TRADIE (1)

A tradie is a colloquial term used in New Zealand and Australia for a skilled (male or female) builder, mechanic, plumber, plasterer, bricklayer, landscaper, roofer or electrician. 
Having a coffee with a tradie builder Campbell Forlong at The Hut Cafe recently was an insightful experience. The back story to his current career is that he came from a family of farmers and business people. Initially, he felt ‘intimidated’ by his wife Lorraine’s family of tradies  (mechanics, glaziers and builders). 
Little by little he observed tradies working with their hands to restore, renovate and create something that was needed. Perhaps a seed of opportunity began to grow for him. Campbell then got some part time work as a labourer for a day a week. In his own words, he says, 
“I discovered I could learn to build. Out of this came a dream, a desire to one day build my own house. At this time I was doing church and community work. Sometime during my 50th year I thought if I had my life over again, I would be a farmer or a builder. At 54 years of age in 2020, Lorraine and I moved to Raglan. (Previous to that in 2017, they purchased land there). I rang a mate to ask him if he wanted to help me build my own house.” 
So in 2021… Next weeks blog story is about hard work, success and reward, relationships and Campbell’s book, FIFTY TWO Birth of a Soul Runner.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SHARING KINDNESS with the WORLD

Since starting my kindness blog in March 2023 and sending it firstly to family and friends in New Zealand, today, readers in 75 countries have read my blog. I continue to write what I think people need, not what they necessarily want.  Starting with my own country, the list begins…New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, China, Nepal, Russia, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal, Lithuania, Serbia, Albania, Uzbekistan, Kryrgyzstan, Czechia, Bosnia/Hertzegovina, Hungary, Germany, France, Netherlands, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Armenia, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, USA, Jamaica, Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Equador, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, UAE, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa....
Read more

GRANDMAS and GRANDKIDS

Grandmas are everywhere. I’m married to one. Their many kindnesses to their grandchildren are honoured in this blog post.  Let me start with my grandma in Auckland. Grandma Webb would host her six grandchildren every Friday night for fish and chips, followed by calcium cookies for dessert. This can’t have been easy for her as we weren’t always on our best behaviour! My mum would let our daughters do baking, preparing cookies for the oven on her kitchen floor (covered with newspapers). They would create a tray each and according to mum were always perfect. With mums help they also created their own oil paintings.  My wife Val (Marzie or Jamma to her eight grandchildren) has spent countless hours over the years with them. Our oldest grandchild Jackson was picked up after school and did his homework with her. They have enjoyed many cafe breakfasts together and Jackson has never turned the offer of a breakfast or brunch down. Now, Jackson’s sport is MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) Val me...
Read more

A bit BROKEN

Life can be extra tough at times, as we all know too well.  I remember talking with a friend a few years ago and he said, “You know Steve, we’re all a bit broken.” His insightful comment made me think that we need to stop pretending that things are ‘tickety-boo’ when they are not. Be real, ask for help and let people be kind to you.  I used to tell a story to audiences about a girl I knew who was hit by a runaway car and tragically died a few hours later. She was sitting next to me on a bank and I felt the wind of the car as it smashed into her. I was 10 years old and she was a similar age.  After the story telling I spoke with the audiences about life being precious and to spend all the time we possibly could with our children.  One year I told this story (titled ‘And the car came down’) to an audience of refugee teachers at a refugee centre in Cape Town, South Africa. For the first time ever, I had to stop speaking as warm tears filled the bottom edge of my gl...
Read more