So, yesterday was a sad day for the whole country not just Manchester, it would appear that the cowardly terrorist scum are not selecting venues where children and young adults are having a good time.  My first question is Why? Why choose innocent children?  Do these cowards think that they will become heroes or martyrs? Will they get to next life with preferential treatment?  The answer is no, once your dead your dead, no heaven or hell its all bullshit, there is nothing after death, I know I have been there 11 years ago, yeap I died in hospital and they were about to call time when I came back, So cowardly scum terrorist your going nowhere.  To the family’s who have lost loved ones in this hennas act, my heart and thoughts are with you and I will be taking part in a minutes silence at 12:30 today.

So what do we do as a country to counteract these scum, since the bombing by the IRA I think the country has always been on alert, we watch more, we listen, so what more can we do, I think we fight fire with fire, for every act of terrorism in this country we should bomb a terrorist area, I mean level it to the ground, no chance of survivors, what about the innocent people in those areas, well, they know who the terrorists are, so they need to get out of ‘Dodge’ as quickly as possible, leaving the coward scum for us to deal with, I also believe that any individual caught in the act to terrorism should be presented to the family’s of the victims and should be beaten to within an inch of their lives, brought back to health and then beaten again, for as long as they live, lets make them think about what they are doing.

Let’s make it personal, if we find a suspect terrorist, beat him/her to pulp then hand them over to the police etc.

Rant Over.

So, today I had a conversation with a couple of my students about last night’s political leader debate, the first thing I said that you could not have a serious debate with both of the main contenders absent ad the Lib Dems are no hopers, and we discussed the way the program was put together and the technical stuff of a live debate as this is a part of their course work.  Anyway, during the conversation I was accused of being an upper class snob, as I said that any other vote than for the Conservatives would be a waste (they will win the election), that’s when the snob remark was said, now, we are not really allowed to discuss with students our polital preferences, I did say that I did vote leave on Brexit, but they accepted that without to much fuss, but because I suggested that the conservatives would win I was then blasted by them as they both said they were Labour supporters and would vote that way in the election, that’s fine I said, and it was their choice and they should therefor respect my comment on the wasted vote remark and why did that make me an upper class snob, I explained that I can from a very poor background and got where I am today by bloody hard work, I also said that Maggie and the Conservatives had made it possible for me to start my own businesses, so I voted in favour of them ever since as I still believe that they are the best bet for the country, look at the shit Labour left us in after they last run the country, there reply was you had to rich, upper class and a snob to vote for them?  I tried to explain that they needed to research a little more about the manifestos of the parties and see which one they felt was best for them and the country, but they just repeated what they had said before, so I left it at that.
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Some times its just impossible to try to open people’s minds to other alternatives.

Fidgets, WTF are they about?  I have read that they help students concentrate better and relax, making learning easier for them.
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My experience is that they are a pain in the arse, the kids fiddle with these bloody things all day, they come in all shapes and are small and convenient to place in your pocket, you have spinners and clickers, the spinners are not too bad, they are silent, but the clickers are so fucking annoying it’s unbelievable, they also attract the attention of other students close by so there for causing a disturbance in the classroom.
I have confiscated a few, but I am now coming up against the statistics which say it helps learning, the kids have jumped on this and are now saying I am being too strict and I should let them use them?  No way, if they just kept their heads down and worked they would all do well.

So, a small confession, I will be making a spinner from oak that I will add a carving to, just to see if I can do it really nothing more than that, however, I may offer it as a prize to the student with the highest mark at the end of the year.

