Once more unto the Beach

I love Whitstable, it has an old world charm that relaxes me and takes me back to my childhood. I grew up in a seaside town, whilst there was some fishing it had nothing like the oyster industry that Whitstable has been forever famous for.

What we did have locally however was huge winkle beds. The best could be found at the base of the cliff at low-tide. There you would find hundreds of thousands of black shiny winkles firmly latched onto the huge rocks that were slick with bright green sea moss and there was a perfusion of other plant and shelled life. I could lose myself for hours picking the right sized winkles, too big and they get chewy like whelks, too small and the old musical hall song “I can’t get my winkle out….” begins to make sense., but just the right size and they cook evenly are plump enough to remove easily from their shells and make a good hearty winkle sandwich… just add vinegar and pepper!

The only problem about it was that the only way down to the shore at the base of the cliff was a vertical iron ladder set into the side of the cliff. Now I am somewhat concerned about heights, OK so scared stiff probably sums it up a little more accurately, I was dropped on my head as a small child…what can I say….I know it hurts when you fall from a height!!!!

The only way to get me down was for Dad to get onto the ladder and then for me to approach it wriggling backwards on the ground, I couldn’t look over the cliff or stand anywhere near the edge or I would become a jelly mess, I am a bit better these days and can use a small step ladder but it is NEVER fun.

So wriggle back and then onto the ladder so that Dad’s body formed a cage around me and we would go down slowly one rung at a time, me just looking at the cliff face or Dad’s hands and he would talk or sing to distract me. He of course had no fear of heights having been a steeplejack in his youth so although I was scared I trusted and felt safe with him.

However lost we got in collecting the winkles, prodding about in the rock pools and exploring the caves we always kept an eye on the tide and never let it cut us off from the ladder because other than swimming miles around the headland the ladder was the only way off the shoreline as high tide would come in fast and rise up the side of the cliff!

Going back up was always easier I would get onto the ladder and Dad would surround me again and up we would go, at the top I would scramble onto my hands and knees and move as far and fast as I could away from the edge.

If I have to do anything involving heights I still find going up easier than coming back down, because unless you look back when ascending you don’t realise how high you are.

Oh, and one final fashion tip of the time, once removed the round winkle “door” could be used as a beauty spot, a little bit racy and wicked just like Margaret Lockwood!!!!

Material Girl

So the furniture was built, the final set of drawers having eventually arrived, the shelves were up and re-packed, obviously in genre and alphabetical order…please!!!

I even managed to build a small bedside table from some off cuts of white conti, the left-over curtain rail and edging….very Blue Peter.

For the final push all that was needed was to re-cover the headboard and make a new bed–runner……definitely the home stretch….Christmas here we come!

Took a day off work to track down some material for the aforesaid headboard and runner and luck for once was on side and the exact colour was located early in the day…leaving plenty of time for a quick meal and a beer or two! It is incredibly thirsty work looking for material, if you haven’t done it you just don’t understand how dehydrating it can be…..this is my excuse and I’m sticking with it!!

Couple of days work and the headboard was covered and the runner completed, even threw in a couple of sequins for good measure.

Well obviously it didn’t go completely smoothly, whilst sewing in the fast lane the machine needle broke, it happens, actually quite often to me, it is probably a good thing there isn’t a sewing machine speed limit I would have lost my license for sure years ago!!!

Broken needle is normally no big deal but this time the broken needle slipped when I was removing it and fell into the machine so I had to take off the footplate, remove the bobbin case and ensure that the broken piece was not caught up in the machine. On the bright side I gave it a very good clean while I was in there, O’Seedy definitely approved of that!!!

Overall outcome room now completed except for a couple of drawer dividers to fashion from upvc or ply, haven’t made up my mind yet       and still a couple of months ‘til Christmas………..result.

Recalling Recall

I’m always a bit sceptical about re-makes, I mean look what they did to the classic Italian job!!!And as a big sci-fi fan I have not totally recovered from replacing Michael Rennie with Keanu Reeves but I always give it a go, so off I went to see what they had done to Total Recall.

In all honesty I have never been a big Arnie fan but Running Man and Total Recall were good Sci-Fi and I wondered how Recall would hold up under a more modern treatment.

It was really good, if you have never seen the original then it is definitely a film for today and you have no need to reference the original, a lot of things are different and it is reflective of current sci-fi.

If you have seen the original then there are some nice little homages to the original, the transport scene has been nicely re-worked with a great little “red herring” for those who remember the original “disguise”.

They have lost the mutants except for a certain “lady” with extra in the bosom department and thank goodness they have lost the wet towel, the nose extraction and the eye popping vacuum scenes.

I enjoyed the Star Wars looking troops, the atmosphere of the settings, some of which had blade runner echoes, the earth based rather than Mars premise, a solid cast and overall the whole flavour of the film……personally I recommend it as one to watch if you are an action sci-fi fan….it will probably go on my Christmas list!

The Conti Mental Shelf.

Did I mention the bedroom decorating saga?

Of course I did, we were up to the painting and papering, which thanks to the newly plastered wall actually went extremely well, very pleased with the grey and white effect and the feature wallpaper actually looks exactly how I visualised it.

The furniture got ordered and delivered and whilst the building of it was not particularly fraught…..only one missing piece from one flat pack….it was somewhat of a slow process but eventually completed.

Now usually I make my own curtains but whilst we were out on a new net curtain buying mission, my trusty side-kick wandered over to the ready-made section and discovered a perfect pair of grey curtains.

Obviously it wasn’t completely straightforward, the curtains were the ready ringed type and so a new curtain pole was required, which naturally resulted in having new holes and filling and repainting over where the old fitment was.

So on to the last stretch some new shelving, now being sneaky and wanting to save myself some unnecessary labour I had retained the brackets and supports from the previous shelving, given them a fresh coat of white paint so they were good to go, just needed new shelving….easy…peasy… yer think??

Into the local D.I.Y superstore where us oldies get discount on a Wednesday, locate the correct size conti board, having bought some a couple of years back I had remembered that they do a cutting service.

However, and this is where it all started to go downhill, I only wanted a 6inch shelf they don’t cut less than 9 inches because it doesn’t safely fit the machine!

Naturally the uncut length was far too long for my car, so had to get my son to come and get it in his big car. This worked well because I then didn’t have to do any lifting and I thought OK so a bit of sawing to do but we are still on track for Christmas, no not Christmas 2013 I do mean this year!

But guess what, whilst with my trusty electric saw, (Arthur doesn’t allow me to do much manual sawing these days, no strength left in hands and wrists) I soon whipped the shelves down to size and set about re-edging the cuts. Naturally the edging strip comes about 5mm wider than the shelf, why would they make it to fit the shelving they sell, that may be tooooo easy for the customer, so every piece had to be cut to size.

Stay tuned for  Material Girl the final Instalment!