My alarm clock began ringing at 4.45am on Friday as it normally does when I am working the morning shift. Before I got up I could already hear that it was poring down outside. My humour didnt improve when I realised my waterproof trousers where neatly folded away in my locker at work. Oh well, just have to bite the bullet, get a move on and cycle to work. Better not to think that it was the day of mid summers evening and that most people would be staying home that day despite it not being an offical bank holiday. After all it is an afternoon/evening celebration and as such doesnt really deserve a morning off. 20 minuites later as I arrived in what can best be described as a soggy state I noticed the car park was slightly empty. But not all the machines start as early as the printing presses so what wasnt that strange. The darkness on the factory floor however was. Now they could be waiting for me in the dark with a big cake and were about to jump out shouting surpise and happy birthday. Being a capricorn however this seemed to be a slim chance.

To say I was pissed off would be an understatment. I had asked the machine boss what the state of play was and from his answer i gathered we were working. Now it could have been the way I phrased the question as my swedish is less than perfect but it feels like I was someones little play thing. If i set any alarms off blundering into the factory like that then i apoligise to the poor sod that had to come and see what was going on. Report me to the boss if you like, would be good if some who could abuse him fully in swedish in a manner that it deserves. Even incompetent fool didnt show up, so where does that put me in the peaking order of things ? Well actaully he might have just been late it wouldnt have been the first time. The only upside was that i was able to see the England match in full colour in comfort at home and we know how that one went...