h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We recently had some major renovation work done to our house. The poor thing was listing somewhat and it was time to have something done about it before it sank beyond repair. The work was quite major and fairly complicated and it made sense to have an extension built while all the shoring-up was done.

The work took around four months and it'll probably take three times that to get everything back to normality. While the work was being done, it struck me just how little health and safety was employed. In fact, it's fair to say that it wasn't employed at all. The complete job was achieved by the use of various oil-drums, some deals and a Heath Robinson-style ladder conjured up from old bits of pallets - I assure you that this is no exaggeration. Not once did I see a hard-hat, steel-capped boots, gloves or eye protection, yet some of the plant employed was huge, serious and potentially quite dangerous. The concrete pump visited no less than 10 times. It's quite a hard thing to describe, so have a picture:

http://www.dataskip.co.uk/h2g2/U1263973/Pumper.jpg

While this thing is swinging around, workmen weave in and out of it totally unaware that it could easily knock them off the roof. It seems that health and safety doesn't focus on the Cypriot Radar.

The Cypriots have a fairly laid-back approach to most things, especially health and safety, but occasionally this approach means that inevitably they'll come a cropper. Soon after work started on the house, there was an 'incident' at the island's main power station.

Back in 2009, Cyprus found itself dealing with munitions confiscated from a ship heading between Iran and Syria. There was quite a lot of it - 100 40ft containers in fact - and most of that was gunpowder. For some inexplicable reason, someone, somewhere, decided it would be a good idea to stack all the containers next to the power station. There they sat, often in blistering heat, until July 11th this year.

The containers are not there anymore. Nor is most of the power station. Tragically, 13 men lost their lives in the explosion. The rebuild cost is estimated at €1.5 Billion and may take five years. Meanwhile the remaining power system is struggling to cope, the cost to business and the consumer is yet unknown, and we all face constant threat of blackouts. You'd have thought that somebody might have said "Hang on Guys, is this really safe"?

But no, only in Cyprus.

Bloody hell. I was about to write a sarcastic reply to match your to my journal, dd, but 13 lives isn't very funny. Good journal, well written.

I remeber seeing the results of the blast on the news. It seems it was a bush fire that ignited the gunpowder according to this news item:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14115103

*quietly throws a missing 'm' upto the above post*

Humm.

Mrs Zen's mulled wine is very good.



I meant of course

If it's that good, can you send some over?

I pay postage in order to get .

BTW, has Xmas come early this year Z, or is this your normal tipple of a Saturday?

Bonfire night .

And we do like mulled wine...