Sorry for the delay in posting this continuation from above, but you’ll come to understand when you start reading! Just so you get an idea of the length, it’s 16 pages of A4, 11,079 words. Yeah, if this was me at College or University right now, my lecturer would be saying their favourite line of, “Do you seriously expect me to read all that?!!” No, I don’t it’s totally your choice, but at least you’ll know what has gone on for the past week and a bit, with me. Going back to trying to write daily or every other day now, seeing as my month from hell has finally passed! So here it is, the next part of this Journal, my Journal, thanks for stopping by…
Friday, 26th May. Oh dear Lord, is this day going to end badly!! Not for me, but for my team!! Told you May was bad for me; and the events of today are pretty much up there with everything else that has gone on before it in years gone by!!
Well, it was another hot day! Not looking forward to there being no air con and the heat in the afternoon melting everyone. Okay, so I can control my breathing, slow it down and just about live with it, but still, should we really be working in this heat?? 10am start, on till 7pm, yep lovely long shift! ‘Grumpy’ male puts me on Hash Browns duty for the last 30 minutes of breakfast, don’t mind, can see me being on fries probably for the rest of the day too, don’t mind that either, better me doing it, than someone that can’t take the heat and collapsing, which I can see happening, as you can’t stop to get a drink; and even if you could, you have to take it to the back of the store, so yeah, that’s not happening, just have to grin and bare it until the shift manager/salaried says you can stop; or swaps you with someone else!
So, hash brown duty, ha, who buys 16 of these things to eat with a coffee?!! Every order someone would shout, “I need 7 hash browns!” “I need 9 hash browns!” “I need 14 hash browns!” Yeah, you get the idea; and that’s per order! Can’t people settle for the one that comes with the meal? Clearly not. Still, 1030am came, station cleaned down and yep, I’m now the ‘fries guy’ continuing to work the station. Like I said, I’m not complaining, I’ll work the observation point quite happily. I’ll just throw some music into my head and get on with it; and if I really get into what I’m listening to in my mind, I may actually start to dance to it too, lol. 
Saying that, getting caught throwing your hands into the air like your at a music festival, yeah, that’s not good, lol, but occasionally I’ll get carried away and do it, lol, usually it’s when I go to get the fries from the freezer. Ah well, better to be happy than miserable, don’t you think?!! Break time, yes, got to be back by 2pm as someone is going home, time for some tunes then on the iPad. 
Load up the iPod to get onto my social media a/c. I swear it’s tuned to show me ‘RW’s’ page every time I log in; and being small scale I’m super cautious to what I click on to get out of it into the ‘recent’ section of my own news feed, in case I ‘like’ something without realising it! Saying that, I sometimes look at her news feed, well it’s there loaded, hard not to miss. Have to say, ‘RW’ and I think the same on a lot of things; and yeah, I do then end up ‘liking’ those posts! Maybe that’s why my iPod goes straight to her a/c on loading, who knows?!! Still, my own page, for my music, seemed to have a few more views than normal. Considering I’ve not done any DJ mixes for 3 weeks, I’m surprised it’s had any views, yet I’m slowly inviting my friends. Not going to do it all in one go in case the merged account has another fit and tries to lock me out again, like in October! I invite a few every couple of days. Obviously they don’t have to accept the invite, but it’s going to be the only place I’ll be Live Streaming my DJ sets from in future, especially as it displays a whole heap of valuable information of who has tuned in; and where from, etc, something that I don’t get on my personal a/c!
So, back to work, get a till and go on counter to cover the person going home. Apparently, I’m the only till to have a working card reader - great! So, I’m getting pretty much every customer come to me for their orders, both cash and card payments! Very busy though, drive-thru has the queue of all queues going beyond were we normally see cars begin to line up and the customers think coming inside will get them their food even quicker, ha! Sorry people, we’re not EoTF yet, it’s gonna take a while!! Would help if the kitchen team listened to what you shouted to them and observed the grill stickers, instead of binning them, nothing ever runs smoothly in this store, why should today be any different?!!
