Right Said Fred!

I just thought I'd tell the story about my big desk! For many years the desk at which I worked was a huge ex-army, very plain and functional piece of wooden furniture. Four years ago I decided that it was time for a replacement and with very clear ideas about what I wanted, I trawled the local and not-so-local furniture stores. I found nothing that matched my ideas. So, I then looked for a carpenter who would build one for me. I decided that I wanted a desk in natural wood, and of the same dimensions as the old desk. So, with measurements and design ideas, I eventually found a carpenter.

My desk is big! When you accumulate as I do, you need lots of space! It is made of red pine, named for the colour of the bark on the particular species of pine. It has a honey glaze, water-based with honey to give a golden colour. It is a very simple style: I stipulated....no curly or fancy bits! And it is lovely. Well, to me it is lovely, kind of Shaker-style I suppose!

Do you recall that old song about the men moving a piano? "Right Said Fred"? Well, it was like that when my desk was delivered. When I moved into this house with my old desk, I managed to manoeuvre it quite easily into the room in which it stood for about 10 years. When the new one, of identical proportions, was delivered, two hulking great men huffed and puffed, got the desk trapped on its end in the hallway, then took it back outside to the garden path. I tried to give them some advice about how to just kind of swivel it round to fit through the doorway, but well, what would a little woman know about these things? So, they took the knobs off! They got the desk stuck again and took it back outside! They took the drawers out and unscrewed the door off its hinges, got it stuck upside down in the hallway and took it back outside.

The men then decided that the job was impossible, no matter what I suggested or what I said about the previous desk having been identical in size! So, I watched as my lovely new desk got heaved back into the van and driven away!

Three months later, the men came back with my desk, having taken it apart somewhat, and they part-built it in the room in which it now sits!

So, there you are! My big desk and this is News From My Big Desk!