Idle musings...

     Well all work 'til at least Tuesday has been cancelled for the moment as the ground is rock hard with the ice and snow showing not much sign of receding as of yet. Though surprisingly, although still bereft of finances, I am coping rather mentally well at the moment.

    Today I have given the workshop clearance a miss and spent a quiet yet productive day with my G. We have booked two weeks holiday down in Cornwall for my impending month of May 'big birthday', although gawd knows how we are going to pay for it if this monetary stagnation continues. I actually braved the torturous bathroom device to weigh myself and have unexpectedly lost five pounds in weight (have not got that amount in sterling pounds) in just under two weeks, even after our visit to the chippy yesterday (miracles can happen!). I tried in vain yesterday to find any books on Tai Chi in the library as I want to find something different than my physically challenging work to help with my bodies 'modification', so I guess I will have to search the rabbit's hole of You tube for some instructional videos, though I did come away with a rather hefty tomb of one hundred classic ghost stories and a book on the Viking history of Britain.

    I have even managed today to get around Facebook's marketplace way of stopping people advertising their services, such as my own machinery servicing and repair sideline, with a cunningly worded advert. I have to admit that more and more things seem turned against the small sole trader like myself. I cannot advertise my services upon Facebook. the council has banned sole traders (well any traders) from using refuse sites, it just feels like that there is no support for small businesses like my own whilst large conglomerates can reap as much as they want from the world. Apologies as I don't usually become 'political' but sometimes frustration at the status quo gets the better of me. Anyway, already today I have the promise of three lawnmowers coming to the workshop this week, though I do not count my chickens until they indeed arrive. It appears that all the effort of late clearing part of the workspace may well begin to payoff. Hopefully this will mark the start of the Orc's Workshop becoming a profitable source of income running alongside my gardening adventures. Keeping upon this theme I have a website that I originally setup for the gardening business though I have not kept up with it for some years now. I am considering revamping the website and use it to advertise the Orc's Workshop. The workshop, in the long run is not going to be solely dedicated to garden machinery maintenance but rather split between that and other projects such as wildlife home construction (bird boxes and the like), furniture and hand tool refurbishment/upcycling. Basically using my skill set to its full limits from my engineering skills to my artistic skills. Perhaps your thoughts upon this proposed venture would be appreciated?

    So tomorrow will be spent once again in the Arctic coldness of the workshop with even more of the hokey cokey of moving, sorting and organising the sodding mess that remains there. Oh and I dug out my old bridge camera today so hopefully (after I learn to use it again) I will be able to share some half decent pictures of my adventures with you. So for now stay warm folks.

John

End of year….

    Well that's just about the end of another year and I cannot say that I am sorry to see the backside of it. It just seems to have been one of those periods of time when if it can go wrong it bloody well will do so (as have the years before it), whole heartedly arse and good riddance to it is what I say. Because I have only recently started to scribe once more on these hallowed pages the events of the last few years are not 'out there' and I don't think that I shall be trawling them up from the depths of time to recount them with you for the past is now done, the future lies ahead and the now is the important part m'thinks. If I do manage to continue scribing here I may well recount to you some of the events of the past for context to some of my tales, but we shall see.

    Tis a funny time of year this be, I am always very low at Christmas yet the few days betwixt Yule and the waxing of the New Year fill me with some hope that life will become easier but at the same time I still hear the Black Dog just whispering in my minds ear that it will never be plain sailing. Within these in-between days I have managed a couple of days of work, much to the protests of my back and knees and I am thinking that there is going to be plenty more of the same with the forecast of more stormy weather coming our way. Perhaps the northern gods have sent the storms as a reward for me not giving up as yet, or perhaps it is just global warming? Whichever it is I am grateful for the chance to earn some coppers for my purse, and I am thinking that Odin is perhaps keeping an eye out for me (well he is not likely to keep two out is he!)

