But first...
Dulltown, UK: Today's oath comes from my book on swearing, Bozzimacoo... (1975) by Mary Marshall.
'Hell! Said the Duchess...' An oath apparently popular during World War 1.
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Yes, it was yesterday, was it yesterday?
Yes it was.
Was yesterday a Sunday? It was a fasting day for me then - I'm always unusually busy on a fasting day - don't eat, just do things! I started off by doing a reasonably interesting thing on this here blog with bits pinched from an old book, the Daily Express Enquire Within 1934. As I was doing that, I was also thinking about the post I showed you the day before, the one with a large pastel and ink drawing/painting with several bland colours and black outlines in it. Click. I also put the image of it onto Flickr too - and people seemed to like it very much, people do seem to like pretty things I suppose - so, sipping at my second cup of green tea of the day, I was feeling cheered up, and was thinking of perhaps doing a second version of that pastel one - but now with the dragged colours being in a couple of rough geometric shapes - perhaps a square and a circle - yes, that would do! It all went fairly well, and the radio was on, and being a fairly simple work I had it finished by late in the afternoon.
As I was about to switch the studio/workshop lights out, and bugger off, I noticed, on a dusty low shelf, with some old stuff on it, some big castors, wheels - four of 'em - where did they come from? I must have had them for years, they are big and heavy - should I throw them out? I glanced across at my drawing table, and then, next to it, is a square metal box with three drawers in it - it used to be part of an ancient office-type desk - a bit like a stocky filing cabinet I suppose. Ah, what a good idea! If I put the castors on the bottom of the cabinet, it could be wheeled about, and be more handy, and manageable, for doing arty things. That wouldn't take long - no Dave, don't go and have a nap - just bung the wheels on the box...
So, I removed, pulled out, the three full drawers and turned the thing upside down - gosh it's a very heavy bugger - metal, steel, you see! Oh, what an awful noise it makes being pulled across the hard floor - see, look, pieces of old wood fastened onto the bottom, they should come off easily enough - cross-head screws, four or five pieces of wood - two of them hard wood - I wonder who put these on? Oh, I did, at least twenty years ago - the screws came out easily, but these four blocks of wood, about four inches long, that it used to stand on, don't have any visible screws in them - gosh, it's getting hot in here! I think I'll take my artist's smock off! How can these bits of wood not have any screws in them? Who put these one? Well; I suppose I did, a long long time ago - perhaps they are glued to the metal? Glued to the metal? Yes, they are glued to the metal... Bugger! Epoxy resin glue too, by the look of it! And I thought this little project was going so well - try hitting them with a hammer. Argh! No, being a large metal box it is horribly loud - like a resounding bass drum - think of the poor neighbours next door! Boom, boom, boom, it goes - no, no, I just can't do that! Bugger! I wish I'd never started on this bloody thing! I finally, with much swearing, I slowly sliced the wood away with a wood chisel, and then snapped bits off with a Mole Wrench, and with the rubs of a rough rasp. Ha! It took about an hour. I was sweaty. Now what? Well, just drill four holes in the metal for the castor's bolts to fix into. They need to be about a centimetre in diameter - a centimetre, that's big - better start with a few small bits first - oh god! No!... The metal being drilled is screaming like a stuck pig! What a terrible row! Oh, think of the poor neighbours!... I was embarrassed, I must have an apologetic word with them later on...
Putting the castors, with their bolts, and nuts, in place, was, surprisingly, quite easy. Phew!...
Perhaps, dear reader, you might like to see my easily moveable work surface, and its trendy arts-drawers?
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