Self taught

The electrician was round yesterday.  Scottish Water kindly, finally, agreed to install an electrical pump to prevent us getting flooded. It isn't that we get flooded by the river Tay, Britain's mightiest river, a couple of hundred yards away.  It's because of the inadequate urban drains or because the council forgets to close the floodgates on the park, which should act as a reservoir in heavy rain.  

The electrician's mate said he could fix anything.  So I proudly showing him the floors R and I laid, the door we hung, the loo and the new taps we installed. I asked him for his opinion on the flood gate we designed at the front from from something that looks like double, wavy perspex that I found reduced in Wickes. I didn't show him the 4m of floor to ceiling recycled custom made bookshelves we saved from a neighbour's throwout and reinstalled next door. 

The mate was the laid back guy who laid paving, concreted in paths.  A bit too laid back perhaps, once I'd seen the finish on the concrete after they relaid the path above the cable they cable they had installed. Luckily for him this was after it had dried and he had gone.   Just, don't, I heard a chorus of friends in my head.  I had, in reality, asked one of them for a quote for my Couchsurfing profile. "Could start an argument in an empty house?" he'd said.  My friends generally say nice things but a lot of them might recognise this skill of mine.  I can't quite reconcile the two.  How do they manage?

If he could fix things, hadn't he considered being an electrician?  No, he said, a bit abashed.  I guessed qualifications weren't his forte.  

He was, predictably self-taught and had built motorcycle engines.

Did you sell them?

Well, it started as a hobby.  and just took over, so yes I ended up selling them.  And then the missis blew up over the amoung of time I spent down in my unit, so...

- So how did you learn to fix things? 

- My dad was an electrician.  He used to give us old washing machines and the like.  We'd just take them apart and put them back together. 

- And make them work?

- No, they were broken anyway.

- So...? I was struggling to see the point, but that's why I'm better with language than machines.

- Just to see if we could put them back the way we'd got them.

The electrician was trying to get his youngest interested in plumbing or electrics.  There's good money in it, he said.  

And what do they want to do?

Not much, he said laughing. 

I sympathised and empathised.

I didn't doubt there was good money in it.  Dad's plumber had been round to fix a few things at our house.  He had about four holidays a year, in Mexico for instance.

No, the plumber had said, it wasn't normal that the client worked with you on a job although he had had someone crawl around under a floor with him.  

A man?

A woman! 

He is retiring this year. I knew he normally only serviced boilers now and had given up crawling under sinks to spare his knees.  He wouldn't admit it but it was helpful to have someone to hold stuff. I learned plenty, asked him if I could film, so I'd remember. 

You have to take photos when you're fixing or changing anything, said the electrician.  

I learned that the hard way, I said.

Everyone learns that the hard way, he said, laughing again.