Friday, July 21, 2006

AWEB#7 Young's of London




My introduction to Young's fine beverages also occurred during my time at Lyons in Hammersmith. A couple of blocks from Cadby Hall was an establishment called the 'Brook Green Hotel'. I am happy to report that my research shows that it is still in existence 30 years later, and still selling Young's beer.


Due to exercising some extremely bad judgment at work I found myself working on a time critical project that was based on one of IBM's less than stellar mini computers (in 70's speak, a mini computer was anything that only required a forklift to move, as opposed to a mainframe that required heavy lifting gear).

The project involved creating about 50,000 lines of computer code that had to be operational in 6 months. The accepted norm at that time was 10 lines coded and tested per day, 10 x 180 = 1800. I knew I was in deep doo doo. Scouring the planet, and nearby galaxies we managed to find someone as stupid as I was, the infamous Dave Groves. Dave and I quickly fell into a regular pattern.


Go to work on Monday morning, and program our hearts out till the 'Brook Green Hotel' opened on Tuesday (11:am). Get very drunk and pass out. Go to work Wednesday morning and work till the bar opened on Thursday, Get drunk and pass out. Go to work Friday morning and work till the bar opened on Saturday. Get drunk, and pass out.

Sunday was a day of rest! Usually spent sleeping.


This regime lasted for the entire 6 months. We both had suitcases that we kept at work with clean (or little used) clothes in it. On one occasion I went to visit my mother and asked her if she would do my laundry. She was not happy when she discovered that it consisted of 40 dress shirts. If I ran out of shirts, I'd just buy some more!

I have no idea how many pints of Young's Dave and I consumed during this project, but it was a considerable amount.

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