Friday 22 May 2015

Chip off the Old Block


Bought a potato chipper off eBay last week. Flimsiest piece of crap ever - it accommodates only minute potatoes and the cutting blades are wafer thin. They crumpled on the 2nd potato. Asked for my money back.



I wanted a good, old fashioned, bomb-proof chipper like my mum used to have. Searched high and low on eBay, but to no avail. Finally twigged that I should perhaps include the word vintage, and hey presto!


Solid, wooden handles that roll and blades that are fit for purpose. Just look at the quality - it has lasted since the 60s, unlike modern garbage which lasts only 60 seconds. Made in England too, not China. An Earlswood - probably made from girders by shipwrights at Cammell Lairds or steel fabricators in the Black Country. Why can't we make stuff like this anymore?

Have you noticed you can no longer mark an eBay transaction as crap? They force you down the route of resolution, which simply takes so long that you get fed up and give up. I suppose it's because you're actually marking the seller, as opposed to the product.

Talking about a chip off the old block - I had a go at making some mudguards for the trailer last night out of the old oil drums. Used just about every new tool I've purchased over the last 6 months.



Not quite finished yet - need to fashion some flanges to pop rivet to the base to make it secure. Told Hay I could now make a BBQ from the other drum - but I'd need a welding kit for the legs....

Our neighbour, Veronica, regularly has coffee mornings or dinner parties, some of which are cancelled at the last minute (I have no idea why). The cancelled ones result in her having a glut of cake, biscuits and all manner of goodies from Marks and Spencer or Waitrose, which she invariably off-loads to me. We could practically live off Veronica's hand-outs.


1 comment:

Steve Borthwick said...

CB You've angled that photo perfectly so that the potato chopper looks like it's the size of a car! (at first glance I thought it was some kind of fold-up shopping trolley - now there's an idea :)