Well I finally did it, I have bought a drone, and I cant wait to try it, the idea being that I can offer Ariel photographs of peoples houses and make some money plus the fact I just love playing with drones, planes etc.  I have made several aircraft in the past including a six foot wingspan Pitts Special with a huge motor on the front and a top speed of 160 MPH, very scary, this thing was a deadly weapon, in fact I had to join a club to enable me to fly it also, flying lessons, yes, flying lessons, I also had to have insurance just in case it hit someone and killed them, 3 Million pounds the insurance would pay to anyone killed, so after a month’s training I was ready to take her up myself, that was nerve racking to say the least, anyway I soon found out that flying was not as much fun as building so I sold it to fund another project.
So, back to the drone, I am sure I will have hours of fun just flying it if nothing else, shooting video and taking photos on the way, cant wait, hurry up Mr Postman.
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Back to the workshop, got home early last night and went straight out the back and started work on the power to the workshop, 20 minutes later I had power and lights, I also laid a few more boards on the floor so I am very close to finishing so I can start making my guitars.  I will be videoing the projects as I go along and posting them online for you lot to have a laugh at.

I am off to the cinema tonight for the first time in over a decade, the new Alien film looks cool so as part of my job I need to watch films and see what’s happening in the film world, however, I will be treating this as a jolly not work, also I am going with my rather attractive boss who will be sitting not too far from me so maybe a hand on the knee is called for, we will see.
Wish me luck.

So, I have been working quite late recently and I have been keen to get into the workshop and finish off the work required so I can install all the new tools I have bought over The last 6 months or so, at the weekend I laid new cables for power outlets, one it would appear I had wrapped around the leg of a large workbench, which I tried to move last night into its new position.
Trying to drag the bench I noticed some resistance and then noticed the cable aound the leg, however it was above the lower shelf and in between the second one so to move the bench I needed to disconnect the mains cable, this I did as light was failing, by the time it came foe me to reconnect the mains it was too dark, and no lights to switch on I was now stuffed, and as I am working late again this evening I have no chance of rectifying it until tomorrow evening, bugger, I wont do that again, LOL.
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The workshop up until yesterday’s little cock up was going well, and I am excited about some of the antique hand tools I have purchased, I will restore these before I start work on my first guitar, which will be a Bass guitar, followed by a guitar of my own design.
I don’t intend this to be a business, however I will take on the odd commission for something custom if the fancy takes me.

As you all know if you have been reading my posts, that I am in the process of converting my studio into a woodworking shop, simple, it would seem, however the reality is something completely different.

First I have had to remove all the studio lights from the walls and ceilings, also move all the power points, add new light switches, build a partition for a storage area and basically rebuild the space.  So the first thing to do was to build the partition for storage, so I put the studding up, however I notice that the walls have move over the last 8 years, I should explain the studio was a log cabin, a large log cabin made of 4” thick hardwood, but the walls have moved a little so I had to make some minor adjustments but that went ok, took me an hour, adding the ply wood to the new studding and the ceiling was not too bad, with the help of my son it took about 2 hours, so having done a good days work we stopped, had lunch and started to tidy up, that’s when I noticed the first problem, ANTS.

Now I thinks ants are great, amazing nest building skills, community specialists etc. however when ants build nests under your floor your screwed, so I discover the floor is uneven, having not been in the workshop very much over the winter I have only just seen it, so |I tread firmly on the lump in the floor and the it sinks about 2 inches, not good, so I poke it with a screwdriver and find not only is it rotten but the lump was caused by an ants nest, so I then begin to inspect the rest of the floor and it’s all rotten in reality, so I now need to get rid of the nests and replace the floor, more work, more money, you can’t stand a 60 kilo machine on a rotten wood floor on top of an ants home.

At this moment in time I have removed the floor and the ants and their nest, I hate chemicals but they had to go. 

Onto life changing stuff.
Not many things affect me on a personal level, I mean emotionally or otherwise, however, just recently I have come to realise someone I work with is in my head more and more recently, I also find myself attracted to her, yes it’s a women, the more I see her the more I feel for her, what do I do, I can’t approach her about it, that would be unprofessional, she is also in a stable relationship, I would never do anything to upset that, so do I start drinking bromide tea or do I leave this job and move on, that’s a possibility as this job is starting to become a job instead of a hobby, so for the moment I just have to ride it out and see what happens, all I know is this, if by some miracle something did happen between us it would change my life completely.
Anyway back to the real world and fitting the new floor, it arrives tomorrow, watch this space.