Back to work

We are all back to work or school today, except Maggot 2 who has 2 days of Inset.

This means getting up early, or compared to the times we have been getting up over the last two weeks, really really bloody early.  This has been a challenge for all.

I am at work, taking a break I guess, since I am writing this, trying to clear all the bits that I need to clear, planning the rest of the week's activities, and generally just pretending that I am used to this kind of regime.  To be honest, it is well-trodden territory, this having-to-get-used-to-working-again feeling, and I am sure in a week we will be back in the groove, busy, hassled and generally dealing with our busy lives like we are pros.

We had a crazy moment on Thursday.  We have been coveting a specific make of chair for our library*, the make being an Ercol Windsor low-backed chair, model 203.  We found a pair on eBay at a reasonable price, but in Bath, that were collection only.  We discussed that this really was a long way to travel to pickup a pair of chairs, and bid anyway.  Subsequently, we had E's trailer hitched on the car and were making our way down the motorway at 7am Saturday morning, to return home at 1pm.  The weather was foul, and there was a major hold-up on the return journey which required us to take one of our legendary detours - legendary because, as a rule, we spend double the time trying to go round an obstacle as we would have spent queuing to pass it.  In this case, it probably was quicker, but it added a good half an hour to what was already a five hour round trip.

Anyway, we are now the proud owners of a pair of chairs that need a lot of TLC.  In fact, they are now my winter project.  They need sanding back to clear wood, oiling, re-webbing, new seat cushions with new cushion covers which I plan to make.  In short, apart from the beech frame, everything needs replacing.  This may sound like madness, but it does make economic sense.  Even with all that work, and parts, we will end up with chairs that, new, would cost nearly four times what we will have paid to get them done, and even second hand with, to be honest, not as good upholstery as ours will have, they will be worth nearly double what we have paid. 

In short, we will have a design classic with a modern twist that will be just what we are after.

In the process, I have of course leaned heavily on Uncle Google for advice and suppliers for all sorts of items.  I now know, for example, that the right webbing is made by Pirelli, is rubber based, and is a lot more expensive than the cheapest on the market, but nevertheless represents the right thing to be using.  I also know the right way to create the loops that will ultimately be part of the webbing (rivets, since you ask) and also the right kind of seat cushions to buy. 

At this point, I have to say that I really love the internet.  Whatever new subject you want to understand better, you just Google it to be presented with a thousand sites on just that topic.  Literally anything I have thought of, and there are thousands, if not millions, of sites with info on that subject.  Staggering, and well done for Uncle Google for keeping abreast of it all.

I may just print a picture once I have something to show.

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* just in case you think we are getting delusions of grandeur, you are right.  This was previously the table-football and snooker room, the other half of our front room, but with the games tables stored in the shed for the Christmas tree to be installed, and the tree now gone, we need to revert the room to our newly chosen function.