Standing holding a ladder
I spent a week one summer holding a ladder for an electrician in a factory while he ran a telephone cable from one building to another. The latest health and safety rules meant anyone venturing up a ladder had to have someone holding the bottom of it in case they fell off, or something. (Quite what would happen if he fell on me and killed the both of us I don't know.) It didn't matter much as he didn't like anyone holding the ladder, so I just sat nearby on a box reading the paper.

Vincent was a classic maintenance man. He made a 3 day job last 3 weeks. Every 15 minute break took half an hour, every visit to the stores rivalled the Odyssey. During a particularly fraught test match, I actually did no ladder holding for a couple of days as Vincent wanted to listen to the radio in the workshop. So I sat on a sofa reading and drinking tea.

Sadly it was not to last. There was a promotion on car shampoo coming up and it was all hands to the pumps. Somebody else got the dream job and I went back to loading bottles onto a conveyor for the rest of the summer.
( Smallbrainfield, Thu 9 Sep 2010, 14:08, Reply)