The death of a friend & my new life on a construction site 🔆🎥⚠️ Happy birthday me!

Work has finally begun on the UK's most advanced solar farm just outside York where I will be based till September, filming its construction using time-lapse techniques and drones.

To give you an idea of scale it takes me almost two hours to walk around the perimeter of the site. The brown fields below show only the centre of it.

This is what it looked like on Google Earth two months ago, before they killed the grass.

And here you can see our plan for the finished site.

I have been in the UK 5 weeks already getting the legal obligations of flying a drone out of the way, so am excited now to be finally starting what I came here to do.

Birthdays & Deathdays

Today is my 43rd birthday yet I feel a bit lost because last week one of my most amazing friends died suddenly from a caner in his liver which triggered multiple organ failure. He was diagnosed only a few weeks ago, so it has been quite a shock. He was misdiagnosed at Christmas and there is some fuss being made now over NHS negligence but I'm not going to get into all that. He has left his body and no amount of finger pointing will bring him back.

He is the big guy serving up the meat.

His name was John-Paul Habermann, originally from Germany he came to England in his twenties as a chef hoping to sell his unique sausages here. I met him in 1999 at a time in his life when he was able to move production out of his house, into his first dedicated sausage factory and have watched his business grow and grow since then. His company now provides all the best restaurants in the South of England.

I realise the irony of a skinny vegan being best friends with an overweight sausage maker. My friendship with him taught me many things, the least of which was that we cannot change anyone except ourselves.

His third and largest factory is in Kent where I spent a few weeks four years ago to make this time-lapse film as a gift for him.

JP and I lived together on and off for many years in a number of different houses around London. His special kind of humour and immense German drive was very infectious to be around. He refused to get on planes but still managed to visit us in the South of France a few years ago.

Bless him he brought an entire suitcase of sausages which were distributed amongst my new french family.

We also went to stay with him in the UK where he took my family & I for a ride on his new boat.

It was a beautiful day Sabrina & I enjoyed very much. Shame Esteban was only one year old, he will likely not remember it.

I relied on him like a father for advice and guidance in matters of business and he surprised me in so many ways with unexpected acts of kindness & generosity which went above and beyond.

To give you an idea of his sense of humour and detachment from history, he agreed to take on an acting role in a British porn film I made for Playboy TV, playing a Nazi general. It wasn't easy to find a costume shop which catered for his size, but we got there in the end and he played his part wonderfully!

I feel sad today because I would normally speak to him on my birthday and I was really looking forward to great times in the future with him. He invested heavily into crypto three years ago and intended to retire next year when crypto goes to the moon. And now there is the frustrating question of what happens to his crypto if he was the only person with the keys? Two weeks isn't long to get ones affairs in order. Especially given his condition.

Shortly before he died he was visited by a friend who was able to get only the following words out of him before he was sedated:

"It hurts so much"

I am haunted by these words now, though I know in time the feeling will fade.

Am happy at least there is no more pain and from his new vantage point he is more with me than he has ever been. The non physical realm is a real place. It is THE real place. This place we call life is the dream... and from dreams we must always wake.

I will be with him again when my dream here is done.

And there is no hurry ;)

It has been noted that sitting down and writing this article has helped me feel better. Thank you Steem, Whaleshares, Weku & Bearshares!

Love and Light everyone 🙏🏻

Who is @samstonehill?

He was a London based filmmaker until he sold everything and set out on a barefoot journey around the world, currently based in the south of France.

He is travelling with his partner & two children and with no bank account he has been living on STEEM & crypto for over a year.

All content created for this account is 100% original (unless otherwise stated), produced by @samstonehill who invites you to use & share freely as you wish.

Sam is the creator of:

The Aspiring Steemit Whales & Dolphins group on Facebook which seeks to help newcomers make the transition from Facebook to Steemit, providing them with detailed notes and personal assistance with their posts... resteeming them when he can.

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@teamsteem @timcliff @jesta @good-karma @someguy123 @blocktrades @pfunk @klye @krnel @blueorgy @ausbitbank @thecryptodrive @ura-soul @pharesim

Without them our beloved Steemship would not fly.

Learn what this means HERE and place your vote HERE

All non original photo sources can be found by clicking on the image