Glort

Mate, I don't need any exercise, I started cleaning up my back yard. I'm not sure at what point I lost my mind but I reckon I have around 4 ton of scrap metal to load into the trailer and take away. I figure on about 2 -3 ton of general crap and rubbish to go to the tip. Bending over picking it all up and loading it into the trailer has been giving my back not to mention the rest of me a plenty good work out just today. I reckon by the time I'm finished I'll looks as different as the yard will and be proportionally lighter as well. There is only so far I'm prepared to go on the health thing. Yesterday I had to do a photoshoot for a friend of mine who is into Fitness and bodybuilding competitions. Shes' about 4'6" Yes, a pixie and weighs 42 KG but strong as an OX. After the shoot she took myself and some friends that helped her with her styling etc to a Vietnamese Restaurant. Here she is eating Boiled Broccoli or whatever the heck the plain stuff was and here are we hoeing into to these culinary delights while she sits there watching us. She asked my mate who is her trainer/ dietician if she cold have a portion of a spring roll which she really loves. He said she could have 2 tablespoons worth of whatever she wanted. We thought he was Joking, she was stoked he would let her have that much. If I was not such a greedy, cold pig I may have been put off my meal watching her sitting there watching us but lucklily I have no such empathy for others so stuffed myself regardless. She has a comp in 4 weeks she's looking forward to. My mate has promised her after the comp she can go out and have a meal of all the sushi she wants. Then it's back to training. I said to my friend That photographing her had made me feel guilty for being such a fat, lazy slob but seeing the price she paid at dinner alone was enough to make me realise, I really did make the right choice afterall and there is nothing to regret! How the hell she has the willpower to train and eat like she does has me buggered.

I like beetroot ( a lot ) but haven't tried Juicing it yet. The main reason is the cost. I see 3 plants in bunch in the veg shop for about 4 Bux and it seems like a LOT of money for what I perceive is only going to be maybe a 1/4 of a cup of Juice. Maybe it seems a lot because I remember as a Kid my grandfather growing beetroot in the back garden and me sitting own with a bottle of Vinegar and the salt shaker and eating about a Kilo of it at a time. My grandmother could never figure out how I never puked after the amount I used to eat but I never even came close. I got a coconut yesterday But I'm going to put that with a banana and blend it into a smoothie!

A while back I was channel surfing and saw a program called Fat sick and Nearly dead. http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/ Its about an over weight guy that goes on a health kick with " Juicing" and he and another guy in the show loose a PILE of weight just by drinking vegetable juice. Theres no back end in this I can see unlike some weight loss programs that are trying to sell you food or pills or whatever,, the message is eat fresh, healthy food. With the doctors on my back from all directions about being 120Kg and wanting me to loose weight, I thought I'd give this Juicing thing a go. In the film that's all they do, drink juice for every meal. The weight certainly falls off and the doctors are happy with the guys over all health levels but I knew giving up food wasn't going to work for me so I thought I'd try some meal replacements with the juice but still eating other meals. AS those that have seriously tried would no, loosing weight is a bitch. I quickly discovered that having a nice fruit juice mix of say an apple orange, pear and pineapple was about as helpful with weight loss as a triple quarter pounder meal. There are a lot of calories in the fruit which can put the weight on when you thought you were doing the right thing. As a result of learning this I went more to veggies and basicaly now juice everything I can lay my hands on. Beans seen to be something no one has ever heard of jucing before but they produce quite a good volume. After a couple of weeks I was dissapointed and had only lost 1.5 KG. I felt like I was giving a LOT away though and should have lost a lot more. Clearly If I had juiced more and eat less I certainly would have. The thing I did notice though was besides being a lardarse still, I was now a much more energetic lardarse. I felt heaps better in myself and didn't get as tired or as easily. Even the family noticed it asking what drugs I had been taking. It occoured that even if the Juice was't helping me with the weight loss that much, it was sure helping with the way I felt and my overall disposition. So for the last couple of months now I have become a regular at the fruit and veg shop which was a place I had never darkened the doorway before. I buy things like Bok Choy, Kale, carrots, celery, apples, oranges, pineapple and a bit of Ginger. Whatever is still in teh veggie crisper gets shredded to a pulp and drank. Now I know all you blokes with a blokes taste and appetite like mine are thinking "WTF does that chit taste like?" Well to be honest, it's pretty ordinary on it's own. I found though that the pineapple along with one other bit of fruit and a slice of ginger make it something pretty good. For me anyway. I make about a litre of the stuff at a time and fill a tall glass with ice and pour it in. It's pretty bloody good although the pineapple and ginger make it all taste about the same no matter what you threw in that batch. I'm not worried about that, I drink it to help fill me up a bit before meals and as a big vitamin pill. The thing I only discoverd last week is that as well as feeling a lot better, I have now lost 5 Kg! I put that down more to the fact I'm so much more inclined to get off my arse and do things. Work has been falt out and I have been dog tired doing it but I reckon I'd be dead if I hadn't been on the juice. On days where I have missed it for whatever reasons, it feels like my Diabetes is high again. a quick check shows that's not the case and I'm just vitamin deprived or whatever it is. I also found out it's not a one shot thing. Miss a day and it takes a couple of days to catch up again. You can't have a glass of juice and fell like superman an hour later. Keep it up for 3 days and you'll get a lot closer though. So anyway, I think there is something to this Juicing thing. It wasn't what I was expecting or looking for which is why I was initially impressed it wasn't a placebo effect. With a couple of months of doing it, I now know it's the real deal. I always thought that these days people would get enough vitamins through what they ate even if it wasn't textbook health nut stuff but that dosen't seem to be the case with me at least. For those that are struggling with working too hard or not eating right or are just feeling down and tired too often, I really suggest giving this a go. It's sure been a worthwhile discovery for me and not something I can see myself giving away anytime in the future. Time to go make anther batch. Ps. One enjoyable part of this juicing caper is you get to play with a pretty decent power tool. That Breville Juicer I have could make juice out of Gum tree branches I reckon. Now, If they would just bring out a Diesel powered version, There wouldn't be an obese, lazy guy in the world with a toy like that to play with in the kitchen! Why juice an orange when you can juice the whole orange tree?

