A Career in Construction - Part 21

When the Wiltshier Group set up our new company Wiltshier Construction Management, I'm sure the management of all the other companies in the Group thought we would be purely a consultancy type organisation working just for a fee. The Group MD and Mike must have had other ideas, more in line of a Management Contracting company employing trade contractors where their payments went through our books. And so it proved to be with our first contract.

January 1988 started as the end of the previous year had finished, with no contract on the horizon. But Steve and Neil joined us on the 4th and that day the Group MD (who had connections with Ladbrokes who at that time owned Hilton Hotels) had asked if they could attend a meeting the following day with Ladbrokes who may require a small refurbishment of the hotel on Park Lane. When Steve and Neil returned, it seemed there might be work of around a few hundred thousand pound for us and that we needed to start right away. It seemed like a very small job. How wrong could you be.

The next day (Wednesday 6th January) we got the full story. Mike and I joined Steve and Neil for a meeting with Ladbrokes and Hilton's top brass at Park Lane. It was explained to us that the lease for the hotel was up on 31st March and one of the conditions of the lease was that the hotel must be returned on that date in an as new condition. So the whole hotel had to be brought into a perfect state. There was only one problem. The hotel had to keep operating as all the bookings taken for the next three months had to be fulfilled. This sounded to be quite impossible but we would have to give it a try. Especially when the Ladbrokes MD asked why we hadn't yet started! But we hadn't got a contract? This took two days to sort out with our lawyers and we actually started on SUNDAY 10th January.

In the meantime we were finding out what had to be done, when we could go into bedrooms and function rooms, how we would tackle back of house areas and renew the heating and electrical systems. This meant we had to co-ordinate everything with the hotel management, something that was not easy, given they understandably didn't want us there in the first place. The planning became a huge exercise and involved 24 hour working. We started interviewing trade contractors.

Looking back, I always wondered why we were picked for such a hugely important project, especially that, as a company, we were working out of a portacabin. I can only think that the Wiltshier Group MD told Ladbrokes that we were immediately available, the group had a history of hotel work  and that we would be given the assistance of managers from other Wiltshier companies. And we were. They came from all over, including Scotland. And we employed Wiltshier Interiors as a trade contractor.

The next few weeks were the most intense of my whole career. There are so many memories. We supplemented Wiltshier staff with some from agencies. We worked incredibly long hours with many meetings that started in the evening. It was commonplace to double book meetings and rush between the two. We occasionally stayed at the hotel overnight and toured the night shift crew. Eventually there were a huge number of men working all hours day and night. There were massive technical problems from clearing asbestos from the heating systems to repairing or renewing bedroom entrance doors in the time allowed.

Then suddenly on 29th February Ladbrokes signed a new lease for the hotel. They wanted us out as soon as possible, but it was as hard to instantly wind down operations as it had been to start up. We started with cancelling the night shift. This left a large number of disgruntles operatives almost causing a riot in the locality that evening. Gradually we emptied the building and agreed what we would finish and what we would leave. We had completed £11 Million Pounds of work in just 11 weeks from a standing start. Something that is pretty unprecedented in my experience. But more important, it set up our company for the future.

Nightcrawler, Mr Turner and Interstellar

David Cronenberg would have been proud of making Nightcrawler. But it is the screenwriter Dan Gilroy that is the first time director here. And what a great movie he has made. Jake Gyllenhaal has given us the most deliciously obnoxious hero I can remember. Surprisingly, Rene Russo (who happens to be married to the director) is not far behind. Jake as Lou Bloom finds his vocation trawling the nighttime streets of LA with his gullible assistant, a police radio, a GPS and a camera to find the most gruesome crimes or crashes that the TV station will broadcast. The movie has pace, is always gripping and assaults your brain and your heart. Excellent, except for the awful trailer that included important moments from the last half hour.

It must be awards season as the movies have just got a whole lot longer. Mr Turner is a fine film but half an hour too long. Apart from the magnificent award winning performance from Timothy Spall, I liked the way that so many shots were framed like a beautiful painting. Mike Leigh and his regular cinematographer Dick Pope (could he win an Oscar?) have created something colourfully special. There is an absolutely huge cast among whom there are stand out contributions from Dorothy Atkinson as his housekeeper, Marion Bailey as Mrs Booth and a real cameo from David Horovitch as Dr Price.

Baffling, complicated, sciencefreaky, provoking, impossible, silly, flawed, awesome. Christopher Nolan has this time stretched our credulity to the limit and beyond. If you just go with the flow  Interstellar works superbly well as a huge science fiction blockbuster. But there are so many unanswered questions that it does try your patience. I thought the performances from Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway were quite strange as if they were not sure who they were. But the action sequences were well done and there were times when the film was gripping. Although there were also times that it was too reminiscent of the too recent Gravity. and it was even more too long. Finally, never ask me to explain the ending.

