Work benches and narrowboat expertise

Debbie (of mysinglefriend.com fame) was due to meet us last Saturday but unfortunately, when we arrived in the afternoon at our current mooring, we retired to the pub for a celebratory (no idea what we were celebrating) pint or two and promptly fell asleep on our return to the boat. Debbie couldn't get through on the phone as Lisa was sleeping on top of it. She was just about to head home again when I woke up and heard the ring tone. 

Barrow upon Soar is a lovely place. Sam and I have been going for walks around the area every morning once Lisa leaves for work. Lisa has reminded me that, "it's all right for some". For this reason I am slowly getting the workshop up and running so I can start making bows again so generating an income. It's been quite long enough relying totally on Lisa. It also gives her far too much power which she abuses on a regular basis. To this effect I have built my workbench, fitted it to the floor, fixed the vice and started building all the other bits and pieces required for making English longbows.

I now have a bow stave attached to the world's biggest vice. I glued together a couple of staves (the beginnings of a bow) before disassembling my old workshop and giving it to my neighbour. The messiest job in making a Victorian style English longbow is the gluing together of the laminates and I know that when I started the manufacturing process again, that this stage would be the most problematic. Well that's a start. Just got to make the bow now. The workshop is a little cramped at present but as the bathroom bits are fitted and I build more stowage, it should provide more room to work.

I have now officially become an expert in canal boats as a colleague of Lisa's from school is in the process of buying a narrowboat and have asked if I'd give one the once over on Saturday. I'm flattered that my complete lack of knowledge, inexperience and utter incomprehension of mechanical and aesthetic matters could be mis-interpreted to such an extent. It's a twenty year old Springer so I know basically what to expect. It looks well cared for on the advert and the price, as you would expect in the current economic climate, is very good but we'll see. Even if I don't know what I'm doing, I'll bluff it out, speak with authority (as I always do, especially on matters on which I have no knowledge and with people who don't know me) and I'll probably get away with it.