What made you feel good today?

[tommyardin]

lol im the same mate. I went back on site three years ago after the shoulder op, but all these three storey houses they build now have high density concrete blocks in he jack walls, and working off the deck on the ninth and final course I was pushing the mortar off the top of the eighth course coz I couldn't push it high enough with my weak shoulder. I was twice the age of the next oldest brickie in the gang (it was a 6 and 2 doing a lift a day), and trying to prove I could still cut it, but after three months the decision was made for me. Id been to thetford and paid fifty quid to take a fifty question test for my general site safety ticket, but it only lasted three months then I had to get a bricklaying specific one. conversation between me and the spotty young HSE officer on site went as follows..
HSE "you need to go back to Thetford and get your bricklaying site safety ticket..2
ME "Really? Christ anither fifty quid!!"
HSE "Actually its £1200 if you've never held one before, unless you can prove your qualifications"
ME "I did a three year ****ing apprenticeship with my dad in the seventies ..good enough?"
HSE" was it NVQ learning pathways?"
ME " Oooh..sounds pretty f***ing fancy...I have no idea what that is, though to be honest im fairly sure such a thing didn't exist back in the old days when you was judged on nothing more than how reliable and clean a trowel you was. It was City and guilds, which I thought was pretty much the benchmark"
HSE " Err no...not any more. the only way you could be accepted now was if you submit to ongoing NVQ site assesments of your work, which you'll have to pay for"
ME "  Wel..B***ocks to that old son!. ...over the last forty years I've built more houses than you've had w**nks you irritating little twat...best for both of us I go back to jobbing I think…"


Im fairly sure he thought it was best I did too..

I left school in 1962 aged 15 did a year as an improver tool maker, but the soluble cutting oil did not suit me and made me poorly.
I then did a 6 month trial with a building company on approval as a bricklayer, then started a full apprenticeship in my trade, working 4 days a week on site and one day a week at Guildford Technical College.
My apprenticeship along with the 6 months approval was 3.5 years, I continued working for the company for a year after finishing my apprenticeship before going self employed and chasing the £'s from site to site.
My qualification now according to NVQ is worth very little, not that I give a toss one way or another as I haven't laid a brick now for 3 years and no one is going to offer an old git like me a start on a site now anyway. :lol