Monday, July 9, 2007
Wednesday 29th June 2007 - The first day of the Festival
Here it is. The first day of the Garforth Arts Festival. We were not supposed to be working on the even that was going on this evening however I ended up being roped into doing the lighting for it. The first even on the program as a night of steel pans which turned out alright once all the Primary school kids had completed thier attempts, bless 'em. Other than the couple of hours programming and I complered from 2:30PM onwards and the performance there was nothing that happened of any real interest today. The sunken playground is still under some water however things are looking up regarding the state of play with the drainage.
Tuesday 26th June 2007 - Finally arrived.
After the traveling nightmare that was yesterday we decided to get to Garforth reasonably early in order to catch up on the time which we lost, the flooding played into our hands in a way as the school was closed as things were checked over and made safe where needed. We gotinto the hall for about noon and managed to get all the generic rigging done quite quickly, who ever had used the rig inbetween our two gigs had not moved the lanterns around much at all. John and I bobbed off to Royds and picked up the Robes and four CODA-1', to be used as blinders. We got the Robes up using two ladders, which worked reasonably well, other than John being a bit of a sissy when it comes to ladders haha.
We buggered off home at about 8PM after I did some programming for the lights and worked out what when where on the patch of the standard generic fixtures. I got home then went to the British Oak, much to John's annoyance as he wanted me to program the lighting for him however I had realised that the comming week and a half where going to be busy so I was going to enjoy this time off while it lasted. I got home about 11:30 and then started programming the lighting, got to bed about 2AM.
We buggered off home at about 8PM after I did some programming for the lights and worked out what when where on the patch of the standard generic fixtures. I got home then went to the British Oak, much to John's annoyance as he wanted me to program the lighting for him however I had realised that the comming week and a half where going to be busy so I was going to enjoy this time off while it lasted. I got home about 11:30 and then started programming the lighting, got to bed about 2AM.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
25th June 2007 - Flooding and traveling
Today has been the wettest that I have known in the UK. I got up at about 9AM greeted by the sound of terrential rain on my bedroom window...which didn't let up until 9PM that evening and had already been going strong since yesterday morning. I didn't venture from the house very much however at about midday I had to walk round to Rodillian to hand in some forms about getting payed for the summer school. I wore my water proof parker style coat which got soaked along with the jeans that i was wearing. I got home and got changed ready to go over to Garforth, not yet knowing the extend of the impact that the heavy rain was having on my local area.
John picked me up at 2PM with the intention of getting to Garforth for 2:25 having stopped to pick up food at Greggs in Rothwell. This would would ordinarily be more than enought time however today the weather was against us. We set off in the heavy rain, I was wearing my only water proof coat that i had other than my sodden parker, which was my high vis coat. John decided to take me on a tour of some of the large puddles that were collecting but little did we know these were meagre tasters to the puddle which we would encounter later.
We stopped at the bottom of Stye Bank Lane and have a look at the area next to the beck in Rothwell (Springhead) Park which were all under several inches of water, the paths of the gardens being turned into reasonably fast flowing streams, the beck had well and truley burst it's banks and was on it's way to some close by houses. We set off to get to the community college coming accross a few fords accross the roads which were usually under a foot deep however then we came to a police diverstion nearing the roundabout at the bottom of Garforth we followed the country lane the police were sending us and a whole line of other traffic and then came out on to a road covered in just under a foot of water, with alot of this water extedning into the gardens of houses and round the buildings themselves, some must have recieved flood damage. We then followed the road but came to another police block on a road leading to the earlier mentioned round about, a large puddle could be seen behind the police car. We ended up taking the decision to take the M1 and then get to the M1 junctino at the top of Garforth. The M1 was alright other than alot of mist thrown up by the vehciles.
