Not a good time to run out of juice
Here’s how not to impress the boss …
Derision all round for Birmingham Post head of business Alun Thorne as he headed back into the city centre from the paper's re-launch party, held at its imminent new home at Fort Dunlop.
The idea was to get back to the office and then on to further celebrations at The House in Bennetts Hill.
Sadly, the motor, carrying editor Marc Reeves and two visiting ad execs from London, conks out just five minutes into the journey.
Stuck in one of the city’s less salubrious neighbourhoods, not far from Spaghetti Junction.
Head of marketing Jane Nugent rushes round to pick up the stricken editor and company in what must be put down as a good career move.
And poor Al is forced to flag down the services of another marketing bod and the CityLiving editor Jon Perks.
They take £20 off the hapless scribbler, head off to find some diesel, returning some 20 minutes later but the car still won’t start. By which time the boy’s plight has become something of a tourist attraction – even the MD stopped to commiserate.
So, anyway, there is nothing to be done but for the trio, with Thorne still dressed up to the nines (OK, more like some sort of Second World War demob suit), to push the wreck into a nearby retail estate. Where a call to the AA attracted some attention an hour or so later.
So our glorious business leader reaches the office two hours after leaving the Fort, having missed the after party.
Missing your own party! Not something his predecessor and old soak John Duckers even managed in his heyday.
