LMA Falkland Islands
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 7:39 pm
There must be forum members with experiences of this imo dreadful job.
I went out there in August 1984 and have never experienced 5 months of total boredom .
The journey getting there was an experience itself 14 hours Heathrow to Jbourg then 2 hours to Capetown.
Then 12 days on The MV England through lots of timezones.
The first couple of weeks were a novelty getting paid for doing nothing just standing around watching machines.
To cut a long story short after about 6 weeks of doing nothing a group of us stopped going to work and just hung around the camp playing table tennis.
We were all called into to see management and told if you didnt go out to work then we would all get charged for board and lodgings and fare home.
We argued the case if there was something for us to do we would be back to work like shot but not to many of us were keen to stand outside for 12 hours watching machines.
Quite a few of the lads did as they were told, but a group of us carried refusing .
The soonest we could get back was on the December Boat so had quite a few long days to endure.
The threats from management were regular but just fell on deaf ears of most but some bottled it and went back to standing watching machines under the watchfull eye of a total bastard called John Currie .
I remember sitting on the plane going there talking to this tough looking aggresive Scotsman saying how he was going to do 3 years out there.
The same Scotsman wasnt the same man on the journey back sat on the boat crying his eyes out.
When arriving back in the UK found I was paid for all time I was out there including travel.
It was certainly an eyeopener .
I went out there in August 1984 and have never experienced 5 months of total boredom .
The journey getting there was an experience itself 14 hours Heathrow to Jbourg then 2 hours to Capetown.
Then 12 days on The MV England through lots of timezones.
The first couple of weeks were a novelty getting paid for doing nothing just standing around watching machines.
To cut a long story short after about 6 weeks of doing nothing a group of us stopped going to work and just hung around the camp playing table tennis.
We were all called into to see management and told if you didnt go out to work then we would all get charged for board and lodgings and fare home.
We argued the case if there was something for us to do we would be back to work like shot but not to many of us were keen to stand outside for 12 hours watching machines.
Quite a few of the lads did as they were told, but a group of us carried refusing .
The soonest we could get back was on the December Boat so had quite a few long days to endure.
The threats from management were regular but just fell on deaf ears of most but some bottled it and went back to standing watching machines under the watchfull eye of a total bastard called John Currie .
I remember sitting on the plane going there talking to this tough looking aggresive Scotsman saying how he was going to do 3 years out there.
The same Scotsman wasnt the same man on the journey back sat on the boat crying his eyes out.
When arriving back in the UK found I was paid for all time I was out there including travel.
It was certainly an eyeopener .