16/10/1999 - We started the day with a quick trip to Projex in Wairau Road to pick up a grunty wee petrol powered Stihl Hedge Trimmer then stopped off at Mum & Dads to borrow a much too short ladder. The students in the flat up at 199 made the tatical blunder of partying noisely until 0400 so, after allowing the clock to tick over to 0900 so as to NOT upset the other neighbors we cranked up the hedge trimmer and went to work.
As the trimmer weighed in around the 6-7Kg mark (depending on the amount of gas burnt) I got lumped with the trimming while Fleur directed, cleared the trimmings (supposedly J) and mowed the lawns.
We started at the back of the house (in between us and the neighbors at 199), not so much as a payback - but more as an experimental testing ground - where it wouldn't matter so much if I couldn't cut a straight line (honest! you do believe me right?).
The area behind the old vege garden turned out to be quite a challenge, coupled with the amount of crap in the hedge ranging from wire grating to a No.8 fence of some great vintage I was also contending with foot placement so as to not kill Fleurs mums plants which were dug into the garden below and also ensuring that I didn't drop too much foliage on the aforementioned succulents and that which did fall was removed carefully so as to not pull the plants out with the hedge trimmings <phew!>
The hardest piece however was the road frontage, and since I was working logically around the garden it was the last piece to be attacked, yet it was the highest (especially on the road side) and this is where Fleur the ladder holder came in useful (though I did biff her in the swede a couple of times with the trimmer as I descended the ladder - sorry floss!).
By this stage we'd been at it for 3 hours or so, the trimmer seemed 4 times heavier and I was practically lying in the hedge, on the top rung of the ladder, swinging the trimmer blindly above my head to top the growth (I'm sure my Mum & Dad would have had a word or seventy to say about using the right tools for the job - however it was their ladder we were using so until they buy me a bigger one (Christmas and birthday is coming up guys) we'll just have to suffer).
The finished product looked pretty good but boy did the bodies take a hammering! My legs were all scratched to hell from leaning into the recently cut branches and my back was as red as a very very red thing (damn that ozone hole). But still, $45.00 for the hireage of the trimmer which included gas, 2 layers of skin, 3 weeks of scratched legs and a galacticly sore back.
Full credit to the guys at Projex who took the time to instruct us in the operation of the trimmer and were even kind enough to look surprised when we arrived back early (but completely shagged) to return the trimmer.