A Career in Construction - Part 20

On the 20th March 1987, Mike Ellis left Farrans. He wasn't replaced. So I was pretty much on my own. Obviously, I carried on my own duties as if nothing had happened, but I was looking round to see if there were any opportunities with another company. I had one interview with Wimpey Construction Management but wasn't impressed.

Mike had joined Wiltshier Group as the MD of a brand new company, Wiltshier Construction Management. The only trouble was they had no work and no staff. So Mike was struggling when it came to interviews for new contracts. So in the end he convinced the group directors that he needed some permanent help and this led to me being made a good offer as Commercial Director. I joined on the 1st October 1987. But again, we were directors of nothing.

This new company had been given starting capital of £100,000 and this was going fast. Mike had a small office in the Harmondsworth group head office so we shared a desk. It seemed reckless at the time, but we made offers to more staff. An estimator, a project manager and a services coordinator. We had to put them somewhere and the decision was made to install some temporary accomodation in the grounds of Harmondsworth in the shape of a brand new and spacious portacabin. The new staff were not due to arrive until the start of the new year.

Mike and I did have a number of submissions and interviews for new work during the last months of the year, but come the end of December there was still nothing definite. The week before Christmas was pretty bleak. Things were so quiet Mike took me off to London to tour other contractor's sites so we could remind ourselves what a real job looked like. Yes, it was pretty desperate, but things would take a dramatic turn in the new year.

English National Ballet's Swan Lake at Milton Keynes Theatre

It was seven years ago that we went to see English National Ballet's Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall. But this time we were up close in the sixth row and the performance seemed as fresh as ever. It seems that ENB now visit MK every November, we saw Sleeping Beauty  here two years ago.

Everything about the production was absolutely first class. The superb dancing of the principals was matched by the excellence of the twenty four swans. Their ensemble movement was something to behold. The orchestra was brilliant (well they were only just in front of us. I had a really close view of one clarinetist and the percussion. Add in the terrific sets and lighting, this was an evening to remember.

ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena

After missing last year's event due to illness, we made it on Wednesday to the O2 for a second round singles match between Tomas Berdych and Marin Cilic.

We set off early so we could stop off an Canary Wharf for a tea and cake at a fairly deserted Jubilee Place before rejoining the Jubilee Line for the one stop to North Greenwich. At the O2 there were huge queues to get into the arena which apparently was quite unusual so it was after 12.30 when we took our seats.

But we only missed a few games of the first set of a terrific doubles match where the American pair Bryan and Bryan took on Rojer and Tecau. The Antilles and Romanian won the first set and were looking like winning the second until the Americans got their act together. The third set is the first to ten points and Bryan and Bryan again came out on top after being behind at the start.

The singles match was a bit one sided, Cilic going through a dip in form after winning the USA Open. But under the lights we were so impressed by how hard they actually hit the ball so low over the net. There is a really good atmosphere in the arena and the they do everything to make the sound and lighting work.

We were out just after 3.30, and as we were hungry, we declined the restaurants at the O2 and returned to Jubilee Place which was much quieter and we had a choice of places to eat. We settled on Nando's and demolished a sharing platter. The journey home was a bit fraught as there were huge delays on the eastbound Jubilee line. So we went the other way to West Ham and took the Hammersmith and City line and walked from Baker Street to Marylebone. Quite a tiring day but unforgettable.

The Girl With All The Gifts, Metroland and Stone Cradle

Not my sort of book, so if you are into post apocalyptic zombie thrillers, please ignore my review for The Girl With All The Gifts by M R Carey. If I had known what it was about, I would never have bought it. But it was in the paperback charts for a long time, and the introduction looked quite smart. Indeed, I enjoyed the first hundred pages that are full of promise. But then the story turns into something more predictable. As a thriller, it is probably quite a superior example and deserves more stars than mine. It is certainly a page turner. I'm not sure if I rushed through just to finish it, or that I had to known what happens next. I will have to think about that.

Julian Barnes' first novel Metroland has to be semi biographical. His account of male adolescence in 1963 resonated with my own experience only a year earlier than the narrator's (and the author's) own time. With one exception. Christopher and his friend Toni are exceedingly bright and attend a much more demanding school than mine ever was. In fact, these two boys are far too intelligent by half. Not only do they appreciate classical music but they listen with blindfolds on and describe and write down what they feel: "('Clear water; Hampton Court Maze?; shoulders wanting to swing; chirpiness - bit as if you've had a blood transfusion. Stuttgart CO. Munch-inger') Bach". And this happens fairly regularly, as does the French they use on a daily basis. So it is no surprise when the book then moves on to Paris in 1968 and finishes back in Metroland in 1977. Our narrator (and author) has grown up and grown away from Toni, and we learn how different they are now. This is wonderful book, not long but it is so well written that I can't wait to read it again.

