Doug Tait

Absolutely I'd take him up on his kind offer Les, get the feeling we'd rub along just fine. Although saying that, the time I broke down at Knutsford I was working in the Cotswolds and staying in a tent in the bosses family garden due to covid, not sure I'd risk it again now that I know I should've been paying council tax there too...

You happily think you are, but I've just told the council and you're about to get moved on!

Well the Services during lockdown weren't a very appealing place to be for any length of time, and the dog wasn't particularly impressed. If I happen to find myself stuck there for hours again you may get a PM!

I'd think you'll be right. My mates wife inherited the family paddock, just a few acres and a stable block with a lean to for storage. The folk renting it did nothing, place was a mess with fences down, broken gates, the 'grazing' was waist high with thistles and ragwort, the metre wide space between the back of the stables and boundary wall was filled with muck because the muck heap was overflowing. They got their marching orders and my mate and I sorted it out, I got a stable for storage and we made the lean to into a workshop with a compressor for maintenance etc. Wasn't long before the rumour locally was we'd kicked them out to start an illegal business fixing cars, then the threatening letters from the council started. Fairly obvious the previous tennant was suffering sour grapes, seems you've been caught in a similar scenario. All I know of Cheshire is Knutsford Services, had a long, long wait there once for the RAC to take the pickup and I home to the Borders, that was a drawn out journey! Hope you enjoy Cheshire in peace.

Hope you're left in peace this time.

Met Carter today (named after All Blacks player Dan Carter). Big fella, he liked cuddles a lot, and slobbering!

Found the original post, the guy says it's a Nissan Terrano 2 altered to do stuff like that. https://m.facebook.com/100003322849284/videos/check-this-out-this-is-me-in-my-nissan-terrano-2-in-newton-between-fairburn-ings/2681582128629189/ Who'd have thought ten minutes of that would be so riveting, edge of the seat viewing!

Cheers mate, any chance of a sub til wages?

Couldn't do this job without them. Can't get to the top of a stepladder when I'm straight but a spoonful of running shoes in my morning coffee, I can climb anything, SuperArbman. Likewise, there's no way I'd take an overloaded timber trailer back to base without a few toots first, as long as you 'look' relaxed when the feds check you out it means you're legal. And when the 3.5t trailer has 6t chip in it wallowing side to side, being marginally drunk means you sway enough to counteract it, you're bulletproof safe that way. At the weekend though you really have to kick the arse out of it to forget all the sore bits. It's actually a fact that the government wouldn't allow anyone to do tree work until mind altering substances were available.

Was wondering about that too as the OP is doing forestry. I've never touched a full wrap handle or known anyone that uses them so I've no idea what the benefits are but must leave a higher stump. Only heard of them being used on bigger trees overseas.

Bet it missed you when you went to visit the trees!

Interesting article from Jersey, seems Greylag Geese are working with Uber... https://www.itv.com/news/channel/2023-02-12/is-this-the-laziest-falcon-in-jersey

That's flawed then, Wales wore red and had a No.8, leading to a distinct lack of success against Scotland...

It's not the Chinese, it's the aliens getting ready for Independence Day. Has everyone forgotten Roswell!

Don't suppose there's much need for a two day cross party summit with big business to discuss how successful Brexit has been, so can this be seen as an admission that things aren't going very well? Michael Gove's secret summit on Brexit failings WWW.LBC.CO.UK Pro-Brexit and Remainer politicians from both main parties attended a secret summit to explore why Brexit has 'failed'.

Thanks, good to hear local knowledge, it's intriguing. Keep us fresh with any news you hear please. What are volunteers doing, still searching the river bank?

That'd be the best outcome. Difficult to imagine leaving the kids and all the rest behind really, but people do. The continuing water search strikes me as a bit desperate.

Not hearing so much about the search now. Saw the specialist search group had pulled out of the search a few days ago saying they were confident she wasn't in the water. But Police still searching water while saying there's one route away from the scene not covered by CCTV and asking for dashcam footage, it seems they're struggling. Not sure they've many options left to make any progress.

Have you checked the freelance map for people in your area... https://arbtalk.co.uk/find-a-freelancer/

I was thinking it was a good job he didn't have 2 ropes or he might've tied a double fishermans round the phone line!

I like our McCormick a lot, they're getting quite popular round here and I've yet to hear a bad word.

Need to get the boss to do it... Steve, he wants to call it Brotish Ploosing. Didn't see the programme but there's been similar allegations about the fire service lately too, unfortunately it's a part of society. In the barbers earlier and overheard 2 lads talking so disrespectfully about a girlfriend, think if I'd known the girl I'd of wanted a chat in private.

Good read this thread. One of the real pleasures of operating TM is watching drivers come racing toward a red light with headlights flashing angrily to announce their arrival, safe in the knowledge they have the power to turn any light green, only to come abruptly to a halt beyond the Wait Here sign leading to an embarrassing reverse manoeuvre. All the time counting down the seconds in my head because I remember them from when I programmed the timings, happy in the knowledge that Mr Audi doesn't understand that me, the "knob" "tosser" "twat", holds the length of their journey time at my behest. You don't know it Mr Audi et al. but giving me the middle finger again, and saying the words you said, has led to some additional seconds on the red light time today, commonly accepted to feel like 10hrs in driver time. We apologise for the delay. Thanks for your patience. * 15 mph *