» Tightwads

The case of the falling forklift!
Just remembered this!

My cousin buys 2nd hand forklifts from China/Japan/Whereever, imports them here in Macedonia, has them completely refurbished (you'd think they're new, even after you've had a decent look) and sells them on. Pretty good work, he makes a fair bit of dosh.

Anyway, a few years ago, there was some sort of industry expo in town, and he had a bunch of forklifts on display, and what's even better, he managed to sell them all during the expo.

One of the forklifts was purchased by a guy who was apparently not comfortable with paying an extra 50 euros for having the forklift delivered to a specific location on a lorry specifically equipped for this task. No, he decided that after spending roughly 8000 euros on a ginormous forklift, spending another 50 to have it delivered was too much.

So, he finds some really, really old pickup truck and has the forklift loaded on top. For a few seconds he felt really smug. Until the suspension on one side of the truck completely collapsed, the entire truck tipped over, and the forklift quite ceremoniously fell over a car that was parked next to the truck. I can imagine that the damage to the forklift, the POS truck that he hired, and the car that the forklift fell onto was substantially more than the price of delivery.

Awesome.
(Wed 29th Oct 2008, 14:23, More)

» Have you ever seen a dead body?

Bodies..
This might turn out to be a long one.. So apologies in advance..

A bit of back story is necessary..

My mum had a sister, a few years younger. At some point, she had contracted lung cancer, and after a somewhat extended battle, passed away. I was a wee nipper of maybe 5 years old, so I wasn't really aware of what's going on. My cousin however, my mom's sister's kid, three years older than me, was very aware of that. He was going through a rough period.

A few years after my aunt passed away, my uncle temporarily (fuck temporarily, about 5-6 sodden years) moved to Ze Fatherland (Germany) as an illegal worker, in order to have the money to support his kid, and hopefully provide a better life.

My cousin, during that time lived with my Grandmother, my parents accepted him as their own, and I accepted him as my brother. My cousin and my grandmother had a number of huge fights, but they did love each other. She was with him every step of the way during his most difficult years. She was there to give him proper advice, feed him and take care of him. She was there when we found out that he was shooting up regularly, and she was the one that provided the most support for him to clean up his act. With the support of the family, but mostly my grandmother, he cleaned up sharpish, found a job and eventually became a better person all around.

When my uncle returned, my cousin went back with him, etc etc, now they've got their own wood-processing company, things aren't that bad. Business is slow, but they manage.

March 10th last year, my grandmother passed away. Her heart had been very weak for a few years, and to some extent, we had all expected it. It was a Saturday morning, we went to her place after a close friend of hers that had keys to her apartment had called us. She had a heart attack at some point during the night. My father and I sorted out the funeral details while my mother prepared her. The funeral was to be on Sunday.

During all of this, I managed to remain calm. I was reasonably close to my grandmother, but I kept my emotions under control.

My cousin arrived that night. Because he and his father live somewhat far, it took them a few hours. We had a few beers in grandma's honour, and prepared for the funeral.

The next day, during the funeral, a slight drizzle started.. As my grandmother's casket was being lowered into the ground, my cousin started crying. It was obvious that the loss was much greater for him than for any one of us. Having lost his mother at a very young age, my grandmother was his mother, a person that he really, truly loved, possibly more than any of us. It is then, that I started crying, because I knew that my grandmothers life had influenced us all, especially my cousin in a way that we'll always appreciate.

The one year anniversary of her death is coming up.. We all miss you gran..
(Fri 29th Feb 2008, 15:48, More)

» Pet Stories

My lazy cat..
His name is Aggy (well, originally Argus, but he was way too cute). He's lazy, dumb as feck - he regularly falls of places where he sleeps, my father ran over him (twice), once over his whole back end, and he's peachy, once over his tail, which ended up bald, but has re-grown fur now.

Anyway.. he's awesome, in many ways. Mainly because he's so dumb, it's cute.


(Thu 14th Jun 2007, 15:38, More)

» Accidental animal cruelty

De-balled..
I had my cat castrated yesterday.

Not accidental, for his own good really..

Poor bugger.

EDIT: This is him: tb.polygonized.com/misc/Aggy_garage.jpg
(Thu 13th Dec 2007, 8:27, More)

» My Collection

I completely forgot!
To post about my beercan & booze bottle collection during my days at uni.

During the first year of uni, I used to collect beer cans with my flatmate, and they were neatly stacked in one corner of my room. At one point, I had around 350 0.33l cans, and I was actually going to build a beer wall along one of my walls.

Well, that was the plan, anyway.

So after a while, I was going to have new carpeting in my room. Couldn't be bothered to take all the cans out, and then all the cans back in, so after a few trips to the trash containers, they were all gone. Felt a bit empty without them, really.

Also, over the four years in Uni, me and my flatmate had collected a bunch of really nice booze bottles. When moving out, we had to clean out the appartment, so the bottles had to go. Some of them had a bit of booze left, including a bottle of Martini Extra Dry, which nobody drank as it tasted foul and smelled like Pino Silvestre..

I also collected bus tickets. I had told my group at uni that I collect bus tickets. After a few years, I had a large box full of them. They too went in the bin when I moved out.
(Mon 15th Jan 2007, 15:09, More)