Smiffy2

I'm not a religious person at all but I do like to hear the church bells, especially practice!

Just sent a message congratulating Spud on her football success - apparently she took her winner's medal to bed with her so she could hold it... I think a bit of sand flew up into my eye...

Morning all. Whelkmen somnolent. Apparently whelks don't come out at weekends. I can't say I blame them. Frosty at first, now thawed, will go and warm up the workshed and try to make the pickguard for Spud's guitar. She's on a high as her team won the Sutton High Schools Football Tournament yesterday, conceding only one goal in the tournament. Then we will have a domestic planning session for tasks to be done, book our first trip to France this year and contact friends (KIT day). The work done on my hips by the osteopath has really worked - I can now walk again! Or could, if I hadn't picked up some dreadful stomach bug... So a quiet day today, best wishes to all in their assorted trials and endeavours.

Morning everyone. In a proper turnup for the books the Whelkmen were out in their snazzy coracles at first light this morning. I don't know if they caught any, they can be tricky , whelks. Especially the famous Southern Fighting Whelk, which weighs in at half a kilo and can smother a small dog. I had a decent night for once, six hours and only one loo inspection. Back bad, but seeing the osteopath (Ricky) later today. Breakfast and first coffee have been had, multiple medications and now insulin... I have to work out what to do with Rose's pickguard. I can't find the sheet of 3-ply, but in looking I found the Yellow Submarine guitar picks I bought for her and the little device I got from Temu that fits in your electric screwdriver and fits a cuphook. I need that... So down the shed. I may dismantle one of the chairs we bought from Emmaus. We like Emmaus, having been introduced to it in France where it is a big thing. We bought our dining table and chairs and a huge armoire there for very little money. The English version has the same aims and similar ambience - although the delivery charges are much higher.

Mild but a bit windy here in Carshalton-sur-Mer. Whelkmen still abed, their spokesman said they are 'tired'. It's an exhausting life. Coracles vying with trampolines in the general flying-about stakes. You'll be heartened to know that I am still chimping. Today I completely farked the new pickguard for Spud's guitar - managed to cut it inside the line on the new bandsaw, jumped (in shock) and jammed the blade which then shot across the plastic and then sensibly parted company with the wheels. Plastic blank ruined, which is annoying as it is extra-large and I can't find the spare sheet... Bandsaw now reset and I'm having a little sit down and calm down... Duties later include taking Julie to the dentist and then to a jeweller to get a ring embiggened. And possibly chimping...

G'morning from Carshalton-sur-Mer, where the whelkmen are resolutely staying in their beds (or 'stinking pits' as they are known) due to it being the feast of Saint Punta, patron of coracles and independent betting shops. Emmaus have delivered the patio table and chairs I bought yesterday - to be dismantled, painted and taken to France. Quelle joie. Ocaaado later, then Son One and the Girls for a visit (like every Tuesday). And setting up the £40 guitar. Took a heavy painkiller (Naproxen) last evening, so back and foot behaving themselves at the moment. Second mug on the horizon... Have a good day, all.

When I realised that I wasn't going to be able to do modlin any more I went back to photography, specifically I went back to using film on older Nikon cameras - just like I had before 2005 when I bought my first DSLR (Nikon D70). I ended up with quite a collection. This, of course, meant buying an (actually two, because of France) effective digital darkroom, developing gear and a scanner to process the negatives. I even got my eldest grand-daughter involved - Spike is a very good photographer and has had Nikon DSLRs since she was 12. The #2 son (Keir) invited us to San Francisco - a wonderful world of photo opportunities, so I bought myself a full-frame professional DSLR, a Nikon D700. This meant that I could use all my old 35mm lenses and actually pretend I was shooting on film. I loved it, and the San Fran Pixes were excellent. Then Covid, and getting the last plane out... Although Julie and I had had the disease by then, but at that time we were told it was 'just bad flu'. Lots of interesting stuff around the garden, and when possible the family through lockdown and after. I absolutely loved the D700, heavy, noisy and just like a 35mm. Hard to carry so I also got a D3100 small-frame DSLR as a carry camera. Fast forward to last year, autumn, and the damn thing packed up on me - it lost its positronic mind (apparently they are known for it). So it has taken a place in the display cab and has been replaced with a D610, the full-frame equivalent to the D7200 but better. The features are incredible. Unfortunately this last few months has been a trial, Covid again, sciatica, rotator cuff problems and back spasms. When all that is eventually sorted I plan to be out and snapping again. It's a brilliant activity. 'Night all.

When I was President of the Social and Cultural Union at college (no, really...) we formed an Apathy Club. The first rule was if you turned up at a meeting you were instantly expelled. It was, of course, an elaborate excuse to go to the bar.

Looks pretty good. New strings will make a huge difference.

Sounds like a bad earth, but that's the extent of my expertise! Check that the earth wire to the tremelo claw is firm, and that the jack socket is OK. If they aren't already you might paint the single coil cavities with shielding paint. I just finished off the red Strat:

What sort of guitar? What are the pickups?