Very well done. Probably saved yourself about $300+ at accessories shop prices and come out with a lot better product. Nothing more satisfying than a DIY project you know is better than anything you could have bought.

That's exactly what I'm intending to do! In between giving thanks for the good fortune that I have come across.

Thanks Guys. I think you are both spot on. I have said to other friends until he takes responsibility for his actions and doings nothing will change and I agree this is the first and most important step. Making him realise that I think is the real dangerous part. He's adopted the Victim role of late and getting through to make him admit his mistakes and not have him put the " I'm getting picked on by my friends now" excuse into place will be a hard one. I do know what you mean on that score Very well oldmate. You have also picked up on this well Westy. One of his bleatings ATM is that's he's too old to change and do something new. The irony as pointed out by another friend is that I'm actually a little older than him and I changed what I was doing this year and it's sure paid off. I'm also expecting the hard done by thing to come up which of course I'm all over given my background and his relative fairy tale one in comparison. The guy has skills. I have never met a better born salesman and I CAN sell myself. He was the top car salesman in the country for his brand when he was doing that about 6-7 years ago and surprised everyone by going into the trucking industry. He went from rolling round in $100K+ cars someone else paid for and a " Cheap" $1000 Suit to an old shitty truck and a blue singlet and jeans. He then bought himself a $250K truck which was when the disaster really struck. He went pig headed into a useless part of the transport game that Blind freddy could see was a sure looser and ignored profitable work that was thrown at him for no other reason than it wasn't what he wanted to do. Even financial desperation wasn't enough to sway him which is something I'll never understand. I'd pick up dogshit with my bare hands if someone paid me enough. What I want or like doing is highly a secondary consideration when it comes to earning a living and providing for the family. I don't have any particular love for what I'm doing now but it's the best financial reward I can see so I do it. Anyway, thanks for the advise. I sure will keep it in mind as I try to formulate the plan of attack to wake him up and get him back to some sort of reality.

This is going to be long and sound like a letter to a newspaper column but I'm a bit desperate to know what the right thing to do is. I have a friend that I met at school which is 30+ years ago. He's been like a brother to me and when my brother was Killed many years ago and I seriously thought I was going to loose the plot, this bloke was there for me in a way I can't describe but was instrumental in me ever getting over it. That was one of many things he's been there for me with. Whenever I have been in the shit, he's been there with a shoulder to cry on and a helping hand of support and encouragement. The last few years he's gone off on a tangent I nor anyone else seems to understand. Without droning on too much it's like he's been trying to prove to the world what a bigshot he's going to be. He's started various business which have all ended in disaster but the latest one has really put him in the shit. His failures have been 110% attributable to his pride, ignorance and refusal to do basic business practices and research. The biggest concern I have is that he has never listened to anyone and always knows everything when it comes to these businesses. The failure of the latest one and the lead up to it has put a lot of pressure on his relationship and it looks like he and the long suffering GF are now living apart. I love my mate but I have equal admiration for the GF. She is a damned hard worker that has put up with his shit through thick and thin, has stood by him, always supported him and wanted him to be happy and put his happiness before her own always. She is bright, intelligent and frankly I can't think of a negative thing to say about her or think of anything I could say she has done wrong. My mate has whined about petty shit with her before and I told him straight up, don't ever put shit on her around me because as far as I'm concerned you are bloody lucky to have someone like that to put up with your sorry arse. I have said to everyone, them included that she's the best thing ever to happen to him but it looks like he may have finally broken the camels back. My worry is that my mate is at a fork in the road of his life right now. If he lets his stupid ego guide him down the wrong Branch, basically I see his life is fked from here on in. It is that serious. He's a great guy but he's also an ignorant fking clown in a lot of ways. He had nothing either financially or assett wise when she came along and certainly no goals or ambition and he'll be a whole lot worse off without her. I'm at the point where I -THINK- as a friend it's time to lay a lot of home truths on the line with him and try to wake him the hell up to himself. That's going to mean telling him a lot of things he will be insulted by and probably won't even accept. It's going to be a long shot getting through to him and frankly, If I tied him to a chair and smacked him round a I still have deep reservations about getting through to him. He's a stubborn, ignorant twit who can't be told anything and I fear this could put his friendship with me very much on the line. It won't put my friendship on the line with him, If he wants to belt me in the face because I offend or upset him it won't change the things he has done for me over the years and would be insignificant to me trying to help him in what he has done for me. Far as I am concerned I'll always be his friend, question will be if he still wants to be mine. The thing is I don't know how far to go with him. What is the right thing to do? Do I take him aside and hit him with a hammer if that's what it takes to get him back to reality or should I mind my own fking business or....? There is nothing I wouldn't do for him including giving him a Kidney if he needed one but I'm really at a loss as to what is the right thing to do. ATM he blames everything and every one for his failures ( except taking any responsibility himself of course) which were entirely a result of his own ignorance and ego. ATM he has lost all initiative and drive. He recently lost his mother and his licence (Again!) which as a truck driver really makes things difficult and now it seems he's about to loose the GF which will include his home and his life as it has been for the last 10 years. I'm really scared what will happen to him and where he'll end up if he dosent' wake up and take stock and responsibility for his own doings NOW. I have discussed this at length with some other mutual friends and none of us have a clue what to do or how to help him and help is clearly what he needs. They say you can't help those that don't want to be and he doesn't but it's not a option. Something has to change his mindset and it has to be done right now. I'm hoping maybe someone here can relate and give me some suggestions.

