Oh Bruvver!

Regular Blogreaders will know that I am an Essex girl and proud of this – and have a soft spot for others from my home county [eg Jamie Oliver]

But Bob stumbled across anuvver Essex bloke recently. It was a Monday and Bob was relaxing in front of the TV, channel hopping, and came across Rico Daniels. Rico was born in Basildon, worked as a civil servant, became a Hell’s Angel,then a Guardian Angel [vigilante biker] and now…

The Salvager [originally shown on Discovery, now Freeview on Quest] is a crazy programme where this guy turns other people’s scrap into usable furniture. He buys things for a song from reclamation yards and charity shops and creates reasonable items at a fraction of the cost of buying new [Kirstie Allsopp please note – you do NOT have to spend £100s at Ardingly Antiques Fair or Park Royal Architectural Salvage]

And he knows what he is talking about when it comes to tools and woodwork etc [my grandfather was a carpenter] and he is funny. But his Essex accent is so thick you could cut it wiv a knife. He even makes Jamie sound refined!

Rico now lives in France and the current series is called Le Salvager.

It really is salvage – he took a load of old shoes and used the leather from them to make a headboard for his bed. He builds wardrobes from old doors, tables from scrap…

And despite his rough and ready manner, he is very careful to stress health and safety issues [I love his steampunk goggles]

And I love the fact that the word salvage has the same root as the word salvation. Taking that which others discard as worthless and making it into something beautiful and useful, and giving it a whole new life.