The final account

Easy does it, Jonny

Bovis Lend Lease’s PFI arm certainly got a famous name along to celebrate work starting on an extension to Hexham General Hospital in Northumberland. Rugby World Cup star Jonny Wilkinson popped in to lay a commemorative stone. Given the fly-half’s litany of injuries, including most recently a “lacerated” kidney, we were surprised he was able to lift the trowel up in the first place.

Win a bottle of wine!

Here’s a bizarre twist on the ‘Life is like a box of chocolates’ homespun philosophy of Forrest Gump. Apparently the NEC contract is like a pizza, according to lawyer Michael Blackburne.

Speaking at a breakfast seminar about the en vogue contract the head of construction at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain said the potential for adding extra conditions to the basic NEC was like “adding toppings to a pizza”. Which leads to the question we need answered – what foodstuff most reflects the JCT or the PPC2000? Send your ideas through to qsnews@cmpi.biz and we’ll send a bottle of wine for the best culinary analogy.

We were soldiers

We failed to storm the safe house, or assassinate their president, but our thanks still go to British Gypsum, who challenged QS News and sister titles Building and Building Design to a round of paintballing. And won (just – the final score was 4-3).

We think four hours listening to grown men and women scream in a large warehouse in Canary Wharf is time well spent. We also enjoyed the cartoon style egg-shaped bump emanating from one challenger’s head, and wish him a speedy recovery.

The Simon Jones case closes

Our profound thanks to sister magazine Building for solving the mystery that has bugged our sector in the last year – what does newly installed senior partner at Gardiner & Theobald Simon Jones really look like? You may recall our blunder at the beginning of the year in publishing a picture of a Simon Jones, but not the Simon Jones. So here’s the man himself, who apparently is a little camera-shy, in full technicolour glory.

Jumping for joy

Here’s the picture submitted by Bucknall Austin to celebrate its success in winning a new deal with the Royal Parks, including readying Horse Guards Parade, which borders St James’s Park, for Olympic beach volleyball. Not sure we needed quite that much detail. Judge for yourselves.

Do you have any wacky tales about yourself or your colleagues? Email us at: qsnews@cmpi.biz