jaime bray

Mother dearest used to make devils kidneys, whe n i lived at home. think it had mushrooms, bit of spice, single cream, some type of gravy, iblack pepper, its absolutely amazing. If you find nowt on the web, let me know, ill get her to tell me the instructions.

Food there is lovely

Thanks for all the understanding posts chaps, I left Coventry at 3pm, ended up having to hire a car as brava gearbox has just gone, bad start to the day. Hit sheffield and AA techie rang to say turn around, go home its a washout, didnt think would be as bad as in the pics. From phone calls made on the way home, the whole teams gutted.... From everybody at the AA and AWG, although this could not be helped, may we just apologise for any inconvenience that has been caused, and we'l keep you posted as to what the next move is. Primarily the site needs to be dealt with and secured etc, so may be the middle of next week before decisions are made. Thanks for understanding and your patience. Kind regards, Jaime Bray AWG chair.

Well the clue is in the title... Its a fest... soo wellies wipes and san miguel... And a paper from raynor to keep hama happy

First year hama, always the case.. You sooo know that that means your going to be peppered with intricate questions and therums

If you go for one reason alone it should be to get aa techie worse for where and watch him do his funky chicken dance:elefant:

Still some places left for arbfest.... Its happening this weekend up north.. At this late date if you want to go, email the office with your forms etc and then give them a nudge.. make them aware of it. Looking forward to seeing/meeting some names to faces..

Im of religious appearance but im not a jehovahs.lol

I don t think there is day passes ben, because the sessions will be split parrallell sessions enabling everyone to get to atend each seminar then it wouldnt really work. Of course if you wanted to pay the full price and leave early then thats not illegal. but may make you squirm a little as you drive back to the mansion el'edmonds

Haha. She is highly irritating, she should have a orange box and a irritant sign tattooed up each nostril. SHe is good value for money on celebrity juice mind.

Arbfest, go to the AA website or see Arbtalk thread 'Arbfest'. Not sure how many are aware of the event, programme and location etc, but it would be great to get as many of us there as possible. Download booking form from AA website and send/scan/email back to AA. Its next Saturday so get the forms in now whilst places are still available. I havnt had a numbers count for a few days so cant comment on places available.. Send employees or you and your subbies... Should be a good crack and a jolly.. Oh and whilst we are there we'll have a bit of learning... In the words of fearne cotton.... Skills!!!! Cheers Jaime P.S. Anyone from anywhere can attend... just pay attention to the location, if you fancy it....

have just spoke to aa office, do not ring them to book a place, print off the form and send in by post or scan and email, to all those that have already done so, you have a place and this will be confirmed asap....

Hi lancs tree, have you managed to book yet? Also, You buy your own food and drink. Thanks jaime

Dear all, Places for arbfest ARE on a first come first serve basis, if you have sent your form and payment in then I would envisage you have a place. i shall email the AA office now, and let you know if there is anything different to what I have said above. There are still places left, so would be great for the support of everyone, especially all the northern arborists who at the varied events attended by me and the AWG volunteers, have on many occasion made repeated requests for northern events and recognition. I imagine it would have been easy to put this on local to the AA office 'darn sarf', I think a lot of hard work has gone into finding the right site and facilities, and proves that the AA are listening to members and also nonmembers, this event has been located up north for that reason, and also to make paul smith aka 'AA techie' feel at home for once, and not get funny looks when he says ere ey up, and all that! So get on the blower to head office if you want a place for you or your staff, or visit the aa website for further details, and make sure that during these financially hard times that northern arboricultural events continue to be provided for by the AA.. By the way, just to reiterate, this event is open to all... Members and non members from anywhere!!!!!!! Regards, Jaime Bray. [email protected]

