Im a lumber jack and im all right...

I have been working in offices for the last 10 years, some of it good when the people are a laugh but some times depressing when your surounded by utter PC Corporate drone wankers....as it was in my last employment - When there I spent as much time doing my work as I did staring out the window wishing I was doing something more outdoorsy....

I'd stare outside regardless of the weather and ponder doing something more satisfying than just staring at these fucking screens in my office breathing the stuffy shitty air con air....

I have just completed two Courses CS30 and CS31, there will be more in the future but these courses have taken me outside, in the end I was cutting down 70ft Scotch Pine trees in a private woodland to learn the cuts. My assessment is due soon, as well as this i have been given a job contracted to at least 3 days a week, although I will get more i am sure as time goes on.

After a few months, I will get into the trees and do the courses which allow me to cut within the canopy and I intend to do an arial rescue course. all in the future of course.

Now the comeddy of it all, its hard fucking work, I am so unfit that its embarrising they at 42 i need to get runing again or this will kill me within a year or two.

I will be handing my notice in, in due course at my current employer taking a massive pay cut, but its the only way to take on a new career. I like it at present but its hard so so hard...

Cheers.

New Year 2011.

Happy New Year to all....

I have not posted for some time, but as FB is depressing me a tad and I thought id return to the old blog.

Alot has happened in 2010 mostly good if honest, travels have taken me back to Tignes (Summer) this trip allowed me to try paragliding and I also climbed the highest peak so far Mnt Pourrie 3779M and i did some via ferrata a trip to remember for sure - and we have also been to Paris, saving has gifted me with an stunning camera a Canon EOS 7D, which will satisfy my photographic desire well into this year i am sure. I have also had a horrible job which has nearly damaged me due to hours and shifts worked but it has paid me so well that I have been able to pay off all debts some long term for the first time in years. I don't expect to be in that job long though as I have been off sick with stress for the last two months and expect to be unemployed in February. I hope that 2011 will allow me to do something more satisfying but much lower paid, possibly working outside with trees either in a nursery or with some tree surgeons, but jobs in the UK at present are very thin on the ground so i may end up being unemployed for some time.

2011 also made me a home owner me a Steph now both own the house So 2011 has the potential to be great. ....I own a new car, well a year old...and the opportunity to find a more satisfying role work wise allowing me a steph to grow more in our free time as a couple. I may even ask for her hand on her birthday of this year....if i can afford the ring, well shall see.



Here she is....

So I walk into 2011 with a car a home and a solid loving partner now all i need is a job....one I enjoy.

How I look as a 42 year old man

So roll on 2011...I am ready...paragliding here I come.

New Garden project 'complete'

OK this is the story.

These pictures are what we started with....what a crap hole of a garden...and it was unlevel by about a foot from left to right.



The shed got covered in a nicer wood, its not a new shed just the old one covered over and the roof improved.



Then the Garden makeover really started in October of last year with a delivery of 36 sleepers and finally come to fruition. We created a blank slate and then raised the ground to create this.





In the foreground was to be some decking and a sitting area, in the sqaure in the middle would be boxed in or boredered grass area, and in the sleeper raised beds dwarf trees and flower (Steph did all that ) along the garage/shed wall was a cotswold gravel walkway. or that was the plan....did it work? lets see.

You could say we are over the moon, it has killed me though doing this in my free time with working shifts over the long winter and with no experience at all most instruction was gleamed from the internet and freinds. But every time i step outside and relax on the decking it all seems worth it, now i just need some sun.

So thats my garden project finished with i just need to sit back and watch it all grow hopefuly.

hope you like it..

Laterz.

Brand new car....lush...

Yep the title is correct at the grand old age of 41 I have bought a brand new car, no one else has driven at all, only me ....just little me, all miles are mine....ahhhh...

Why? - well I have been a fan of old bangers all my life and still regard them as good value for money, but ya know I was making the work car park look really bad of late and my cul-de-sac where I live, well they werent to happy with my car lowering the neighbourhood and the value of there houses to boot.....I looked like the local scum in the local getaway car etc etc....

But oh how I loved my Brava, shes was a good old girl took me all over she did...dirty bitch...mind you of late she had a bald tyre - tracking was well out by about a metre a slow puncture as well as dents all over it and a smashed front light it wasnt pretty near the end really......but she was still awesome and never let me down ever...I owe her....

Bye Bye Brava.......

Anyway she has now been crushed into a cube bless ........ oh well.... and on my drive now stands a new all black and very shiney car.

Now we are not rich and had a limited budget oh and the car has not been paid for yet....anyway this is the story.....

The scrappage scheme valued my old brava at £3000...? fair enough I thought considering it worth less than zero....(i.e I would need to pay to have it removed) and the car we bought was £9000 (retail £12,000 then minus my £3,000). I bought it with my OH so we both own it and have shared the cost (£4,500 each) We paid out right for the car using cheaper credit than could be offered allowing us to pay back the amount when and how we want.

