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I'd put in for four
days off in the 'off' book. Had some business to take care of in the
North. I asked one of the office managers if it would be ok, and he
said it would be, slightly hurriedly and dismissively, but, he assured me it would be ok, so I thought
it would be ok.
It wasn't easy, what
happened in the North, and I won't go into it all here. But I arrived
back in work, Sunday morning, tired and emotional and sort of broken
inside. Hauling my self as you do when your body's like a dead weight, into the sad canteen, I sat down and confided in one of my
new Polish friends.
She's a divorcee and mother of one in her early 40s; a veteran of the European hotel industry. Thin and shrewd with large, attentive eyes, she hears me out and then shakes her head sympathetically. 'It's better' she says, 'Trust me. You'll have peace, holy peace'. I nod and sip my tea
tearfully.
Would this motivate you?...
When I get downstairs
to the basement I'm told 'They're looking for you'. 'They' meaning the
Management.
'Where were you on
Wednesday?', says the main office manager, an Indian woman in her late 40s who I've never seen smile.
She barely looks up from her paperwork. One of the supervisors, Leva from Latvia, is standing beside her staring directly at me, wide-eyed and riled.
She barely looks up from her paperwork. One of the supervisors, Leva from Latvia, is standing beside her staring directly at me, wide-eyed and riled.
'I'd put in the off
book that I'm taking a few days off'.
'You don't just write
in the book what you want and you get what you want! Do you think
that everyone who writes what they want gets what they want? You
cannot all have the days off that you want'.
St-ress.
I mean, they guarantee
me just four hours per week in my contract, I'm virtually bogus self
employed, what do I really owe them? I feel like I'm freelance.
'But I asked the
supervisor here and...'
Barked interruption:
'You were supposed to work and you were not here and it created many
problems for us'.
'But why didn't you
call me?
I might as well have
asked them for a warm buttered croissant brought to me on a silver
tray.
'CALL YOU? We don't
call you, you call US!'
Because I don't like
being yelled at, and I'm feeling bad enough as it is, I don't
respond. I slink off and wait to sign in at the window.
When it comes to doling
out our allocation sheets, rape alarms and master keys, I'm left
waiting.
The girls scramble to
sign in, grab their sheets, and scan them intently. How many super-suites, how many departure rooms? How hard is the day going to be? Often there'll be
rueful groans and sighs. Sundays are the worst. So many departures
meaning a much more intense clean and monitoring by the supervisors.
They take their trays
and cloths and get going to the lift. I’m last. My name is on the
rota and list, and I've signed in, but there is no number of rooms by my
name.
'I don't have any rooms
allocated' I say once everyone has gone save for one of the office
helpers who also cleans the public areas. She's standing next to me.
The office manager
shouts from her desk: 'Yes, you have no rooms because we didn't know
if you were going to turn up or not'.
'But you knew I was
coming, I was on the rota!'.
The response is for
both her and the supervisor to start shouting at me at the same time.
I can't make out what they're saying. They're just outraged that I'm
talking back to them, questioning them even.
'I can't hear you when
you're both shouting at me?', I say firmly, 'Can you stop shouting at
me? This is abusive behaviour'.
Well that goes down
like a bomb.....
Thankyou for writing this blog. It's always a really interesting read. The amount of times I've used hotel room in the past and not really thought about what goes on behind the scenes shames me. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"She's a divorcee and mother of one in her early 40s; a veteran of the European hotel industry. Thin and shrewd with large, attentive eyes, she hears me out and then shakes her head sympathetically. 'It's better' she says, 'Trust me. You'll have peace, holy peace'. I nod and sip my tea tearfully. " Well Anthem Veterans Memorial has a lot to say about this!
ReplyDelete"It wasn't easy, what happened in the North, and I won't go into it all here. But I arrived back in work, Sunday morning, tired and emotional and sort of broken inside. Hauling my self as you do when your body's like a dead weight, into the sad canteen, I sat down and confided in one of my new Polish friends."
ReplyDeleteI hear Libby's sister is looking for mates. Maybe you could help her out?
