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Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 6:39 pm
by Tommy
Only two days into the working week, and we've been hit with a bodyblow at work that has stunned everybody.
A bloke hurt his back lifting a machine on the back of a transit about 6 week ago, and has been off on the sick for the last 4.
Heard nothing from him at all, then come 7 yesterday, we get word he has been given 24 hours to live with Cancer riddled throughout his chest.
Walk into the depot this morning, and find out he's passed away in the small hours. Choked me up, even though I have only worked with him since April. The older blokes have worked with him well over 30 years and are understandably seriously upset by it.
Then we get word from his niece that he suffered with the cancer for over a year, and yet told nobody.
That added to the all this damn rain is making up for a very unproductive week.
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:35 pm
by lutonlagerlout
sorry to hear that tommy
cancer is a weird old yoke.
when i hear about people fighting it,i think" if i had it, i dont want to fight it ,i want to run and hide"
i have known slim fellas have it for over 10 years and big strapping lads struck down in 3 months.
we had to work all day in the rain today, mini crusher turned up and we had to get the crushing done rain or shine.
i'll be well P**sed off if that thing in Switzerland blows the world up tomorrow,all the work in the rain will have been for nothing
LLL
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:12 pm
by flowjoe
We lost a lad last year, Monday morning 9.00am drops dead in the yard in front of the whole crew.
His dad and two brothers all died before they were 50, he was 47.
He never mentioned the ticking bomb but i suppose going to work was somewhere he could just get on with things and try to forget about it.
It makes the rest of us take a step back to look at the big picture, which isn`t a bad thing occasionally.
So, if the worst thing that happend to you today was you got wet, youve had a good day :;):
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:33 pm
by danensis
"if the worst thing that happened to you today was you got wet, you've had a good day"
I think that need framing, and hanging on the wall.
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:25 pm
by Pablo
flowjoe wrote:if the worst thing that happend to you today was you got wet, youve had a good day
Amen
I was going to post this evening about all the problems I've been having but I 've just given myself a slap and realised it's not really that bad. I will be pis~ed if the Swiss kill us all in the morning though and apparently the drummer from D-ream is gonna flick the switch I always thought they were evil. Surreal or what.
All the best Tommy.
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:40 pm
by James.Q
radio 2 pablo? one of my mates went home 20 years ago off site went to bed and never got up . i still think of the fuxxr ad a 2 year old daughter bugger woz only 32 
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:47 pm
by lutonlagerlout
d-ream?
"things can only get better?"
the rain comment was intended to convey the futility,eventually for all of us ,of what we do
my grandad died in 1971 and men still talk of him,but they are old men now
All we can ask is that our family,friends, and workmates think of us
when we are demolishing old stuff and find an empty 5 pack of woodbines from 1930's or whatever i often wonder what bacame of the brickie that laid those bricks,how much he earned where he lived etc.was he still alive?
LLL
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:18 pm
by GB_Groundworks
i make a habit of signing everything i do and dating it, like concrete slabs or under flags or roof joists etc as i love finding old stuff and i think hopefully someone will find it in 50 years and think i wonder who this giles was in 2008.
its the archeologist in me
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:00 pm
by lutonlagerlout
yes,i can remember as an apprentice ,we were putting a flight simulator in for the 757(i say " we" in the loosest of terms),this sat on a humongous concrete pad and before it was poured we all jumped in and signed the walls with various stuff.
i still have that empty 5 pack of woodbines,it just shows that as cheap as fags were back then ,builders couldn't afford a pack of 20
wonder what all this injun stone will look like in 100 years?
LLL
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:26 pm
by flowjoe
All our work is below ground and we come across the odd bottle (with internal stopper) the old guys used to sup their cold tea or ale from after a good mornings dig. we find clay smoking pipes which were pretty much disposable back then and the odd boot.
When you think of the hundreds of tonnes of earth i have shifted in the last 25 years the above is the some total, Tony Robinsons mate finds a lump of bloody shaped flint every other spade full
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:37 pm
by lutonlagerlout
i have found a few of them bottles joe, codds i think they were called,its where the term "coddswallop" comes from
look here also plenty of clay pipes ,rusty tools and some buried wartime ammunition(lee enfield 303 which we dutifully shared out0
my old fella worked for sid farrow in the 60's and they were digging footings in dunstable behind an old grocer's shop
anyway he said hes got the pick and *bang* he hits summat metal
its a dust bin lid all rusty,and inside its full of half crowns,so the old man and the gang fill their gas mask cases (lunch boxes to me and you) pockets glove boxes in fact anything they can then tell sid
sid says not to worry the money will be handed in and leave it all to him
anyway sid carts the bulk off and the lads carry on digging
and guess what
yep they hit a second dustbin full of half crowns,the same thing happens again,
they reckoned that the grocer that had the shop during the war had been a black marketeer, and had saved all his illicit loot by burying the coins,sadly for him he died shortly after the war and no one knew where his stash was
my old fella got £30 which was a lot considering they were on £10 a week then,but he said for 6 months after they were getting green half crowns in their wage packets from sid farrow :;):
me personally in 24 years of digging nothing but bottles and the occasional fido or tiddles
LLL
Edited By lutonlagerlout on 1221071885
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:58 pm
by seanandruby
on shoreham powerstation made a small fortune as the first chimney they blew up was used to fill a long culvert and it was full of copper and lead. the old cables went on forever, they were'nt armoured either just sleeved in lead. i got gold fever :laugh:
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:09 pm
by lutonlagerlout
i used to go to partys by shoreham power station at a place called carrot's cafe,do you know it sean?
LLL 
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 9:20 pm
by James.Q
the only thing i seem to dig up are dead pets the last one woz a rabbit in a bin liner . that had just turned into a putrid soup
on woolich arsenal site woz a bit dodgy one of the gangs dug up some ww11 grenades
never seen a digger driver move so fast in my life lol 
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 9:46 pm
by seanandruby
lutonlagerlout wrote:i used to go to partys by shoreham power station at a place called carrot's cafe,do you know it sean?
LLL
been a long time ago. but used to go in there everyday for my brekkie. dont know if it is still there. he used to collect monroe memorabilia. i gave him an old monroe jigsaw on condition that if he got good money for it he weighs me in. his mother was a lovely old lady. we were laying a main sewer under the harbour and one day i was 30 meters down and a storm was brewing, the crane driver pulled the manrider up and left me down there because he reckoned his rig wasnt earthed. i was on the radio screaming all sorts of f***s into it. they reckoned because of the steelwork i would of been microwaved. when they pulled me out i went to carrots and they had been listening to my volley on my mates radio. carrots mom had me a free brekkie waiting, she had been worried sick, bless her. nice family. used to have raves on the beech there. :;):