Lost Horizons

The Man of Law

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against lawyers as people - one of my oldest friends is a lawyer; but, the other night I met a lawyer (or at least someone who professed to be one) who I would not want to be a friend of mine.

I was sat in Carneggies, enjoying crazy hour, and entered into a conversation with this stranger, lets call him A. We were engaged in the sort of casual banter that might happen in any bar between strangers - pollution in HK, teenagers today, internet chatting, girls who work the bars, etc. It was a fairly pleasant chat, although it was mostly one-sided, as I found it hard to get a word in edgeways sometimes.

After a while another legal johnny, lets call him B, comes in and sits next to A, and buys A a drink. The conversation carries on, and I notice that B buys A a couple more drinks. He did offer me a drink, but I declined, not wanting to get into a round situation with a couple of strangers. A never bought a drink.

After three drinks or so, B leaves to go home. After he has left A turns to me and starts telling me stuff about B that, a) is none of my business, b) I don't really want to hear about, and c) for someone to buy you drinks and then to turn round after he has left and slag him off behind his back, is in my opinion, pretty low behaviour.

So, A, if perchance you read this blog, and you recognise yourself in this story. It wasn't big and it wasn't clever, and I wasn't impressed.

posted by Luke @ 10:39 AM 2 Comments

Bad, Mad and so Sad

The project I am working on is having some construction work done in China. The company doing thet work, for us, employs many contractors, and on Friday morning, three of them were killed. The work they were doing, involved them having to wear hoods, to which an air hose is connected, providing them with a continuos supply of air to breath. It appears that, somehow, someone had manage to connect the air hoses to a supply line of argon, a gas used for welding.
Needless to say, this just shouldn't be possible, but it did happen. We have warned the construction company about their safety practices so many times, and still there doesn't seem to be any improvement, and now, three people will not return to their families.
I can't really put into words, how I feel about this - angry, disappointed, frightened for the safety of other people, bitter about the construction company's attitude, amazed at the stupidity shown in the accident, just so many different emotions. Needless to say we have pulled all our staff off that worksite, until we can be assured about their safety.

posted by Luke @ 2:37 AM 2 Comments