In the late 18th century the harvesting of kelp became a significant activity,[94] but from 1822 onward cheap imports led to a collapse of this industry throughout the Hebrides.[95] During the 19th century, the inhabitants of Skye were also devastated by famine and Clearances. Thirty thousand people were evicted between 1840 and 1880 alone, many of them forced to emigrate to the New World.[2][96] The "Battle of the Braes" involved a demonstration against a lack of access to land and the serving of eviction notices. The incident involved numerous crofters and about 50 police officers. This event was instrumental in the creation of the Napier Commission, which reported in 1884 on the situation in the Highlands. Disturbances continued until the passing of the 1886 Crofters' Act and on one occasion 400 marines were deployed on Skye to maintain order.[97] The ruins of cleared villages can still be seen at Lorgill, Boreraig and Suisnish in Strath Swordale,[98][99] and Tusdale on Minginish.[93][100]
ReplyDeleteSkye has a rich heritage of ancient monuments from this period. Dunvegan Castle has been the seat of Clan MacLeod since the 13th century. It contains the Fairy Flag and is reputed to have been inhabited by a single family for longer than any other house in Scotland.[89] The 18th-century Armadale Castle, once the home of Clan Donald of Sleat, was abandoned as a residence in 1925, but now hosts the Clan Donald Centre.[90] Nearby are the ruins of two more MacDonald strongholds, Knock Castle, and Dunscaith Castle (called "Fortress of Shadows"), the legendary home of warrior woman, martial arts instructor (and, according to some sources, Queen) Scáthach.[18][91] Caisteal Maol, a fortress built in the late 15th century near Kyleakin and once a seat of Clan MacKinnon, is another ruin.[72]
ReplyDeleteIn July 1933, O'Duffy announced plans for a parade by the Blueshirts in Dublin to commemorate Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, and Kevin O'Higgins. An annual march to Leinster Lawn to commemorate the three pro-Treaty nationalists had been held until Fianna Fáil came to power in 1932.[2] De Valera feared a similar coup d'état as seen in Italy and the Special Branch raided the houses of prominent people aligned with Cumann na nGaedheal to seize their firearms.[50] On 11 August, de Valera reinstated the Constitution (Amendment No. 17) Act 1931, banned the parade and placed Gardaí outside of key locations.[51] 48 hours before the planned march, 200 men were recruited into an auxiliary special branch of the police soon nicknamed the Broy Harriers.[2]
ReplyDeleteIn 1934 Broy oversaw the creation of "The Auxiliary Special Branch" of the Garda, formed mainly of hastily trained anti-Treaty IRA veterans, who would have been opponents of Broy in the civil war. It was nicknamed the "Broy Harriers" by Broy's opponents,[9] a pun on the Bray Harriers athletics club or more likely on the Bray Harriers hunt club.[10] It was used first against the quasi-fascist Blueshirts, and later against the diehard holdouts of the IRA, now set against former comrades.[11] The "Broy Harriers" nickname persisted into the 1940s, even though Broy himself was no longer in command, and for the bodies targeted by the unit was a highly-abusive term, still applied by radical Irish republicans to the Garda Special Branch[citation needed] (now renamed the Special Detective Unit). The Broy Harriers engaged in several controversial fatal shootings. They shot dead a protesting farmer called Lynch in Cork, and when the matter was discussed in the Senate in 1934, the members who supported Éamon de Valera's government walked out.[12] They were detested by sections of the farming community. In the light of this latter history, their name is often used in reference to individuals or groups who attempt to disrupt contemporary Dissident Republicans, such as the remnants of the Provisional IRA.[13]
DeleteNeil Jordan's film Michael Collins (1996) inaccurately depicts Broy (played by actor Stephen Rea) as having been arrested, tortured and killed by SIS agents. In addition, G Division was based not in Dublin Castle, as indicated in the film, but in Great Brunswick Street. Collins had a different agent in the Castle, David Neligan.[18] Broy is also mentioned and makes an appearance in Michael Russell's detective novel The City of Shadows, set partly in Dublin in the 1930s, published by HarperCollins in 2012.
DeleteBroy was President of the Olympic Council of Ireland from 1935 to 1950.[14] He was also a member of the Standing Committee of the Irish Amateur Handball Association.[15]
DeleteThe IOC organises the modern Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games (YOG), held in summer and winter every four years. The first Summer Olympics was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896; the first Winter Olympics was in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The first Summer YOG was in Singapore in 2010, and the first Winter YOG was in Innsbruck, Austria in 2012.
