Andy Collins

This thread should be so inspirational to others! Not just those with disabilities, but able bodied too. It should inspire us not to park in a disabled bay, to clear a path for a chair, to enquire why disabled access is so poor. For it could be any one of us, at any time. Personally, I'm reasonably fortunate, with a little pre-planning my day CAN go smoothly, but that applies to everyone else anyway. I've just sat and read this thread from beginning to present, I can relate to certain aspects, laugh inside at others. All I can say is to keep focussed on your targets, (I'm sure you are) roll with the punches life throws at you (I'm sure you are) and best wishes for the future.

I did that very exercise with the hammer and tyre to help build myself up again after the ops. It's a very good system. I did it primarily as I wanted to exercise the muscles again that I'd be using in the job. Seemed to work anyway.

I quite beleive that many things in our lifetime will be proven, disproven, and proven again so long as we live long enough.

Cracking poetry, good story, but please please everyone don't keep copy/pasting the whole chapter in your replies. It makes it all very long winded to follow. TVI, keep it going please:biggrin:

I can almost feel the heat from that as if I'm still cooking up that lamb. Happy days

I think I had about 4pair of those, in a year, they just fell apart. Obviously grounding, being harder on the sole (soul) took it toll on them quicker. A mate had the Stihl tractor ones they lasted much better, but I wouldn't buy them, clumpy great things. The only plus for the Oregon greens was the comfort factor.

6' 3" and 16 st 4, not as fit as I used to be but can still get around. Was told my BMI was high but I can't remember or care about it.

Tbh there is a world of difference between keeping fit, doing an hours exercise a day, and being "work fit" at the pace that industry dictates and expects. It can be a big ask of your body at times. But PMA will help, and get you through the tougher days.

This topic is all very relevant to me. Healthwise I was fine until 47, then things went really wrong big time. I've constantly tried to keep working, I am self employed after all, fighting to regain fitness, fighting pain, dealing with the side issues of my "complications" and so on. But this isn't a grumble, I'm still self employed, I still do a physical aspect of tree work, I do temper it with lawn care, and other "easy" jobs, that actually aren't that easy. But I will say please please do consider your future into late middle age, consider how you will cope if your body and health lets you down. Yes, a percentage of us will never have a problem, but many of us will. We are only human, and it's when your body lets you down that you are truly tested. Cracking thread Adam.

At 50 I'm as keen as I was at 19, maybe keener and more dedicated. Unfortunately things don't always pan out as we'd like. I think most of my body is bigger and stronger than it ever was now, but it's come at a cost. I've spent most of this year dealing with such intense pain I could have screamed at times, while carrying on working. Turns out it was a med I was on had an adverse effect, just took an awful long time for the "experts" to suss it out. A driving factor in my recovery a while ago was to get back into tree work, against surgeons advice. I did it, but it takes its toll now. I've had to accept that I need to adapt and change the way I work, if I'm to make it through the rest of my working life. Many people come into tree work for a relatively short time of their careers, few make it a lifelong vocation, personally I've seen many come and go. Im just too thick to do anything else.

Why??? Well you don't know what's around the corner in life. Plan for the unexpected, maybe a Plan B. Have an ideal Plan A, and a back up. I didn't. I'm 50 and I have just completed my 1st 5 day week in over 3 years. I'm dead chuffed with myself. My life didn't quite pan out as I'd have liked. So now I do a mix of tree work, hedging, planting and lawn care. I've just spent 2 (tedious) days scarifying 5250 m sq of lawn. But the money's good, as good as tree care, and I'm not totally exhausted for the weekend. I pay climbers to climb, draggers to drag, and I point at things. Evolve and survive.

Hi Sean, here's wishing you all the best in your recovery. Stay strong, there's a load of support here and elsewhere. However bleak the future can appear at times, snatch at the small positives rather than the large negatives. And hang onto that dream of playing footie with your lad again, it will happen one way or another. Best wishes, Andy.

IMO it smacks of desperation if you can't afford to wait a mere 24hrs.

Being a 7 day working week forces people to have less family time, usually on crappy zero hours contracts, usually on minimum wage, just so that they can scape a meagre existence. A family unit needs money, it also needs the parents to be there for their kids, to be able to go out as a family, be it church, seaside trips picnics or whatever. I'm in no way religious, but I'm a strong believer in the time a family needs together. This may be seen as old-fashioned, or antiquated, but it's what I believe. We started off with various official days off, with pay, these are now vanishing, and replaced with minimum wages, and the implied threat that you will be replaced by East European labour if you don't comply. Hardly good for a robust, content workforce. If you as a boss work on a Sunday, you then expect others to do the same, it's a vicious circle.

I'm the other side of the argument. I don't do any work on Sundays these days. I have 2clients I will go and discuss work with as they're in the City all week, but that's it. There's 6 other days available for work, if you can't earn it in those days the 7th will make no difference. Personally, I won't answer the phones on a Sunday, I have an answer phone and messages will be picked up Monday. Healthwise, all we hear about is how Stress is a big health issue, learning to take time out and switch off the work mode is the best way of combating stress, you can't do this if you're chasing your tail seven days a week. Family life deteriorates if you're too busy to stop and spend time with them. Erosion of bank Holidays, Sundays off etc have eaten into the working persons free time, for rest and relaxation, or in some cases religious reasons. I think it's becoming detrimental to health and welfare of the workforce.