So, the 4pm staff begin to arrive and I’m told to go an cash up my till as I have a new member of the team coming in shortly and I’m training them, yay! Can’t even log into the computer system as myself, lol, how daft is that?!! Floor managers in this store seem to do very little when it comes to the paperwork/office side of things. Can’t even get them to train me on taking the safe, yet I’m using another manager’s login to cash-up my own till! God knows what will happen when I go to this new store, got a feeling they’ll just expect me to know everything that goes on in the office and I really don’t!! Everything outside the office, yeah sure, but when it comes to the paperwork side of the job, the critical things that in some store the Crew Trainers perform, in this store, my current store, Floor Managers just aren’t expected to do it or have access to it! Crazy!!
New start, her second shift and she’s coming with me to the new store in a months time. Yay, she seems like another friendly person. From what I gather, they have hired 29 people full time to join the managers on opening day to run everything, yet 9 have already been fired for failing to turn up for their training shifts! So far, I’ve met 4 people, three girls and a guy. The guy is quite amusing to speak to actually. You’d think he was American if you spoke to him, but nope, he’s Russian, has Russian parents that don’t speak any English. Scratching your head? His parents sent him to US Military School in Russia to be educated. I know where he’s coming from, been in that position for the 1st 16 years of my life what with my parents being in the Military themselves, even got to go to an American school myself; and what fun that was! Still, one of the 3 girls I’m training tonight in the Booth on till as order-taker/cashier. So, got her to work in the Booth with the head set on, I have her ask the customer what they wanted to order, I’d key it in, but I’d have her do the role of taking the payments. Might sound mad, but it gets her into a position to do two things at once, focus on the two roles and achieve it at speed and with confidence! After 20 mins, I step back and say, “I want you to have a go on your own!” Lovely look of horror on her face, lol, but I said, “I have every confidence in you! I’m going to let you do a few orders on your own and I’ll listen on a headset in the office. If you have any problems, I’ll come back.” You know, she did pretty well for the first few cars, then it got a little busy 10 minutes later and I went to help. Cleared the queue, told her she’d done really well; and I still had confidence in her; and I went back into the office, as I was writing out those horrid SOC training Q&A’s we have to complete.
This was the turning point for tonight! The month from hell was about to add another event, another chapter into my life!!
Trying to rush to complete/log the SOC’s (I had a deadline to get 4 logged by 5pm onto our system, otherwise Grumpy male would get upset), in came the very guy, phone in hand looking rather flustered! Looked at him and said, “What’s up?” His response, “You’ll find out in a minute!” Thought for a second of what was going on, was it a customer making a complaint, or something else?? His response which had me sit up and take notice, “Hi yes, we have a major incident. I need Armed Response to ** McDonald’s. I have a man behind the counter that has said two people on scrambler bikes has threaten to shoot him in the car park outside, so he has taken refuge behind the counter in our store! Customers and staff have said there is people on bikes outside and have said they are going to shoot through the windows! We have a lot of families with children in here!” As he says this, I can hear the engine of a scrambler bike in the Drive-Thru lane on the other side of the wall to where I am sitting!! Great. Alerted Grumpy to it which he then passed on to the Emergency Operator. I looked at the CCTV monitor and see another guy on a scrambler bike circling around in front of the entrance to the drive-thru lane; and alert Grumpy of that too! Next thought for me, wasn’t for my safety, but for my colleague, my trainee working in the Booth, about to be faced with a potential threat from someone on a bike, so I went out and stood behind her, just as the guy and the other guy on a bike pulled up at the window. You know, they didn’t actually look like they were looking for anyone! You could see their faces as they weren’t fully covered with their helmets, and although one did look through the window down at the open till draw, they didn’t seem any different that any other customer we usually got. Certainly saw no weapons on them! Yet, because of the way our speaker works, they had to order at the Booth window, so the guy closest to us take his helmet off to speak! We have a camera facing him, filming him, if he’s here to threaten someone, even shoot someone, you’d think taking his helmet off would be the last thing he would do!! The pair of them paid and pulled forward as there was two cars in front of them, you could hear their engines revving up outside. I went back into the office, Grumpy giving a second by second update to the Emergency Operator. at which point I could hear a commotion in the kitchen and looked down the corridor were all the staff were working. The guy that apparently been threatened clearly was getting agitated with the noise of the bikes in the Drive-Thru lane was heading towards the office, but pacing in and out, back and forth amongst the staff, whom seemed to be getting a tad distressed themselves by his actions; and the thought that a possible shooting could be imminent into the restaurant, harming them! The guy is clearly not right, as I could hear him repeatedly shout out to himself, not to anyone near him, couldn’t quite make out what he was saying as he was at the other end of the kitchen near my least favourite machine. Another Floor Manager came into the office, a little distressed with this guy, telling us his behaviour was becoming very erratic and he was shouting out at the staff, the very people there trying to help him, trying to keep him calm behind the counter. Well, I didn’t see what happened next, I just heard the screams from several girls and a number of both male and female staff run towards the direction of the office, as the guys on the scrambler bikes pulled forward to get what they had ordered right by where this guy was currently hiding!! Practically, the whole team ran towards the crew room from the front counter, managers included, where I ran towards the counter itself! Yeah, call me daft, but you know me, my team comes first; and this guy has clearly done something to make everyone run!! I got to the machine from hell, the guy I can hear shouting out, “You think you’re going to shoot me yeah? I’ll show you who’s gonna shoot me, I’ll shoot you, come and get me! COME ON!!” Grumpy was blocking my view standing on the corner of the shake machine looking to the right of it towards the other end of the counter, with another salaried manager trying to get the customer to leave, with many refusing to go, would you believe!! One of the crew trainers suddenly appeared, tears running down her face, along with another male Floor Manager, to which I ushered them to towards the Crew Room. Grumpy shouted towards me, “NH, keep them in the crew room, don’t let them out!” As we get there, there’s 3 staff, their bags in hand leaving and heading for the back door/fire exit which takes them into the area we keep all the rubbish. Irrespective of what I’d been told to do, being in so many situations before, with this guy running around, the last place I wanted anyone was in the confines of the crew room, so I took it upon myself to proceed with a full evacuation!! “Right, listen up. I want everyone to leave and go to the Fire Assembly Point!” There was just far too many crew and managers in that room, anything could of happened if the guy had come back and gotten into it, as far as I was concerned they had to get out, stay out and only come back in, once the matter had been resolved! I ushered them all to leave out of the Fire Exit, take anything they needed, okay, it’s not a fire exactly and I should of sent them out with nothing, but I’m in that area, he’s gonna have to come through me before he gets them, if he does suddenly appear, thankfully, he didn’t and they all made their way out. I went into the crew room myself, doused myself in IJ, 6 sprays to my neck front and back, with an additional 2 sprays of A314 (B) to my Adam’s apple. Got a strong hit of neroli, that’s for sure, couldn’t ever smell the A314 scent! Not used this much of IJ in one go, but felt the need to just whack it on! Remember the time a few weeks back with the kids outside, yeah, same thoughts as then, were now entering my head.
I went back into the kitchen and there were still staff in the kitchen cooking, still staff in the very last booth serving customers in cars, they wouldn’t park over, they wanted to watch, they wanted what they’d paid for! Them staying there not only put themselves at risk, they put my team at risk too! Had a few more head towards the crew room, told Grumpy I’d evacuated them to the Fire Point, only to be told to, “Go get them back, tell them to stay in the crew room!” Looked at him daft and said, “It’s not safe there, there’s too many of them to fit in there, bars on the window, we don’t know where he’s going next!” Could see his brain working a tad, to have the other salaried manager say, “Keep them in the coral!” That’s just as bad, lol, so I went out, took 3 more distressed staff with me; and proceeded to look outside. 5 had gone and stood by the windows to look in, 10 were stood close to the assembly point, the rest were in a distressed state near to the entrance of the Drive-Thru lane, great. I shouted over to the 5, “Stay away from the windows, move across the road to the others, keep the area clear!” As they moved away, one of the customers that had refused to leave the restaurant, was sitting at the next table looking in, with 3 small kids also looking in, ffs! Because I’d shouted at the staff, she automatically thought I was also shouting at her too; and proceeded to have a full on verbal abuse attack at me for telling her to leave the area, lovely! As much as I felt like telling her to shift, too, I said, “Sure, stay there if you feel your kids are safe. We don’t know what this individual will do next. If he can see you through the glass he may try to break it with you there. It’s safer if you move away also, but that’s up to you, I can’t make you leave, only direct my staff away to safety!” She just gave me this stupid look of disobedience. Fine love, you want your kids to watch a deranged lunatic rip up the inside and threaten everyone still inside, fair enough, hope your kids sleep well tonight!!
