Thursday 11 September 2008

Hey you, up in the sky...

I saw a crane being erected yesterday.

No - I didn't see a woman suggestively stroking one of these....



or one of these....


I'm talking about a tower crane - the type seen on construction sites all over the country during the building boom.

"So?" I hear you ask?

Well, apart from the irony of seeing a crane erected while the construction industry has more or less been brought to its knees, before yesterday I had never witnessed a crane being erected.

Last year you could look out our bedroom window and see at least 40 cranes - their blinking lights (blinking in a flashing on and off sense as opposed to the mild swear word used by grannys) like a feeble fireworks display during the winter nights.

I have driven up and down the country and all through Dublin city and seen hundreds, if not thousands, of cranes - yet I have never seen one being erected. One minute they are not there, you turn your back to make a cup of tea and there's six of them when you come back!

So why is this such a big deal?

Well before yesterday I was convinced that they must have grown them.

I was sure, the construction industry planned well in advance saying "We'll start building a hotel here in 2003 - better plant a few cranes".

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you take pictures? Never seen one being erected myself and im too scared to google 'crane erection'.

Anonymous said...

Sorry sheepworrier, no pictures. I was too astounded at actually witnessing this secretive, almost masonic, spectacle in person.

If it helps: they used a bigger crane to drop the individual pieces of the new crane in place.

JL Pagano said...

actually, I thought it happened the other way, with big mother ship like from "Independence Day" lowering them down from the sky.

My illusions, too, are shattered.

Darren said...

But more importantly, how do they take them down?

The Bad Ambassador said...

But more importantly, how do they take them down?

Even bigger cranes?

Anonymous said...

it's the giant concrete blocks the filled me with fear. What if one fell, what then ?