When your best mate/worker turns out to be a bit of a “Galah”

General Discussion
1

When your best mate/worker turns out to be a bit of a  “Galah”

 

After a few tallies of VB (Australian Beer) Melly and I decide to go for a Sunday drive, we ended up at a large shopping complex. After a bit of cruising around we strolled into a pet shop to check it out. 

 

Funny place to meet you eventual best mate, I know. After doing the rounds of the shop we bumped into him, we hit it off straight away. He was quite a little fella but seamed to have a lot of go about him.

 

His name was Oscah and was from out of town. Anyway he was desperate for a place to stay.

 

I was cool with it and after twisting my beautiful Melly’s arm she agreed he could stay in our spare room.

Oscah was younger then me, and didn’t work. After a while he followed me around like a bad smell. He looked up to me a bit I think. He even wanted to go to work with me… After some consideration I agreed, yes you can hang around.

 

Fast-forward a couple of years and after watching me shape hundreds of boards. Its fare to say at this point in time he has become my best mate.

 

He decides he wants to try his hand (I say that loosely) at shaping.

Anyway, what’s a bloke to do, I Love the little fella. After he totally butchered 5-6 blanks (None worth glassing) I set him straight. Mate you just don’t have the hand eye thing going on, you know! You can’t shape here anymore.

 

Quite frankly, he was the worst shaper I’d ever seen. It’s like he’s a bit autistic or something. I don’t know.

 

I don’t think he was to bummed. He was still free to roam in and hang out on his own accord.

You know what, I really enjoyed his company. It kind of gets lonely in your bay and he’s always good for a chat.

 

…Anyway, I’d like you to meet my best mate Oscah. He’s a cool little dude. I think you’ll like him.

 

Oh, he’s to the left of the screen, got a punk thing going on with his head. Legend!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rXE7vZ3JU0

 

"footage and editind by my beautiful Melly"

 

Cheers

 

Yorky

2

Sweet! I want a parrot for my shaping bay. Can he fly or are his wings clipped? And the dust doesn’t bother him at all?

 

3

Yorky your the man!

I like your work flow.

The Bird is Classic.

Now I get it!

Surfding

You don't need a machine you are a machine!

4

Here’s mine:

 

 

Pretty much the same except mine works on batteries, and color, of course. But he does repeat (twice) everything you say or every sound in the shop for that matter. And he flaps his wings at the same time. I think that Ambrose, Paul (Jensen) and Afoaf may have seen (and heard) him. No nickname as of now, though… If anybody wants to make a suggestion?

5

Hey yorky, i saw a guy walking his parrot the other day near my house. Was sitting on his shoulder while he walked with his missus. Classic!

 

Cool vid mate!

6

Hello Freshwatersurf,

Can he fly or are his wings clipped? And the dust doesn’t bother him at all?

**
**

I kept his wings so he could fly but not up, like

horizontal.

 

As for the dust, well it pisses me off so I reckon he spent a lot more time then most birds cleaning. I have a pretty powerful extraction set-up (you can see it in the far top of the screen) but you know shaping bays it everywhere really.

 

As Oscah grew older we put had his cage outside and rarely closed it. He would literally follow me in, and stay in there till I’d finish work. The door was kept ajar. He could come and go, which he often did... But mate, he really wanted to be in there with me... Even though I trod on him a few times! He used to walk/run in and say Har-lo, Har-lo. Then up he would climb or circle around my feet till I picked him up.

 

I'm an animal lover myself and It may well look cruel, or ego driven, you know "I've got a parrot on my shoulder while I work" kind of thing. But it was not like that at all.

 

Thanks** surfding**,

 

Mate if I could have a shaping machine in my back yard also. I tell you what, It wouldn't get cob-webs.

 

Yorky

7

Hello Balsa,

 

No nickname as of now, though… If anybody wants to make a suggestion?

 

I’m just about to get grilled, I can feel it.

Ok, then. I’m open to it!

 

Yorky

 

8

BeerFan,

 

There is a guy getting around Byron Bay with a Ferret on his shoulder, raggedy looking youngish bloke. Complete with shit and all.

 

9

Haha that would be plain weird just about anywhere, but not byron haha. Shit and all? that's gross!

10

Yorky you have the Ideal set-up to work from Home. Zero overhead! For someone like yourself you don't need a machine. However has you get older and your son needs more of your time you may consider owning one and installing it at home with sound board. Tim Carroll (Great Shaper) who has a house at SUNSET has his APS 3000 in his back yard in a out building. Never has to drive to work. Having a personal machine for your on use could be pretty cool for your set-up. There are a lot of machines out there not in operation. $0.60 on the $1.00 deals are out there. The economy will improve by March 2010 I believe so now is not a bad time to pull the trigger. I wouldn't buy new because like I said there are a lot of machines out there that  are undervalued. With a machine work 2 days and surf five! LOL!

Plus with a good vacuum system your bird will stay clean.

 

Cheers,

Surfding

11

Surfding,

               I here you mate and you are spot on, I don’t want to shape from scratch till I’m old and warn out. 2 days on and 5 days off, sounds damn good to me.

12

By the way, when I said Oscah Tried his hand at shaping. I was implying he chewed the shit out of at lease 5 blanks, some were already shaped!

He’d bite off lots of little chunks until there would be 8" off a nose, 5" off a tail, etc.

 

Yorky

13

Yorky- your little mate is cool!  Is he an African Gray parrot?  A friend of mine had a bilingual talking parrot who would pretend he was a telephone and go "beep beep beep", make the ringing noise, and then answer.  haha.

your shaping vid is sweet too.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rfGEtALHYs

14

Hello etherealprodigy,

 

**Is he an African Gray parrot?**

 

No he’s actually a "Galah", they’re very common around the Australian east coast.

 

Also quite cheap to buy. I’d Love to get an African Grey, We priced them and they’re about $4000 AU each.

 

Amazing birds though.

 

Oscah could say a dozen or so words. There classic hey.

 

**your shaping vid is sweet too.**

 

Thanks a lot, I hope a few people new to shaping can get some direction out of it. Everyone has his or her own method though, what ever you feel comfortable with.

 

Check this African Grey... Amazing!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rfGEtALHYs

 

Yorky

 

15

Oops. I just saw you put the same link up that I just did.