I did. A horrible experience. I really don't get 'the plan' at the moment. I think we need a new new manager, possibly the old new manager...

This one was working in Carshalton in 1969. The rag and bone man used to spend his evenings in the pub, and the other boozers would shove his inert body into the back of the van and the horse would take him home... (Apologies for bad neg, taken on a Halina 35mm in my yoof)

Hard time sleeping last night... Back still very bad (Osteopath this week). We used to have deliveries by horse and van for bread and milk when I were a young 'un. I remember my old man going out with a shovel and bucket and collecting the leavings. He put it on his rhubarb. I always preferred custard on mine.

I sank many a pint of Double Maxim at the Albion...

Remember them well!

I used to teach at a school in Putney which was close by the Green Man pub (very handy) and they had dray deliveries up to the end. Loved to see the kids patting the dray horses. The very sweaty dray horses that had just pulled a couple of tons up Putney Hill. Then smelling their hands... I do miss Young's Brewery...

If you fancy making your own teardrop, Thomann/Harley Benton make a 'blank' guitar shape, routed for pickups and neck. You might be able to fudge it. I've got a 'commission' to make one into an Abba 'Waterloo' guitar for grand-daughter's boyfriend's birthday...

This is what I am doing at the moment - making or modding guitars. This one (it's actually a Canadian Stratocaster copy with an alder body) was £40 from the St Raphael Hospice shop. I've replaced the neck, electrics and pickups/pickguard and put new locking tuners on it, so about another £50. You thought Mdl Rlws were expensive fun... Trouble is I seem to have wired the output jack the wrong way round - pure chimp - and I'll have to redo that tomorrow. But it looks nice...

Lots of positive thoughts, Baz. Lots. I should explain my absence - arthritis and bad eyes, lack of space and lack of talent led to me suspending all modelling activities, bar painting some ModelU3D figures. Badly. Then Covid. Had Covid Jan 2020, caught the last plane out of San Francisco... 2 more lots of Covid. Long depression... Now getting into guitars - I bought a Squier Telecaster about a year ago to try to loosen up the arthur in my left hand, and it's partly worked, but I still can't make all the chord shapes I'd like. Then I found out about Harley Benton guitar kits, and made myself one (a Jazzmaster (called Yggdrasil) - I'll put up pix if anyone's interested). Fits my propensity to woodwork and guitars... Then a Telecaster with a neck humbucker (Delilah), which #1 son liked so much I gave it to him, and I'm making myself another (Delilah II). Eldest grand-daughter liked it so I made her a Jazzmaster (called Spike). Then I made a thinline Tele for me. Not yet named, probably Brynnhildr. Youngest grand-daughter didn't want to be left out so I' m making her a purple Stratocaster (Spud). Julie found a dead £40 Strat in a hospice shop, so. I've put new electrics in that, just some soldering to do and that will be working, and I'm making another Tele with 2 humbuckers (Jezebelle). Now Spike wants me to make an Abba Waterloo guitar for her boyfriend (it's star-shaped and painted metallic gold. Tasteful.) Oh, and #2 grandson, the lad with cerebral palsy, would like a blue left-handed Strat, but that's just in the planning stages. And I'm restoring a 1960s f-hole concert acoustic. Now I write that down it seems ludicrous...

The difference in scale length is only a couple of centimetres, so it must be the body shape. Being girthy I find the Les Paul style uncomfortable.

Evening. Just thought I'd share something nice. My grand-daughter (8) nicknamed Spud goes to Brownies. Their activity this week was making Airfix kits - or if not Airfix a cheap sub. She made a Spitfire, her friend made a Bf109. She explained to me how to do it, apparently you have to work fast because the glue dries very quickly... In other news I've got a new bandsaw (Axminster) and today I made a pickguard for a guitar I'm restoring - a wooden template cut and sanded to shape, the 3-ply plastic cut and then stuck to the template, then routed to shape and then chamfered. Worked first time, I was chuffed. Didn't chimp it at all. Tomorrow I'm making a pickguard for a guitar I'm making for Spud - a purple Stratocaster.

Good luck, Bob, hope it all goes smoothly. And yes, it was Carshalton - at Honeywood I think.

Morning all. Remember me? In just popped in having heard the news about Hattons - very sad. I hope their ranges go on. Moving to France - we are still half-and-half (or as h&h as we can be now we have the 90 day rule). Our bit of the country, Southern Lower Normandy, has seen a bit of an influx of Brits just lately, I am told. I believe it was people with spare dosh after lockdown (they couldn't spend as much...) Have a good day, all. I'm planning to spend my morning setting up a new bandsaw.

That would be telling, Baz. No shellfish here at the moment, Whelkmen enthusiastically embracing the lockdown. Gaily painted coracles for sale on ebay. Whelkwomen not so keen on the embracing. Bloody bored.