Sunday 18 September 2011

Just another manic Sunday

So, the week apparently flew by without me or anybody else, noticing.  Monday & Wednesday I went to Upholstery School, where we have a real teacher... and who took pity on me and helped me fix my chair's arms...  




and I was able to start on the seat:



I'd forgotten how much fun it is hand-tying springs, the twine is a little bit hard on your hands, but it was somewhat nostalgic in the 'brown paper and string parcel' type of old-fashioned thingy...

Anyway, I've got to tie them all together, and I can't go to Upholstery school on Monday because I have to go to a Management Offsite dinner - can you believe this, Gentle Readers?  Not only do I get to spend the whole day talking to my management colleagues, I get to have dinner with them as well.  Yeehaw.  Good thing the company's paying.

So, Wednesday is the last day of term, and this chair was supposed to finished this term.  Oh well.  Guess I'm not going to be ready for Third Year in 2012... unless something dramatic happens.  Any suggestions?

In happier news, I took some photos for the very lovely kate, of Rapt! Upholstery, aka The Chairy Godmother.  She's made this chair to show at the Warwick Fabrics Trade Show - I think it's fantastic!


And one of the teachers made this, which I also think is fabulous:


He made it by stitching pieces of fabric together at random, then cutting out what he needed for the chair & making it as it fell - I absolutely love it & would happily pay a lot of money for it - but apparently we aren't allowed to buy it.  I have suggested a raffle, but somehow I think it's going to end up in the foyer of the Upholstery department.   

In other news, I spent three days in the company of other 'new' or 'potential' team managers - we had a game to play, once a day over the three days, and the aim, it being a bank, of course, was to make money.  I never cease to be amazed at those people who can spend three days in a course which is designed to make you a better leader, who then throw it all away and try to do everything themselves, rather than showing some leadership and delegating some of the bits to other people.  

Our final round of the game was noisy, chaotic and disorganised, but it was fun.  We made $414 million dollars, if anybody's interested.  That was just our team.  Together the three teams made $1.1 billion dollars - all good clean paper money.  What kind of rewards and bonuses did we negotiate for ourselves?  Well, none.  What kind of negotiators were we?  The crap kind.  All the negotiating was done around the tools and resources needed to make more money, rather than share it around amongst the workers, equitably.  I'll never, never make a capitalist.  Can you tell?    

Oh yes, and I made these:





Apparently this fabric is much in demand...  and now, Gentle Readers, I am watching an episode of Stargate, and then I am going to bed.


Ciao!