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Health and Safety Consulting – A Day in the Life!
April 22, 2009
My morning started very early with the sound of my alarm clock going off at 04.30, I had to get myself to Nottingham East Midlands Airport (or EMA for all the locals) for the flight across the water to Belfast at 07.00.
Having never been to Belfast I was certainly looking forward to my trip. Arriving in Belfast and taking delivery of my hire car I set the co-ordinates into my satellite navigation system and I was off to Ballynahinch, for my first inspection of the day. This is where I encountered my first problem, as my ‘Sat Nav’ recognised the postcode and the road name but not the house number. I later found out that up until 5 years ago there had been 3 cottages and now there stood 2, a little bit of local detective work paid off and I had found my client’s property.
My next appointment was in Armagh, easy to find and no problems parking - or so I thought! It wasn’t until the client asked me where I had parked that it emerged I had parked outside of the local traffic wardens office and I would get exactly 1 hour of parking and not a second longer.
So with my second inspection of the day in the bag I headed off back to Belfast, to find my hotel and discover what delights Belfast had in store.
Having checked into the hotel I set off on a fact finding and sight seeing mission around Belfast city centre and what better way of doing that than on a sight seeing tour. The tour took in some of the sights I had only ever seen on the news, such as the Titanic Quarter where the RMS Titanic was built, Crumlin Road Gaol and court house and the Shanklin and Falls roads, the tour certainly was an eye opener and well worth the time and money.
The following days inspections were both in Belfast and went off without a hitch but I did have one surreal moment when I stopped off at a well known fast food outlet for a coffee, as I returned to my hire car a Vauxhall Corsa displaying orange "R" plates pulled into the car park and out jumped 4 school girls in uniform. I later found out that the orange "R" only applies in Northern Ireland and it stands for "restricted", and must be displayed by all new drivers for a year following passing their driving test. During this period they are restricted to a maximum speed of 45mph. The driver was obviously in the sixth form, phew, thought I was getting old then for a minute!
Having completed my inspections I had one last wander around the shops it was time to head off to Belfast airport and catch my flight back to EMA.
Somehow I don’t think next years inspections will be as exciting!
Posted by Steve Hawkins - Consultant
Having never been to Belfast I was certainly looking forward to my trip. Arriving in Belfast and taking delivery of my hire car I set the co-ordinates into my satellite navigation system and I was off to Ballynahinch, for my first inspection of the day. This is where I encountered my first problem, as my ‘Sat Nav’ recognised the postcode and the road name but not the house number. I later found out that up until 5 years ago there had been 3 cottages and now there stood 2, a little bit of local detective work paid off and I had found my client’s property.
My next appointment was in Armagh, easy to find and no problems parking - or so I thought! It wasn’t until the client asked me where I had parked that it emerged I had parked outside of the local traffic wardens office and I would get exactly 1 hour of parking and not a second longer.
So with my second inspection of the day in the bag I headed off back to Belfast, to find my hotel and discover what delights Belfast had in store.
Having checked into the hotel I set off on a fact finding and sight seeing mission around Belfast city centre and what better way of doing that than on a sight seeing tour. The tour took in some of the sights I had only ever seen on the news, such as the Titanic Quarter where the RMS Titanic was built, Crumlin Road Gaol and court house and the Shanklin and Falls roads, the tour certainly was an eye opener and well worth the time and money.
The following days inspections were both in Belfast and went off without a hitch but I did have one surreal moment when I stopped off at a well known fast food outlet for a coffee, as I returned to my hire car a Vauxhall Corsa displaying orange "R" plates pulled into the car park and out jumped 4 school girls in uniform. I later found out that the orange "R" only applies in Northern Ireland and it stands for "restricted", and must be displayed by all new drivers for a year following passing their driving test. During this period they are restricted to a maximum speed of 45mph. The driver was obviously in the sixth form, phew, thought I was getting old then for a minute!
Having completed my inspections I had one last wander around the shops it was time to head off to Belfast airport and catch my flight back to EMA.
Somehow I don’t think next years inspections will be as exciting!
Posted by Steve Hawkins - Consultant
