PeteB

Box

Up, feeling a little beery! Caz got a dose of boozer's gloom! Are a decent fried breakfast and opened the gifts. No traumas, everything fitted or tasted good! The kids and Grandparents went to the pub then off to dinners elsewhere. Caz retired for a recuperative snooze while I walked the dog! Had a little snooze myself and now sorting a pleasant beef dinner! There does not seem to much of note on the box later so we might have a watch of Peaky Blinders or some such. Happy Christmas everyone! Hope you had a pleasant one!

Store

So after Caz got up, she started her wrapping frenzy and I started making a windy soup! Packed and loaded the truck for the dash to hers. After an hour therexwe went to support a village enterprise (the pub) for a couple of hours and that was it! A tradition in the house (left of from 'children days') is to watch a Christmas Carol. Phished, tired, and listening to an invited friend going through relationship turmoil ended the night! Be good to friends and their enemies, perceived or otherwise, you may need a shoulder to lean on! Night All!!

Thanks Graham, best wishes to you and yours too! I am part of a trade forum too, I have been asked to do the same on there, but, there are too many things that I wouldn't like the trade to know about! Caz home after 3 o'clock start, she'll come to bed for a while then she has to go back on Boxing Day afternoon. Tom was at work in Morrisons last night and tonight too!!!

Very best wishes to all the forum members! Hope you all have a pleasant break and start 2019 with renewed vigour and vim! Cheers

Caz doing at 12 hour shift at the airport - should be home for before five! She will be shattered for the next few days! I'm hoping for a quiet couple of days! After racing around here for a few hours doing anything to make up the day before I have to shop.....not my hobby or pastime and good job that theres is tomorrow too! Not inspired this year after traipsing about and no clues of the kids or Caz either! But I got the heads up from her - 'don't get me anything', well, that means 'don't get me anything and you are dead meat!'.... Roast pork loin for supper but I'll delay it until Caz has been and had a kip for an hour or two.... The BT thing got a tad better today - the rang yesterday evening to apologise for the screw up, they was an issue in that they couldn't shut down the account that I didn't have but not to worry, they assured me that the tech guys would sort it and they wouldn't contact me again. An email was there this morning, to apologise for the inconvenience, they would credit the account that I don't have, that they cannot shut down with £5 that I cannot have!

Park

Caz away early, again. The Gatwick thing has meant that EMA work load has increased! I got up, did some house stuff then took the chipper to the factory so I got nowt to be stolen while the holidays are on! Once Caz was up, we had a drive around town to view streets etc, with an idea where she might buy somewhere! A quick Tesco shop and curry for tea. She has 04:00 to 16:00, Tom has 22:00 to 07:00! You may recall that we had some bother swapping (or not!) Our broadband package. Had an email from BT today informing me that my monthly bill was ready, £19. But I don't have an account with them! I'm told that I need to go to my online account to cancel it! You could not make this up.....I check my bank account and Virgin took a chunk out, £25 more than anticipated. I go online to find that my £60 pm deal was £84 last month and £126 next!!! An irate couple of calls later, they both apologize and promises are made. I get another email from Virgin, they tell me that all is good and okay! My package is now £75 pm..... honestly, you could not make it up!!!! Best do the present shopping tomorrow!

Sidestep

I'm sure wrote up last night! Perhaps hotel WiFi no good. Anyhow...... Stirling back to Kinross for a meeting I missed, then across (!?!) To Dumbarton to see the Mafia again. Collect a loan unit and head into southern Glasgow to a meeting with Network Rail, some work early in Jan to sort out a deal. A stop for lunch at Bothwell's services and sit on the phone then head towards Strathaven. I spot a spot to but Caz a present then carry on. The people aim to see in Drumclog have had a delivery of two machines (they run possibly 12) only to find that an ally is leaving. Back to creating new relationships with another Plant Manager! Head off for a hotel in Carlisle. Head in a spin, wanting to get home, I go to the wrong hotel! #@&+! Drive on to the right on! Get away before 07:30 to drive to Stanford Bridge near York. I got a good customer (and friend) there who I may want to buy back two old units to sell on elsewhere! In principle, a deal is done and a chip dinner had to celebrate! I end up spending a few hours there talking tall stories and having a laugh before heading home! A couple of phone calls secure the last deals of 2018 with about £40k to come! Nice to see Caz and get the low down on how her life is and what conceivable we can do over Xmas. Difficult with her work, the Gatwick thing had an impact at EMA too!, Her kids work/play, mine doing the same all come into play and I might be having my oddest Christmas for a while! My work finished today, play, housework and domesticity starts! Best wishes to those of you who still have to toil! Sorry, I still work, a good rep never stops!!!

