Happy Campers

Lee (fourth from right) and Richard (third from right) at camp.

Leicester window cleaner to appear on new TV show 'Hello Campers' - A window cleaner from Leicester is hoping to climb the ladder to success on a new TV show. Lee Burbidge and his pal Richard Clues are aiming to win £1000 on the ITV challenge show 'Hello Campers'.

Lee, from Skeffington, who runs his own window cleaning business, said the show is a cross between 'Coach Trip' and 'Come Dine with Me'. The 45-year-old said: "Basically what happens is that five pairs of people - be they married couple, or friends or relatives - are taken off to another country for five days camping. "They take it in turns to cook and to provide the entertainment and they get marks. "At the end of the week the pair with the most marks wins the £1,000."

Lee said he and pal Richard, from Northampton, also a window cleaner, had a great time on the show. He said: "I am not a happy camper in fact I am not a camper of any description. "I am not good under canvas I am a hotel room man every day of the week. "The whole experience was a great laugh. We had a ball. "Everyone on the show was great. The other contestants, the crew, the producers. "I can't cook - I can burn an egg but when it came to your turn to prepare the food it was.

Lee, whose business is based on the Gorse Hill industrial estate in Leicester, is sworn to secrecy about whether they won the £1,000. He said: "People will just have to watch the series to see."

An ITV spokesman said: "Hello Campers is a new series for ITV Daytime this summer. Weekdays on ITV. "With a sprinkling of light-hearted competition, the series will see five new couples head out to a different European campsite each week, with the aim of winning a £1000 prize.

Over six weeks, the show will travel to Spain, France, Italy and Portugal with a new group of 'happy campers' arriving each week." Hello Campers starts on Monday July 27 on ITV. It will run between 4 and 5pm Monday to Friday.

A window cleaner from Northampton will star in a new reality show on ITV next week which pits campers against each other to try to win £1,000. Richard Clues, owner of R C Window Cleaning Services, admits he did not really like reality shows and that he needed a lot of convincing to take part. The show, Hello Campers, started on ITV on Monday and Richard’s episodes will be shown next week. Five pairs are sent to a European campsite and compete against each other in a series of challenges.

Mr Clues, 36, was persuaded to take part by his friend and fellow window cleaner, Lee Burbidge. “They were after window cleaners to take part and they contacted Lee through the Master Guild of Windowkeepers. He phoned me up and told me I was doing it! “I was gobsmacked, it was something that was well out of my comfort zone,” Mr Clues said.

The pair were flown out to a campsite in Tuscany. “We met up with four other couples who were either friends, husband and wife, or partners. We had activities to do in the morning as a team effort and then we had in the afternoon three groups went off for a challenge, while the other two either planned the evening’s entertainment or cooked,” he said.

“They were all different people from all different walks of life. If you judged a book by its cover you wouldn’t think that any of us would get on, but once we got talking we all got on really well. “I am still in touch with them and have been since the show was filmed - but we’ll see what they say about us next week on the show! It might all change,” he added.

The experience was one that Mr Clues says he may not want to repeat. “I was nervous all the way through. I didn’t really want to do it at first. My partner, Caroline, and I are not really fans of reality TV and I am not used to being in that situation, it was all new to me,” he said.

Lee Burbidge, behind the camera.

'Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe Gives Advice

Mike Rowe in his series on high rise window washing.

A Fan Asks Mike Rowe For Life Advice… His Response Is Truly Brilliant: Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs  is an awesome guy. He can build or fix anything, he’s very entertaining, and has a great sense of humor. Mike also tells it like it is and gives great advice to others. A fan wrote him and asked him for some career advice. Mike Rowe has featured before on the blog for his window cleaning antics here.

Hey Mike!

I’ve spent this last year trying to figure out the right career for myself and I still can’t figure out what to do. I have always been a hands on kind of guy and a go-getter. I could never be an office worker. I need change, excitement, and adventure in my life, but where the pay is steady. I grew up in construction and my first job was a restoration project. I love everything outdoors. I play music for extra money. I like trying pretty much everything, but get bored very easily. I want a career that will always keep me happy, but can allow me to have a family and get some time to travel. I figure if anyone knows jobs its you so I was wondering your thoughts on this if you ever get the time! Thank you!

- Parker Hall

Hi Parker,
 

My first thought is that you should learn to weld and move to North Dakota. The opportunities are enormous, and as a “hands-on go-getter,” you’re qualified for the work. But after reading your post a second time, it occurs to me that your qualifications are not the reason you can’t find the career you want.

I had drinks last night with a woman I know. Let’s call her Claire. Claire just turned 42. She’s cute, smart, and successful. She’s frustrated though, because she can’t find a man. I listened all evening about how difficult her search has been. About how all the “good ones” were taken. About how her other friends had found their soul-mates, and how it wasn’t fair that she had not.

“Look at me,” she said. “I take care of myself. I’ve put myself out there. Why is this so hard?”
 “How about that guy at the end of the bar,” I said. “He keeps looking at you.”
 “Not my type.”
 “Really? How do you know?”
 “I just know.”
 “Have you tried a dating site?” I asked.”
 “Are you kidding? I would never date someone I met online!”
 “Alright. How about a change of scene? Your company has offices all over – maybe try living in another city?”
 “What? Leave San Francisco? Never!”
 “How about the other side of town? You know, mix it up a little. Visit different places. New museums, new bars, new theaters…?”
She looked at me like I had two heads. “Why the hell would I do that?”

Here’s the thing, Parker. Claire doesn’t really want a man. She wants the “right” man. She wants a soul-mate. Specifically, a soul-mate from her zip code. She assembled this guy in her mind years ago, and now, dammit, she’s tired of waiting!!