HAHAHA! He was bloody Lucky I tell you. I was just starting off slowly as I could see the turning traffic up ahead was still slowing the lane down. If it had be clear and I'd have given it some boot to get round the bus ( and I normally start off in 2nd as well) I'd have been clean over the top of him, no doubt in the world. I think he got more of a push and over balanced than a hit ( worse luck) but the stupidity of the move was in no way any less retarded. Despite their bleatings of innocence and only a few doing the wrong thing, It's patently clear that this is total BS. All you need to do is take a drive each day through the inner city yuppievilles and see what they ALL do. I also came close to taking a guy out in a WRX the very same way. Came up from behind me in the next lane and did a chop when he was still half beside me. I watched him do it to several cars up ahead the exact same way as he constantly weaved from lane to lane ultimately getting no where. The thing was after causing about 4 people to hit the anchors to avoid him, he was still only partially in front of me about 4 km up the road only were were now in the opposite lanes. He got stuck behind a parked car when the traffic stopped and put his blinker on and started pushing out and I came right up to the car in front and yelled to the guy ( expletives deleted) You do and I will go over the top of you moron. Being at this stage the bullbar was about 3 inches from his nose hanging out the window, he turned back in his lane and waited for me but then cut the girl behind me off. If I hadn't been keen to get where I was going on time I would have performed a brake check and put him right in the back of the old girl to teach him a lesson in patience and road safety. Geez I HATE driving anywhere in peak hour!

Thanks Hey Hey. It seems to be working out really well and I think it will continue to do so. It's pretty weird suddenly having the father I said for years I never had and working out where you stand with him. Probably sounds stupid but it's the little things that throw you off. When I go there I never know if it's polite to wait to be offered a cuppa or I should just go make one myself. At a mate's place I know what the accepted things to do are, at the old fellas house, I'm never quite sure if I'm being impolite one way or the other. It's all great ad we are all enjoying having a family but being the crunt I am, I'm still struggling with the anger I suppose of having so many years wasted by the troll of a bitch he married. I always thought he was very happy with her and she worshipped the ground he trod on. Now I realise the situation was very different and he probably got himself into something he couldn't get himself out of. Had I known what the deal was, I'd have fixed it but I had now way to know and it's a regret in life I'm going to carry with me. For the moment, I'll just enjoy what I can though. :0)

I have threatened before to mow the inconsiderate fkers down if they got in my way and I finally did. Not quite as I thought though. I was going to a job in the inner city last Thursday. Going through the peak hour Crawl In Marrickville, I just started moving off when this lycra tosser ( yes, he really was wearing Fluro Green and black Lycra) came up the side of me and straight in front. I was in the nearside lane and the traffic in the centre lane was stationary with a bus in front of me in the other lane. I think the deceased to be couldn't get a gap between the lanes big enough with the bus so just chopped in front of me almost at a 90o angle. By the time I saw him chop and hit the brakes, I already hit the clown. lucky for him it knocked him sprawling on his side but I didn't go over either him or the bike. Before I could even get out, he picked himself up and cut back in the traffic and was gone. He didn't even say anything and barely looked at me. Much to the opposite of my exclamations and verbals. I did see he was bleeding from the elbow where he grazed himself on the road and ripped his ballet outfit, but other than still having everything attached, I don't know what else happened to him. I got the door open but didn't even get out as he picked himself up and then was going, I thought to the side of the road where we would sort the accident out but he pissed off twice as fast as he appeared. My surprise and shock soon turned to anger though as clearly the dumb fk knew he was in the wrong and didn't want to face the music. A lot of other people would have freaked at that and been panicked by it through this clowns selfishness if they tagged him. I wondered what to do, if I should report it to the cops. I thought what's the point? What will I tell them? I have no number plate or way to identify the clown, It was over and done with in 10 sec, if he wants to ride off and dies later of internal injuries, well that's his bad luck for twice doing the wrong thing. Why should I make myself accountable when he didn't have the balls to stick around? He really found himself between a rock and a hard place being the back of a bus and my Bullbar. I really think it's going to be a good idea to get those car camera's for all our cars. I also had a bus try to pull out on me when I was BESIDE him 2 weeks back. How do I prove that he didn't have his blinker on when I approached if I did tag the twit If I didn't have a camera? Just lucky at the time no one was coming the other way because I instictiely went to the wrong side of the road to avoid him and if someone had of been coming then I'd be twice at fault. So I did live up to my word that I would tag one of the two wheel twits if they were at fault, only I had no conscious part in it. The twit was entirely responsible himself. I spose though it will go into his reptior of how bad drivers are and how they run these saints off the road. No doubt he'll portray himself as a law abiding road sharing user that always does all the right things and it's just the tiny minority of cyclists that do the wrong thing. Yeah, My black arse minority. I have been in the land of the latte sippers for 2 weeks now and I haven't see one that didn't cut up the traffic, run reds or break the law in other ways and most of them would be lucky to be in my view for more than a minute. Yesterday Morning while suffereing driving around Yuppy land central again, I noticed some left over election posters from the greens ( There is more telling Irony, If they are so green, why do they use all this printed election material they then leave around littering the place?)) calling for " Improved Cycleways". I looked and thought Yeah right, so more of them like this tosser can ignore them and they will just take space and money that could have been used to transport infinitely more people on roads. I still say though, If it comes to me or my family or a lycra looser, I aint going to be the one they put in a black plastic bag.

