Vespasian

In the spirit of the pantomime season... Oh yes it is..

OK I'll come clean, I tried three times to write my story but it always seemed so dull.. so made up the bit about the prison and bank robbing bit... thought it might be entertaining for you lot and give one or two somethin to get stuck into.. I think it had the desired effect.. So, were was I.. Yes the scrap metal thieving.. well that bit was true as was the workin in the mill.. after dossin on the dole though and doin odd jobs I got a job working in a paper mill.. did that for a few years then got made redundant.. must of been in my late twenties early thirties, can't exactly remember.. I think I spent a couple yrs after that doin nothin much at all.. all seems so vague now.. But I do remember coming to terms with myself at some point.. I new I couldn't stand working for other people, being told what to do.. having my destiny in someone else's hands.. I vowed never to be in that position again... I decided I needed to go self employed in some manner, what that might be is any ones guess.. I hadn't a clue myself.. all I knew is once I got going and started to make some money I'd invest it in a new venture and move up the ladder till I was doin all right in life.. couldn't be hard I reasoned, any one can do it.. Well it might be easy if your motivated by money, I soon discovered that I wasn't. I was for a self employed situation, but not the ambition for money.. my brother was workin for a local gardener between jobs and this fella gave him a old petrol mower, which he gave to me.. why don't you do garden work for a bit of extra cash he says.. fk off I told him, I wouldn't be seen dead doin that kind of work.. Well after givin it some thought, it dawned on me that this might be at least a start to build my own business empire.. so I gave it a go.. first a few friends and neighbors to get a feel for garden work then an advertisement in the local paper.. I was a bit nervous of that part. total strangers phonin up mitherin an such.. anyways discovered it wasn't as daunting as I first suspected.. neither was doin gardens for new customers.. I soon found I liked doin it. the chit chat, the brews and the gossip.. Trouble is after a few yrs of doin this I found I wasn't exactly coining it in and moving to the next level, the next project.. Not only that I didn't want to move on, or become successful.. I was happy as a pig in shit having a small grass cutting round that paid the bills and allowed me to winter in idleness. And that for the most part is what I've done for the last twenty yrs or so.. I've made a couple of false starts into expanding into doin tree's. stopped dead in my tracks early on when I nearly had a fkin heart attack in an apple tree.. chainsawing through a lower branch and my foot slipped ever so slightly, enough to give me palpitations that sounded like my heart was gonna burst through my chest, then the fker began to slow down, and that went to extremes as well.. I could hear every slowing beat till it near on came to a standstill.. fk this I thought.. I do fancy doin tree's but not if I'm gonna be the subject of the headlines in the local news.. Man found dead ten ft off the ground in apple tree.... fk that.. The other time was a few yrs later, nightmare situation this one.. one of my customers sisters wanted to know if I'd cut her tree down.. OK I said, when do we start.. I'll keep this short.. one week later I was still there finishing the job with her threats of none payment ringing in my ear if she wasn't satisfied with the job. This after half of Bolton council had turned up mob handed during the job to threaten me for cutting their tree's down.. they're not your tree's I said.. any tree above two mtrs in or on council property is ours they explained.. well fk this for a game of billiards I thought.. next time anyone wants a tree choppin I'll get em to phone the fkin council.. I'm still expanding into tree's mind, got most of the gear now.. got a place to dump the waste, got most everything I need to do it properly.. but once more winters here and I find myself slipping into hibernation mode.. perhaps we can make a push early the new year.. or perhaps early spring.. see, thats the trouble with me, always lookin to do it tomorrow.. Manyana.. I swear I'll be a thousand yrs old before I croak.. Oh he should of dropped down dead yesterday but the fkrs put it off till tomorrow..... hahaha

Got to admit I enjoyed watching every minute of that.. not sure of the music?.. but I enjoyed that as much as the footage.. top marks for video production..

If you want a portable winch and your only gonna use it once in a while to haul stuff out of streams an such then why bother paying a grand or over when you can get one for a hundred quid.. An endless rope winch would be better.. I went through this myself a couple of months back and settled on this...

I wouldn't recommend promoting the idea of being a school drop out as a path to success.. The hidden narrative in Bransons case is he probably has a high IQ. he'd have that if stayed on in further education or he got booted from school... which is to say if you ain't as bright as Branson, you better get busy passing exams as people like Branson have an head start on you in life. Thats the conundrum isn't it.. These left leaning teachers thinking everyone aught have a fair crack of the whip. only the reality is we're all unequally born..

We get rid of of our crap policies by threatening our governments in an election.. a lesson the french might want to take note of... Tuesdays brexit vote.. she's gonna lose big time.. The road map to sanity.. a hard brexit is dead in the water.. no way is it ever gonna happen.. we can have a soft brexit.. Mays Brexit.. not looking good is it.. or no brexit at all.. The issue to hand for the brextremists is sovereignty.. what sovereignty is it when we have to play second fiddle to our European masters in a soft brexit.. none at all.. We haven't gained any sovereignty with a soft brexit but diminished our own sovereignty by losing any power we had inside Europe.. Theres one solution.. swallow our pride and kick brexit into the long grass.. To this end we need a hardcore Tory brexiteer to sell this new reality to Parliament and the people.. Step aside Theresa May and let in Boris to deliver the coup de gras..... Boris gets what he wants, to be Prime Minister.. we get a brexiteer to do their own dirty work.. and we all get to see Corbyn is never elected Prime Minister.. Its not like Brexit was ever gonna happen so everones a winner....

It can't have cost that much I only did fifteen yrs...