DeleteIn 2000, the "Green Olympics" effort was developed by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games. The Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics executed over 160 projects addressing the goals of improved air quality and water quality, sustainable energy, improved waste management, and environmental education. These projects included industrial plant relocation or closure, furnace replacement, introduction of new emission standards, and more strict traffic control.[8]
DeleteVote for the Green party why don't you?!
DeleteSince 2002, the IOC has been involved in several high-profile controversies including taking gifts, its DMCA take down request of the 2008 Tibetan protest videos, Russian doping scandals, and its support of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics despite China's human rights violations documented in the Xinjiang Papers.[citation needed]
DeleteIn March 2025, Kirsty Coventry became the first woman and the first African to be elected as President of the IOC. Coventry's vision for the Olympics emphasizes making the Games accessible to everyone again, no matter where they were born, while aiming to leverage sports as a global unifier. In parallel, the IOC is focused on strengthening its collaboration with BRICS nations, fostering a spirit of unity and cooperation through sports, and encouraging the idea of the Olympics as a truly global event.[18][19]
DeleteResearch at the Beijing Olympic Games identified particulate matter – measured in terms of PM10 (the amount of aerodynamic diameter of particle ≤ 10 μm in a given amount of air) – as a top priority.[44][45] Particulate matter, along with other airborne pollutants, cause both serious health problems, such as asthma, and damage urban ecosystems. Black carbon is released into the air from incomplete combustion of carbonaceous fluids, contributing to climate change and injuring human health. Secondary pollutants such as CO, NOx, SO2, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) are also released during construction.[46]
DeleteFor the Beijing Olympics, vehicles not meeting the Euro 1 emission standards were banned, and the odd-even rule was implemented in the Beijing administrative area. Air quality improvement measures implemented by the Beijing government included replacing coal with natural gas, suspending construction, imposing strict dust control on construction sites, closing or relocating the polluting industrial plants, building long subway lines, using cleaner fluid in power plants, and reducing the activity by some of the polluting factories. There, levels of primary and secondary pollutants were reduced, and good air quality was recorded during the Beijing Olympics on most days.[citation needed] Beijing also sprayed silver iodide in the atmosphere to induce rain to remove existing pollutants from the air.[47]
Someone likes their aeronautics!
DeleteSoil contamination can occur during construction. The Sydney Olympic Games of 2000 resulted in improving a highly contaminated area known as Homebush Bay. A pre-Games study reported soil metal concentrations high enough to potentially contaminate groundwater. A remediation strategy was developed. Contaminated soil was consolidated into four containment areas within the site, which left the remaining areas available for recreational use. The site contained waste materials that then no longer posed a threat to surrounding aquifers.[48] In the 2006 Games in Torino, Italy, soil impacts were observed. Before the Games, researchers studied four areas that the Games would likely affect: a floodplain, a highway, the motorway connecting the city to Lyon, France, and a landfill. They analyzed the chemicals in these areas before and after the Games. Their findings revealed an increase in the number of metals in the topsoil post-Games, and indicated that soil was capable of buffering the effects of many but not all heavy metals. Mercury, lead, and arsenic may have been transferred into the food chain.[49]
DeleteOne promise made to Londoners for the 2012 Olympic Games was that the Olympic Park would be a "blueprint for sustainable living." However, garden allotments were temporarily relocated due to the building of the Olympic stadium. The allotments were eventually returned. However, the soil quality was damaged. Further, allotment residents were exposed to radioactive waste for five months prior to moving, during the excavation of the site for the Games. Other local residents, construction workers, and onsite archaeologists faced similar exposures and risks.[50]
De Coubertin was influenced by the aristocratic ethos exemplified by English public schools.[52] The public schools subscribed to the belief that sport formed an important part of education but that practicing or training was considered cheating.[52] As class structure evolved through the 20th century, the definition of the amateur athlete as an aristocratic gentleman became outdated.[52] The advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of Eastern Bloc countries further eroded the notion of the pure amateur, as it put Western, self-financed amateurs at a disadvantage. The Soviet Union entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were paid by the state to train on a full-time basis.[53] Nevertheless, the IOC held to the traditional rules regarding amateurism.[54]
DeleteEight years after the 1998 Winter Olympics, a report ordered by the Nagano region's governor said the Japanese city provided millions of dollars in an "illegitimate and excessive level of hospitality" to IOC members, including US$4.4 million spent on entertainment.[61] Earlier reports put the figure at approximately US$14 million. The precise figures are unknown: after the IOC asked that the entertainment expenditures not be made public Nagano destroyed its financial records.[62][63]
Deletehttps://web.archive.org/web/20121203015704/http://www.brayhunt.ie/
Deletehttps://www.dib.ie/biography/broy-eamon-ned-a1067
Deletehttps://clonbulloguens.weebly.com/eamon-broy.html
DeleteEamon Broy was born in Ballinure, Rathangan on 22nd December 1887. His parents were Patrick Broy, a native of Ballinure and a farmer, and Mary Broy (nee Berry), a native of Clonbrock, Bracknagh. There were ten children in the family, at least two of whom, Margaret and John, attended St Patrick’s NS Clonbullogue.
