My Advancing DIY Skills

With all this free time and all these things that I want to get done on my car, over the past 6 months I have been trying to make myself a more manly man. Being able to fix things is the forefront of this really. This I have tried to apply throughout my entire life, at home, on my car, at work, at school, being a more mature and a more practical kinda guy.

I suppose it is all part of the search that every 18 year old goes through on their road to university and the real world, to develop and mature and become an independent person in their own right, with their own skills, talents, personality and qualities. In a wishy-washy sense that I dislike so much, it is finding yourself.

I digress, as per normal, from the main point I was talking about. Being practical. It started with the car really, realising that classic cars don't look after themselves and having to learn about it to really understand when things go wrong. I have tried in the past to be a bit more practical, and to be honest, I did do quite a good job. My first ever woodwork/ DIY task was to build a run for the chikens in the garden. I did everything, from designing the frames to choosing the screws to laying the block paving base. I have to say for myself, that even the door of the chicken run fits better than the gate Dad made!

I proved to myself that I had the capacity to be able to do stuff, albeit with guidance from my "Bodgit And Scarper" grandad (as all grandads have to be) and it is from this that I have found inspiration to start revarnishing the woodwork on my car.

I also spent an entire week, getting up early and starting with a cup of tea in hand to redecorate a 2 bedroom cottage in North Yorkshire from top to bottom: wallpapering walls, painting ceilings, repairing window frames, weeding and decluttering outside. It was a great achievement at the end of the week for all of us who got stuck in, and I think this satisfaction is something that young people often overlook when doing things in their free time, but it really is worth it in the end.

And I suppose that is what maturity is to me: realising that short-term loss is very much long-term gain, and putting a lot of hard work will give you much more staisfaction in the end, as apposed to gaming and things like that, that provide instant gratification, but you never really achieve anything by it. The next step on from this of course is being able to apply this, and that is what I am currently working on. I tend to get bored of things very easily, but this time I am not going to get distracted or anything like that.

All the woodwork on my car is almost all revarnished and looking as beautiful as ever, and Alrewas Radio looms. This is something that I am definitely going to throw myself at and really see it through to the bitter end, even if it kills me, which it very much might do...

Thanks for reading.

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