We got off the motorway at the junction and came accross a long line of traffic trying to get from the roundabout into Garforth down a road that was obviously flooded with what appeared to be a police car partcially blocking the road. We decided to try and find a way round the blockage using our combined knowledge of the area however didn't succed and ended up joining the que which we had earlier seen. We stuck it out in the que and once in sight could see the emergency response vehicle which I had assumed to be a police car was actually a ambulance response unit. A paramedic was there controlling the traffic allowing a single line of traffic down the middle of the road at once, at the shallowest point. He grabbed onto the wing mirror of a truck and stood on one of the steps up into the cab to get over the lake and then did the same to get back, was quick amazing actually. That puddle was about 3ft deep and was taking some of the cars that crossed it as prisoners with a few cars lined up at the side of the road victims of the water.
We got through that road the drove reasonably unabated into Garforth. On one corner near to the police station there was a very large puddle which was about 2ft deep on average. We couldn't avoid splashing some of the pedestrians, one girl from the college we saw again later back in the building soaked to the bone, we didn't do it I can assure you.
We arrived at Garforth to discover the playground where the open air concert is going to be held in about two weeks time under three feet of water, not a good sign as this is the second time in two weeks that it has flooded. We got though the still terrential rain and into the building where we bumped into Stu. He told us that we couldn't do the rigging that we wanted to as the building was flooded and that nothing electrical other than the lights in the seemingly uneffected areas could be used. We discovered that the music centre had been flooded and some equipment damaged. Luckily teachers and students had started to save equipment as soon as the flooding started. Most of the GCAS gear was safe barring a few stands and the Mackie SRM350's.
Unable to do anything else we went for a walk around the building to see what the damage was to the music centre, to see how deep the water in the playground was and to see how the astro turf pitches were holding up - as they would be a prime alternative for the concert. John and I got very very wet although my high vis waterproof held up very well...my jeans and hair were wet. We decided to see what the situation was like with regards to getting home and to our suprise the half of the round about we required was now open. Half of it was under 3ft of water. A fire engine drove into the puddle however it was deeper than they must have expected as the water level on the truck soon got reasonably high.
We drove home the normal way but turned off when we came up to some traffic and decided to try and get round it by going over castleford way however on doing so we went down a street which after a few miles turned into the worst flooding we had seen all day. The water was about 3ft deep but covered a large area and had fouled many houses. Once thought this we came to a road where a left turn would have taken us back to the M1 round about with the traffic problems we had experience earlier so turned right (there was a straigh ahead but we didn't know where it went and it was barricaded and closed off anyway. After about half a mile we came accross Police road blocks across both the main street and a side street due to flooding. In the distance the flooding could be seen judging by the size of it compaired to the Fire Engine that was next to it it was about 100m long and I don't know how deep! We pulled a U-turn and drove back the way we came and just had to join the traffic and wait. The traffic was being caused by an puddle we had crossed earlier, only now it was slightly larger, still much smaller than the big puddles we had forded during the day. Once through that we got to Johns house without much more going on.
We spent a short time at Johns house then set off to get me home. We went the normal route that took us out of ROthwell near the fire station and then to the Halfway House. We got to the turn off for Carlton about 300m further on from the Fire Station and saw that the road was impassible. The water, which had just been a large puddle earlier, was now a full flood. The water was abuot 3foot deep judging by the level on the lamp post. We dare not enter which not knowing the extend of the flooding. We turned back and decided to go home via the Jawbones but experienced heavy traffic. We decided to go down to the roundabout near the park go across to the sports centre then home past the M62 roundabout however the roundabout at the park was very very busy we decided to try our look at Royds lane, turned around and went down there. There was a road closed sign but it was for a very small puddle in comparison with what we had seen earlier so just drove on and got to the main road where we turned left, went straight across the roundabout then worked our way to my house where I swiftly retreated to my room after a day, seemingly, on the road.
All in all it too about 1.5hours to do a 15min journey (Rothwell to Garforth) and then about double/triple the time it should for the other two. Was insane. I practically finished up the day watching footage of people being airlifted by the RAF to safety from roof tops in an area of Sheffield that had been badly effected. It has been a bit of a crazy day all in all. Currently there are people held up in office blocks and factories all over parts of sheffield awaiting rescue by boat or helicopter as well as about 100 people stranded in Meadowhall as everywhere around the building, including the ground floor, is flooded.
