Well the desperate efforts to make enough things for pressies by Christmas flounders on. And Oh look, it's already December. 
So what does Santa's Little Helper here do? Knuckles down to the bench? 'Course not. I get side-tracked into the frequently reaccurring attempt to make an adequate oval screwdriver handle for Phillips and Pozidrive screwdrivers to go with all the slotted cabinetmaker's screwdrivers I already have. Obviously.
Actually it's not bad, say it I shouldn't, but it's still far from perfect. Not that I'll be lured away from the necessary work again. No sir. Nose to the grindstone. Hmm, talking of which, those plane knives need sharpening...
No, not here, on my erstwhile virtual home, UKWorkshop. I decided, for sake of what passes for my own sanity, to pack in the moderating for a bit. I expected maybe one "why, oh why?", but not a sausage. I don't think the majority have even noticed. All danger of my ego ever over-inflating has just been effectively dashed at any rate. 
Heigh ho. Lots of entries to the quiz to win the first reviewed DVD, which is nice, and David's response to said review was so underwhelmed I think I must have got the balance about right. 
Kinda wish I'd made more of the plane being nobly relinquished for the cause by yours truly now as well; just apparently passing on a twenty quid DVD seems a bit mean, but I'm confident I'll get my reward in heaven. Or at least time off for good behaviour in hell... Hmm, maybe you only get time off for bad behaviour there? No worries then; got them coming and going. 
On a more woodworking theme, finally finished the un-paired pair of candlesticks. Reaction from TPTB is muted, so I think they probably really are as bad as I think they are. [sigh] Never mind, eh? At least the camera's broken so I don't have to take a picture of them... On a more genuinely positive note, I've discovered that Yew is mucho nice to turn, and I have about half a dozen large free pieces of it in the potting shed. Huzzah! I really am the world's lousiest turner tho', so maybe I should consider sawing them into small planks for boxes... So much to do, so little time. 
... and I can't. Or rather I can't even make a matching pair of bases - the easiest bit. Dammit. Then to add to my happiness I went to pick up the leather chisel roll with those chisels in, and it felt suspciously damp to the touch. Fearfully I opened it up, and yep, the chisels are starting to get a light dusting of rust. Damn and blast. I cleaned it off, but how in hell am I going to stop it happening again? I've brought the chisels in for the moment, and the roll in an effort to dry it out. Camelia oil seems conspicuously useless from previous experience, paste wax which usually works failed this time. I dunno; store them in a jar of oil all the time maybe? Very practical...
Oh well, at least I've got the first review up now. I'll probably log on to post this and the way today's going find an irate email from DC and general lack of response from the forum. Sigh.
No, not the Discworld book, but rather my bad habits. Again. Some days ago (okay, maybe a week or two) I prepared a couple of oak blanks to make Crimbo presents from. I haven't made any further progress since then at all. Not so much as drilling a hole for the screw chuck. They're sitting there in the workshop now, a wordless reproach. A sensible person would get a move on, pull their finger out and silence their nagging conscience by making with the shavings. Not me. There I am feeling guilty every time I see them, so instead of doing something about it I just stop going into the workshop... 
Surely there's some kind of treatment you can get for this?! What's worse is I don't even get anything else done from my enormously long "To do" list, because I feel bad if I do something that's not as urgent as said presents. What with that and the review writing from hell, which is going about as well as a performance of Hamlet to an audience of Danish royalty with depression, I'm not a happy bunny.
Still, on the plus side I may well have finally sold on my spare mortise chisels. Huzzah! It's only taken a year and a half. Oh, and I managed to totally destroy a near sale on a plane when I came down with a nasty attack of honesty. Yep, mother dear, a career in selling old tools really must be my forte...
No, not a trip to the Aurient, but a couple of days across the border in [gulp] Devon for Tools'04. Why is it a simple two night break causes my folks to feel the necessity of cleaning the whole house from top to bottom before we go? Are they expecting some really critical burglars to pay a vist, run their fingers across dusty surfaces and go "tut tut. I ain't sullying my lilywhites knocking off this flea pit"? In which case surely it'd be better to leave it messy? I asked pop if he was planning on grouting the bathroom too, but the literary reference was lost on him. The cats, of course, are getting predictably nervous at the appearance of suitcases. Even the parrots expressed alarm at fresh cat litter appearing in the bottom of their cages instead of newspaper. Honestly, we might as well hang out a big sign saying "going away"... Still, hopefully the show itself will make up for the preparations. There seems to be an inordinately long list of folks connected to UK Workshop who I'm supposed to be meeting - or just saying "hi" to. Funny feeling having a busy social calendar when I'm usually slightly less likely to be meeting up with someone than a reclusive hermit. Still having an internal debate about whether to risk wearing my Galoot hat or not. On the one hand it might be fun to see a) who notices, and b) if any hitherto unknown lurkers reveal themselves. On the other hand someone might notice and goodness only knows who lurks... 
More later - maybe. Oh, and that download yesterday. My idiot elder brother (needless to say with Broadband) and four enormous image files. D'oh.
So, my first post in my first "Blog". Tsk, what an inelegant word that is. Heigh ho, par for the course I suppose. After all, how many newly minted words can be considered elegant?
Exactly.
Anyway, starting a Blog seems to be a hitherto unknown side effect of large attachments in your email. I waiting for my damp-string connection to download same and so was killing time. I've just recently started to use Firefox in lieu of the ubiquitous IE, and in amongst the bookmarks was a link to this place. I'm too easily hooked on these things :~S Too bad I can't get the knack of hand-cut dovetails as easily eh? So here I am, and I'm still waiting for the attachment to download... Even if I could convince TPTB that Broadband was a Good Thing, there's no guarantee it'll work here anyway. In this great technological age a BT man has to come and physically check to see if we're one of the fortunate few. I mean honestly. And yes, I'm still waiting for the download. Oh well, I suppose I could go and devote a little effort to my profile for this thing.
