So, I was walking towards Hammersmith Bridge today, en route to a pub where my team-mates were having their Christmas lunch, when I heard a man's voice somewhere above me. I looked up to see three men in a cherry-picker, and one of them was shouting something to me. I stopped walking and stepped back, in case the man's cries were something along the lines of 'Look out below!'
"We're stuck!" he said. "Can you help us?"
Which was how I ended up clambering onto a crane and trying to open a hatch so I could press a button that would send power up to the cherry-picker's cabin and allow them to get down. Except, I couldn't open the hatch. So the men then shouted across to a man in another crane and asked if he had a screwdriver he could drop down to me. As he rummaged in his tools, I took a pic of the men in the cabin.
"Am I on camera?" I asked, and the men laughed.
With the newly acquired screwdriver, I was able to open the hatch and get to the big red button. Within a couple of minutes, the men were back down on the ground, visibly relieved not to be spending the rest of this bitterly cold afternoon aloft.
As I continued on my way to the pub, I could almost hear the sound of M People's 'Search for the Hero'. By God, Heather Small has a rotten voice...
Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
6 days ago