Inverness started very cold and still so I could be in shirt sleeves without feeling the cold. The dealer folk were bright, cheery and glad that I had made the effort to get to see them and glad of the chocolates that I took. The hospital visit to the cancer ward was better than anticipated but still daunting! One chap looked a hell of a lot healthier since I saw him last and the other was bouyant going forward but the treatment is awful and the prognosis unsure this time! The next meeting was at Elgin to see a machine with issues. The chap who took it in left instructions for me to ring him as he couldn't be bothered to go himself! I'll try again to resolve his issues, last time out, our warranty man appeared to be completely disinterested! The folk who man that depot think that it is brilliant that a manufacturer rep will bother to come and see them, bring chocolates and drink tea, while having some witty banter! Not many of their own sales staff stop by let alone suppliers! The drive to Forfar is a stack better now that the bypass at Aberdeen is done, but I ought to spend a day there in the future knocking on a few doors and seeing potential buyers etc, but I always seem to be in a dash! The dealer staff in Forfar were really pleased to see me and are positive about selling more next year and it is gratifying that once they see my Ranger appear, the different departments want to discuss things rather than bump and moan! I head out for Stirling to overnight, stopping to get a charger for the laptop. PC World sold me a Lenovo compatible device that isn't compatible! How infuriating! The other moan for the day involves my bank and the paperwork for the lemon Q7. I rang to ensure that my paperwork had arrived and things were progressing. Apparently, I need to send in the declaration that they sent a day after my paperwork arrived to confirm that the details in the paperwork were true! Honestly, they ask for a written declaration that the details in the letter are correct! I come into that category of folk who dislike foreign call centres and have a distrust of banks.

on!

Away in good time after a couple of emails and a decent enough meeting with the owner of the dealership - he and I hit it off as we both have the same sort of attitudes in a manufacturer/dealer relationship. The rep is stuck on The Isle of Bute as the weather is too rough for the ferry. I take the new machine to the client in Dumbarton and have a good craig with them! Only slight downer is that they though that I was delivering today and collecting my loaner on thursday - so I got to dash back there before heading south! The weather has been atrocious here - typically bad for the west coast if it feels that way! Hosing it down and blowing a gale! My appointment at Oban is cancelled and two other calls don't happen - the drive to Inverness is spectacular and one of the perks of the job - although, in terms of business opportunities, it is infuriating that compared to the other areas, I have customers and potentials! Another Premier Inn night and wished I could have a good cup of tea and some simple food! Only another two to go though. Two of the people I see at Inverness are ill, but I'm hoping to see them more for social than business reasons - both are good people who have helped us in the past. I got to stop somewhere and get a power lead for this laptop too!

home

Caz's daughter passed her test and is as proud as punch! Bless her and it is a relief to the rest of the family! Living in the country does have some benefits but the downside is the truly awful bus service compared with other villages. So, everything social has to be planned with travel in mind, who can take them?, who can collect them?, which friends need a lift etc. Now she can drive to and from without anyone having to be available. Caz had a lie in while I was up and away. Collected someone from town for a lift to Alcester, a few things done in the factory, including collecting a machine for delivery into Dumbarton. I had to then find a new tractor mounted machine delivered to our local council - I had been asked to view as it was thought that the PTO shaft was at too keen an angle. I met up with one of their staff and drove off around Redditch to find this unit. Nothing wrong with the angle but the lift geometry showed that they cannot lift it to full height as the shaft would be too short and it would separate. I feel a little disappointed as I've reported this several times and had a few altered but still they keep turning them out! An extra expense and embarrassment. To paraphrase Einstein, 'if you also do what you always done, you will always get what you always got!' I then set out at 60mph to Paisley! After a long but pretty uneventful drive, I get to the hotel, some 285 miles! During the day, I have felt that something was not right. That uneasy feeling feeling that I have forgotten something. I realised that I had left a coat and fleece on the bannister at home but can overcome that. I got another coat in the car and would get another fleece from the office. The only fleece they have is XXXL! I'm fairly rotund and fairly broad but not that size! Looks like I'll either look daft and be warm or cold and cool! I also discover that the power lead for the laptop is still sat under my desk so a trip to a Curry's will be in order! One other thing to report - my ex-wife, the mother of my children, the one that I should not have married (we were never compatible), the one that sacked me on the eve of my 40th birthday to be with a builder in the next village, the one that gave me 7 years of domestic abuse, the one that took me for about £100k, the one that took two years to divorce me as I was paying for things.......(can you sense that I'm a little bitter and twisted?) is to split from the builder - they too are incompatible, and life unhappily together in separate rooms, and do not get on at all. They only thing that has kept them together is their joint debts, the house that they share and doesn't have planning permission for, the two dogs and five parrots! I feel sorry for my children having to witness this relationship breakdown as both of them are not being helpful, honest, truthful etc......I smile wryly at how things have turned out! They have been together for 15 years and have been at odds for the last 8 - history repeating itself?

