Not the most progressive way to clean the back of your bin truck.
There’s one main difference between American and English weddings:
At English weddings everybody on the dance floor is thoroughly banjo’d and needs to be to get up there in the first place; it’s only the sober, infirm or the dead that remain sat at their tables.
American weddings tend to be the exact opposite; all sober folks dive for the dance floor like the upper classes on The Titanic, and those who’d been chipping away at the free bar remain glued to their seats.
Being a pissed Englishman at an American wedding this past weekend, I didn’t know what to do!
Although instinct soon took over.
But nothing really tops the English Christmas ‘works’ do’. For drama, drunkenness and ridiculousness very little matches it.
Attending on one side of the bar is one thing; working behind it is another.
Before I moved over the oily side of the pond I had a spell working behind the bar at Nelson Cricket Club.
One Thursday before Christmas we’d been asked if we could host Pendle Council’s Yuletide bash. Now this was going to be a big earner. Bigger than New Year’s Eve as the entire council staff were in attendance from admin to bin men.
The thing is, not only did it start at 4pm with those who wanted being able to start razzling and a dazzling at lunchtime, but the council hierarchy led by the mayor had banned any council parties from their own premises – including The Silverman Hall and The Muni.
Apparently, they’d trashed some other council haunt the year before or something.
Not that me or the steward were overly worried for our health and safety. We’d oiled and tested the shutter for ease of closure and had the filth on speed dial.
It must be reported that everybody was impeccably behaved – other than our steward, who refused a member of the council’s media relations team (or intermediate big wig with contacts) a glass of water by suggesting they find an empty glass and use the sink in the ladies’ toilet.
That wasn’t the last time Dave made the Nelson Leader either.
Safe mobile maintenance platform for bin wagons.
But Pendle’s refuse collectors need struggle no longer gaining access to certain cleaning essentials.
Recently, we teamed up with Go-Plant – the guys responsible for the council’s refuse and recycling truck fleet – to design and fabricate a mobile platform for ease of access to clean and maintain their vehicles.
Dangling into the back of a bin wagon sets as many health and safety alarm bells off as your average drunken bin troupe descending on NCC might do.
Feel free to head over a take a look at a few pictures of the mobile refuse truck cleaning trolley and read a more sensible account of our collaboration with Go-Plant.
