I managed to flunk the climbing test for the arborist certification for the second time today.
Not because I can't climb,or didn't have CE marked gear, but because I got in a fight with the censor.
They stuck me with a guy I simply can't stand. A little gnomish neo-hippie type who traips around in the woods barefoot and collects birch sap, which he sells to yogic/vegan/whatever restaurants.
You can imagine how well a hard core logger and a neo hippie can communicate, right.
He started out telling me and the guy doing the groundie exam that he didn't want us to talk to each other, then flunks me for not giving enough instructions to the groundie.
Complains that my SRT system is non lowerable, then when I told him to shut the F up, since I sent a written question last year about whether it was mandatory and was told it isn't, he starts talking in circles about how one should and could do it anyway.
So I told him that I probably knew more about lowerable systems than he did, but since it wasn't mandatory, the question was moot.
He talked and talked in circles about all kind of crap for so long that when I finally got into the tree, most of the allotted time was gone and I had to hustle.
Had one more branch to prune, on the opposite side of the canopy when they tell me I have 1½ minutes left.
So I simply swing through the canopy, run out the branch and make it on time, only to be told that the swing was " uncontrolled"
Finally they flunked me for not vocalizing enough about what I was doing and why, so I told then I was under the impression that I was doing a climbing test, not a fuggen talk show, and if they wanted me to "vocalize" why the F not simply say so instead of leaving it to me to guess what they wanted from me.
All in all it didn't end well.
I'll make a formal complaint tomorrow and most likely have another try in Germany or England.
Sorry for the rant, I just had to get it out of the system.
Man, I haven't been this pissed off for years.
.
.