End of firewood? I can never see it happening. Doom and gloom has been around since time immemorial. Some survive, others tread water, some flounder and fail. But there is always some kind of market. Beer money traders, how much of a threat are they really? If you have a serious business set up they really are only taking the kind of client you don't need anyway. And linking this to evasion of taxes, how many beer money traders are in fact full timers topping their income up, ie fireman? (An example not an accusation) How many businesses, now "reputable" have climbed there from slightly dodgy origins? I can think of some that have. Once they reach the heady heights of success, they then seek to scupper the new upcoming opposition by reporting them for the very practises they themselves used. I liken it to free-climbing a tree, then reporting the others for not using correct rope access procedures. Honesty the best policy? Fine in theory, in real world business it just doesn't happen. Even the likes of Tesco being proven guilty of less than honest goings on. The unwritten rule seems to be just don't get caught out. Bullying in this thread? I've read right through it and see nothing but a topical discussion, maybe slightly off track at times but nontheless quite a well thought out discussion on the whole.

Received my new Echo hedgetrimmer last night from Forest & Arb. Had one of these before, but needed a replacement. I'd bought a shorter blade model at the APF, but you can't have too many trimmers in the shed Top service from these guys again, and if you're in the market for an alternative to Stihl/Husky, take a look at the Echo range of equipment.

Hear your points Tom, but in my case raw fruit and veg can create some real serious issues, in their whole form. Juicing them would get me the nutritious content without the digestive issues. Fibre for me is not an essential, in fact can be seriously detrimental if I have too much, so again juicing is a sensible alternative. I have spoken to my specialist nurse about this and it's not something they've recommended, because every patient is completely different, but her take on it is it's worth a try, a little to start, then build it up. As for sugars, well I used to eat a lot of chocolate, like a huge galaxy bar a day, I don't eat chocolate any more, I don't drink alcohol any more and I don't smoke, hell I want something in life that's a bit exciting

As a person without a colon, I find it difficult to eat a nutritious recommended 5 a day as part of a balanced diet. Yes I can eat tinned veg, frozen veg, or fresh veg that have all the goodness boiled out of them, but they hardly meet the criteria for a healthy lifestyle. I hadn't considered a juicer, in fact I'm very surprised that my dietician hasn't at any time recommended this either. I don't require a huge amount of fibre in my diet, so I don't need to scour my innards, so the fibre in porridge or cereals is adequate. I shall enquire as to the worth of using a juicer, sounds good so far.

Roller doors...secure....no. I worked in a warehouse for about ten years. Point of entry every time was the goods out roller doors, just so easy. They used to back the lorries up to the doors in effort to beat them. We went in one morning to find the roofs peeled open and the doors forced. They got past security dog patrols, CCTV, and interior infra red beams. This time of year booze and fags were the target. Inside help was eventually proven, one of the lorry drivers was found to have substantial quantities of stock on his loft and garage. But the level of damage was incredible, 6 truck roofs peeled open and 6 roller doors wrecked. The value of the goods stolen was a fraction of the damage caused, and the downtime of unusable vehicles.

I did 😔

For years, up til three years back, I could eat on demand, eat loads, then loads more and not really gain much weight. I was a steady 14ish stone. One of the lucky ones. Hard work and good food kept a good level for me, so easy. Then I fell critically ill, my thyroid went doo lally and went into overdrive, chemically poisoning me. Then I crashed health-wise with UC which turned my life around somewhat. Everything I ate caused severe bleeding and my body shut down in sort of defensive mode. I lost weight rapidly, dropped to 9st in a month. The following weeks were a sort of hell, drip fed while all around were fed normally. I got so I just relied on a bag of drip feed daily, 24/7 for several weeks. Then post surgery I was able to eat again. But now it's to survive, no pleasure at all, afraid of every mouthful in case it caused problems. Three years on I'm 16st 2, weight has levelled out, I can't gain or lose much but I'm fairly well muscled and a little loose around the surgery area. It'd have been easy (having been told to eat loads to put the weight back on) to have over done it, but common sense makes you keep a check on progress, and adjust diets accordingly to suit your NEEDS, not your WANTS. Sorry for the ramble, just trying to explain my theories, and my reasoning why obese people could help themselves.

One glaring thing that came out of my ill health was the modern system. I was eligible for support while ill, fair enough, I'd paid into the system all my life and I qualified when I needed it, it was topped up with private sickness insurance. But when I felt well enough to return to work, the assessor in the office did all she could to convince me that I'd be better off to keep claiming "for as long as possible, that's what it's there for." I told her I didn't care, I wanted to return to work and get back at it. I was allowed 14 days "cooling off" period in case I changed my mind. IMO utterly ridiculous and encourages the "benefits Britain" that this state has become.

IMO I see the colleges as merely an extension of the school system, an option to stay on in comfort of a known environment, not at all like a workplace. Of course, one or two good students will rise up and take their place, but many are simply there for the easy ride. I know a chap who is a "qualified arborist" he currently weighs around 25st, when he did his college course in Arb he was around 22st. I asked how he managed in the climbing assessments and he said they just ticked the page rather than embarrass him! This makes a farce of the system. Luckily, (his own admission) he has no intention of ever doing tree work, but because he'd enrolled on the course it enabled his benefits to be increased. While there are these standards, it's no wonder many are virtually unemployable. How do you see a ticket and know if the student has grafted to achieve, or wallowed to get better benefits? It totally devalues the system.

I've been using Clarks oil for quite some time, in proper cold weather as well as summer, no issues. It's milder this winter and certainly no problems so far. Will be ordering more soon.