With something slightly Patrol related, I took the truck cross country about a month ago for a bit of a family Reunion/ Uncles Birthday. The old girl gave me a bit of trouble with loosing power and crawling up hills. We went from Sydney to Cowra and before the trip I changed the fuel filters and Checked the screen on the walbro so everything was good. I took the unusual step of actually paying for Diesel In Bathurst which didn't help the power issue at all, In fact I think it made the thing slower. Before heading out of Cowra the next day, I pulled the tank pickup convinced it must have been blocked but to my dissapointment it was fine and what I could see in the tank was very clean. Put it back together and headed off. Out of cowra n the falt it was fine but as we got closer to bathurst and the hills came up, things got worse fast. Stopped I on't know how many times trying to reconfigure fuel lines etc and pulling things out of my basic veg system till nothing was left. I was getting barely 50Km/h on the flat. On the last stop I took the Walbro out of the system and got back in and when the Mrs asked If I fixed it this time, I said I don't think so and we are in trouble. We were on one side of a hill and I was already scanning the other side picking out pull over places for when she " failed to Proceed". Pulled out onto the road again, a couple of stutters and misses and then the thing litrelly did push us back in the seats a tad as it took off. Hit 110 at the bottom of the hil and was still pulling 107 on the GPS at the top of the other side and I was still in 5th. The last 30 K's back to bathurst was a speeding violation all the way. I have no idea what was wrong with the pump. It wasn't letting air in and was pumping fuel as I had checked that several times. Haven't looked at it since, still ticked of with the thing and looking for a gear type pump and a regulator to keep up with the old girls thirst. The VE lift pump is fine on thin oil but when the cold sets in it can strugge to keep up esp[ecially when towing on the freeway. My son had driven my father in his WRX powered Forrester and had also had a ball driving the sling shot you are not supposed to on your P plates. Still, I doubt he got too carried away with his 75 yo grandfather sitting besides him. The sensation of applying the right foot and the thing leaping forward was something new after his only driving experiences of Driving Diesels. We met in Bathurst and swapped Vehicles with me now confident the family would make it over Mt. Victoria and home in the truck. The old fella and I spent what ended up being an overly long 7 hours getting back to his place in the country. The scenery was nice in the central west but we were both getting tired and glad to be home in the end. Those turbo Forresters sure go like hell though. At one place I kicked the thing in the guts to overtake and the thing nearly snapped our necks and rolled our eyeballs back in our heads. I thought I'd get serve from the old fella but he just laughed and said he had done the same thing on the way over and scared the chit out of himself as he normally just drove the thing into town which is 80 at best. Beautiful car with all the options and worth 10 ( or maybe 20) times what mine is but for POS the Troll is, I still prefer it's lazy lower revving engine even if people think it is truck like. After just about to come up on using free Veg fuel for 7 years, Stopping to fill the forrester at $80 a hit was something I was glad the old fella was paying for! I still felt butt violated with the $30 of Dino I put in at Bathurst. I went back with the old man to pick up a car for my son we were buying off him. He's a wrecker and when my son spotted the car for sale a few months back, he and the old fella did a deal on it. Since then, The car has acquired every option Subaru made for them and then some out of the giant shed of a parts bin. It has a full leather interior, fast glass, air, cruise, wheels uprated suspension, was serviced to within an inch of it's life and gone over 3 times according to the old fella's resident mechanic from top to toe. The old fella said he would give it to my son for a grand less than he was asking as that's what it owed him. We left a deposit on it a few months back with the old man holding onto it till the young fella got his licence. He got that with a score of 105 out of 106... little smart arse! I had a surprise and moment bigger than anything in the last 10 years before I left. I went to pay the old man the balance of the car and he said whats' that for? I said the car of course. He said, what, were you going to pay for it? I looked a bit dumbfounded and said umm, yeah. He said well put that away and he pulled out a grand from his pocket and handed it to me. He said that's what he paid me back and $500 towards his rego. I was dumbstruck. I stood there wondering what the right thing to do was. The old fella said I never intended to take any money for it. I said well I thought that's what the arrangement was. He said I'm his grandfather, I wanted to give it to him. Given that I have had Very little to do with my old man until his bitch of a wife finally did the one decent thing and bloody died at the beginning of the year, this was about as far out of the blue as anything I could have NOT imagined. I'm still coming to terms with how right I was this last 30 odd years in saying whilever she was around we would never have a relationship. He's a totally different man. My wife never was real fond of him with more than good reason but even she has said what a completely different person he is and clearly they both now have a very important place in each others hearts as do the grand kids, finally, with the old fella. The little Liberty drove home really nice and I have to admit, was a lot more comfy than the troll even though the thing really is a bit small for me physically. I can't quite get the seat back far enough from the wheel to where I would like but minor thing of being too bloody tall in the first place. For a little 2.2 the thing goes surprisingly well. Held 120 up the F3 hills into the central coast all the way with the air on and Acca dacca blasting on the stereo. On that, my son also spoted some great disco in a box when he was up at the old mans place and reminded me to ask grandad about this stereo. When he was going over the car when I got it home I said there is a box of bits your grandad put in the boot for you. It contained the stereo he wanted. I managed to make excuses for 2 whole nights before I got Physical forced to install the thing for him. It does sound great but I'm waiting to see how long the speakers last before the unit vaporises them in a cloud of that distinctive smelling electronic smoke. I rang the old man that night when I got home and thanked him for the car and apologised If I didn't do it properly;y at the time which I'm sure I hadn't seeing I would have made more sense if struck with a cricket bat in the back of the head. We came a long way in one weekend in catching up on a lot of lost and now regretted years that weekend. It's still going to take a lot to top that surprise though. My son has rang and thanked him several times as well and they are forging a new-found relationship they would have had from the start if it weren't for the bitch making the old fella so unhappy which was the complete opposite to what I thought. I have learned a hell of a lot on that front and I hate the scrag more now shes gone than when she was alive. I don't are what people think of me for saying it but had I known what I do now 20 years ago, one way or another she would have disappeared a long time ago and my kids would have grown up with a grandfather not just be discovering one. I'm in a Quandry with the truck. It's looking very much the worse for wear but I still like driving it so much. When I take my sons or wifes car out in the traffic I feel almost scared. In the truck I don't care who pulls in front of me or cuts me off because it's going to be their bad luck not mine. I d really need something more presentable for the business side of things and I thought of getting a Merc either in an ML or a diesel sedan but I don't know. I'm always going to want to pick up some dirty POS beside the road to take home for a project, that's just me and I can't do it in a fancy car I might get dirty or scratch something in. Might just have to keep the truck and do it up a bit and have a poser car for when I have the suit on. Anyway, there is a make up post for those still awake on my " What's been happening". Right now I have to say life is pretty bloody great for me. Certainly a far cry from even 12 months ago. While I'm not a faithful person, I am taking the time to stop and count my blessings as it were because it seems things have really turned for the better and I'm determined to make the most of it especially for the family.