I found it amazing how vunerable the road network in my local area was to flooding. While today was a very odd occurance it is supposedly going to be happening more often thanks to global warming. We can't let it have that effect every time this kind of rainfall happens. At the moment I'm thinking abuot the people in Sheffield but am also concerned about the concert at the Garforth Arts Festival....would be the end of the festival if we had to cancel it.
John picked me up at 2PM with the intention of getting to Garforth for 2:25 having stopped to pick up food at Greggs in Rothwell. This would would ordinarily be more than enought time however today the weather was against us. We set off in the heavy rain, I was wearing my only water proof coat that i had other than my sodden parker, which was my high vis coat. John decided to take me on a tour of some of the large puddles that were collecting but little did we know these were meagre tasters to the puddle which we would encounter later.
We stopped at the bottom of Stye Bank Lane and have a look at the area next to the beck in Rothwell (Springhead) Park which were all under several inches of water, the paths of the gardens being turned into reasonably fast flowing streams, the beck had well and truley burst it's banks and was on it's way to some close by houses. We set off to get to the community college coming accross a few fords accross the roads which were usually under a foot deep however then we came to a police diverstion nearing the roundabout at the bottom of Garforth we followed the country lane the police were sending us and a whole line of other traffic and then came out on to a road covered in just under a foot of water, with alot of this water extedning into the gardens of houses and round the buildings themselves, some must have recieved flood damage. We then followed the road but came to another police block on a road leading to the earlier mentioned round about, a large puddle could be seen behind the police car. We ended up taking the decision to take the M1 and then get to the M1 junctino at the top of Garforth. The M1 was alright other than alot of mist thrown up by the vehciles.
We got off the motorway at the junction and came accross a long line of traffic trying to get from the roundabout into Garforth down a road that was obviously flooded with what appeared to be a police car partcially blocking the road. We decided to try and find a way round the blockage using our combined knowledge of the area however didn't succed and ended up joining the que which we had earlier seen. We stuck it out in the que and once in sight could see the emergency response vehicle which I had assumed to be a police car was actually a ambulance response unit. A paramedic was there controlling the traffic allowing a single line of traffic down the middle of the road at once, at the shallowest point. He grabbed onto the wing mirror of a truck and stood on one of the steps up into the cab to get over the lake and then did the same to get back, was quick amazing actually. That puddle was about 3ft deep and was taking some of the cars that crossed it as prisoners with a few cars lined up at the side of the road victims of the water.
We got through that road the drove reasonably unabated into Garforth. On one corner near to the police station there was a very large puddle which was about 2ft deep on average. We couldn't avoid splashing some of the pedestrians, one girl from the college we saw again later back in the building soaked to the bone, we didn't do it I can assure you.
We arrived at Garforth to discover the playground where the open air concert is going to be held in about two weeks time under three feet of water, not a good sign as this is the second time in two weeks that it has flooded. We got though the still terrential rain and into the building where we bumped into Stu. He told us that we couldn't do the rigging that we wanted to as the building was flooded and that nothing electrical other than the lights in the seemingly uneffected areas could be used. We discovered that the music centre had been flooded and some equipment damaged. Luckily teachers and students had started to save equipment as soon as the flooding started. Most of the GCAS gear was safe barring a few stands and the Mackie SRM350's.
Unable to do anything else we went for a walk around the building to see what the damage was to the music centre, to see how deep the water in the playground was and to see how the astro turf pitches were holding up - as they would be a prime alternative for the concert. John and I got very very wet although my high vis waterproof held up very well...my jeans and hair were wet. We decided to see what the situation was like with regards to getting home and to our suprise the half of the round about we required was now open. Half of it was under 3ft of water. A fire engine drove into the puddle however it was deeper than they must have expected as the water level on the truck soon got reasonably high.
