Signs that you're a Geordie
Discussion
bobfather said:
Holy thread revival Batman, 15yrs ago 
bobfather (aka tvrbob)
Sorry about that. I just stumbled across it and thought the list was funny. I didn't notice the date.bobfather (aka tvrbob)
I just happened to know more about the Northumbria University naming scandal, being a student at Newcastle at the time and after a gap of eight years, doing post-grad research at Northumbria.
The story being regarded as an urban legend I found interesting as I actually remember the Tyne Tees news report. Somewhere in the archives at Tyne Tees, that report will still be sitting.
I doubt this sort of thing is specific to Newcastle, but that's where the Toyota dealer was when the following occurred, and in my experience, it's a typically geordie thing to have happen.
The company policy was to have fire drills at set intervals over the course of the year. This was in theory a good idea, however, the phrase "familiarity breeds contempt" could have been invented for the particular drill when two of the mechanics decided to liven up an otherwise tedious event by spraying brake cleaner (flammable back then! ) on their overalls, setting light to it and running out of the building waving their arms about and shouting. In front of other staff, management and customers!
Genuinely very funny to watch ( things were somewhat less health and safety driven back in the early 90s ). I was best man for one of these idiots about 7 years ago, and relived the story to the assembled throng, reminding the man of the moment that the stunt put him onto his 5th of the three written warnings we were supposed to be allowed before getting pedalled!
Fortunately for him, he was a great mechanic, and the company yet again elected to keep him on, despite the numerical discrepancy of on paper official threats to his job.
The company policy was to have fire drills at set intervals over the course of the year. This was in theory a good idea, however, the phrase "familiarity breeds contempt" could have been invented for the particular drill when two of the mechanics decided to liven up an otherwise tedious event by spraying brake cleaner (flammable back then! ) on their overalls, setting light to it and running out of the building waving their arms about and shouting. In front of other staff, management and customers!
Genuinely very funny to watch ( things were somewhat less health and safety driven back in the early 90s ). I was best man for one of these idiots about 7 years ago, and relived the story to the assembled throng, reminding the man of the moment that the stunt put him onto his 5th of the three written warnings we were supposed to be allowed before getting pedalled!
Fortunately for him, he was a great mechanic, and the company yet again elected to keep him on, despite the numerical discrepancy of on paper official threats to his job.
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