The car was the best deal I could find for our money and we bought what we liked the look of the drive of and the feel of when inside the cockpit. We tried the new Ibiza, the Focus and others and some we simply could not afford and some were crap and felt very over valued.

We bought da da da -

A Hyundai i30 1.4 ES edition in black .... it has alot of stuff for the money honest...

1.4 whys that? well its cheaper and we want to save money in the long run, we plan albeit things can always change to keep the car for a long time, we also plan to pay off the vehicle within 6 months costing us about £300 in credit costs much cheaper than the £3000 in interest that would have earned by the credit company offering us a loan...

heres some pictures of her new before we get hit by some foreign twat somewhere.

It feels weird if honest, ive only had it 16hours and it just feels like I have hired a new car, but this one it will soon dawn on me I DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE BACK....but then the bank balance will remind me of something else every month as well eh.

So no more bangers, id worked out that my old banger had actually cost me more than this car will in reapairs and costs if averaged out, we have used my scarppage discount to buy the car and i will use Stephanies years of no claims to get good insurance and well thats job done....



were happy... and thats my new car story...

Cheers G.

Paris Marathon 2010

I am now 41 years old...and to be honest I feel it, you do feel it ya know, I used to hear older people say that to me when I was younger, faster, stronger...and id say not me ill be fine...

But....Sorry when your old your body has a way of letting you know, mine did just the other day by tapping me on the shoulder and saying your screwed bud relax let the fat bulid up and relax into Middle age...have apint or two... I sat there drinking my 2nd pint...

NO I said - No way....and booked myself into the Paris Marathon in 2010, when I run it I will be 41 and a half.

This will be my 4th marathon but to be really honest I have only ever ran 1 with gusto, the first in Edinburgh the second was done 27 minutes slower as a jog for the fun of it in Loch Ness and the third with Stephanie and so I cruised at a her pace...crawling home.

Edinburugh was - 3:50:00

Now I want to beat this time which will not be easy but it is possible.....in the knowledge that the Boston Marathon requires me to beat a time of 3:20 to get a place in the Marathon at my age.

Training has started in the drizzle and piss poor weather of this years UK winter, it was freezing the other night let me assure you...freezing sleet is not fun to run in, training is going well albeit slow and i have a slighht metatarsol injury....getting old ay see.

More laterz.

Facebook Vs Blogging...?

Hi there,

I have been a blogger for about 4 years I like blogging as it reminds me of the best bits of my own life etc etc, but last year I went along and tried facebook its been an interesting year and in facebooks defense I have found alot of old freinds or in some cases some of them have found me, even so all in all its been a fun and interesting experience - but im not so sure if the attraction is starting to wane on me a bit...I may decide to return to my blog and then posting 'if ever' my ramblings as a link from my blog on facebook.

Some of the people on facebook who have found me, are without a doubt a tad boring and some of the people I hoped I would delight in catching back up with, never write a thing to me and have ignored me ever-since finding me - a friend - I doubt it...really eh. I have even e mailed them to no avail, its weird this can mean that they only really gave a shit breifly had a nose through your pics laughed at your now sad older hairstyle and then moved on forgetting you very quickly, but hey you increase there number of friends so they leave you on there to add to the numbers as if your a pawn on there popularity list....

Some or most of the people on there are lets say aquintances and nice ones too, people I have come across in my life and shared a cool mutual experience with which is all good, but do I actually have to keep tabs on thered daily lives ????? If i am honest I am getting to the point where I dont care about any of the crap on there anymore....call it age if you will, but im getting a feeling that facebook is making me a bit sick and un-human...I mean do I actually prefer my facebook freinds to real human interaction and the answer is no a big NO!!!

I was staring into the screen just the other day and I realised I had nothing of real interest to type (Point is i still felt obligated to visit the site...why!!!) thats not to say I dont have anything of interest to say but that it would not have suited the audience of facebook, and it seems there are many others who also dont have much to say either - but guess what... they still bore the shit out of us with there constant drivvle 'because they also feel the almost adictive need to post something - anything.....' ......yawn.....

Now dont get me wrong some of the links and stuff are hilarious and some of my freinds I truly value but it's the human schrapnel gets that getting me down, they post about how they feel today and just utter, utter crap, and how there little one looks cute in this and that....mums they must be the bloody worst....

In the olden days id get e mails, whats wrong with those now? you can send pictures etc and you can send one e mail to hundreds of your freinds if you so wish....is this not a better way to say hello to someone you actually care about??

Have you looked through your e mail inbox of late all of mine is buisness related, trying to make me spend more money on more shit, or internet purchase receipts etc...or porn.......hardly any if any freinds e mail me....what does this say?

Maybe just maybe - I dont have many or any, and the most important person in my life is being ignored as I sit here staring at this fucking screen - expecting that my life will come to me from the screen...

