Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams?  "If you build it - they will come" - the only line I remember from this Kevin Costner film!  This is my workplace, and they certainly build it.  Working in the greenhouse like atmosphere of the office above the shopfloor I have to walk the length of the factory to the graphics shop who produce the visuals for the signs we are making.  It fascinates me.  My walk takes me past the Pacer - I have looked it up - a big, noisy "CNC router" which precision cuts letters, the paint shop with a spray booth and huge ovens for firing paint finishes.  When I started, my boss got us pasties which were heated up in the paint shop ovens.  There is a massive screen print set up, areas for "decal cutting" and vinyl printing, a full booth designated for welding equipment behind protective plastic curtains and this open, untidy despatch area with packing tables, vast rolls of bubble wrap - this is where signs pile up ready for the van or the couriers truck.  There's quite a distinctive smell about the place - hard to define, not unpleasant - vinyl and metal dust maybe.  It looks old fashioned and worn but the quality of the signs produced amazes me.  I walk past 5meter "totems" for Greggs which dwarf me.  There are big green plastic fascias for Jobcentre Plus, and lovely decorative panels for Kew gardens. I would love to know what the various trades guys do but they are busy and I can't interrupt.

What do you hear? The constant sound of the extraction systems, keeping the dust down, the aforementioned noisy pacer, drilling and a bit of hammering, and the radio over all the factory, the sound of the forklift reversing and one of our project managers swearing when something isn't despatched or made correctly.  I sincerely hope that this will not be me on the end of his burst of Tourettes at any time. He's a volatile man with a catchy temper but a sweet man to work with. They've made me feel so at home.  It's been so very good to get my confidence and banter back - everything the NHS hated, this job have seen as being in my favour - from asking questions to taking my time to work slowly and steadily. No one minds short hair - and it is so hot that shorts are obligatory from the MD down to the guys on the shop floor.  Apparently it is freezing in winter.....

It may not be rocket science but there is something to be said for a stable environment.  It feels like the factory equivalent of my church to me - stable, steady, not known for being massively exciting - but really good.  I've found stability to be such a key value in my life after so much shifting sand beneath me.