Old and new.
Sunday 10 June 2007
There were seven of us on duty tonight. Seven.
So many, in fact, that they sent three down the lower bar, leaving four of us up top. The two new guys seem alright; one of them is an early thirtysomething Welsh chap and the other is a 23-year old Essex boy who looks about 14. I kid you not. Moreover, Friday night was the first night he'd ever worked the doors. Jabba said he'd been literally shaking several times. Problem is when you look like a kid, you don't really command a lot of respect, and he got a fair bit of stick from 'lad' types. He seems nice enough but is potentially a liability - a target, if you will. Nice counts for fuck-all in this job.
With so many staff on we didn't really know what to do with ourselves for the first four or five hours and ultimately Bilbo and myself stayed outside all night; 6am-2pm, making the odd trip into the complex to see what was going on. Not much, was the answer, but of course we had another domestic after midnight.
We noticed some bloke giving his missus grief about how and why she wouldn't give him the key to their chalet, and very quickly he became verbally aggressive. I never witnessed it myself, but a few minutes later (out of my sight) he ended up hitting her. She storms off, and goes around the side of the complex, balling her eyes out. Ultimately, we find one of her friends and pair them back together, while the prat of a boyfriend goes back to the chalet and sits outside on the grass.
Nothing unusual here, then. Same old, same old, etc. However, the friend quickly abandons the lady-in-distress and goes back into the main bar with her other mates, and kids, and carries on knocking them back. The kids loiter in the arcade and end up having a bit of a scrap with a female owner's kids, after her brats (because that's totally what they are) pushed a three-year old to the floor, who was actually an epileptic (and duly had a fit.) Now, the friend is outside having a toe-to-toe with the owner, and it all gets very nasty. Names are called, threats are made, and the owner is very pissed off (thank you.) She wants me to chuck the other woman out, but my hands are somewhat tied. If she goes, the domestic lady has to go, and that doesn't seem right at all. Meantime, I know what the owner's kids are like (little shits) and can tell they're milking all their tears for all it's worth. So, nobody leaves. And then they all do, independently, one after another. The thing is, knowing how this owner is she's going to be fuming at me for a while now, but really, I'm beyond giving a fuck. They're all cunts at the end of the day.
posted by Sheamus @ 3:45 am
