The Little World

Poor Richard Saunders, aka Ben Franklin, kept telling us that time is money and we should do today rather than putting off until tomorrow.

Sound advice, and then we go and take it and rack up another $ 50 debt with Bunnings for overpriced wood. This goes directly against Ben’s other constant song of frugality and doing without. Ben was of a time before Bunnings* or Hobbyhell*.

The impetus to journey down the Aisles Of Regret comes from good ideas and decent desires. We think up something, price it from the ready-made suppliers, reel back in horror at the cost plus freight, and start to design it for ourselves. So far, so good. We are being intelligent and resourceful and, for all we know, virtuous. Man’s ingenuity rewarded.

Then we go and buy the raw materials. We buy them in the sizes that the retailers supply, and never reflect that these are rarely in the size for which we design. Wiser modellers would open the DIY internet page, note the sizes they sell, and draw plans based upon the fewest cuts required. We are, after all, modellers – and not furniture factories.

I have a good idea suggested by a good friend and have designed it to be made from local materials. I have cut, glued, and screwed and will progress to artwork and printing in the course of time. My chiefest hope is that it will be cheaper than ordering the same thing from the UK, and of at least a similar quality.

I am prepared to lie to myself to salve my ego, if necessary. I’ve done it before.

* Local pushers of hardware and model kits. I call in regularly for my fix.