So, call me stupid, but I went back in! Had quite a few of the team sat by the back exit into the coral tell me to stay, tears coming from most of the girls eyes, but I just didn’t care for my own safety at this point. There’s a lunatic in there, there’s staff still in there. Until they’re all out, I’m going back in, simple as that!
Couldn’t believe they were still cooking! Grumpy had ordered a handful back into the kitchen, this guy I can still hear shouting, “You think you’re going to kill me? I’ll kill you!” He kept repeating it over and over, kept hearing banging noises from the counter, with me now standing behind Grumpy observing two Floor Managers trying to get the last two remaining cars to leave the Drive-Thru. Only way they got them to leave was to take their food out of the front door, lol. The things people do to keep watching the action! So, I follow them out, behind them with instructions from Grumpy not to let anyone back in through the front door; and I get the 1st glimpse of what has gone on, on the front counter! This lunatic is in the corner, trying to pick up and pull one of the cash tills/touch screens and pull it from the counter. The cables go through a cut-out in the counter itself, and he is trying to rip them out by lifting, tugging, pulling at the till system. Now, these things are heavy; and I mean heavy! They’re a very old style computer with a touch screen monitor thrown on top for good measure, the till draw itself is separate underneath the counter. On the floor, there were two fry baskets, fries all over the place! There was oil visible on the back small refrigerator and fries on the surface of that area too. By the looks of it, he’d tried to break the glass of the refrigerator door, but only the camera would show that later, if he indeed had done that!
So, out I go with the two managers, the front packed with customers watching through the open door to see what was going on, lol; and 4 of the 5 staff I’d told to move, were sat on a corner table at the front of the building chatting away to themselves. Okay, so they’re out of harms way, out of view from the lunatic, that’s fine, albeit I’d of liked them to have stayed with the group, which was now in two groups. One by the assembly point, the other group still by the drive-thru entrance/back exit, most sitting on the ground.
One of the two Floor Managers that I’d just come out with, now stood next to the car that they’d given their food to shouts over, “They need their drinks, still.” - great! Asked what they were, a coke zero, Fanta and banana shake. Shouted back, “Fanta and shake I can get, coke zero I can’t as it’ll put me right next to him!” Response was, “Get a diet coke instead!” …and so, without a care in the World, feeling pretty darn calm, I went back inside. Straight to the drinks machine, I calmly filled the diet and fanta cups. Didn’t ask what sizes they were, so the customer is getting large! Put the drinks into a holder, lunatic is still yelling in the corner, "You think you’re going to kill me do ya?!! I just ignored him; and as I went toward the shake machine, I saw Grumpy, still on the phone to the Emergency Operator with 6 staff stood in a line behind him, all looking distressed, even more so that I was now stood in front of the shake machine pouring another drink! So, I’m still ignoring lunatic; and Grumpy quietly says, “NH, get around here, you’ll get hurt!” I stopped the machine from pouring and looked around it at the staff and said, “The customer needs their drinks, they can’t go until they get them, don’t worry about me!” Two of the female staff signal me with their hands to come and join them, but for whatever reason I was calm, in a daze somewhat, smelling a strong sense of Neroli and thinking “Come and get me if you dare!” Don’t ask me what happened next though, why it happened, but as I continued to restart the machine to pour the shake, the lunatic began to yell at me that he was going to kill me! My head triggered a recall. Thought in my head at that very moment wasn’t of family, it wasn’t of what was going on around me, I was looking at the images I’ve had for months now of ‘X’ and 3 new ones of ‘RW’; and they were large, larger than any image I’ve ever recalled in the past!