We drove home the normal way but turned off when we came up to some traffic and decided to try and get round it by going over castleford way however on doing so we went down a street which after a few miles turned into the worst flooding we had seen all day. The water was about 3ft deep but covered a large area and had fouled many houses. Once thought this we came to a road where a left turn would have taken us back to the M1 round about with the traffic problems we had experience earlier so turned right (there was a straigh ahead but we didn't know where it went and it was barricaded and closed off anyway. After about half a mile we came accross Police road blocks across both the main street and a side street due to flooding. In the distance the flooding could be seen judging by the size of it compaired to the Fire Engine that was next to it it was about 100m long and I don't know how deep! We pulled a U-turn and drove back the way we came and just had to join the traffic and wait. The traffic was being caused by an puddle we had crossed earlier, only now it was slightly larger, still much smaller than the big puddles we had forded during the day. Once through that we got to Johns house without much more going on.
We spent a short time at Johns house then set off to get me home. We went the normal route that took us out of ROthwell near the fire station and then to the Halfway House. We got to the turn off for Carlton about 300m further on from the Fire Station and saw that the road was impassible. The water, which had just been a large puddle earlier, was now a full flood. The water was abuot 3foot deep judging by the level on the lamp post. We dare not enter which not knowing the extend of the flooding. We turned back and decided to go home via the Jawbones but experienced heavy traffic. We decided to go down to the roundabout near the park go across to the sports centre then home past the M62 roundabout however the roundabout at the park was very very busy we decided to try our look at Royds lane, turned around and went down there. There was a road closed sign but it was for a very small puddle in comparison with what we had seen earlier so just drove on and got to the main road where we turned left, went straight across the roundabout then worked our way to my house where I swiftly retreated to my room after a day, seemingly, on the road.
All in all it too about 1.5hours to do a 15min journey (Rothwell to Garforth) and then about double/triple the time it should for the other two. Was insane. I practically finished up the day watching footage of people being airlifted by the RAF to safety from roof tops in an area of Sheffield that had been badly effected. It has been a bit of a crazy day all in all. Currently there are people held up in office blocks and factories all over parts of sheffield awaiting rescue by boat or helicopter as well as about 100 people stranded in Meadowhall as everywhere around the building, including the ground floor, is flooded.
I found it amazing how vunerable the road network in my local area was to flooding. While today was a very odd occurance it is supposedly going to be happening more often thanks to global warming. We can't let it have that effect every time this kind of rainfall happens. At the moment I'm thinking abuot the people in Sheffield but am also concerned about the concert at the Garforth Arts Festival....would be the end of the festival if we had to cancel it.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
24th June 2006 - Motorway and Designing
Today I decided to have my first proper journey on the motorway to my Nanans. It was pretty uneventful although I was slightly tense. I need to relax and generally chillout like I do when I drive normally but that will happen with more practice and more time.
After I got home I had tea then met with John to design some programs for two events in the Festival that I'm working at for the next two weeks. While working on it I was thinking more and more that I was getting a bit of a rough deal and was being taken advantage of a little bit. I'm working on a total of 9 events in the next two weeks and taking my kit and using up favours borrowing kit for it. I know that I will enjoy working on the events and that it will be good experience for me but at the end of the day this would make a normal engineer hundreds of pounds per event! That I dont' mind that much but then to find my self being used to design programs for free was a bit of a blow in all honesty...my two ways of making money and I'm doing it for free, I can't help but feel that I might be being taken for a ride slightly, but I will still do it willingly as after all...I'm just like that.
After I got home I had tea then met with John to design some programs for two events in the Festival that I'm working at for the next two weeks. While working on it I was thinking more and more that I was getting a bit of a rough deal and was being taken advantage of a little bit. I'm working on a total of 9 events in the next two weeks and taking my kit and using up favours borrowing kit for it. I know that I will enjoy working on the events and that it will be good experience for me but at the end of the day this would make a normal engineer hundreds of pounds per event! That I dont' mind that much but then to find my self being used to design programs for free was a bit of a blow in all honesty...my two ways of making money and I'm doing it for free, I can't help but feel that I might be being taken for a ride slightly, but I will still do it willingly as after all...I'm just like that.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
20th June 2007 - Chilling and Driving
Today I woke up at 12noon and went straight from bed to the computer and started chatting to people on msn, one person who I am becoming quite fond of inparticular. I had a shave and grabbed a shower then had breakfast/lunch. I hate getting up at this kind of time, I like to get up about 9AM, it just makes the day feel longer. Anyway I basically dossed around infront of the TV all day. I have a feeling that with the various events at Rodillian and the Garforth Arts Festival I am going to need the rest!