Matt, Its just the way it is, I imagine in the manner that we all get frustrated at customers asking and telling us that they have had a cheaper quote and would we do it for that, some of the stalls must under their breath think wind it in mate, were trying to earn and provide too you know. Its been quite a hot topic in here the last 6mths people complaining about price haggling from the customers that they are fortunate to get ring them for a quote let alone consider using their services and doing a bit of haggling. Which incidently is the same haggling wee have all been doing for the last 15 years at tree shows. There is no malice or annoyance within this post but if we slowly consider the predicament of others and the unknown costs that they have that we are unaware of, maybe such frustrations wont occur. Ref Rich to how much to take, if you want a new saw, bit of rope few pulleys, slings, oh and whilst im here new braces, a new top for the fuel can and a couple of crabs then take a grand mate, if you dont want the saw take 500 with you, if i was going down for the day and didnt want to do the whole cash in your pocket thing but purchase kit on the card, id take 50-60 for food, entrance, and beer, and the rest spunk on axe throwing. Bargain of the day was the eye candy, I was doing the gate for the first morning, was scrap from beer the second morning and didnt get there till 11, i was stopping in cirencester too. But the wags .....Well I never, a treat for lord bathurst as he walked the show ground was surely avialable. My gf has a face like the front end of a stumpgrinder and the back end of the axe throwing wedge of wood at the end of the second day so ill keep her away. But the lister wilder stand got several walk rounds from me during the weekend. Jolly good show chaps.lol

Yeah should be fun... They say do not mix work with pleasure, but that gets ignored when it comes from a vocational industry... It has long been said that there 'ent nowt up tut norf for us ere lot...' So this should get full pretty quickly over the next week or so, so get in quick, I think its quite fixed with numbers, and not all to sure how much flexibility there will be for the 'odd extra one,' so get your forms in fellas.. Its also an open chance to 'discuss' with hamadryad face to face. Within the foray tony do you think that there will be any opportunity to get to know chatty trees, im to far behind on that thread now to catch up.

The more I read this the more I like it. i shall get the task team to check up on this thread. Anybody else like to concur!!!!! lol

Hi pete, Thanks for the comments, I was thinking similiar but then thought well if you have the rope in hand, would it be that awkward to raise one hand to the right and one to the left whilst still holding the rope.. admittedly the chainsaw may prove more contentious. What do you think?

Thanks to all for the feedback, Scots pine, I had to read that twice, but I understand what you are saying. What does everybody else think to this as a suggestion for lowering communications? Your opinions are very much desired, and we are going to be finalising over the next ten days so we will be moving quickly with the suggestions. Thanks again

Absolutely, the cost of something should never be the ultimate decider for health and safety in my opinion, unless there is a suitable alternative that does not hinder or jeapordise the safety of a crew. In more advanced arboriculture or with busier and noisy sites a radio comm may be the only option, if the purchase of the equipment can be justified by the comapnies health and safety representative then that should be the case for the purchase of them. But there will be many an occasion where equally the use of hand signals will be as efficient as a voicecom set up, and this was produced as an alternative. I guess for some companies in this economic climate,if its a choice between repairing a saw, a chipper, or purchasing operational suppiles or buying a radio com then the former may prove to be the choice made, if so this may help until funds permit the purchase of such equipment. I personally have never used radio comm's, so my awareness of the equipment out there is limited. In your opinion could you give us a few examples of which you feel would be a good purchase at a not too sily price, of course the AA would have to be neutral and couldnt favour a particular company, but if you would like to put together and send through to me at [email protected], a word document on what you feel would be the basic equipment features that arbs should be looking for when purchasing them, then we will get the AA to produce a footnote or an add-on guidance note for radio comms in arboriculture. Thanks for the feedback

Is that homemade, i couldnt see it very clearly.lol. Very good that one, credit where credits due, i bet you remember them now though.... Bit of experiential learning for you there.hehe

We did think similiar, but upon reflection, if you are in a composed mindset, and giving the climber the all clear, by ensuring that the drop zone is clear for the climber to drop his load.lol. then you should have the ability to adopt that sign. that is if you are refering to the arms out wide sign, which was a bone of contention at first. Thanks for the feedback

This was one of the arguments from the group members, but when we priced it up, i wouldnt trust myself with a 200 quid radio up a tree, let alone any staff or subbies

Ah, I see, So cut your throat is a standard sign for kill it, whether that be at a man-u fan, or a machine.. I think simplicity has to be key for this to be adopted by all.

The crane work is always going to be hard to communicate in, sometimes the distance between climber and crane operator will be too far for the best hand signals, do you do much crane work? Its not something i personally have much experience of to be fair, but the group has a good variety of experiences, so alls good hopefully. Thanks