Well in this past week it seems I have mostly managed to burn stuff! It started with the pizza on Tuesday which turned so black that it became camouflage with the pizza tray on which I was cooking it! I opened the oven and couldn’t see anything beyond my garlic bread and thought for a moment my pizza had disappeared! Well it did shortly after… into the bin! This incident was closely followed by a toast burning ‘incident’ on Wednesday evening at work which set the fire alarm off and resulted in the fire brigade coming out and charging a fee! Whoops! Apologies have been made and hoping that I live it down quickly! I shouldn’t be allowed out!!

Anyways lucky for Chris he has had a more successful week, splinters a plenty (OK around three – its more than average!) from last week have healed up (including one that involved a bit of digging!) and he has been finishing up his mitre box. This features a recycled Blackbutt floorboard with Tassie Blackwood and Queensland Walnut veneers and Celery Top Pine inlays and keys. When it’s completed it will have a French polished lid – Chris is putting his knowledge into practice after their lesson in French Polishing from David Marks who came in to Sturt on Friday.

This past week Chris has also been on several trips and started preparing for his first big project! A tool cabinet – time has been spent on completing the technical drawings. I think Chris is developing a penchant for Oak so is excited at the prospect of completing the cabinet in American White Oak. One of the trips was going to see a local maker and ex-Sturt student Ian Factor at Factor Design which was really interesting.

Having caused only a minor amount of mischief the class was allowed out again… They also went to see the Hannah Cabinet at the Bungendore Wood Works Gallery. Made by Geoff Hannah, the Hannah Cabinet features a mere 18 doors and 140 drawers – lovingly hand made over 6 years with an astounding 34 timbers, 4 species of shell, 17 kinds of precious stone plus 24 carat gold! Rumoured to be worth in the region of 1.6 million bucks it’s nothing short of amazingly awesome! With that many drawers however it might be a challenge to remember where you put something! If you are interested in woodwork at all then it’s definitely worth going as the talk was really interesting and the marquetry impressive to say the least. Ask the others on the trip for any other notable happenings and they may or may not list the Geezer Burger – Chris’s meal of choice at ‘London’ for lunch which was apparently as big as his head. I think Chris lost the battle of the burger but swears one day to return and defeat the Geezer. After lunch they had a great visit with Evan Dunstone at Dunstone Design who makes some great chairs so recommend checking them out. Then they ended the day at the other end of the scale on a large factory visit at Creative Design – all very interesting stuff apparently!

Timberbits team performance at the pub quiz last week – placed sixth – a shocker! Talking of shockers… Anyone else hate cockroaches… Don’t ever trust them! I had one that looked like he might be dead but he was either just resting or asleep – imagine a cockroach slumped forward and to the side – like he just collapsed. Last seen trying to make a run for it except I was armed with a spray and a tin to capture him! I will not be outsmarted – well… not this time anyway! Will let you know what happens this week!