Well I finally have time to come back and have a look and post some Dribble. I have had an interesting time the last couple of months or so. The new business/ market has gone ballistic and keeping me flat out. Probably sounds stupid to many people but I think I actually know what really working hard means now. Not just for a day or a week, but weeks on end when you are so tired your entire body aches and you get out of bed feeling as bad as when you fell in. The stress has been significant in getting something new off the ground at a rate faster than it should have gone but thankfully nothing went wrong and a lot went right that probably shouldn't have run as smooth as it did. It's not been easy but I have learned a lot to make things a lot easier so I won't have to do that again hopefully. The upside is I am making more money than I ever have before or thought a dropkick like me was ever capable of earning. Funny thing though.... when I had no money I would have liked to give the impression I had more. Now I'm doing well, I'm really happy for people to think I still have the arse out of my pants. Bit ironic even to me! They say money can't buy Happiness but for me it's bought a hell of a lot of stress relief and peace of mind. It's bloody nice when your son complains his old computer is a POS and he wants a new one to say OK, go find one you want and show me. When he did I got on the phone, ordered it, gave them a CC number and said Right, you can go pick it up now. That sure as chit made his day! Yesterday I want with the Mrs to an appointment with a Jeweller. That's a new one. Of course the fact I had an appointment with him and what I thought was a lot of money for a ring seemed chicken feed to him tells me no matter how well I think i'm doing, He's doing a damn site better! The Mrs has suffered being married to me ( let alone the 10 years we were together before that) for 20 years now so time to buy her something real nice to say thanks. She bought me a new Harley before my son was born so If I spend the same on her, it will just be long overdue repayment.

Just thought I'd update this thread to give some feedback on how this thing is going. In summation, Bloody Brilliant. I have been flogging the guts out of the poor thing all week doing underwater work and it hasn't missed a beat. I have a couple of LED torched duct taped to the side of the thing adding to the strain of the bag it's in. I was worried about snapping the hotshoe as I always seem to do on these things but I then noticed it's metal and seems plenty thick as well. The underwater work seems to upset the E-TTL a bit but I just wond the flash down a bit with the over ride that maintains auto operation but at the redusced output dialed in and it's fine. I thought the colourbalance underwater was off but then realised it's just the reflected light in the crappy place i'm at. I bought an cheapo Chinese accessory battery pack that takes an additional 8 Cells giving a total of 12. The jury is still out on this thing. I have noticed that the batteries in the flash are nearly rooted while the ones in the pack only seem to have the top taken off them so I'm not sure about the way this works. There is a function on the camera where I should be aboe to tell the flash to draw from the internal or external batteries but that dosen't seem to work so I'm assuming this is where a cost saving on the pack is made. I Paid $30 delivered from the land of Who flung dung The canons are about 180 I believe. A mate has a couple, I believe these are both cheapies but I'll have a look and compare. I think I have used his more than mine so he may not know how they work either. I might sus a freindly camera store salesman out about them and Might end up with the genuine one yet. I also bought the cheapo Chinese Battery grip for my 600. I got the grip which has a nice little LCD clock and timer built in ( additional to the OEM grip which has nothing) 2 batterys rated higher then the OEM ones and a infra red remote delivered for $47. These have all worked perfectly as well. I thought the batteries might just be over reated with a number based more on fantasy than reality but they do seem to outlast the OEMS. This is the same as knockoffs I have bought which lasted longer in the camera and years longer in serviceable life thanthe OEM's. I literally have more work than I can handle coming up so I'll be buying at least one new complete outfit, probably 2. This time I'll get the new 650D as there a few things on that which might be handy for the work I'm doing, another youngnuo flash and probably a spare as well in case of physical damage, a grip, battery pack ( genuine or non remains to be seen) and all the other crap like a bag, rechargeable batterys, batt charger, a dozen cards etc. I'm also looking at some new wide lenses but haven't decided on those yet. there are a few choices for what I want from Canon and sigma/ tokina. Probably go for a prime 24 or 28 as I need big Depth of field, fast speed and I'm limited on front element size. The biggest risk I might take is a Chinese waterproof bag. The Genuine one I'm using is about $600. The chinese knockoff is under $150. The bag is getting used about 7 hours a day so I don't think they will last more than a few months due to sheer wear and tear. From the photos I have seen the china ripoff is frighteningly similar to the original, absoloute baltent riposs. It's that closely copied. I can always throw and old body in it, sink it to the bottom for a couple of hours and see if it's dry when it comes up. If they are good, The chinaman may get his first order for half a dozen of the things! I also did something I have never heard of before or the distributor. I bought a PALLET load of A4 Photo paper. 27,000 sheets. There will probably be another ordered before years end as that one won't be quite enough to get me through the work I have lined up and I'm getting sooo many people ringing ME now and having to put them off to next year I don't think the 2nd lot will go far. I had to ring back to chase them up. They said they would ring me back and never did. When I chased them up, after talking to the guy for a minute he went quiet and then said " You are serious aren't you?" I said Fk yeah!, I need this stuff, I'm more than happy to pay up front if you want but don't leave me in the lurch with it. Then he did get back to me and all sorted now. I wonder if Canon has ever sold 15 printers to anyone before that wasn't a shop or for a group of offices?