I stopped the drink, put on a lid, then looked around fully at the guy, to see he’d now fully pulled the till from off of the counter; and stepped practically into the corner behind him. There must have been about 2 metres of cable stretched out from the counter across to where he was standing. I didn’t even know the cables were that long, lol! I can hear Grumpy and the other girls telling me, urging me to join them around the corner, I’m out of their sight, they can no longer see me! So, the lunatic is still raving away, his eyes are black. God only knows what he’s taken. Actually, God probably doesn’t know; and was probably looking down and thinking, “Here we go, NH doing his thing yet again!” Lunatic shouts over at me, “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to Bleep kill you!” I responded, still feeling pretty darn calm. still with the images now gone transparent before me, so I’m looking at him; and my favourite two people, “Why are you being like this?” Got a response of, “You called the Police! I’m going to kill you, I’m going to kill all of you! I’m coming back tomorrow, you will all die!” I responded back, “I didn’t call the Police. My manager called the Police!” "He carried on with the threats, “Yes, you did, I’m going to kill you, you basBleepd, I’ll hurt you, you’re going to die!” I’m still calm with all this believe it or not! Is it the 6 spray of IJ and the 2 sprays of the A314 doing it?? Who knows, but I fell calm, in control, not scared, I wasn’t even shaking! So, lunatic continues, “Why did you call the Police? I’m going to kill you for calling the Police on me, why did you call them on me? I’m being threatened to be killed and you call the Police on me!” Calmly, I look on at him and reply with, “You came to us for help, you told us that there was people outside with guns threatening to shoot you through the glass. It was our duty to protect everyone not just you from harm. That’s why the Police have been called; and yet here you are smashing the place up, threatening my team, threatening me for trying to help you, really?!!” I went to pick up the drink to leave, but before I got the chance this yellow wet floor cone came skating across the floor towards me. I could hear gasps of panic from those hidden around the back of tha machine with one saying, “He’s thrown the till at NH!” I stopped the cone with the side of my foot, put my foot up on top of it, looked down at it; and calmly said out a loud. “REALLY? Okay, whatever!” He was still struggling to hold the till. My team had thought I’d been harmed, I was fine, really calm, looking at my favourite two people and then beyond the lunatic still saying he was going to kill me! I picked up the drink, looked at the team, Grumpy looking on in shock telling the Emergency operator that I was alright, two girls looking distraught, but relived that they could now see I was fine, stood before them, holding the shake in my hand. I put it into the holder and went back outside, looking at the lunatic as I went still shouting at me that he was going to kill me, still struggling to hold the till, still by the looks of it trying to pull the cables out!
As I went outside with the drinks, the 4 staff members asked me if I was mad, lol, probably, but I went over to the car with the customer waiting, my fellow Floor Manager stood next to it and the driver leaned out and said, “I know I said I needed my drinks, but I didn’t think you’d actually go back in there to that; and get them! Are you mad?!” Yep, I am. It’s May, let’s see just how far I can push my luck here, beginning to think, looking back on everything of my past, that I seem to have gotten through, that I have better luck than a cat with 9 lives! Still, I returned to the doorway to prevent anyone going in; and there were lots of people that approached the restaurant wanting to go in, despite being told that they couldn’t. Even the ones stood outside, including those that had had to leave when everything began, wanted to know when they could go back inside, order food and drink! Really?? I have most of the store outside traumatised and all you want to know is when we’ll reopen?!! The nutter is inside, there’s 6 people inside, but from where I’m standing he’s stood in the corner still, still fighting to hold that till. People amaze me!! I kept watching him, the slightest thought that he would move towards those still glued to the side of the kitchen they were in would of had me right back in there. I’d of gone for him if I thought he was going to do anything to those still in there. Why they didn’t try to leave, I don’t know, maybe shock, sheer panic was keeping them there. They certainly thought a till had come my way, it hadn’t it was a wet floor cone, not that having a till launched at me would of made me scared anyway, had worse thrown at me over the years from people trying to arm rob other places I’ve worked in. Doesn’t faze me anymore, I just fight back until they realise I’m not going to back down and leave. This lunatic wouldn’t of left, not on his own that’s for sure. I’d of probably had to of taken out his airway and then put him into a lock of some sort to prevent him from doing anything else, but from where I was standing, he was just in that corner fighting with the till and shouting out that he was going to kill me and the team!
