In the 1970s, Eamonn Fitzmaurice was working on a building site. One day, just before knocking off time he had reason to go up to the sixth floor of the building on which he was working. The lifts had been installed but were not fully functioning, a circumstance that lead to a potentially smelly problem...
 Eamonn |
During the late 70s, Eamonn was working as a chippy labourer - a job he describes as "a skivers paradise". He was working on building a bank in the City of London. The lifts had been put in but they weren't working properly.
At the end of one particular day, he decided to disappear to one of the upper floors for a bit of a rest. He got to the sixth floor but when it was time to go back down he realised the doors in the lift lobby were locked so he couldn't get down the stairs. He shouted until he was hoarse, but no-one came.
One of the things that upset him the most was that he'd bought a fresh lobster for a friend's birthday party that night. He'd left it in the workmen's hut at the bottom of the building. Eamonn says, this was the height of summer and I thought this is going to be rather smelly by the morning".
 The lobster |
Eamonn noticed the lift door was slightly ajar. He forced it open and peered down. It was an 8 floor drop to the very bottom where the lift was. He edged himself across and leapt at a rail that the lift ran along and slid down to the next floor. Eamonn managed to get out at the next floor but once again for some reason the lobby doors were locked. There was still no way out.
He could hear the sounds of men below doing what sounded like loading the lift. The lift could have headed up towards him at any time, but Eamonn decided to repeat his daredevil act. He leapt and slid down to the next. The lift lobby doors had not been locked and he was able to grab his jacket and make his escape.
He didn't mention his escapade to the people he was working with. He didn't think they'd be too impressed at the damage to the lifts. But he was able to take the lobster to the party鈥nd very tasty it was too.
