Another Day in Exeter

Dominion Day and I’m stuck in Exeter for a second day. I found it really hard to sleep last night as it was so hot in my room – no air conditioning just a fan which seems to push hot air around my room. When I awoke I felt somewhat disorientated and then realised where I was and why I was there – a day in tribunal or not as we would find out when we visited the tribunal offices at 10.00 a.m. I made tea (after I eventually found the tea making equipment secreted away in cupboard cunningly disguised as a chest of drawers), had a bath and read my daily readings. Breakfast was a buffet affair with no choice of kippers as when I last stayed here. I had fruit and coffee followed by a light helping of bacon and mushrooms. I went over to the tribunal offices at 9.45 a.m. with the witnesses, Sara, Vicki and Belinda where it was confirmed to us that our case was indeed a “floater” and that the fixed case was almost certainly going to go ahead. We were shown to the Respondents’ room where we met the witnesses and counsel for the other case – Devon and Somerset Fire Brigade – who confirmed that their case was listed for the full day and that they would, indeed, be going ahead. We had met their opposition outside the offices, ironically having a smoke, as we entered the building earlier. We stayed at the offices for about an hour during which time I had an opportunity to discuss the case with my opposition and learn the basis of their claim that my company had acted unfairly and in breach of our own policy. Essentially they believe that natural justice was denied to their client in that certain statements were withheld from her and that a decision to dismiss was excessive in any event. Following our exchange of views on this, counsel on the other side and myself agreed that we could hear the case tomorrow and could finish our evidence, cross examination and submissions by around 4 p.m. if we put our minds to it. On the basis of this assurance, the employment judge agreed to hear it tomorrow. We did get a concession, however, in that our opposition reduced their claim by around £5,000 because they agreed that there had been no statutory breach of procedure. We all returned to our Exeter office and worked on the case all afternoon. On my way back to the hotel this evening I stopped off at Tesco’s to get a couple of new shirts and boxer shorts as I had only packed enough clothes from one night away. It remained hot as we returned to the hotel and tonight we visited my favourite restaurant in Exeter – the Thai Orchid by the cathedral. It was lovely to se ethe Thai flag flying from the roof of the restaurant building. Tonight I am sitting in the bar area writing this blog whilst also half-watching a programme about space travel followed by a programme with James May flying to the edge of space in a Lookheed U-2 – some 70,000 feet or 30 miles above the Earth’s surface – the highest humans other than those on the Space Station. A really fascinating piece of journalism. The U-2 is a wonderful flying machine – half jet fighter and half glider. The reason for all these space programmes is that we are approaching the 40th anniversary of Man’s first lunar landing. Other news today was that the East Coast rail company is being taken over by the government and Andy Murray won his quarter-final match at Wimbledon to go through to the Men’s Semi-finals. This equals Tim Henman’s “success”.