Species

Caz did 04:00 until 14:00! Came home and had a quick bite then bed for a bit! I did some housework, got yet more cards and a bag or two of chocolates to give away and finished all the cards. They got posted too! Leicester Tigers were playing Racing 92 at Welford Road today, Tom and I watched them loose on the box! Seem to be having a bad season this year.... Caz's daughter has her driving test tomorrow and her grand parents have replaced her dead Corsa with a Suzuki Swift. Good of them! Hope she passes as she has a full time job in town and there isn't a bus service through early enough! I have printed off the letter giving the garage 7days to do something or we go legal on the lemon Q7! Just in time for Xmas....

Scot

Started the task of doing Xmas cards for every one at work, ran out when Caz came home from night shift. Still got to finsh these as well as the latest expenses! We went off to the appointment at the bank to rethink mortgages. Caz feels left out of live, no property in her name, no real savings, no pension and no real prospects going forward. She will benefit from her parents passing but that may be 30 years hence! Her job is annualised hours and loads of overtime which is difficult to get a lender excited. Buying houses is hard work until the debt is paid and awfully stressful getting it organized! We will keep trying....I'm a tad hard nosed about things at times and my view of a second house is one that can be rented out and I've no interest in living there myself! Caz's view is roses around the door etc. Poor kid has to work again tonight too! Weather awful and not very welcoming either! Mood is blue here! Still not done anything for Xmas bar the cards!

Exhibition

Caz doing an early again, she came home soon after ten as I was leaving. I had a couple of things to do at home first. We still might get another house so another mortgage appointment made. A sum was wrong on the last one, apparently, I am good in principle for a £14,000,000 mortgage! Two extra zeros added! I then collected the demo unit from my mate in Lincoln and drop it off at the factory - we like to have all the toys in the shed over Christmas. I reckon that is sold, as is the other one I got back tother day too! Traffic home was awful, perhaps I should get a plane too! Got sent a pretty awful video of a tree surgery video which went wrong. A chap up a tree cut too little a gob in a big limb, then cut the back out too slow. The limb split up its length, fell out and smeared him as to came down. It was hushed up some years ago as it looked bad for the plc company because he was poorly trained and badly supervised!

Caz was up at 02:30 and back at 10ish - I had to meet a dealer in Tuxford which was good - a little order will be placed just when I need a tad more in my figures! A bit of supplier politics was played out too. I hadn't made an appointment other than 'see you tomorrow morning!', my contact and I sat in his office drinking tea and putting the world to rights and he told me that another supplier was due at 10:00. Comparatively speaking we are smaller than these other guys and their was two of them coming to muscle in. They arrived early and had to stand in the showroom because they got told that a 'premium supplier' was discussing a big order with the sales manager and I was too important to disturb! The look of surprise on their faces when the realised it was only me was worth a chunk! Even more when I told them that my man had spent up and was bot buying mowers this week either! Sweet! I then drove the two hours to the factory to drop a loan machine off, collect a fixed machine to take to Wellingborough and back home..... I got into a conversation with another dealer contact who I gel with. He drives from the family home, North West of Burnley over to Wakefield everyday - that M62 is simply awful! It can take hours! So we were mulling over the prospect of putting a runway in at home (big plot) and finding somewhere in Wakefield to land it.....he thinks it may work...

freak

silviculture