Yes, he could be using it in his vehicles. I find that to be a far less likley scenario to him just feeding it to the pigs though. Very few people are prepared to put the time and effort into the processing of Veg as oil or bio and if he is getting all the oil from even a reasonably sized country town, That would have to be in the vicinity of 500-1000L a week. That is a lot of oil to burn in a tractor or truck every week for a farmer whos product is not cropping. The diseses that can eventuate through feeding pigs this stuff is scary. I was told all about it some years ago and while if forget most of the details, I clearly remember is serious chit and can put a lot of livestock and people at risk. This needs to be reported and investigated just on the off chance this guy is doing the wrong thing. If he is using it for his equipment then there will be undeniable evidence of that and the Dept of ag inspector will have a chat to the guy about the weather, the latest gossip in town and be on his way. If the guy is feeding it to the pigs then this too will be evident and the guy will very rightfully be stopped and probably prosecuted. They may even try to trace his product and recall it if possible. There are some thngs you turn a blind eye to even if it does bend a few rules but this is not one of those things and there is no excuse for it not to be stopped if it is happening.

For finished oil ready to pour into the fuel tank I use the same 25L plastic drum that Westy is using in his pics. These are often found in qty at the back of the restaruants where they contained dish washing liquid, floor cleaner, grill cleaner Disinfectant and other such chemicals. Empty out the remaining contents ( you might keep the mrs in industrial strength dishwashing liquid.) Wash the drums thoroughly and dry them in the sun. Don 't forget to do inside the lids as well. Usually oil comes in tins which hold water that gets sucked into the il as the drums cool and create a vaccumm inside, rust and are pains to get rid of when empty. Some of the Malaysian oils come in plastic containers that don't stack well and are not very strong as well as quickly being affected by sun. HAHA! I had over 6000L at one point but.... When I started out collecting oil before I had a vehicle to run it in I had over 100 20L tins. Didn't those bastards take some crushing and getting rid of. Next I want to '44's which soon surrounded the back yard and side of the house. They too rusted and the lids froze and were neither big enough of space efficent. I then went to the square IBC's and have 6 of those now although not all are full. I still have some of the blue plastic '44's which are about 220-230L in fact. Being plastic these are much better to use for several reason I won't bore you with now. Suffice to say, it's much better to keep veg n plastic rather than metal. IBC"s are much cheaper these days. You can often pick them up for $20-30 from places like importers that get stuff like Olives and syrups and chemicals in them. Printer get a heap with inks and solvents in them. Also look on ebay under IBC, 1000L tank, Bulk tank etc. There are loads of people selling them. I have a place that will give me all I want for free to get rid of them. They get half a dozen a week. Nooooo! Never leave them open. the oil deteriorates when stored in the presence of oxygen. also the bugs and water get in. If you want to inspect a drum, take the lid off and put it back when you are done. Never a problem I had. My kids never liked it being either slippery or sticky. Like everything it's how you set your storage and processes up. One tip I'll give you is double valve everything. You might only need one valve between two points you want to send the oil but put a valve on each end. It can either be damned convinent in the long run or save you from disaster should something go wrong.

Whoa !!!! There is soon going to be a lot of veg available westy. It is HIGHLY illegal to feed waste Veg to pigs and for good reason. All sorts of diseases and bacteria etc can be passed on through this. I'm not one for dobbing people in but I would say for the sake of many peoples health, you have a duty to notify your nearest Department of agriculture about this. It's the equivalent of growing fruit and veg in human Chit. I can't believe that this farmer is doing this. It's a huge public health risk. It could be you , me or one of our families that get something let alone anyone one else. PLEASE let your local Dept of agriculture know about this and pass on all the info you can. It's a very serious matter and literally people could get bloody sick or die from it. Obviously if this is legit and not a public health risk the guy doing it won't have a thing to worry about but if they do take action it would be for bloody good reason. The guy doing it would have to know how wrong it is and why. Obviously he's a greedy Crunt that puts his own profit above peoples health. I can't stress how serious this is. You really need to notify the authorities about it ASAP for everyones sake. Please!

I haven't put much Motor oil through my Burners, I find it terrible messy, staining, stinking stuff that is soooo much harder to clean up the inevitable spills than veg is. I can play with veg all day, be near covered in it and come in and have a shower and Ll is weel. With motor oil it takes me a couple of days just to get the black stains out of my hands. Anyway, If you are going to use motor oil it shouldn't matter the how clean your burn is. It's a matter of tuning. For a certain amunt of a certain fuel a certain amount of air is required for it to combust clean. Given that engine oil has about 10% more energy value than Veg, I would guess that more air would be required to burn it as well. There are lost of people on the net burning WMO with little more than a very light haze if that. I'm not all together sure this burner will do that due to mixing and efficiency considerations. To get a 100% clean burn you may need say 120% air or at least the thing will have to run an excess of air. My burner has a light bit of smoking but I don't worry about it. by the time it's 3-6 feet out of the flue it's dissipated enough so you can't see it. Often times you have to be standing in the right spot and have the light at the right angle to see it. Good enough for me! I reckon if you can get your lower section to glow and a decent flame above the upper holes in your flue, you should be able to tune the thing for a pretty clean burn. The primary Holes or valve in your case should basicaly be the throttle of how hard the thing runs, The secondary and maybe tertiary holes should be like the mixture screw on a carby. By looking at the pics of what you have I would be thinking some more secondary holes would help clean up the burn. I think the "tune" of the thing will also be influenced by the final setup. For instance, if you ducted the flue into one of those bottles and then had another section of flue going out through your roof or wall, what would change the draft an the way the thing burnt and how clean. If you add another 8ft of flue to what you have now, the draw could be much higher, create a much faster gas speed and draw more air in. This could possibly create a negative pressure in the flue starving the flame of oxygen or it could cause a turbulence to mix it better than before and subsequently burn cleaner. In any event, the WMO is not the problem in itself, it's tuning the burner for the fuel you are using. I'd probably try to get it running clean now and leave room for more holes if needed in the final setup and see how you go from there. :0)

