The Phoenix, Spilsby

Image: © Dave Hitchborne Taken: 22 Feb 2008

Here stood a cinema and where the new build is, a fish & chip shop. It looks as though the job of dressing bricks is in progress. Dressing bricks is the art of cleaning old mortar off bricks, usually with a brick hammer. It has to be one of the most mind-numbing jobs ever. You are advised to go into a trance like state; as you do when you’re driving. You will probably run into a wall just the same, but in this case it’s expected. To relieve the tedium, you are advised to hit your thumb every now and then and alternate this by dropping a brick on your foot. This has the advantage of increasing your vocabulary. Sooner or later you will find that after meticulously cleaning an especially attractive brick, that on the last whack with the hammer it will break into pieces, or crumble into dust. Grown men have been known to cry. Advantages of this job are that you don’t have to carry anything particularly heavy, or dig. Disadvantages are that you can get Counting’s Disease. You will find that you will start counting every brick and in severe cases, every hammer blow, followed by every step to the next brick and so on. This spreads rapidly, but come pay-day the effect wears off when you count your wages. Dave

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