I mean I can be in my lounge on one settee and my girlfreind Stephanie on the other on the other side of the room both of us on facebook, both looking at each other thinking what the FUCK!!! - why are we not going out doing something for christs sake.....nurturing our own existence instead of being sucked into this empty void of internet crap.....

The truth is I used to be much more er .... interesting.....no thats wrong I am still interesting but in a older way (slowing down a tad) I think, anyway the point is I think some people on facebook need to get out more, much more, in fact all of us do me included and popping back in to facebook every month or so to catch up with loads of new stuff to tell hopefully of interest...to the rest of world...

Anyway - any which way I try to write about this I lose as I have enjoyed seeing other peoples lives but I have also been rejected by those I thought would care, its my life thats been affected as i sit there wondering some days why no one has said something to me or commented on a picture or two I may have posted, sad I know but it's got me by the balls and im out of here, back to my blog and I will be posting links and nothing more from now on.

And oh let the friend culling begin.....get out you lot and do stuff, stop staring at the screen life has just flown past the window........didnt you see it oh and by the way its yours....

G

By the way some of you on facebook I value highly some I really dont give a toss about...sorry.

New tree for Garden makeover.

The garden Maker-over has begun with the shed convertion and a new tree or two actually, we went to Majestic trees near the M1 J9, they sell mature trees, ranging from £200 - £20,000, and in varying sizes from 6 Metres to 20 Metres....

Its a lush place to go if you love trees and I love trees, of course what i hate about trees is there slow growth so we bought somthing already 5 years old, it was hard to choose in such a place as they all looked suitable, and when your out of your garden you forget the scale when somewhere else, some of the trees we liked would have drowned our little house.



The one we bought....happy daze...

we actually bought one that was £260 pounds look at picture below,it is a Indian Bean Tree with big leaves and sweet smelling flowers during summer, it has won awards etc but well have to wait a year or two for it to fully show its self, but to be fair others that had been trimmed and were older were costing over £1000 each...we grabbed at the chance and bought it, a short walk through the nursery later we came across the buyer and he was walking around checking prices...we spoke with him and he said that one had been missed out and would be re priced later, but if we wanted it today it would hold the price as shown he said it was there error and one which he regretted...he said we should take our chance and we did.

The shed has been converted too as in we are trying to make it a bit nicer by cladding it, making it all wooden looking instead of all asbestos looking...





Looks better than before



So weve been busy and of course it will continue through the winter, ya gotta have a project or two going right...

Tree Arrival...

It arrives on Thursday the 12.11.09...on that day i had a skip on the drive - what a pratt, only a mini skip but still what a pratt, the guy were just laughing at me, anyway the loory pulled up and the neighbours nets started to twitch, whats this hes having a bloody tree now eh...nosey sods. The side of the lorry was pulled back to reveal two very dead looking tress with no greenery at all on them, a sadness roled over me, when in the tree nursery they were full of life and leaves and now in the winter they looked well sad and dead to be fair, the driver noticed my expression and explained that the trees all look like this at this time of year (unless evergreen) and that Nov is the best time when the tree is dormant to place in a new home, he said within the year the difference will be very obvious, to add to the dead look the trees were strapped down and all the branches are group and tied down.



Anyway they had to move the Skip a bit and then put the tree on a roller trolley, which had go over Brian the neighbours drive, he was out making sure nothing was damaged ha ha lol...bless him., the tree was so heavy but only at the base, we rolled it into the garden and the guys plonked it in the hole....



.....now the hole, i dug it right in fact perfect, but then in my panic thinking it was to deep, i filled it in a bit - TOO MUCH - and now the tree is to high, shit shit!!!! now all the gardens levels have to work to the tree base height....





The guys from the company - Majestic Trees - were not even supposed to help me get in the hole the delivery price was for dropping at the side of the road so i was very lucky in deed.

So its in the hole and it looks a bit well crap really, youll see form the picture at the top that it will be all green etc..but for now it looks a bit as said crap.

27 - 12 - 2009....

Things have changed some what in the garden, over the last few weeks we ordered the sleepers from a local company called 'Gemstone' who were very competitive on price as long as we paid cash,



I bought 36 sleepers...measuring 250mm x 125mm x 2.4M. you can buy longer but they only did that length, they cost £20 each...yeh work it out is costs....anyway what did we do with all...well take a look..........Not bad.

Cutting sleepers is a major pain in the arse you can do it with hand saw and a chainsaw and other types of saw, but if you want them dead straight for a nice finish you need to use a mitre saw and hire one that can do the depth, we did whislt cutting we still had to turn the sleeper over to get completely through it but for the straight edges finish it was required......

The plan is put some grass in there and the garden will hold small trees and ground cover stuff, all to be bought when we have filled the raised beds.

The area with the tubes will all be decking and we plan at present to get some cool deck chairs as garden furniture is so over priced.

Anyway thats it for now. laterz.

where the pipes are will be decking and there is about 1.5 metres of land from the house to the edge of the picture which cannot be seen so the decking will be about 4M x 3M plus the side bit. lush...