You tell him Eggs.. we can discuss our jail time at our own leisure.. on this thread or any other..

Funny you should mention that, thats were it happened. in the canteen.. One of the cooks threw boiling hot water in my face, I turned away only to see this big hefty broozer bearing down on me with a shank.. apparently it was one the the fella's off D wing.. They were a little known mob off c section, mostly homosexuals.. They said they were gonna get me and this was them attempting it.. one blow to the left jaw he was down and out, the next one jumped over his shoulder, as he did, I pulled the shank out the fell'a hand and stabbed him through the eye.. blood everywhere.. The guards were on top before I knew it.. three more of em attempted to get at me over the guards shoulders, but I was to fast.. one got it in the leg the other one got it in his kidney's.. I was soon overwhelmed by the guards.....

It was along time ago.. I try not to talk about it. its left a scare.. All I can say is the first few years were easy but Broadmoor was a pretty tense experience.. they said I was ill, I needed attention, especially after the stabbing..

If you'd been keeping up with the over fifties thread you'd know how old I was.. I do play the odd game online.. I have a Steam account with a few games on it.. if I get bored of utube researching subjects or news, I might take an hr out to have a stab on one of em.. I might have a run through of Dark Souls as a bit of light relief every now an then.. not much more than that.. in case your interested..

Why don't you believe me?...

you're too late in the day sunshine, we've all decided to be pleasant for a change.. excluding our good friend Ratman of course.. he can't help himself so he's forgiven..

One out of three?..

There wasn't any internet back then.. I ran the prison library.. read a book a day.. only got into the utube thing because I happened upon it after gettin internetted up for Ebay.. someone told me you could buy cheap gardening stuff.. before you know it I was watching loads of utube vids about cuttin grass and van set ups... in time I migrated to tree vids.. fancy doin that I thought..

OK I love listening to peoples life stories.. or reading in this case.. Left school at sixteen with not a clue what to do.. got a job in the local textile mill.. best job I ever had to be honest.. three lads looking after about fifty women.. fetching and carrying for them for the most part.. I used to listen to em gossip when it was quiet on the work front.. certainly taught me woman are different than men.. better company by a country mile... left after three years an found myself shy of a job.. I soon found I liked being unemployed more than I liked the idea of working. Or unknown to me at the time it was that I didn't like working for anyone else, I just didn't realize it back then.. Not minding being a dole dosser it took some time to force myself to get a job of some description not so much for the money as to pay for the weekend out.(yea I know its for the money, but my motivation was drink) well I was young I still needed to get pissed of a weekend.. to this end I did the odd job, helped out here and there and even found a job helping out the local window cleaner.. I tried a bit robbing on occasion, when you end up dossin on the dole you tend to gravitate to a certain type of company.. my new friends were thieves layabouts and ne're do well's... Used to rob scrap metal from were ever they could find it and spend the money as soon as they got it.. mostly on drink of a weekend.. I went along with em every now and then.. Trouble is robbing scrap metal is a lot harder than you might think, working all hrs in the middle of the night, the fear of being caught. the embarrassment of being caught.. to much stress for my liking....................................................... I decided to try my hand at goin big.. why mither with scrap when you can rob somethin bigger.. decided to become a full time thief.. a few banks a couple of hits on a supermarket kept us in clover for while, but not long enough.. thats were it all goes wrong.. you get greedy.. during one armed robbery my friends gun went off accidentally, wounding this old lady in the leg.. The cops poured over the place and found a cigarette stub he'd thrown away as we entered the bank.. the grassing bastard sang like a canary.. lifted and jailed within the week.. did fifteen years for that.. how time flies... I would of been out after nine but got involved in a scuffle that ended with serious injuries to an inmate. we'll leave that one.. Came out got a gardening round goin and have thought about getting serious into tree's since..

A change is as good as a rest.......... perhaps when you hit the wall, do something different..

John Vespasian.... writer philosopher... almost sounds like me.. scribbler and thinker/philosopher..

I keep my adds simple.. or did when I advertised some years back in the local paper.. Trees Chopped or Lopped, no job to small..... kept it simple as they charged per word..

Oh right.. get a trailer then... eight by five will do but ten by fives better, caged sides.. for the clipping an such and the small tree jobs.. a pair of tripod ladders as well.. 12ft.. or so.. the usual. loppers stilh or fiskers.. the cheap ones are crap.. a small chipper will help with the tree work but not exactly necessary if you don't travel far to drop off... I'd have two strimmers so as to give each a rest between jobs.. they soon heat up in summer, best to rest one every now and then.. hedge clippers, a big one and a small one for fine cutting.. If you fancy doin tree's then you need a shit ton of gear.. but can get by on little.. I used to climb freestyle and tie in with anything at hand.. best you do it proper and do it safely.. many on here will tell you to spend hundreds on courses, I learned as I went along.. trial an error..

what exactly do you intend to expand into... more garden jobs, landscape jobs or tree cuttin jobs. or all of the above.... Just some idea's to be goin on with....

Looking forward to next Tuesdays vote... getting all very exciting isn't it.. counting down the days...

Happy Birthday PeteB Couple of months its my turn... just remember, fifty five's the new forty...

was gonna post this up earlier but got sidetracked..

Good points there... but Aint it heavy when the bins full to the brim.. and how do you go about emptying the bins?.. Whenever I've used that trick, its something of a nuisance to empty the bin.. I went back to spading off. on the other hand, I was gonna make some contraption that would allow me to sit the bin in a jig of sorts and empty em out that way..