how to construct a crane

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the day started with our now usual weekend routine of tidying the house for an open home.   although today jane had a chance to go for a run and the rest of us had a bit of a lie in.

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then we headed in to town to go up the sky tower.   first of all we went to a food court near my office where jane, esther and i had korean fodder and kezia went for a chicken burger from the kebab kiosk.  then the weather cleared up a bit so we went up the tower

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we didn’t see any firemen but there were plenty about

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after that we had a wander round the shops of auckland before heading exhausted home

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this evening we had debbie and warren and laura to watch a Mike Leigh film to learn them about proper britain.

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and as for the crane …

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have you ever wondered how they put cranes up?  i have.  and today, whilst we were at the top of Sky Tower we got to watch some of the process.

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we watched the lifting of the long sticky bit and its associated attachment, and then the beginning of the loading of the concrete ballast

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first contact …

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once the arm was attached they strung it up before the blue lifting crane released let it free

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and then a chap walked to the far end of the long arm whilst they rotated it to start loading in the concrete.  all interesting stuff

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so there you go.  i found it fascinating.  the ladies weren’t quite so impressed but let me watch it whilst they played eye-spy and ate ice creams.