DeleteHe attended Rathangan National School, where he was taught by Mr Joseph Byrne and Mr Considine. Mr Byrne was a very learned man, who taught his pupils a broad curriculum, including modern languages. Mr Considine was an ardent nationalist. Both of these teachers influenced Eamon, as did George Hanks, the owner of the Sally Mills in Rathangan who was a Protestant nationalist and supporter of Thomas Davis.
https://archive.org/details/lettersofbrendan0000beha/page/14/mode/2up
DeleteThe Letters of Brendan Behan. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 14. ISBN 0-7735-0888-0.
https://www.mqup.ca/dual-diaspora-products-9780228024552.php
Deletehttps://www.mqup.ca/blog/labour-day-2025/
Deletehttps://kyivindependent.com/russia-accuses-olympic-committee-of-racism-and-neo-nazism-over-opening-ceremony-decision/
DeleteInteresting!
https://web.archive.org/web/20080620082659/http://www.krugosvet.ru/articles/102/1010208/1010208a3.htm
Deletehttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1964666/
Deletehttps://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1fkgc3p
DeleteRight then miss Nicolaides care to explain?
Beauty varies with each age. In a young man, it consists in possessing a body capable of
Deleteenduring all efforts, either of the racecourse or of bodily strength, while he himself is
pleasant to look upon and a sheer delight. This is why the athletes in the pentathlon are
most beautiful, because they are naturally adapted for bodily exertion and for swiftness
of foot.
(Aristotle, Rhetoric 1361b11)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17511321.2010.486598?journalCode=rsep20
I mean, who doesn't want to be swole!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mr5Bdm1y_A
Delete"Eight years after the 1998 Winter Olympics, a report ordered by the Nagano region's governor said the Japanese city provided millions of dollars in an "illegitimate and excessive level of hospitality" to IOC members, including US$4.4 million spent on entertainment.[61]"
Deletehttps://youtu.be/wIsz-cCH64o?si=JMsV0nNXLaYd_sL1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P-UTEYUou8
https://youtu.be/Ej605_AzTEA?si=yEVGbFWHcxOFv7il
DeleteNow that's a movie fight!
https://youtu.be/0fHlT2WlbfY?si=dAVO_zddNreqVy-P
Deletehttps://youtu.be/YYHMBjBV1Yk?si=sMvPwJQxS7ymF_6a
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Delete"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P-UTEYUou8"
Deletehttps://youtu.be/mVlRnAxYAmc?si=cZDsqys1-ghoj35y
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Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byFqu0uJKxk
DeleteFine Gael meetings were often attacked by IRA members and O'Duffy's touring of rural towns resulted in tensions and violence.[59] On 6 October 1933 O'Duffy was involved in disturbances in Tralee during which he was hit with a hammer on the head and had his car torched as he attempted to attend a Fine Gael convention.[60] De Valera used the violence to justify a crackdown on Blueshirt activities. A raid on the Young Ireland Association found evidence that it was the National Guard under another name, and the organisation was once again banned.[61] O'Duffy responded with a speech in Ballyshannon where referred to himself as a republican and declared that "whenever Mr de Valera runs away from the Republic and arrests you Republicans, and puts you on board beds in Mountjoy, he is entitled to the fate he gave Mick Collins and Kevin O’Higgins".[62] O'Duffy was arrested by the Gardaí several days later.[63] He was initially released on appeal but was summoned to appear before the Military Tribunal two days later and charged with membership of an illegal organisation and incitement to murder the president of the executive council, however, they were unable to convict him of either charge.[64]
ReplyDeletehttps://youtube.com/watch?v=YEMh8ZZbZQM&feature=shared
ReplyDelete“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iIv-UXS0Gk4
ReplyDelete