Thanks Guys. It's a small consolation to know I'm not the only one. I have to say though it's a 2 edge sword. While I have worked for myself the majority of my life, Every now and then I get this stupid notion that the grass must be greener without all the responsibility etc. I have landed some good job but worked for totally incompetent bosses and companies who's policys on all sorts of things defies Imagination. As a boss I know what makes a good employee but some of these companys and the managers etc need a kick in the head. The last job I had was part time courier work for a Company that did pathology for animals, mainly for vets. It was a great job with great people doing it but our manager and the upper management that backed her in spite of endless examples of incompetence and mismanagement were unbelievable. Employers put a lot on their staff but so often fail to live up to what they demand themselves. It's been a long time since I had people working for me back when I had a wedding Photography Studio. I had a lot of part timers shooting for me. I ALWAYS paid them over the going rate. Not a lot, the rate was about $150 a job, i'd give them 180-190. I also always made sure to thank them for their help compliment them on what they did right and find out what I could do so things were pt into place to prevent the things that went wrong happening again where possible. Weddings are Tough game. You are dealing with overly excited, pedantic and usually stressed and over tired people. The thing was, because my shooters were happy, they would go the extra mile on the day when it counted. 90% of the time the clients realised this, usually after the fact, and were grateful and very happy with their pics. In return I got a lot of referrals and the clients spent plenty. Rather than a vicious circle it was a very happy one and I always felt the bit extra I gave my shooters more than came back to me. I used to laugh at other guys I knew who would screw their shooters for the last 10 Bux and then complain they were lazy or they started out well then went to crap or whatever. I used to say for a lousy 30-40 bux you can fix this but you are too naive to see it. I have a lot riding on this new venture. I intend to pay my people well and then make sure to give them some unexpected bonuses as well. I'll be fussy on a lot of things they do and want it done right, right being my way and nothing else but I will make it worth their while. The other thing I do is talk to them and get input. What went right,l more importantly, what went wrong and what can I do to prevent that happening again so the staff are as happy as possible? I like input and ideas, I'll be happy to steal anyone's brainwave for my own benefit and theirs. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, just keep tweaking the dial till you get everything tuned in properly and it all runs like a swiss watch. Look after your people, treat them well, thank them for their efforts and show them you appreciate what they do for you. It isn't rocker Surgery. That's how you have happy staff, happy clients and a successful business. At least according to my theory .

This last couple of days I have come across some first hand examples of how thick some people are. The best one goes to the person that applied to the Job I advertised. I'm sure no one here will doubt me when I say I went into good specific detail in the ad so any prospective applicant had a good idea what it was about from the word go. Last night I got an application that said. " I am interested in this ad position". That was it. No other detail what so ever. So pittying the poor idiot, I replied: "That's bloody great, I'm interested in finding someone to fill the position. Seeing you didn't have enough sense to put your details or anything about yourself in your reply, I can automatically deduct that you do not have the brains to handle the job and are probably too lazy as well. If you can't even apply for a job properly, how the hell are you going to do it properly if you did get it?" Unreal. I have heard of this before. Applications with no name or contact details but I kind of put it down to urban legend. Clearly it's not. I have gone into a venture with specialised work I had never done before and that didn't worry me a bit. I have grown the business almost over night to a point where I have serious commitments like I have never had before and that doesn't worry me. I am spending money on equipment and materials like never before and that doesn't worry me. I have lined myself up enough work so I will be working almost 3 months, every single day non stop and that dosen't worry me. Finding some people with brains and a heartbeat to work permanent part time in an easy job that I'm prepared to pay well, has me Chitting bricks.

In the mean time, just for fun, get hold of a vaccuum cleaner and reverse it and give the thing a shot of air down the valve. I have tired this on mine though the holes and it actually went out. On yours because of the single hole and the angle you have it, the thing may burn like mad and heat up like never before. I was at Dinner with the brother in law last night and I was sitting here thinking there was something I wanted to ask him and couldn't remember. I wanted him to get me some gas bottles and old Kegs. They come in to his work and they have to set them aside till they get a heap to take away for disposal being pressure vessels. I want the kegs to make a Retort for cracking engine oil etc but cut down a bit they would make one hell of a burner like this! Even better, put a 2" air Pipe in the side and replace the valve section with a 3" outlet and you would have one serious arse pressure Burner! I think we need to get some others in and have a competition for most powerful veg burner. Who can be the first to build a burner to demolish 25L of oil in 15 min? For those wanting to get in on the fun, My reccomendations are to start off with a leaf blower, a 1/3rd HP water pump or better, a good strong steel tank, and a wide clear space with a good distance to anything flammable like Houses, vehicles, trees etc and a silver foil flame proof suit. Nothing like getting up close and personal with 1000Kw of heat output! Trust me, 200Kw is substantial enough! After that we can see who can boil an IBC full of water in the shortest time.

Glow Plug timers seem to work in a lot of different ways and add some age to them and things really get screwy. The lights on the dash are also notoriously inaccurate as to how the plugs are behaving. They are more indicators as to when you can crank the engine rather than when the plugs are lit. On my Gq, the plugs cycle on and off no matter how many times you "glow" Them till the engine is up to whatever temp the sensor wants to see. I can tell by the sound of the relays clicking and watching the interior or even the headlights dimming. Sometimes you can hear them minutes after you have lit the thing up and been driving along. On the other car they tend to heat up and drop out very quickly and don't stay on once the engine is running or the glow cycle is finished. Like most vehicles though, the plugs stay on a long time after the light goes out. As for your problem, The only thinkg can think of that makes sense is that the timer activates the plugs and then drops them out for a certain time even though the dash light comes on. Maybe when you are glowing the 2nd cycle the plugs are actually cooling off rather than kicking back in. This would be unusual in my experience bit it's the only thing that I can think of that fits what you are experiencing. It would be easy enough to get a test light and put it on the plugs and see what they are going compared to the dash light or just watch the cabin light dim and change and that may give you an idea as well. Some of these auto timers work well, I spose they all did the job when the vehicles were new but when they start playing up, Manual switches can seem a far better option and no extra trouble at all. I found it far easier to just hold a button and know the things were on as long as I held it rather than flicking the key back and forward which may not have done anything anyway if the plugs were still activated 30 sec after the light went out. I have also found some engines are much more needy of the plugs than others. My gq will start straight off if the engine has any warmth in it at all. My other car and others I have had can be hot as in turned off 10 min ago and still need glowing to start easy even though the engines are in perfect condition.

