eleanor

Now in late october, the past couple of months things have been very busy. I have not had nearly as much time available as I had originally thought. Maggie left and as far as I know she has set up working herself in the village . We are now having to put more hours in to cover her costs but it is working well. Just now we are winding things down in preparation for our Malta trip, this one will be unusual as we will not be working with our usual company.
This week we have another french polishing class with increased numbers, which should be interesting.
The upholstery classes , we have a book full of names for the classes once we get the materials and tools in we should be able to make a start, that should be on our return, so although a little delayed still on track.
I am today trying to put the final touches to the allotment AGM  agenda, we have a lot of topics to cover including the recent vandalism,  half plots. This year I have planned to resign as chair of the association, I think I have been there too long and it is time for new blood. So we will also have to do the nominations and voting too. It should be a good evening, heres hoping for a good turn out .


I have lived in Glasgow's west end for the past 30+ years I live in a tenement flat on a busy main road. It is interesting looking back at the changes that have occured in the city since I first moved here .
It was still recovering from years of neglect and had a really bad image for the old gangs and was quite scary . I had moved from a small west coast seaside town, I knew if I remained there I would never venture away so given the opportunity myself and a number of others all moved here.
I liked it immediately and settled in well managed to acquire work and a group of friends, though I do think my parents hoped I would soon change my mind and come home .
I live in a tenement which and I have shared the close with most of my neighbours for over 20 years now we are all growing old together.
I have a son Jonathan who is in his thirties now and seems successful in his chosen career, bank manager . He unlike myself has moved away from the city and lives with his partner in a small Ayrshire town.
I only came into my latest occupation over the last few years it all started with an evening class, while caring for my Mum I was able to attend a class on french polishing at one of the local colleges. Myself and a friend signed up for the class but after a couple of weeks Mary Rose realised she did not want to complete it so I attended the rest of the term myself ,well I had paid for it !
It was interesting though the tutor was unable to answer many of the questions I had.
It was only once I had more time I was able to join a basic full time college course on woodworking skills that I realised this was the path I wished to follow ,I then went on to attain a HND in furniture restoration . I would have gone  on if possible to a degree course had been available in Scotland if one had been available.
I met some wonderful people over the few years I attended the college of building and printing and have kept in touch with some,
I look back at that time as a turning point.
while at college I had to also become 'au fait ' with computers this was a hard task I had managed to source a second hand "steam powered" computer got the windows manual and spent hours trying to work the damn machine. Eventually it all fell into place and I am now pretty good with them though I have converted to macs they seem so much easier to use.
I have been working with the girls for the last few years, now we are about to embark on the most serious mission yet, we have committed ourselves to the new project and it is really quite scary, the commitment is huge and involves large sums of cash.
The D'tails project came about after the housing association approached us to return to our original site , we had closed our operation in January this year after struggling with the huge council tax demands of our relocated site.
We were also not working well as a group so we decided to end the partnership and move on.
With a smaller workforce but a better relationship we decided to go for it and that is where we are today .