I was sat in a canalside pub the other day sampling the local brew when a boater turned up with his dog, a lurcher. We got talking and I remarked that his dog was quite old. Yes came the reply from the boater, he doesn't walk far now, but he's happy living aboard and he can he can still lick his balls!
There really is no answer to that ........
It appears an employee of AV(2010)PLC ( who is on the redundancy list), decided to take the sort of action, at Kidderminster, that the management of AV should have organised years ago. (Perhaps they didn't have the balls.... Matt)
The chap in question, built up a stockpile of 50+ trolleys recovered from the nearby Cut and loaded them onto a tipper truck. In the early hours of Saturday morning he backed the truck up to the front doors of the offending store and dumped the lot!
Staff arriving at the store shortly before opening time were faced with a tangled mass of smelly, mangled, trolleys blocking the entrance. The store lost several hours trading as a result and the store manager was said to be furious.
A local boater photographed the proceedings, but confessed he thought his pictures might have suffered from camera shake. "I was laughing so much", he said "I should have used a tripod".
One area where AV(2010)PLC excels is self congratulation. This time it is Hugh Baton who gets most of the credit. What for you ask? In a document recently circulated to Board members Hugh was praised for his "control of the media". The MD's words no less. Hugh is known to have done deals with several editors of canal magazines such as Canalworld, but not many realize he also has done the same with one of the prominent canal web sites too.
Hugh feeds these tame editors snippets of information, of a trivial nature, but in return expects them to suppress other stories. If this fails, he told a senior manager, he slips them a juicy scoop which sends them off on the wrong tack. The real story AV wants to keep quiet, such as the closure of a boatyard, or the sale of canal-side property is then overlooked.
As Hugh said "I love it when a plan comes together".