If you can, do that maybe on a bit of scrap or a short piece you can tack in or take out. I have tried that a few times before and it just seemed to make the flame go higher. It dosent seem to make the fire burn out better in the stack, just give it more velocity. I'd be interested to see how it works for you and I may have missed something but just giving you a heads up in case it doesn't work and you don't want to waste a good bit of pipe. One thing you could try is to do the holes and then put a SLIGHT restriction on the top of the flue to slow the flame down and compress it slightly in the stack. Something like just a strip of metal on the top of the flue would be enough to trial and see what happens. I'm sure there are rules and principals of combustion that apply to what we are doing and someone that knows them would be able to tell us what to do or where we are going wrong straight off. Unfortunately I have never been able to find anything basic and simplified to learn from . I like playing with fire and burners but what I have seen of the science of combustion, it's as complicated and annoying as maths when you get into it at high levels.

Yeah, It is. Especially when it comes from someone who knows. I do have a cheapy MIG. Unfortunately it's a lot the worse for wear after lending it to a bunch of people. It never came back the same for some reason. I might get it looked at and a new torch put on it or just buy something decent all together. I was thinking of a TIG because I could never properly weld things like 44 gallon drums on the bottoms and the sides without blowing them to all hell. I can run very decent welds on the thicker stuff that look text book. while I'm sure my lack of skill is a factor on the light stuff, I'm also doubly sure that the machine I have is a bit limited in it's ability in that respect as well. Oxy I can weld anything but until I can find one of those welders that run on water to make Hydrogen gas at a decent price, the bottle rent puts gas welding out of my reach. My old man has plasma that has it's own compressor. I think he said it was about $2k. He had another one before but like you say, it ran the compressor ragged and he had a good industrial one not one of those noisy Chinese things. He got an old gas tank out of a car and ran a line to that and pumped it up as well to give him more air capacity before he started. He doesn't seem to have any problems with the new one. I had a mates MIG and it was just awesome. You can cut a hole in seconds in even thickwall Fire hydrant pipe or cut sheet like it was done on a gullitine or in any shape you want. You can cut where you could never get a grinder or a saw. Sooo much better! I will have to get me a plasma even if it means replacing the compressor I have that is literally about 60 years old! Any MIG brand you reccomend?

Mate, that's excellent! As for the flame coming out the top, I have never figured that one out. I have built a load of different burners and how to make the flame burn in the chimminey, almost no matter how long it is has escaped me. I have studied Gas turbine burners as they work on a real short burning chamber for their output and I think you need pressurised air and a bit of a pressurised chamber as well. If you are going to use this for a shed heater, I wouldn't worry about the extra flame. If you put a length of flue horozontally and then duct it up and out, it will be more heat transfer area to warm the shed. Alternately, You could put another bottle on top but put a baffle in the middle to spread the flame to the outside to get more surface area again and then take the flue up. I saw that somewhere on the web some time back on a wood burner and it looked very effective. Another guy took it a step further and had a gas bottle a little way up the flue of his wood burner. He had welded in 4 3" pipes horizontally so the output from the wood burner hit and heated these tubes before going up the flue. The guy put and electric fan behind the tubes and you could see the extra heat that would have pumped out. I think I'll buy myself a Plasma cutter and maybe a TIG for Christmas so I can get a bit more serious and professional with my backyard mucking around.

Still might go to Disneyland. The kids want to see it. So many of out friends and family have been there, I'd like them to be able to see what they are talking about. I'm in a couple of minds with Vehicles atm. The mrs would like a Merc. Can't decide if she wants an E class or an ML. Both are really nice and as they both come in diesel versions I can run on oil, I don't give a damn either way. My business has taken off ridiculously and after struggling for years with being crook and poor, I now have a lot more options than I have had in a long time. I may need a van yet. If I get the Mrs a Merc then my son will probably want her car and we'll have the one He's getting in a couple of weeks spare. I wouldn't mind something nicer to drive round in than the truck around the suburbs as it can be hard work sometimes and when I go into the city to look after a couple of buildings, it literally wont physicaly fit in most of the parking bays and I have to execute a 32 point turn to get it back out! . A Musso ute may fit the bill but for the rough, beaten up, POS looking thing it is, Geez I like driving the GQ on the highway and where it is more open. It feels solid as a rock, I always feel safe driving the thing, It's never let me down save for last weekend when it blew a fuse and stopped which took me 10 min to find and fix for .20C, I run it for literally nothing and I feel comfortable in it even with the original seats everyone seems to think are lacking. My son learnt to drive in it and when I wanted him to take his mothers smaller car for his test because I thought the guy doing the test would chit a kidney if he went in the GQ, my son complained the GQ was easier to drive and he felt much more comfortable in it than the other thing with all the luxury bells and Whistles. Even my well heeled mate with his extra hotted up HSV has a healthy respect for the GQ. He might have 500 HP to my 80 but the old girl pulled his horse float out of the wet paddock ( with the horses still in it) where his thing worth 20 Times more couldn't! He does like it aside from that for it's functionality and reliability given the thing runs on garbage and will start on it even in the dead of winter. If I get something to replace it, I'll have to keep the GQ for a good while to make sure whatever else I get is actually is something I can live with.