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Not so funny
Feb. 26th, 2008 01:34 pmI was going to write something amusing about lunch with one of our new Chinese engineers who is over here for a couple of months on training. It was to do with how challenging he was finding the whole knife and fork thing. I usually get a few gasps on Asian business trips when my hosts typically gear up to have an expression like I probably had watching Charlie and then I get some pouts and claps when it transpires that I'm pretty handy with chopsticks.
The trouble is I then had to stop at a road traffic accident on the way to collect M and nothing seems very funny now.
A gardening crew lost control of their truck and rammed themselves into a high earth bank. They were all alive, that much I could tell, but the position of the truck and the damage they'd done, and their lack of English basically made it completely impossible for us to do anything until the police and fire services arrived. If things had been worse, or, heaven forbid, there'd been a fire, there wouldn't have been a whole lot we could do. The passenger door was jammed solid and needed a crowbar or more to free. The guys were in shock and crying and not communicating and the driver was unconscious but moving.
I normally would at least have liked to have removed the car battery but the front of the vehicle was 6 feet in the air.
It's not nice being helpless, and once the fire crew arrived there was not a lot I could do anyway. I hope they're alright.
The trouble is I then had to stop at a road traffic accident on the way to collect M and nothing seems very funny now.
A gardening crew lost control of their truck and rammed themselves into a high earth bank. They were all alive, that much I could tell, but the position of the truck and the damage they'd done, and their lack of English basically made it completely impossible for us to do anything until the police and fire services arrived. If things had been worse, or, heaven forbid, there'd been a fire, there wouldn't have been a whole lot we could do. The passenger door was jammed solid and needed a crowbar or more to free. The guys were in shock and crying and not communicating and the driver was unconscious but moving.
I normally would at least have liked to have removed the car battery but the front of the vehicle was 6 feet in the air.
It's not nice being helpless, and once the fire crew arrived there was not a lot I could do anyway. I hope they're alright.
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