On A Moonlit Night...

This past week has been an absolute pain and joy...figuratively and literally...and it's been long...though feeling as if it's gone by so fast...

The week ending 09 Aug 08 wasn't that bad, at the end, was feeling a bit depressed, I'll admit, but it ended on a good note...some issues from the weekend, one of the duty managers had to go to hospital when she got drink spiked, standard idiots who refused to leave and all that, but nothing physical...

Monday was slow as well, just bumming at home and sleeping a heap, Tuesday went to the doctors to get my first medical certificate in ages...it was worth it...got my drugs too...big arsed antibiotic pills...so, been taking them for the last five days...got to go get some probiotics sometime this week to stop it playing havoc with the stomach...and did some research between the difference between Transactional and Transformational leadership styles and their differing communications styles...for me, I personally do not know what leadership style I have...but once I do a bit more research, I'll tell you...

Wednesday was a fun day now...I had the option to go to two, one hour tutorial periods at uni, or work for the entire day...so, my day started with a blackout at 0100...total blackout, no street lights, uni was dark, it was dark...and a bit creepy truthfully...but meh...woke up at 0345, got picked up by Max at 0430...and down to Redcliffe by 0545 after a breakfast of Maccas...cash transfer day...my job was to secure the gates...it was cold...it was bad...seen my first sunrise in ages...finished at 0900, and waited while Sully came and picked my up...arrived at Eagle Farm Racecourse at 1000, and was put into a sector with Wombat, Todd, Eli and another guard...Arron was next door, as was Whopper and a few others from Brisbane area...it was alright, usual bunch of people like the ones that bring alcohol into the racecourse who are fined by QPS and sent away from the racecourse...and the removals after lunch, or standing between the track barriers and a temporary fence on stand up boxes...it was a fun filled day....the section was about 200m away from the finish post, so it was jammed...all the fun and games started at 1430...with someone jumping the temp barrier into the restricted area...so, the guard in the next section was having a cordial chat to him, then the idiot started having a swing...so, first things first, I had to jump a fence to get to them, by which stage the guy was on the ground, but seriously struggling...so I just dived on top of him, which did slow him down a considerable amount...FL3 restraints used, so reverse figure 4's...guy was removed for traspass and fined $5000 by QPS...I love it how there's a bylaw that makes it a finable offence for unauthorised persons to be in the trackside restricted area...

So, that guy's gone, came back to the sector, and just did a walk around, had a look here and there, then there was this one guy who had too much to drink, so Todd and I escorted him, without incident, to the main gates, and we were on the way back, when Todd shouted, "Nick, game on left..." and we both turned left to see a guard grappling with some idiot...so, Todd and I ran in and tackled the guy, tried to get him on the ground, and Todd disappeared (he was tackled by some other hero), so it was just me and this little shit...and he was screaming at me, I was screaming at him, and managed to get him on the ground, a bit of a wrestling match, but managed to overpower him, had someone in the crowd help me hold him down too by standing on his arm, and I was in the process of radioing for assistance (the radios were destroyed at the end of the scuffle) when some other hero came in from the crowd and kicked me in the back of the head...didn't see who it was, but I damned well sure wish I did...I did take it out on the guy I was restraining, screaming at him and more or less telling him to not say a word, not move, because it was because of him that I got kicked in the head, and if anything happened again, he was going to die....I think the fact, that throughout the entire altercation, my sunglasses did not come off my head, and he couldn't see my eyes, caused him to consider what I was saying; his face changed as soon as I finshed saying what I had to say...

So, final tally from that, one guy with a broken nose from being slammed into the ground head first, my guy who actually started the fight, so he spent the night in the watch house, got charged with assult and affray, and was sporting at least a broken arm (I did not have anything to do with that...eight guards had to carry him away when backup finally arrived and I was relieved of my person, and he was struggling all the way...and he also decided to give lip to the police officers, so they were not impressed with that...and reminded him of his manners...) one guard with a cut to his face, and me with a headache and a bunged left thumb...still hurts a tad, but all's good...I think my head snapped into my thumb while I was restraining the guy when I got kicked, all I remember was having a smashed radio, a pain in the back of my head and thumb, and Col just picking up all the different bits and pieces that the other guards had been shedding during the rumble...but it was fun...

The rest of the day at EF was semi uneventful, usual dumbarses that were giving shit to the cops who then got charged with public nucense, drunks who don't understand the meaning of "BAR'S CLOSED" and there's a line for the taxis...bastards, all of them...then I realise, was I like that last time before I became a guard...makes you want to give up drinking...

Thursday at the Sands Tavern for a band concert thingy...that was fun too....nothing really happened until the main act (of course), so management said "no crowdsurfers", so I was by the stage, and of course, there were crowdsurfers...90% of the ejections were standard just dragged them to the door and pushed them outside for the security super to sort out, but there was one guy who schnotted me in the head, and drew blood from my nose...lost a little skin off the top, but meh...he was an example of a classic bouncer ejection: one hand on collar, the other on belt, and since both my hands were full, had to use the thing furthest forward to open the door....just happened to be his head...so out the door he went...at that stage, the manager was standing there too, and both the super and her were just looking at this guy sailing through the air from the doors....and started grinning...:D...uneventful end to it too, nothing major...except one of the guys I was dragging out turned out to be the lead singer of the main band...all I saw was legs flying in the air, and went into the mosh pit to drag the guy out...and luckly got stopped at the door before he went out too...the other bands standing to the side were like, "mate, thanks for the entertainment, that was really cool..." I'll admit, I had fun...

Friday and Saturday nights at Narangba again...got threthened to be sued on Friday night by a guy who claims that he owns three pubs, and we were questioning at the end, why doesn't he drink at his own places...all we did was do the ID checks, and the policy at the pub was everyone had to have some form of photo ID on them, and we checked everyone, as per house policy...oh, and we were under staffed until 2200 too, because the guard that was supposed to come in at 2000 got lost in a big way...all good in the end though...anyway, Saturday was the same situation...had a guy claiming to be from Coles Group who's threthened to ensure that the company is not used anymore in their venues because of how we asked him for ID...all we said was, "Evening gentlemen, we're doing an ID check as per house policy, can we please see them..."and this guy went off his rocker, and starting going at the manager too...so, he's fully given us the third degree, but I called the boss, he's gone, "never heard of the guy, know what, we'll talk to Coles Group ourselves Monday..." The guy really did put himself in though when he admitted to us TWICE that he had been drinking at the pub since 1300...and the time was now 1930...meh, we'll sort that out tomorrow....also had some idiot try to get in with a mate's ID that didn't look anything like him...for one, the guy was about 160cm, and tubby, while the guy in the picture was 179cm, and lean....was even a different colour...found out later that this guy was banned for life, and the guy whose ID he tried to use was actually inside after using his 18+ card...now, even funnier was the fact that this kid was removed after exposing himself, and I was standing right in front of him...just tapped him on the head, and went, nup, mate, not going back in...automatic six month ban for exposure...and I had his drivers license already from his mate...then had a little shit try to square off...nothing happened...but I was waiting for it...I'm disliking 18th birthday partys now...bloody group was opening the security doors and all that, and we were bloody close to getting rid of the lot of them...a normal day would be like, maybe one, two pages in my note pad...Saturday night was five...which really shitted me off too...but oh well, everything's to be documentated...

So, what now? I'm going to nurse some deep fried lamb chops and chips, and a bag of steamed veges and we'll go from there....:)

Be safe.

N