F.Y.I Not overly sure why but feeling rather uninspired today with regards to updating the blog, so apologies in advance if it's dull, mundane, and pretty damn crap! You've been fore-warned!!!
Working the timber yard is certainly hard graft, but perhaps it's what I needed, as I feel about a thousand times better than before, presumably because i'm not drinking my body weight in alcohol.....Getting up at 7:00am hasn't been as bad as I first imagined it would be, I didn't know that time of the morning existed for so many years, having slept in more or less every morning since I moved to Manchester, (almost 3 years ago). But fear not it can be done, and feeling fresh (after a cup of coffee of course!.... I'm not a superhuman).
Working at the yard along with Tom, and Andrew both builders/carpenters/outdoorsie labourers by trade, soon showed me the ropes and got me involved, I mainly spend time "buffing" the wood thats been cut/milled/measured to size to bring back the color to the otherwise dull piece of timber, using basically and elaborate circular piece of sandpaper on a motor.....but instead of sandpaper it's a circualr metal brush that can certainly shred anything it comes into contact with. My first day on the buffer was excrutiating, forearm muscles were in agony, and I had to keep stopping to allow the blood to return to my rapidly flopping arms, and try and make it look as though I was adjusting my safety specs, or gloves.... However now a week on, I can safely say that with forearms the size of the average human thigh, I can quite happily buff away all day.
When i'm not buffing the wood, i'll be sanding away sharp edges on timber, or cutting any odd bits of wood (scrap) into firewood. This is actually by far the easiest job and in the sun can lead to a fantastic tan..Whilst the sun was out today (and with not much work on) I was using the power saw to cut the mound of firewood that had been building for the last few months, Sleeves rolled all the way up, to blend my tan line and farmers arm, to both Tom and Andrew's amusement, "don't you want to put some sun bloc on?" "Nah.... us pommies are bred to burn...."
Driving the forklift truck is actually really fun, and not nearly as hard as it looks, that said I did today try for about 5 minutes to move the damn vehicle, not realising it was in "parked" mode, and therefore nothing I was shouting at it was gonna make it move, the driving is easy, using the forks will need a bit more practice.
As you will all now presumably be aware there's been a devastating Earthquake in Christchurch, and measured 6.3 on the old "can't remember spelling (Richter) scale" which was less magnitude than the previous Quake they suffered in september of last year, however it was only 5km below the surface of the ground, whereas in September it was 32km down, so as you can imagine, a lot more structural damage, and loss of lives, It's true as they've been saying that Christchurch is no longer Christchurch, as everything that made it fpr what it was is now destroyed, or about to crumble. The loss of life and of course the hundreds still missing is a massive blow to New Zealand, and is now considered New Zealand's worst natural disaster. Seeing the realism of it all on the news certainly got my emotions running, and I can only thank my lucky stars that I was picked up by Carl and Dallas and offered work, because had I carried on travelling i'm sure I would have ended up in Christchurch about this time, and things might not have been the same, but sadness and emotions behind still loving it here. We felt the quake, at the yard and was a surreal experience, to not have control of your balance, even though you're stood upright as you normally would.
Can't really think of much else to report, but i'll edit/update if I do.
Oh, I built a big tool shelf today..... there we go, haha something for you to be amazed at, I expect messages of appraisal and congratualtions from you all at any time.
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