Advice for Remy, Day 148. Whenever doing anything practical - measure twice, cut once. Your great grandad gave me that advice many times over the years, and it was a rule he totally lived by. Never one to rush headlong into a practical job, George was much more a contemplator before starting work. He’d think, measure, devise, measure again, plan, consider, measure, ruminate then measure again. It would always frustrate me, as I’d always want to rush to get something started and run headlong into the first task at hand while George was still sharpening his pencil. But inevitably, he was right. I’d be standing there with a piece of wood cut 20cm too short because I’d measured the wrong thing, or something the wrong way round because I hadn’t read the instructions properly. Whereas he’d have slowly and steadily completed the job and would be having a cup of tea after packing his tools up. It taught me that things always need planning and careful preparation. It might sound boring and it might be the last thing you want to do, but I guarantee it will save you a huge amount of time, money, stress, grey hair, wasted materials, swearing and premature ageing. Today we cut some patio tiles and large slabs for use down the end of the garden and used an angle grinder for the first time (I know, big day). It took us a while to get to the actual cutting however, as we needed to triple check everything was measured correctly and was going to fit. This was especially important as we had very limited tiles so couldn’t afford any wasteage. A few hours later we have a nice new patio design all fitted perfectly, without a mismeasured piece or an ill-fitting tile. We’re also covered head to toe in a film of brick dust, but you can’t have everything.
