whats it called

[Dark Angel]

Bear with me on this fellow Abers, but I occasionally write short stories and am stuck for suitable words, for instance I'm not sure what word to use to describe,

(1) you know those places you rest in,  en route to somewhere far away. They are situated on the side of the motorway, its a place where you find pinball machines to play on, rest rooms and restaurants like McDonalds and Burger King.

(2) Secondly, when you work for the Civil Service, what is that document that the management has, giving them guidelines on how to deal with staff matters, i.e. grievances/unfair treatment. Maybe TheCorbyloon can help me out with this!

(3) Do ships "park" themselves at a harbour or "anchor" themselves. Or is there another more suitable word to decribe this?

 

 

  

[goldfish1]

1)Motorway Service stations

2)

3) Ships usually berth in the harbour.

[Grunty]

Goldfish1 is correct.  An alternative is to moor a ship, though this is often used for smaller vessels.  A ship may be anchored if it has to stay out of the port in deeper water.  It does not anchor itself - the boss has to do it.

[Sequin]

2 - usually called the Staff Handbook

[kempie]

2 - Memo

Along with Motorway Service Station and Moor is it a coincidence they all start with 'M'?

[Clanad]

Recognizing these may be Americanized references; here Question 1 would be a rest stop and Question 3 would most likely be to "dock" the ship...

[Octavius]

1)  Motorway Services (station)

2) Employee (staff) Handbook / "Civil Service Management Code Book"

3) You would normally dock a ship.  (a berth is more often the bed on a boat, although it can also be used).

[kempie]

Octavius - 'a berth is more often the bed on a boat...'.

In normal usage aboard commercial shipping and dockside we would use 'berth' more often with regard to the placement of the vessel in port rather than sleeping quarters.

[Bangkok]

the Civil Service had Standing Instructions in my day, which was not that long ago!

[THECORBYLOON]

Dark Angel the Civil Service covers a multitude of Departments and Agencies and each will have its own guides and may be known by differing names. I work at a Social Security Office (soon to become Jobcentre Plus) which is part of the Department for Work and Pension, if you give me some more details I will see what I cak find out for you

[THECORBYLOON]

For "cak" please read "can".....Can you tell I'm not employed as a typist?

[growley]

The short-hand used by everyone from the Today programme to Captain Pugwash is  'weigh anchor'. Now I'm not saying that they're neccessarily right about this...

[JohnPPotts]

1) If you mean a place to actually spend the night, then it's a motel (such as a Travel Inn)

Incidentally, weighing anchor is to lift it (ie. set off): if you want to stop at sea then you drop anchor.

[Beatrice]

1) Do you mean motorway service station?

2) Could be a code of practice or staff manual or grievance procedure, or employees' handbook

3) Ships dock (not themselves as the pilot or captain has to do it for them!)  When stationary in the harbour they are at anchor.  Parking is just for cars and lorries, on dry ground I think.

[Dark Angel]

Hi Corbyloon - Staff Handbook/ Civil Service Management Code Book (Octavius'answer) will be appropriate, as in my story, the person's exact designation is not given, it is left dubious. It is a "Support Services" job though, not a high powered one.

Cheers! 

[Dark Angel]

Thank you all for your answers.