Snipe Hunt

[Timbo]

Has anyone ever been sent on a 'snipe hunt'?

"Ere lad go to the stores and ask for a long weight!" or "Go and ask for a long stand!" or the many variations of?
Of course as a 'perpetual student', in education for about twenty years, I had a long succession of 'holiday' jobs so rapidly got used to being sent on snipe hunts. As a smoker I didn't mind hanging around for a few hours, I'd usually got a book in my pocket for such occasions. Although one summer as a nursing assistant a request to 'go to ward 7 and ask for some 'weird drugs' after I had spotted a bloke in cardiac arrest had me a little unsure. Fortunately, for the bloke, I did hurry along and procured the said 'weird drugs'.

This morning I can actually dispel one particular snipe hunt. I received an email announcing the end of the tool sale at Rutlands. On special offer this week is the legendary 'glass hammer'!

 

[BroadScot]

36 minutes ago, Timbo said:

Has anyone ever been sent on a 'snipe hunt'?

"Ere lad go to the stores and ask for a long weight!" or "Go and ask for a long stand!" or the many variations of?
Of course as a 'perpetual student', in education for about twenty years, I had a long succession of 'holiday' jobs so rapidly got used to being sent on snipe hunts. As a smoker I didn't mind hanging around for a few hours, I'd usually got a book in my pocket for such occasions. Although one summer as a nursing assistant a request to 'go to ward 7 and ask for some 'weird drugs' after I had spotted a bloke in cardiac arrest had me a little unsure. Fortunately, for the bloke, I did hurry along and procured the said 'weird drugs'.

This morning I can actually dispel one particular snipe hunt. I received an email announcing the end of the tool sale at Rutlands. On special offer this week is the legendary 'glass hammer'!

 

I sent new apprentices to the fishmongers for jars of pickles eels feet. They then sent him on to the butchers run down Ayr high street! At the last butchers, he was informed he had been had!

 Iain

[Liberty]

i sent a young chap to the tool shop in Hayes Mddx for a long weight.  I had a call from the local post office telling me off as the lad had visited four shops and the post office trying to find one and the lady behind the counter was not amused!

[Viking23]

Tartan paint, bucket of steam, all have had their day, anyway most appretices know you can only get tartan paint in Scotland. lol.

Left handed screw drivers, imperial and metric adjustable spanners... there are loads more. 

I have known storemen to send the lad back and ask for the item number of the long weight, as they have several in stock... lol

New Policemen sent to check up on how clean a cell was, only to be accidentally locked in etc etc.

[ranworthbreeze]

I guess we have all been for the long stand at some time or other, spirit level bubbles and the like.

As a young electrical apprentice being sent to the stores for nipples, male/female & stuffing glands was met with smirks from the store-men.

Regards 

Alan

[Viking23]

I feel sorry for the guy who sent his wise apprentice to the stores for a pair of Rowlocks and never got them...

What about the angry doctor in the operating theatre, he said to his new nurse...

I said remove his spectacles... aghhhh...

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

My favourite was the ball of Witworth thread. We had an apprentice when i was doing navigational instruments, he was the secretary`s son, and a bit nice but dim. He had to go and pick up some tools from a local trade shop  in Dartford, so in front of the boss, i asked him to get a ball of Witworth thread. He took ages to come back, it turned out the guy in the tool shop must have had this several times, as he told the lad they no longer sell it, and sent him to the nearest wool shop.

The apprentice tried to get his own back on me, i asked him to glue in some spirit level bubbles that were used on MOD azimuth circles. He thought he was being clever and said he was`nt falling for it again and said no. So i took some spirit level bubbles (which were small glass sealed tubes with fluid and a bubble in them, along with the tubes they were bonded into, and asked him, "are you going to do it, or am i going to have to tell the boss you`re refusing to work?".  For some strange reason it took a long time before he believed anything i said.

[Viking23]

True story.

A friend of mine was having heated discussions with the Works Manager on other issues, who later told him to go outside and paint the windows on the rear of the building, hoping he would quieten down.

Four hours later the room was dark, and he went outside to see the windows painted.... glass and all...

Be careful of what you say lol....

We all saw the funny side, including the Works manager, and I think they both went for a beer together after work lol.

Before you say it.... it was a "pane" to get the paint off the glass lol...

[Viking23]

Only vaguely connected, but I know how they get the yellow inside a welknown manufacturers Creme Egg...

I bet Gracie has had a few of these, I wonder how she eats hers lol?

or better not to know lol

[Vaughan]

Some green oil for a starboard light was a common one.

At Hearts, if customers were fishermen, we used to convince them that bream on the Broads were only best caught with left handed wiggle maggots. Mr Rout, in the shop on Thorpe Green, caught on to the joke, and actually sold them, in labelled tins!

[JennyMorgan]

A holiday skipper once asked me how much more the tide would rise? I replied 'about a foot' to which the skipper replied that since the water was already just below the floorboards he obviously couldn't stay where he was!

Re those maggots, the left handed ones, perfectly true. 

[BroadScot]

Don't forget the Sky hooks now. Hold anything they would.

Iain

[grendel]

at my first job as a draughtsman, I was sent to get the dimensions of the sky hook. the next day they had a lovely annotated dimensioned drawing - of an admiralty hook, Skye pattern (straight out of my dads seamanship manual).

at that job, I was the one who sent the new print room girl to stores for black photocopy paper (to print white on black).

the traditional drawing office one was to tamper with the wires on a new guys drawing board parallel motion, leaving it so when the parallel motion was moved the wires dropped off the pulleys. then he would be told it had dropped off because he only had short weights - which only the very experienced draughtsmen used, and then we would send him to stores for a pair of the long weights.

Grendel

[RayandCarole]

Ah and as an ex seafarerer the mythical golden rivet

and on VLCC's trading around the Cape of Good Hope having all first trippers on the bridge looking out for the South Atlantic Mail Buoy for all their letters from their loved ones  even had my kids looking out for it 

Would probably be sacked for work place bullying these,days

Ray

[SteveO]

I used to work in a lab where we had was a muffle furnace which was used to determine the ash content of materials. We had a sandwich course student working with us, who thought he knew  everything, but had never used a muffle furnace, so we told him that whenever he opened the door to put in or remove a sample, he had to wear a heavy overcoat, a muffler and a leather hat, safety glasses and leather gauntlets - which we obligingly provided. He dressed up like this day-in, day-out for nearly a year, much to everyone's amusement, until someone eventually told him that only the gloves and safety specs were needed. He took the joke in good part  and left us wiser and humbler.

Steve

 

[JennyMorgan]

3 hours ago, Tangara said:

Ah and as an ex seafarerer the mythical golden rivet

and on VLCC's trading around the Cape of Good Hope having all first trippers on the bridge looking out for the South Atlantic Mail Buoy for all their letters from their loved ones  even had my kids looking out for it 

Would probably be sacked for work place bullying these,days

Ray

Surely, Ray, all bouys are mail?

[RayandCarole]

Ah well that may be true but in some parts the buoys might be shemail

 

Ray

[JennyMorgan]

The voice of experience . . . . . . . . . 

[RayandCarole]

Happy days in the far east trying to guess and of course setting up the young first trippers with the girl, of their dreams .........

Ray

[imtamping2]

Hey Ray, don't forget saving the scraps to feed the Donkeys .