At about 6/7PM Mum and decided to have a drive out, using the motorway on the way there, to M&S and ASDA at Pudsey. Was alright although I think I need to go out in Mums car and just practice parking - I find that is the only bit of driving that I don't like! That and I need to practice more on the motorway just so I get used to driving them. I don't want to be some of those people that don't like driving them given how much easier they make travel around the country!
I bought Hot Fuzz on DVD at Asda while I was out and watched that with a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale and some flapjack. I am going to be driving when I go to the pub tomorrow so I won't be able to drink. I have the car all day tomorrow but need to drop mum off at work first thing so I really need to be getting to bed now. I would have gone earlier other than I wanted to stay up and post a message on the UKSLC forum that the T-shirt orders are now over they have gone on far too long with another guy leading the ordering so I just had to do it and get it finished with! Anyway Night Night.
At about 6/7PM Mum and decided to have a drive out, using the motorway on the way there, to M&S and ASDA at Pudsey. Was alright although I think I need to go out in Mums car and just practice parking - I find that is the only bit of driving that I don't like! That and I need to practice more on the motorway just so I get used to driving them. I don't want to be some of those people that don't like driving them given how much easier they make travel around the country!
I bought Hot Fuzz on DVD at Asda while I was out and watched that with a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale and some flapjack. I am going to be driving when I go to the pub tomorrow so I won't be able to drink. I have the car all day tomorrow but need to drop mum off at work first thing so I really need to be getting to bed now. I would have gone earlier other than I wanted to stay up and post a message on the UKSLC forum that the T-shirt orders are now over they have gone on far too long with another guy leading the ordering so I just had to do it and get it finished with! Anyway Night Night.
19th June 2007 - A spot of work
Again today was quite slow. With the aid of three different allarm clocks I managed to get out of bet at about 9:30AM, which was a good job as a few minutes after I had gotten up Matt Salden rang me to see if I could lend him some kit. I said yes and arranged a time for him to come round as I was due to go into work to do a few bits and bobs.
I went into work where I briefly spoke to Pete about the equipment we are specifying for the studio in the new building. Looks like we have a good set up there is it is all OK'd. I spent a couple of hours at work, oh I forgot to mention I walked round with a lighting desk in tow after I kept for getting to put it in my Dads car to take round after I had brought it home to repair, anyway got home for about 12:30. Matt popped in and picked up the kit and then I just chilled for the rest of the day, writing a "Beginners guide to aerodynamics" for the summer school, playing C&C Generals and larking about on MSN and Facebook.
Went to bed a tad late at about 1:30AM however, yet again, I didn't get to bed until gone 3:30AM.
I went into work where I briefly spoke to Pete about the equipment we are specifying for the studio in the new building. Looks like we have a good set up there is it is all OK'd. I spent a couple of hours at work, oh I forgot to mention I walked round with a lighting desk in tow after I kept for getting to put it in my Dads car to take round after I had brought it home to repair, anyway got home for about 12:30. Matt popped in and picked up the kit and then I just chilled for the rest of the day, writing a "Beginners guide to aerodynamics" for the summer school, playing C&C Generals and larking about on MSN and Facebook.
Went to bed a tad late at about 1:30AM however, yet again, I didn't get to bed until gone 3:30AM.
18th June 2007 - Nothing to report
Well, today was very very slow. I spent most of the day writing tutorials for the F1 Summer School, which is just the most entertaining job ever, with some brief interludes of playing C&C Generals and watching TV. Went to bed at about 1AM but due to the president set over the last couple of weeks I didn't get to sleep while gone 3:30AM.
Hopfully there should be more to report tomorrow.
Hopfully there should be more to report tomorrow.
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