And Finished

And voila. The table and chairs are complete, painted, and ready for use. I hope the little guy likes them.

Update to the New Project

So finally, I can update my table and chairs project for Ewan. Things got delayed there with being hit by a car, and issues with Nys and access to my tools, but today I finally got to get back to work.

So first up cutting out the frames for the chairs, out of pine

The seat and backs will be MDF

So in this next photo, I've glued and screwed the chair frames together, and stained them to match the table legs. The chair bases and chair backs have been cut to size and placed into position to check for fit, and they're starting to come together nicely.

And now, to add that individual touch, and because Ewan has a thing for stars and moons, I traced some outlines into the seat backs, and carefully cut them o

ut with a router. All the edges were then smoothed so there are no sharp edges.

The next step will be painting the MDF, which I will do tomorrow.

And finally, the completed table, ready for action. I know I said it would probably be yellow, but the blue is a much nicer colour.

Merry Christmas

I spent Christmas following my own tradition, working.

Yep, another christmas day and the only thing I could think to do with it was to spend it working.

Fun times though. Phone rings, I answer and th voice on the other end says "Are you open?"

"Nope" I reply, "I'm just visiting" hehe

Customer says "It must suck to have to work christmas day, why do you do it?"

"Well" I reply "Why didn't you fill up with petrol yesterday so I didn't have to?" Angry glare.

heh.

Happy Freakin Birthday

Another year older today. Thirty eight years I've wandered this earth, the majority of it roaming New Zealand, and what do I have to show for it? Nothing.

I wrote that this morning. I was feeling very down and depressed. I couldn't imagine what value I contributed to anyone and was having a hard time dealing with the reality of my existence. Now though, I am feeling better. Good old mums, they really know how to perk you up. She wouldn't let me wallow in self pity, but instead reminded me that there was always hope. One day Hanano will come looking for me, and I must be here to greet her, to tell her how much she means to me. 'Tis the season to be grumpy, and it just sucks that my birthday falls in the same time frame too.

A New Project

Christmas (and my birthday) is rapidly approaching. And with Christmas comes to urge to give presents, lots and lots of presents. At the behest of Nys I am building a table and two chairs for Ewan to use.

I began with just the raw materials, some lengths of wood from Bunnings

Tidied them up, went with doweling the joints together, smoothed all the sharp edges since it is for a two year old after all.

Cut the actual top from a sheet of MDF, rounded the corners and beveled all the edges

And voila, the completed table. Next weekend I will sand it down. The legs will remain natural wood, just a light stain. The top itself I will seal and paint, probably yellow.

I also had a go at making the first chair, a new thing for me, and wouldn't you know, I got so caught up, I forgot pictures. But later this week I will do the second chair, and pics will follow.

A Quote

Taken from "Magic Bites" by Ilona Andrews

"For a time you can be alone and doing fine and never give a thought to living any other way and then you meet someone and suddenly you become lonely. It stabs at you, almost like a physical pain, and you feel both deprived and angry. Deprived because you wish to be with that person, and angry, because their absence brings you misery."

Empty Room

I wrote this a year and a half ago for a Creative Writing Course I was doing. This is the revised final version that I handed in. It was at the time a description of how I was feeling internally. I'm revisiting it, along with some of my other Creative Writing stuff, as I struggle to find my voice once again and begin to externalize my inner issues

Empty Room

I walk through her room,

Our room,

My room

Colours catch my eye

We smile in the sun from a photograph

Stand hand in hand in front of a temple

Two cultures joined, staring out happily

Forever frozen together alone

Two books lie open on the desk, haphazard

On the textbook below words march stoically across the page

While above black and white manga images of blood and violence

And figures screaming with foreign tongues

Two bowls sit on the wrinkled yellow table cloth

Grey meat floats like icebergs in a sea of rice

Black chopsticks and a silver fork

Testament to a difference not overcome

A keyboard stands forgotten against the wall

A gift requested and ignored, reminding of home

Constant siren call beckoning and ignored

Until finally its screams are deafening

I walk through her room,

Our room

My room

Alone

The End of November

Well the thirtieth of November has been and gone, and with it another milestone for me. The thirtieth is Kyoko's birthday, and I always used to make a big deal out of it, spending ages looking for the most appropriate gift, planning either a restaurant visit or a nice home cooked meal for the pair of us. It was a major day for me and one on which I used to miss her a lot. Emphasis on the used to. This time around I spent the day planning a nice meal, and then went and cooked it for the new lady in my life, Nyssa. It was lemon garlic chicken, served with cajun spiced potato wedges, lightly roasted asparagus and a garden salad, and it was very nice. Afterwards we watched the Mentalist on TV and then I left her to prepare for the return the following day of her mother. It wasn't until I was on my way home that I realized what day it was, and it was then that I also discovered that I no longer cared. I have someone to build all new happy memories with.