I didn’t tell her this, because Claire has the capacity for sudden violence. But it’s true. She complains about being alone, even though her rules have more or less guaranteed she’ll stay that way. She has built a wall between herself and her goal. A wall made of conditions and expectations. Is it possible that you’ve built a similar wall?

Consider your own words. You don’t want a career – you want the “right” career. You need “excitement” and “adventure,” but not at the expense of stability. You want lots of “change” and the “freedom to travel,” but you need the certainty of “steady pay.” You talk about being “easily bored” as though boredom is out of your control. It isn’t. Boredom is a choice. Like tardiness. Or interrupting. It’s one thing to “love the outdoors,” but you take it a step further. You vow to “never” take an office job. You talk about the needs of your family, even though that family doesn’t exist. And finally, you say the career you describe must “always” make you “happy.”

These are my thoughts. You may choose to ignore them and I wouldn’t blame you – especially after being compared to a 42 year old woman who can’t find love. But since you asked…

Stop looking for the “right” career, and start looking for a job. Any job. Forget about what you like. Focus on what’s available. Get yourself hired. Show up early. Stay late. Volunteer for the scut work. Become indispensable. You can always quit later, and be no worse off than you are today. But don’t waste another year looking for a career that doesn’t exist. And most of all, stop worrying about your happiness. Happiness does not come from a job. It comes from knowing what you truly value, and behaving in a way that’s consistent with those beliefs.
 Many people today resent the suggestion that they’re in charge of the way the feel. But trust me, Parker. Those people are mistaken. That was a big lesson from Dirty Jobs, and I learned it several hundred times before it stuck. What you do, who you’re with, and how you feel about the world around you, is completely up to you.

Good luck - Mike

PS. I’m serious about welding and North Dakota. Those guys are writing their own ticket.

PPS Think I should forward this to Claire?

The Drop - Window Washing Reality Show

Dino Pertzoff & Mike Rowe together in Hawaii. Click to enlarge.

World wide window cleaning in Hawaii was formed by joining "Dino's window cleaning" & "the window window man" starting with 3 owners & 2 employees in 1998. Now it is the largest highrise window cleaning company in Hawaii. They have a great gallery of pictures on their website, which can be seen here. Dino Pertzoff of Worldwide has been summoned to give a few T.V. interviews since rising to fame when he was featured in Mike Rowe's "Dirty Jobs" series. There may be a reality T.V show on the horizon featuring Dino & his competitors in Hawaii, this time called "the Drop." Who knows if it makes it past it's pilot episode it could be great insight & entertainment for window cleaners... Worldwide!

"DIRTY JOBS" - Is there any job that is just off limits to the show or to Mike? Eddie Barbini (producer of "dirty jobs") - " Not really." "We haven't turned down a job yet." "Mike is always game for whatever is up as long as it's not dangerous but he walks that fine line putting himself in situations that you just think 'How is this guy going to do this?'" "Last week, what aired is the window-washing segment in Hawaii." "Mike washes windows on an over 400 foot skyscraper in Hawaii." "He washes it not in the traditional way on scaffolding but he's actually in a little swing seat that he goes down with pulleys along the side of the building." "I'll tell you that it's frightening." "Our cameraman wouldn't even go on and backed out of it." "Actually, it'll rank up there at the top as one of the dirtiest jobs even though it's not dirty in the sense of dirt but the characters are phenomenal and the experience is phenomenal and Mike is hysterical in it."

Dragon’s Den Invests in Window Cleaner

An Entrepreneur who turned his £300 window cleaning round into a million-pound empire has revealed plans for national expansion after landing £100,000 on TV’s Dragons' Den. Tony Earnshaw, 25, of Washington, will expand his industrial and commercial cleaning firm into London and Scotland with the help of TV ‘dragon’ Duncan Bannatyne, who has bought a 35% stake in the business. BBC2 viewers last night saw Tony, alongside his sales manager and long-time friend Stephen Pearsons, woo the dragons with their pitch for investment into UK Commercial Cleaning. Ultimately, despite an offer from James Caan for a 50% stake in the firm, the pair shook hands with Bannatyne who has become an adopted son of the North East through his Darlington-based leisure business.

The £100,000 investment is the latest milestone in Mr Earnshaw’s remarkable rise to success in the last five years since he left his job as a wagon driver and bought a window cleaning company for £300. As a 19-year-old, he quit his role at waste management company Biffa and proceeded to transform a window cleaning round for a handful of houses into a £6,000-a-month business in just six months. He eventually sold the company and used the funds to set up UK Commercial Cleaning, which last year generated £370,000 in revenue and is on target to make £1.5m this year. Mr Earnshaw said Bannatyne’s expertise at running a national chain, rather than his money, was the main reason why he decided to sell a bigger share in the firm than originally planned.

He said: “The show was quite scary and nerve-wrecking at times but I enjoyed it, although some of the questions were quite tough. We originally went for 20% but I would have probably gone up to 40%. “Duncan’s investment will allow us to complete our transition to being a fully national company. We now plan to open a London depot by January 2010 – without Duncan’s investment the move would not have been possible.” Mr Bannatyne, who has been in regular contact with Mr Earnshaw since the show was recorded earlier this year, said: “I invested in Tony because he has large ambition and reminds me of myself as a business man when I was younger. “His ambition is to be the biggest cleaning company in the UK, which I believe he is capable of achieving.” UK Commercial Cleaning now employs 30 people – a figure which Mr Earnshaw plans to double in the next couple of years – and has depots in Washington and Leeds. It will launch an office somewhere between Glasgow and Edinburgh in 2011 to service its ever-expanding list of clients which stretch as far as the north coast of Scotland.

More extracts here, click the links: