will.morris

I'm absolutely loving NZ so far but I'm questioning whether or not I'll stay here when my visa runs out at the end of September, just not that stoked about being so far away and for example missing my best friends 21st in 5 days time. NZ has been and still is a massive eye opener to me, it's made me very reluctant to want to move back to the UK as in my mind I still want to be adventurous and experience arb/life in different parts of the world. I'm not asking someone to do all the leg work for me and find work details (that's certainly not what happened for NZ, I thought the organising would never end!), what I'm after is a basic overview of what it's like finding work/accomodating etc in Germany if people have been through the process... is it as demoralising as the UK or as easy as NZ?? I've got 9 monthes to think about it and potentially 9 monthes to learn as much of the language as I can, I did it for my GCSE's in school so the basics are rusty but there. Any help would be massively appreciated.

Never underestimate the danger your in when working under traffic control! I've been on the back of our traffic truck chucking out cones as you drive along, in the safety briefing we get told that a single horn beep from the driver means take cover and a continuous horn means brace we're about to be hit. I laughed the first time thinking yeh yeh like it's that bad ... it really is! It's amazing how many idiots we face on the roads, we get people driving into the site entrances, wiping out sections of cones and on one occasion I've seen a stop go board holder jump through the air to escape a car not paying attention.

Skyhuck - your avatar is awesome haha I'd say its all about fitness rather than age, a fit 60yr old will run rings around an out of shape 20yr old.

Fair question For me it's because it kinda goes with my lifestyle as cheesey as that sounds. I work with a load of heavy metal fans like myself and dark tattoos like mine and tunnels kind of go with that territory. It's just something different really, without wanting to sound vain its good to put a bit of thought into self appearance and how you want others to see you. ...plus rock/metal chicks like it and a girl covered in ink is welcome in my life any time

Yep have heard about this lol, especially sweating under ear defenders in nz's heat. So you reckon the plastic ones are ok? A guy I went to college with said wood is the only option for not getting the smell. How often should you take them out to wash, can you do it daily?

Treequip - Fair play mate Steve - Always thought you couldn't wear them over spikes? Sounds like I'm wrong though so my bad!

I just googled ear stretching blowout to see what you meant, yeh kinda wish I hadn't haha! Won't be rushing then...

So me being right handed I have mine on my right ... how would I cut a branch on my left without bringing it across me? Not being awkward lol I just don't understand what you're saying

Really?? I get the impression then that a piercers word is like a doctors word ... not always followed exactly I thought they'd take a lot longer to stretch than that

Sounds sick bro! Any idea on the number of hours you've had in total? With mine in total I'm at around 30hours...needs to be more haha addicted much Once the sleeve is done its a big chest piece next for me! I have to wear normal size extremely camp looking studs for 5 weeks before I can start the stretching. Only going to around 8-10mm though.

Surely everyone has to do that though? If your handsaw is on say your left either on your harness or in a saw pod and your cutting to your right then you'll need to get it across. I try to pass it under my line whenever I can. I know its real obvious but everyone should also be aware that the cutters on a non-running chainsaw can still do a lot of damage/failure to a rope.

At risk of being flamed ... I personally can't stand sawpods lol. No matter how good your rope management is you'll always get a rope snagged on it every now and then. They get in the way when putting your leg in tight crotches or walking out on dense limbs. You can't use them with spikes. Awkward to reach when your almost laying down to reach the very tip of a skinny limb. ...just saying Plenty of people use them and love them though so as with most arb gear it's down to preference so don't judge them until you've used one

My guy uses his own home made guns as well which hurts a lot more than any of my other tattoos did anyway lol

Haha thats cool! Just had my 5th session in 5 days on my forearm/elbow ... anyone that says tattoos dont hurt has clearly never had outline work on the elbow, I discovered a new dimension of pain lol and my arm after this week is feeling raw!!

You're not a true arborist until you have a few handsaw scars Vicious little buggers, they may not be noisey like chainsaws but they deserve the same amount of respect. Just sounds like you're not taking enough care at the end of the cut and pushing through onto yourself, slow it down near the finish and move your other hand well out of the way. I saw some horrendous handsaw injuries in college, too many keen young guns thrashing them around... and I'm squeamish as hell so hated seeing it!!

Cool stuff! I'm itching to come and see the new shop when I'm back in the uk it looks mean! Will be cool to have a catch up as well and inevitably spend some money lol.

Cool Sam do it I want a spooky looking dead tree somewhere in my sleeve I think. Just come home from my 3rd session in three days and came back with 2 ear piercings also haha ... going to have 2 small tunnels, not going big though. Piercing gun got stuck in my left ear and he had to push it through by hand ... probs hurt more than the ink

5mins with a shovel beforehand is well worth the time spent...just remember to bring water and some form of soap spray so you don't have to put a dirty shovel back on the truck. Could be worse though guys, when I very first started in landscaping one of my jobs was to go and replace the council dog bins.... I was only at that company for a few monthes

Cool Love yours Ian! It was looking at that sort of style on google that helped me design mine. I wanted it done exactly as I'd drawn it so that I could say I'd designed it ... it doesn't bother me that an artist could have made it neater, its art The quote was on a rowing poster that I used to have up in my student room and I liked it. Without getting too 'into it' I think there is a lot of truth behind it and it is with that attitude that I wanted to pull off this nz adventure ... but enough of that, drives me mad when people start going all emo about why they wanted the tattoo lol. Looks very different with the sleeve going round it now though.

I'm a little tattoo crazy at the moment as I'm about 1/2 way through my dark themed black and grey left sleeve that I started about 10 days ago. Keen to see who has some mean ink Apart from this developing sleeve I have a big piece on my right arm, a bit on my back and a quote on my inner left bicep that the sleeve will work around. Asplundh have no issues with ink on display at work which is a massive bonus ... both my supervisors have full sleeves I will wait until it is finished and healed before I put a pic up, walked out from my 4th 2hr session on it just over an hour ago

We had chicken and pork with stuffing, parsnips, roast spuds, broccoli, carrots, peas. A slight mishap on with the comms meant that the yorkies and ham remained in the shop, "I thought you were buying it?!"... I sank a 15 crate of heineken to myself and then hit the jim beam and now feeling slightly rough

Oh dear this is all sounding a bit depressing Boxing day morning now here in NZ and I can say I certainly got given a hangover . Had an agreement with mates not to get presents but spent the money on booze and a massive xmas dinner yesterday instead Tattoo artist agreed to give me a free session on my developing left sleeve so I guess thats a pretty cool xmas prezzy Hope everyone back home enjoys the remainder of your evening

My hiflex are getting harder and harder to work in out here as it heats up. I got issued some Clogger trousers at work and they are really nice. They have full front protection and all round to just below the knee which seems like a really good idea though I've never come across this 'type' before. Super thin and light so I don't have any intention on dropping a saw on them to test them any time soon

I bet no one on that list spent their xmas eve evening abseiling down a 120ft+ cliff face to rescue a cat (Cat was safe in the end Drew we were fighting a losing battle with the noise of the sea crashing against the rocks and just the sheer size of the cliff, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack). I've worked for steve b and rec climbed with Drew and IMO they are rightfully on the list

We climbed about 15miles away from a tornado last week ...felt a bit sea sick afterwards haha anchor point constantly switching from ultra slack to super tight.