Painting Desk - Out of Traction; Resting

 Very pleased to report that the repairs to the desk seem to have worked as hoped. I still need to polish up the finish to get rid of PVA smears, but it looks OK.

My engineering department did a quick analysis on what had happened to the poor thing. This is all a semi-educated guess, of course:

(1) The unaccustomed heat in the attic last Summer may have offended the old glue somewhat (which must surely have been made of dead horses, or fish).

(2) I observe that the drop-down deskfront (which becomes the writing/painting surface when lowered) no longer recesses properly into the opening - it matters not at all - it simply means that the desk top will sit a few mm open at the top edge, which you can't even see, and which actually makes it easier to open, without scratching round the edges.

(3) However, I recall that the desk top did not close fully when I bought it, two years ago, though it has been doing so lately, before the repair. I believe that I may innocently have got into the habit of pushing the lid closed, which, though not requiring much effort, has produced sufficient leverage to pop the joint in the side panel.

(4) I shall not do this in future. With luck, that is the end of the episode. If the newly-glued joint fails again, I think I'll just scrap the desk and replace it, though I don't think this will happen.

 

Separate Topic - New Book from Amazon

Today I took delivery of a book I pre-ordered a while ago. This book has been available for a few weeks from other retail outlets, but I'm pleased to have it. I had a quick squint at it when it arrived, since James Falkner's efforts (of which I have a few) tend towards the dry end of the creative writing spectrum, and he does specialise in restricting his studies to English language sources, but this volume seems OK. 

The package was expected yesterday, courtesy of Amazon's own delivery service, but didn't arrive - they claimed they were unable to reach my house. They managed today. I believe I know why.

Yesterday, like all the other days since Storm Arwen was cleared away, the 0.75 mile lane from the A198 to my front gate was open for access, my house was in its correct place, and there was someone here. However, Amazon's drivers (who are more reliable than most, I find) tend to leave the public road at the entrance to the next-door farm, and come along the long and winding (and bumpy, and narrow) private road, between the fields, to arrive at our place from the reverse direction. It is slower and less convenient for them, especially when sowing, spraying or harvesting are in full swing, but I have to assume they use some alternative sat-nav system. Yesterday the farm was not busy, but this alternative route was closed because the Berwick on Tweed Motor Club was holding some special stages of one of their Historic Rallies on the private land.

My point, apart from the mystery of why the drivers use this odd route, is simply that if they had come the more obvious way there would have been no problem. Anyway, all's well etc, and my book got an extra trip to Edinburgh and back.