Just saying Hello....

Hello :slight_smile:

Just introducing myself.

Can I just tell you how i got here? Thanks:)

Well, up to last year, November, I was in Spain. I had been there for 13 years. I was working as a guitarist/singer/entertainer.
I loved it. The money was good (1200 euros a week, yes…a week) the crack was good, and I was with a slim, shaggy blonde hair, suntanned, white teeth, wonderful woman.
Times were good
Then…the slim blonde turned into a effin nutter (Not a surprise really, She´d been doing it for a while) Split up.
Jobs started to be less and less, and it came to the point where I couldn´t pay my rent. This process took about ten years, totally because of the “Credit Crunch”
A happy smiley title for some thing that ruined millions of peoples lives.

I phoned my sister, in UK. I said I need to come back… She said…here´s your plane ticket (on the´net)

I came to London, to my sisters house. Now, it´s a nice big house, and she´s just had a huge loft conversion done. Yep, that´s me. Top floor, looks like I´m living in IKEA! But it does had its own bathroom/shower :slight_smile:

So, here I am. London. Age 60. No skills. Ex military surveyor, ex Class 2 driver, ex Commercial Diver (plus explosives), ex Steel Erector/Rigger, but no certified skills.
What to do.

When I went to sign on (A nightmare, don´t get me started, no money for 14 weeks) I eventually wound up with a lovely work coach who thought it was her job to help me and NOT to just knock back every suggestion, or plea for help, that I made (Unlike my first work coach).
This woman actually offered me useful things!
So I did a NVQ in Health and Social Care
Applied for jobs, got interviews, no go because I have no character references.
Ok, bin that idea.
Back to see my work coach.
That very day they had some people in the Job Centre (Hackney) doing a presentation for HCT (Hackney Community Transport). These people give you everything you need up to, but not including, a PCV/HGV test. So basically a Medical and a CPC.
I went to see them in the floor below my signing floor.
No prresentation, just a kinda informal chat. I told the lovely woman there that I USED to have an HGV 2
She asked why I don´t have it anymore.
I said it had expired
She said they don´t expire, just get your medical and CPC, with us, and you get your licence back.
I said WHAAAAT?

Next week I start the CPC, get my medical, and start looking for jobs.

Good news eh? :smiley:

Anyways, hello to all, and get ready for some totally newboy questions from me. I shall, of course, expect some totally idiotic replies :slight_smile:

steviespain:
I shall, of course, expect some totally idiotic replies :slight_smile:

You’ll not be disappointed my good man :smiley: , but of course welcome! Hold on and enjoy the ride.

The LGV licence never expires - just the medical which allows you to use that licence … and, of course, the driver cpc which allows you to use that licence commercially

állo
Thanks for the replies, and the welcome.

Yeah, regarding the licence thing…
It was back in the 80s and I´d been driving one of those concrete delivery wagons for a couple of years. The area manager guy dropped in to see me. He said “Stew, I´ve been told to tell you that your licence has expired, and we´re gonna have to let you go”
Now, I suspect that he´d been told that my MEDICAL had expired but got it wrong on the day. He was a bit of a dipstick.
If that had been the case then I would have got my medical and probably have still been there.

Then I would have missed out on becoming a commercial diver (Lots of beer tokens, bit scary sometimes), then a steel erector/rigger (Even more beer tokens, not scary), then a professional musician (Less beer tokens, scary yet awesome at the same time), and travelling the world.

Now I get that licence back when I need it the most.

Not bad, really, eh?
Big effin smiles from me all week.

Settles back to do a job search
:smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

steviespain:
Yeah, regarding the licence thing…
It was back in the 80s and I´d been driving one of those concrete delivery wagons for a couple of years. The area manager guy dropped in to see me. He said “Stew, I´ve been told to tell you that your licence has expired, and we´re gonna have to let you go”
Now, I suspect that he´d been told that my MEDICAL had expired but got it wrong on the day. He was a bit of a dipstick.
If that had been the case then I would have got my medical and probably have still been there.

Can’t quite understand this. If you are 60 now, and you had a full LGV C (Class 2) licence at the time then your first age-related medical shouldn’t have been due until 2003. I can’t see any reason why either your licence or medical would have expired in the 1980s.

I´ve been racking my memory to try and remember the circumstances, and my memory REALLY isn´t the best, but here´s what I do remember.

Passed my Class 2 age 18, in the army, 1975. (■■■■, I´ve just realised, I´m 61!)
I vaguely remember, now, that at the time, I was told it had to be renewed every 5 years. It was the old grey booklet style.
I don´t remember anything being said about dates/renewals etc when I started work, so I just carried on working.

Hmm, maybe Area Manager guy WAS right and it WAS the licence that had expired. It was def more than 5 years since I had passed the test.
Maybe I just needed to renew the physical cardboard booklet thing.
But I don´t see a reason for them to ´Let me go´. Probably just didn´t like my sparkling personality :slight_smile:

steviespain:
Then…the slim blonde turned into a effin nutter (Not a surprise really, She´d been doing it for a while) Split up.

Did she get the Volvo then?

Nah, but she did take me bike and me trolley that I used to hump my P.A. system into venues. She was a B****, really.

steviespain:
állo
Thanks for the replies, and the welcome.

Yeah, regarding the licence thing…
It was back in the 80s and I´d been driving one of those concrete delivery wagons for a couple of years. The area manager guy dropped in to see me. He said “Stew, I´ve been told to tell you that your licence has expired, and we´re gonna have to let you go”
Now, I suspect that he´d been told that my MEDICAL had expired but got it wrong on the day. He was a bit of a dipstick.
If that had been the case then I would have got my medical and probably have still been there.

Then I would have missed out on becoming a commercial diver (Lots of beer tokens, bit scary sometimes), then a steel erector/rigger (Even more beer tokens, not scary), then a professional musician (Less beer tokens, scary yet awesome at the same time), and travelling the world.

Now I get that licence back when I need it the most.

Not bad, really, eh?
Big effin smiles from me all week.

Settles back to do a job search
:smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Welcome to the forum Stevie/ Stew, you will find quite a few posters like yourself on here nowadays. :smiley:

Thanks MM, glad to be here. :slight_smile:
I intend to be a fully participating member, too. None of that lurking around ■■■■■ :smiley: