Which watch?

I just finished a wee section on my website which shows which watch is on duty for the current 2-2-4 duty system used by the NIFRS (Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service). It works for every year from 2004 to 2020. Feel free to check it out at http://www.garethdickson.net/javascript-ajax/.

For those of you who are web-development-minded, I have used PHP, Javascript and AJAX to update it. Haven’t been able to test it on every type of browser but the code I used for the AJAX claims to be browser-proof. We shall see…

Ever Googled yourself?

So I’ve been keeping an eye on where my website (www.garethdickson.net) and this blog come in the Google rankings when you do a search for my name. It turns out that my name is getting a bit more popular than I would have hoped. Apparently there’s a me from Scotland who is a bit of a musician. Plays the acoustic guitar amongst other things and seems to be pretty good. I also play but haven’t been in a band since university.

More worryingly there is another me in BELFAST!!!! He seems to enjoy going to the local gay bar and watching camp TV. Draw your own conclusions. Anyway, he’s not me (just in case my girlfriend is reading this) so don’t worry – I don’t have a hidden lifestyle anyone should know about…

Why you shouldn’t drink and drive

We all know the reasons and yet some people just don’t get the message. We pulled 5 people out of a Citroen C2 last night. The car had gone through a wall, round a lamp post and ended up on its roof and miraculously nobody got killed. And it was a miracle. Bits of the wall ended up 20 metres away from the impact.

Initiations – Part 2

It’s always a bit scary starting a new job – especially when you know you’re entering a tightly-knit team. We have a new guy on the watch and his luck deserted him on his second day. The watch were being shown a hydraulic platform machine (which is stationed at another station) to get familiar with it. Everyone was asked if they wanted to go up on the platform for a ride. A few put on the harness and climbed in with one of the operators. The new guy was encouraged to have a go as he hadn’t seen it before so he got in last. Just as he was about to go up, the operator on the platform got a phone call. Not a problem as the second operator could control it from the ground.

So our new guy gets raised up and shown the view. After a couple of minutes he is brought down and we notice he has put his visor down – he’s seen what’s coming. There are four firefighters armed with hoses waiting for him…

You can guess the rest.

How not to soak your colleagues

People get soaked all the time in the fire brigade for different reasons. Sometimes it can be an unprovoked attack, sometimes revenge. There is one golden rule though – don’t soak unless you are prepared for the consequences. One of our guys (who has a habit of backing himself into a corner) was squirting water from the top of a hydraulic platform when he had the bright idea of soaking one of his colleagues. He looked down and there they were – a perfect target. So, on went the hose and pretty quickly there was a soaking, angry firefighter standing beside the controls to the platform.

Our hero saw the danger too late as the water supply to the platform was switched off and the platform itself began to lower just as 2 other firemen prepared a couple of hoselines. Of course the platform stopped – just too high to jump off – and the water supply to the hoses was switched on…

Just like shooting fish in a barrel.