We try to balance our mission, bringing great quality work wear and safety boots from great brands such as Haix, Carhartt, Snickers and Dassy to our fantastic customers in a friendly fashion with the requirements of the customer. Let’s be honest, the work wear world is not renowned for its sense of humour. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, in terms of the safety boots in particular, there are copious amounts of regulations and safety standards to be complied with, so the tightrope we walk here is that if we’re perceived as being humorous or flippant do customers take us seriously when buying a product they need to protect themselves ? The other reason is that traditionally work wear and safety footwear are sold by suppliers to companies who then issue them to their staff, so it was all decided on budgets, generally the cheapest possible, and there isn’t really any premium attached to being slightly funny.. or what music the work wear supplier was listening to !
So, we do things a little differently. Sometimes we have doubts...daily...hourly. But then we get a really nice email or request from a customer thanking us for some problem we solved and asking, perhaps, to quote for a much larger quantity for the company they work for. This happens often enough to keep us on the tightrope...at least until lunchtime.
“But what about the Fox’s Cream’s Rich Tea Biscuits? What have they got to do with it?”
Well, here at Brix we, when not concentrating on tightrope walking, are very definitely creatures of habit. And when the clock strikes 11 we can all be found in the canteen having a well deserved mug of tea. A perk of working here is that tea, coffee and industrial sized cartons of biscuits are provided. Normally this is not a problem, not at all; in fact I’m quite partial to dunking the odd Rich tea biscuit in my tea. But this year all is changed, changed utterly, a terrible beauty has been born.
Brother John”Darth” Bond has entered himself, myself and our youngest brother, Stephen “Sonny Boy” Bond in the Dublin City marathon this year. Darth presented this “gift” to us as a Christmas present. I made the point, loudly, to him that a pack of socks is a present. (Available on Brix at €9.99 for a pack of 3 CAT socks, bargain!) A wooly hat is a present. (Available on Brix at an unbelievable €9.99!).Entering someone into a race that lasts 26 miles and requires running in all weathers in the intervening 40 weeks is a noble gesture, a worthy ambition and perhaps, even a bold adventure. However, what it most certainly is NOT is a present.
Now I feel guilty dunking the third and fourth biscuit in my tea knowing that I will have to carry that extra weight as I drag my heels around Rossmore Park three evenings a week in preparation for taking part in John’s “gift”.
Some days I manage to stay on the tightrope. Some days I fall.
But I always have tomorrow.
Winner of last weeks’ prize , with the best answer to the question, “What is the most useless expression you know ?” is Liam C with his brilliantly stupefying :
“ ‘Tis a quare ould station when the trains don’t stop.”
This week’s questions are :
1.What is the best biscuit to dunk in your tea ?
2.How much would you need to spend on Brix to get someone a brilliant present of a 3 pack of socks AND a wooly hat?
Answers by email or as a comment on the blog please.
Cheers,
Paul
P.S. Today I am , of course listening to the amazing Janelle Monae singing..ta dah..Tightrope
P.P.S. I didn’t realise last week’s blog was so widely read in the greater Scotstown area and arrived last night to my 5 a side football match to hoots of derision and comments about chainsaws. Every time I lost the ball, missed a shot ( quite often) or failed to run back to help out the defence ( equally often) I was greeted with cries of “ You should have worn those chainsaw boots !”. I should point out too that mostly this shout came from the quietest member of our team Cormac “Fortified” Sherry.