    But there is indeed a decided difference to my mindset as I look to the coming year that is hard for me to put into words. But perhaps it is suffice to say that I feel within my not so youthful body, a yearning to make it better, happier and more piratey, gar. After all the Northern gods do not look fondly upon those who just lie down on life's road without a bloody good fight do they. 

    Oh and just a quick update on the Orc's Workshop, as well as some more tidying in the between days I have repaired and sold this heavy duty strimmer...

    And already have my next project on the bench, although this one is no quick fix as a total refurbishment and rebuilt is required and coupled with the fact that it was stripped to its present state at least two years ago so finding the parts and fitting them back into the puzzle should be fun, not....

    So finally it is just left for me to wish you all a New Year that smiles upon you and yours and grants you peace, health, happiness and the chance for a little piracy.

    Hopefully I will see you in the year ahead for more tall tales and unwarranted ramblings..

John

  

Oh the bloody shame of it….

     Hoping to have some respite from seasonal gluttony, my sloth like physical state induced by the usual non too healthy Christmas fare and descended relatives, I decided to take myself to the Orc’s Workshop this afternoon. This was in the forlorn hope of doing something productive and perhaps clearing my fuddled head. Unfortunately during the last few months I had taken to using the workshop as a sort of dumping ground for all manner of future projects. You see I have this addiction of ‘collecting’ items that I am sure will either come in useful, be restored for a handsome profit or just because they are nice and shiny. Surely there must be some sort medical help for such an horrendous affliction that leaves a man incapable of using his workshop for its intended purpose. Just think of the riches the scientist who came up with such a cure would be showered with, a Noble prize would be the very least of the honours bestowed upon her I am sure. And yes I did say ‘her’ for there is no possibility of a man coming up with the cure, it just goes so against the primitive man’s way of thinking I feel!

    Anyway I feel that we are losing the wind here and there is a need to get back on tac m’thinks. Opening the door to my refuge and place of deepest meditation I was confronted with this unholy and damn shameful site….

My head is bowed in shame…

    I consoled myself with the thought that at least I would not have allowed the inner sanctum (barely glimpsed on the left side of the above picture) to fall into such neglect and disarray. I mean it is the nucleus of my thinking (scheming), design (doodling), coffee imbibing, working of mechanical miracles (hitting lawnmowers with various hammers) and general brilliance (lots of swearing ). There is absolutely no way that I would disrespect the Norse gods and risk their wrath by dishonouring the inner sanctum of the Orc’s Workshop, absolutely no way at all….

Bugger..

    So it seems that my proposed birthplace of world trade domination is in a ….ahem…. a little bit of a state and is not really the place to work in comfort and in an organised manner. I thought of just retreating and closing the door behind me, perhaps hoping for an act of a certain Norse deity striking it down with his mighty hammer leaving me just to claim an exorbitant fee against the shysters from the dark shadows known as ‘insurance companies’. But then again the state of the workshop is completely down to my actions and the Norse Gods do not help those whom fail to help themselves. So rolling up my sleeves, figuratively so ‘cause without any source of heat the workshop is a bloody cold place this time of year, I cleared off the chair of meditation from its debris and set too making a plan of action. The full list that this induced is far too long for me to write here but it involves tidying and organisation (yes I know that’s bloody obvious), structural repairs, insulation (the walls are only a single course thick for Odin’s sake!), floor levelling, better workstations, improve the electrics and a friggen decent heat source.

    Oh and I did make a start upon tiding as at the very least I require a workbench on which to perform some minor miracles if the workshop is to progress…

And breathe..

    I have a sneaky feeling that the work ahead will not be without issues and certainly a lot of time will be spent moving stuff from one side of the workshop to the other for me to be able to facilitate (ooohh big word) the changing of the w’shop from its present state to a functioning area. I also know that my use of the Anglo Saxon language will give the w’shop’s air a lovely blue tint.

Til the next time stay safe and enjoy your life.

John t’ shamed