"Can you say FIRE?"
right lets get down to business, the above relates to something that happened last night when roger, martin and myself went to the cinema with every intention of watching the new Matrix film. we'd got tickets, we'd got there early, we'd had a beer in a bar beforehand, everything was going well. the lights dimmed, the adverts started rolling and we settled ourselves in for the long haul as it were. everyone was quiet when the honda advert came on and we all watched it in silent awe as the various parts of the car did their thing...it's a very cool advert. during said advert the was a faint smell coming through the auditorium, a faint smoky, electrical smell, a faint smoky, electrical fire type of smell infact. some people had started to leave the auditorium as more and more people became aware that there was something not quite right, i had stood up with martin to see what the commotion was all about. still the adverts rolled. we watched in awe as some people left the cinema to find some staff to sort out what the problem was, but this time there was some smoke in the room, but no other visible signs of a fire. an attendant came in, climbed the stairs to the area that seemed to be where the problem was. he then wondered, in no obvious hurry, to get a fire extinguisher which he then discharged as a second member of staff turned up. it should also be noted that at this time the adverts were still rolling and there had been no actual detection of the fire apart from what people had seen, ie no fire alarm, no smoke detector, nothing. a third member of staff arrived, apparently this is because the projectionist had told him that there was something wrong, and called out to all the people in the screen that they should leave the building via the marked fire exit, and proceed to the front of the building and wait for him to give further instructions. we did this, still without any fire alarms being sounded. we, like many others, milled around out the front of the cinema, in the cold and without further instruction. some of the people had made their way back inside and back upstairs, unheeded, and still we waited. eventually we got cold and went back inside ourselves, and upstairs we went and then we milled around for a while. i decided that things were not good enough and went to hunt down the Duty Manager, who turned out to be the third member of staff that had come into the auditorium, he was busy dealing with the fire men at the time, but i was allowed to stand, unattended, and wait for him, by unattended i mean that if i had wanted to i could've walked back to the screen in question without anyone asking me anything. by this time there was a large crowd of fairly miffed people wanting to know what was going on, they were alleged to be in an orderly queue, but it was so obvious that few of the staff actually knew what they should be doing in this situation and fewer knew enough about what was going on to be able to provide us with any information as to what options we had. Finally when i got to speak to the DM i found that when ever i had something to say, he would interrupt me, a big failing in someone who is expected to be a manager, in fairness he was under enough stress without me quizzing him on the company and site policies and emergency action plans, with specific regards to fire and evacuation procedures and the training and testing that had taken place. he was flustered and kept interrupting me to say that he had made the decision to re-open the screen providing the fire brigade had cleared it to open...it was with this that he made a mistake by telling all the people waiting that he was going to re-open the screen and show the film, so that it would start 1 hour late, he did this without further consulting the firemen to check that it was safe to re-open. at this point we decided that, because i was on an early start at work this morning, we would rather take a refund and go and see it another day. we then had to queue for a while to get said refund, which instead we decided to take vouchers so that next time we could see it without having to pay.
now that's about the long and short of it, but considering we spent £17.70 on three tickets, £10.20 on popcorn and drinks and the like, £2 on parking, and the petrol to get there, we didn't see a film, and the only compensation that we got was three vouchers, that we can't use online or over the telephone to make a booking. there was no other offers of compensation, there wasn't even the offer of a free drink whilst we waited.
needless to say i am still not to impressed with the way that things were handled. but there are still a few things that i will be doing to try and get something sorted about the incident. Firstly there is this blog, i'm hoping that if you're reading it then you'll have a think about the procedures that are in place and the people that are there to look after you. Secondly, if anyone out there is going to the cinema, make sure that if you are going the WARNER VILLAGE at THE ORACLE in READING, ask them if there have been any changes in their fire and evacuation procedures as a result of the incident on SATURDAY 8th NOVEMBER. Finally, I shall be writing a series of letters to Reading Borough Council, Warner Village at the Oracle, The Fire Brigade in Reading and finally i'll be writing to the Warner Village main UK offices. I'm not after compensation, although some sort of gesture towards covering the costs that we incurred wouldn't go amiss, i'm doing this because if next week, or next month, there is a bigger fire there, i want to know that i've raised my points and grievances with the right people, in the hope that it will prevent a big fire there.

ok no that's off my chest...
i'm doing ok, not sleeping very well, work has been ok this week. Flogging Molly were amazing, saw them on wednesday for the second time this year, it was very cool. everythign seems to be going pretty well at the moment. couple of teething problems with the flat, but nothing major, which is good.

anyway, i think that's about enough from me for this week, i doubt i'll blog again until next sunday now, hopefully i won't have a major rant for you next time.
take care peoples
Px