next episode of "B.A. or my Life?!" You never know, you might even find it slightly interesting?!