What could have been a great novel spanning three generations from 1875 to 1949 Stone Cradle turned out to be only so so. The theme seemed to be the relationship between a Romany life and that of a poor Fenland family. When Rose marries the gypsy Elijah, her mother in law tells her she will always be sorry she did. So this was never going to be an uplifting tale. However, the differences between the two women make for an interesting contrast of the two ways of life. There are also some wonderful examples of her best writing. "There are some people who are like threads in a knitted jumper - pull them out, and the whole garment starts to unravel, and you realise too late that you've pulled out the one bit of thread what was holding the whole thing together. Strange, when it looked like all the other bits of thread." The main reason I picked this book was because it starts in the village of Werrington outside Peterborough, and it was here I lived for six years from 1972 to 1978. Obviously much has changed in the last hundred years. There were passages where the story flowed and others where I found it hard going. This is the third book from Louise Doughty that I have read and, for me, her latest two are much better.

A Career in Construction - Part 19

The 1st November 1984 and my first day at Farrans Construction where I spent the next three years. The only reason why I would ever have joined a Northern Ireland company was because Mike Ellis had started there as General Manager for the England operations. I did have an opportunity to join Balfour Beatty who courted me quite hard. But the final interview with the MD put me off.

So I joined Mike as his number two as Commercial Manager, running the QS and financial operations. Farrans were (and still are) based in Dunmurry outside Belfast. They were (and still are) the building and civil engineering division of the massive CRH (Cement Roadstone Holdings). In 1984 their building operations in England were quite extensive. There were three area offices: Watford (where Mike and I were based), Colchester and Cambridge. (The latter now their only base in this country). I must have gone a few times to Dunmurry. It was in the middle of the troubles in Northern Ireland so security was huge. Mike and I were always pleased when we were back on English soil.

We had a variety of contracts but predominantly work for the MOD in East Anglia, much of it on American Airforce bases.  Alconbury, Mildenhall, Lakenheath, Bentwaters and Woodbridge, Some of the work was new and upgrade of residential property, some small civils contracts and later a large Commissary Store. There was the new Crown and County Courts building in Norwich, a huge housing contract for troops in Colchester, a major factory for Bespac in Kings Lynne and contracts at Enfield, Romford and Islington and, yes, a medical facility at RAF Halton.

You can imagine that there was a lot of travelling involved. I especially remember the long open roads through the fens to Kings Lynne. Although I don't think that Mike and I were ever welcome in the Colchester and Cambridge offices. We also had a strange relationship with the bosses in Dunmurry. Most of the time they did leave us alone, but management meetings could be a nightmare. However we did have the use of a driver. Lucky used to ferry us about which was real luxury. So there were compensations.

It is hard to describe what I feel about those days. We didn't have to worry where the next contract was coming from, they arrived thick and fast. Consequently we were always busy. We also had a fair amount of freedom managing the three areas. Everything was fine except we (Mike and I) always had the feeling we were not wanted. There was such a close relationship between the bosses in Dunmurry and the Cambridge and Colchester managers (they went back a long way) and this didn't help. So it was only a matter of time (the middle of 1987) before Mike found a position at another company. And I was to follow him again.

Tring Book Club - All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

For the hundredth anniversary of the start of WW1, our book club decided to read our own choice of a novel or biography of those days. After my trouble with Birdsong, I wasn't particularly looking forward to this story of the war seen through the eyes and mind of one schoolboy turned soldier. But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

Although "All Quiet on the Western Front" is written from the point of view of a young German soldier, it could quite easily have been a portrait of a soldier any nationality. The horrors are all the same. Not only is this book very well written, it has been brilliantly translated by Brian Murdoch. This is the best translation of any novel written in a foreign language that I have come across. It feels as if the book was written in English, not something I have experienced before.

Fortunately, the story only visits the front line on limited occasions. When it does, the death and injuries to the infantry are vivid but sympathetically described, if there is such a thing. But what is far more acceptable are the times our narrator, Paul Baumer, is in training, back behind the lines, on leave or in hospital. There are even some amusing events. His ruminations on what is to be a soldier plucked from his last year at school are what makes this book special. I felt that the last third of the book flagged slightly but I am glad I made this book my choice.

My 50th Parkrun

My 50th Parkrun coincided with Aylesbury Parkrun's first anniversary. I refused to wear a tutu like the men were supposed to, however nobody recognised me in the wig Alison used for a fancy dress event ages ago. The run went well, my second fastest after the PB of last week when I broke 26 minutes for the first time. Hurrah!

It was a beautiful sunny day which was fortunate as we had a party organised after the run. Lots to eat and MP David Liddington cut the birthday cake. He even ran a decent 5K.