I have mentioned previously (and this will be the last time!) that making furniture wasn't my first career or even my second come to that but it is now the way I choose to scrape a living. Sometimes when faced with the uncertainties of running a small business I do reflect on how my life may have turned out if I'd have stayed with my earlier occupation and whether i'd be satisfied with a big house in suburbia, a convertible sports car and 3 holidays abroad every year. Today, as I watch the August rain through my workshop window, it is ever so slightly appealing.
It was therefore with more than a passing interest last month that I read about the banker who was jailed for 14 years for manipulating the LIBOR rate. It turns out we both studied engineering at the same university and worked at the same London investment bank, albeit our paths never crossed. I had long since escaped the world of questionable financial morality for one of questionable financial viability by the time he was up to his tricks.
I have some good friends who work in the city and it's a shame the unscrupulous actions of a few have tarnished the reputations of many decent people who happen to be well paid.
For the record, I hadn't got very far up the greasy pole before abandoning it altogether else I might be doing woodwork purely for pleasure...
So as I consider my next project, I will spare a thought for the banker who I don't think is an inherently bad person but just lost all sense of reality in the strange parallel world of banking and finance. I might not earn much from making furniture but I'm glad I made that choice.
Funnily enough, I remember hearing of an organisation that sought to rehabilitate prisoners in a furniture making workshop environment. Ironically it was closed due to financial mismanagement, so there may yet be a further twist in the tale......
My upcoming job is some fitted storage units for a little girl's bedroom together with a solid oak “truckle” bed.
Below are some examples of hand-painted, fitted shelving and cupboards recently built and installed. They transform a room and provide a really effective storage solution.
It was therefore with more than a passing interest last month that I read about the banker who was jailed for 14 years for manipulating the LIBOR rate. It turns out we both studied engineering at the same university and worked at the same London investment bank, albeit our paths never crossed. I had long since escaped the world of questionable financial morality for one of questionable financial viability by the time he was up to his tricks.
I have some good friends who work in the city and it's a shame the unscrupulous actions of a few have tarnished the reputations of many decent people who happen to be well paid.
For the record, I hadn't got very far up the greasy pole before abandoning it altogether else I might be doing woodwork purely for pleasure...
So as I consider my next project, I will spare a thought for the banker who I don't think is an inherently bad person but just lost all sense of reality in the strange parallel world of banking and finance. I might not earn much from making furniture but I'm glad I made that choice.
Funnily enough, I remember hearing of an organisation that sought to rehabilitate prisoners in a furniture making workshop environment. Ironically it was closed due to financial mismanagement, so there may yet be a further twist in the tale......
My upcoming job is some fitted storage units for a little girl's bedroom together with a solid oak “truckle” bed.
Below are some examples of hand-painted, fitted shelving and cupboards recently built and installed. They transform a room and provide a really effective storage solution.