Lateral thinking & Improvisation

[crystal ball]

Part of the problem is that we live in a wasteful, throwaway culture. I am really starting to hate it, but struggle to fight it. Only today I bought a salad and sandwich from Sainsburys - more plastic on the way to landfill.

I visiting family in Brazil a few times and it always struck me how practical people are - and for those not practical, they hire a handyman. Everything gets fixed many times before it is replaced, everything from computers and washing machines to suitcases and saucepans. Yes, one place we stayed had pans so old they had holes in - and the owner would get them fixed by a local blacksmith, rather than replaced. The impact is that there are also a lot more traditional professions operating on a subsistence level.

Here these simple things quickly turn into businesses that need to make lots of money, and this means that before too long, everything is too expensive to fix. Washing machine breaks down after 5 years? Buy a new one. Handle falls off a saucepan? Buy a new one. Some things survive - car mechanics, boiler repairers etc. but most is chucked when it stops working. It's a waste!

So, lack of practical skills is part of the reason we live in such a wasteful society today. That and single use plastic.

And a though .. I am planning to put up a small security camera this weekend - was going to buy a cheap plastic housing for it. Maybe I make something from a plastic bottle or salad bowl, Blue Peter style.

Do they still make stuff on Blue Peter?

Glad to report that one of my sons loves watching videos on YT of people making stuff - and he shows some signs of being practical. He fixed is shield be sellotaping a container lid onto it as a handle. Lots of tape used. But an nice solution. There is hope.

Do watch The Repair Shop on BBC, some really skilled people on there repairing watches, furniture, weather vanes.........

 

[crystal ball]

The Australians have a natural ability too improvisation and think
laterally. One thing I did learned from them and admired.
This comes from being a big country and having to make do with what they had with them to fix a problem. The option of popping down the plumbers merchants was not an there.

I can't identify with that, most Australians live in the major cities and towns, which are well served by various wholesalers and suppliers, I would say a country like Zimbabwe would have a fair number of improvisors due to the constraints on importing spares and materials, more an economic factor than geographic

 

[festive]

This morning I went shopping, with no cash no pound coins.

With my leg as it is I needed trolly.

I had to think like Macgyver

What would he have done in this life and death situation.

Looking through the car all I could find was an extra strong mint. It was a little too big. I could suck it but then it would be to sticky.
It needed shaving down a bit. With a shave and a push I saved the day.
After I had a nice mint to suck.

Have you seen Macgyver lately he's a fat overweight fcker now and he couldn't fix a simple car issue he's losing his touch

 

[bernardgreen]

I would say a country like Zimbabwe would have a fair number of improvisors due to the constraints on importing spares and materials, more an economic factor than geographic

I cannot recall which African country it was a but a few years ago a friend saw several London Transport RT buses running inter village bus services along primitive dirt roads. He had been a bus mechanic and got to meet the people maintaining these buses. He said it was an amazing experience. Using very basic tools and plenty of time and effort they were making replacement parts from what ever was available to them

 

[Bodd]

Yeah, it was weird, it tasted of a mixture of plumbers mait and solder flux

It wasn't plumbers mate.

 

[conny]

When serving my apprenticeship, if any apprentice said he couldn't do a certain task because we didn't have such and such a thing, he was told;

"You're on an oil rig in the north sea fixing a problem. You have to get it done before the next helicopter lifts off in a few hours. If you haven't fixed it you can't go. What are you going to do?"

It certainly taught you to think outside the box, even if the temporary solution was some kind of Heath Robinson affair, because the next time you learnt to improve on it.

 

[transam]

Country had gone down the toilet

One time of day every house hold had tool.kit now u have s younger generation who to an extent are useless hard pushed to change a light bulb

A nation of whingers who think every thing is an emergency
Non flushing bog in a 3 bog house is a matter of life and death
Ect ect

Bunch of hopeless pansies who could not find there back side in the dark with both hands and s torch

 

[EFLImpudence]

I bought a faulty plumb bob once but I managed to repair it myself.

Seriously, though, I love mending things rather than buying new. I've never been good for the economy.

 

[Brigadier]

Such make - do - and - mend attitude does however lead to drawers and garages full of stuff "that will come in useful"

 

[crystal ball]

Country had gone down the toilet

One time of day every house hold had tool.kit now u have s younger generation who to an extent are useless hard pushed to change a light bulb

A nation of whingers who think every thing is an emergency
Non flushing bog in a 3 bog house is a matter of life and death
Ect ect

Bunch of hopeless pansies who could not find there back side in the dark with both hands and s torch

Keeps us in work though, I regularly get called to a holiday home to change lamps in downlighter because the owners cannot figure them out

 

[Bodd]

I can't identify with that, most Australians live in the major cities and towns, which are well served by various wholesalers and suppliers, I would say a country like Zimbabwe would have a fair number of improvisors due to the constraints on importing spares and materials, more an economic factor than geographic

I have a mate who lives in Perth. He told me he would fly to an outback town in the morning to do a job. The flight back was next morning.
He would have a bag of tools and parts that they suspected would fix the job. If the said parts were not the right ones or the complete fix, he would need to
Improvise. As going back on that flight next morning was not an option unless the problem is solved.

 

[crystal ball]

I have a mate who lives in Perth. He told me he would fly to an outback town in the morning to do a job. The flight back was next morning.
He would have a bag of tools and parts that they suspected would fix the job. If the said parts were not the right ones or the complete fix, he would need to
Improvise. As going back on that flight next morning was not an option unless the problem is solved.

Back in the eighties the firm I worked for looked after gas & oil plant the other side of Woop Woop, if the techie on site needed a particular part we could usually overnight it by air if need be, nowadays I imagine the same applies but better

 

[Bodd]

Back in the eighties the firm I worked for looked after gas & oil plant the other side of Woop Woop, if the techie on site needed a particular part we could usually overnight it by air if need be, nowadays I imagine the same applies but better

Alot of these Aussie outback towns only have 1 flight in and out a day

 

[conny]

Bit like some British villages only with buses.

EFLI said, "I bought a faulty plumb bob once but I managed to repair it myself."

I've got two in my tool box I made myself. Short length of 6mm copper tube filled with solder and a little wire loop in the top. Attached a length of twine and hey presto! Job sorted. Made these over 20 years ago and often use them to see if a vertical is straight.

 

[bernardgreen]

Alot of these Aussie outback towns only have 1 flight in and out a day

Some places the paper mail is still delivered by being dropped from light aircraft that land only if needed to collect mail.