Well, they took their time, 20 minutes had past from the initial call to the Emergency Operator, but a Police car pulled up into the car park and two male officers approached the building, still with onlookers right across the front of the building. I gave them a de-brief on everything that I knew (Albeit, I hadn’t seen everything), told them there were 6 still in-store; and they then proceeded to enter the building and stood trying to negotiate with the lunatic from the opposite side of the front counter. Clearly that didn’t work, as he was still issuing threats, now at the Officers, so they went behind the counter. Muppet threw the till at them as they approached so they jumped on him and had him pinned up against the wall. I’m watching on, still flippin’ calm would you believe! Has to be the mix I have on! Still can smell the neroli! As I see them clearly reading the lunatic his rights, it dawns on me that there’s all these people, plus that lady with her kids sat right outside where this guys is going to be coming to very soon. Now the thought on my mind is to clear this area, so I begin to calmly ask everyone to move around to the side of the building, to keep the front clear. Guess who kicks off again about being asked to be moved? Yep, you guess it, that woman with her kids; and even though most are moving, I’m still getting people asking me when we’re reopening! Ha, 1st off it’s a crime scene! 2nd, I can hear the staff saying they’re not going back inside; and who would blame them! In my mind, the restaurant should close, everyone should go home, but that’s not my call. The lady moves, along with her 3 kids, one asking me, “What’s happened?” I replied with, “A bad man is in there, but don’t worry, the Police have come to take him away, so everything will be okay!” Just as we move, just as the kids move around the corner, the Police bring the lunatic out, his hands in cuffs, they were moving at speed towards their car. Another Police car pulled up; and before I could say or do anything, the customer, those stood outside began to walk back into the restaurant and form a queue on front counter - seriously?!! Who did they think was going to serve them? The place was trashed! The get told by the other salaried manager ‘AM’ to go back outside; and the restaurant would open in 10-20 minutes - what?!! They should of been told it was closed. I guess they were in a state of shock, what with what had gone on. ‘AM’ told me to go back outside and ask the staff to come back in to sort the place out, which I did. I went to the group at the assembly point. The look on their faces, the girls mainly, there was no way on this earth that they were going back in tonight; and I don’t blame them one bit. For many, this was their 1st incident. The 1st is always the worst! For me, I’ve lost count! Yet, Grumpy came out; and tried to get them all to come back in to sort out the inside, so that the operation could carry on, lol, WHAT?!! I swear to God, they only think of money going through those tills and not the wellbeing of their own staff. Shocking behaviour!! Grumpy, I think the penny finally dropped that all of the staff outside were going home, 98% of the staff! I went to the other group sat by the Drive-Thru and was immediately grabbed by the female staff whom thought the worst had happened to me on going back in! Reassured them that I was fine, that everyone was fine. Still, got more tears from the girls, so reassured them that everything was fine, that the lunatic was now sat in the back of a Police car at the front of the building along with 4 officers! Had a couple of the Floor Managers ask what was happening and said that they wanted everyone back inside to sort the place out to reopen. Got an overwhelming response of that not happening; and that they were all going home. I had to agree with them, so I went back inside and told ‘AM’ of what everyone outside had said, that they weren’t setting foot back inside that night anyhow. Grumpy came back in and confirmed the same; and now the pair of them turned to the phones to notify the BM of what had gone on, notify the Ops Consultant and ring around other stores in the area to send staff, so that they could reopen, as the Ops consultant said we couldn’t close for the night - sales, it’s all they think about!!
when I get to work with my best friend ‘RW’ for whatever length of time that she is there for. 
look from her, hehe. Shouldn’t be mean, but in my moment of happiness, the mischievousness kinda kicked in too! Damn, I felt happy!! Think I’m getting a full hit now of my ‘Party Mix Mk2’ lol, not complaining like! Ended up going down to Booth 1 about an hour later to clear all the cars using the headset, tailback seemed to go on forever!
