18 Years and not a word!

For those of you who have any culture, you will be aware of the scene in The Life of Brian where Brian, fleeing his adoring crowd, jumps into a hole landing on Simon the Holy man's foot. Simon cries out, breaking his 18 year vow of silence. He's understandably unhappy. We had a similar moment yesterday.

Oh my foot!!

First a bit of background, five years ago we decided to get into the Guinness book of world records (We're actually both already in it, more about that later)  by being the first people to row the Waikato River in a boat that we've built ourselves. Disregarding our fatuous attempts at fame and fortune, we've had an unspoken agreement that we would avoid outside help and do all the work ourselves. We've talked about it.

So, yesterday, Jenny the lodger, walks into the garage and asks what the spokeshave does, so without thinking, I demonstrate on the loom and turn back to hacking at the spoon. The next thing I know Chris calls out "Oh my foot!" or words to that effect. Jenny had started shaping the loom for us. 5 years of hard work undone, we've had help. To be honest, my first thought was sod it, she might as well finish it now. Chris was more creative, he suggested that Jenny join the team and row us down the Waikato, or maybe spend some time in the coxswains seat. We had some more extreme ideas, including disposing of Jenny under the patio. Jenny was quite keen to avoid this and has agreed to join the support team.

Jenny "Spokeshaves"

So, the floodgates are open, carpenters out there with some time on their hands, feel free to pop round, spokeshave in hand, and finish the boat and oars.

Note to Norris McWhirter : The oars aren't strictly the boat, so the record will stand.