…Yes, that was possibly the worst title for a blog ever
This week, the brave adventurers of TCV headed off to the WHALE centre. I was slightly disappointed to find that this stood for Wester Hailes Arts for Leasure and Education, and was not a home for aquatic mammals. The job was (in case you hadn’t guessed by the title) to replace some old decking with wonderful shiny new stuff, with the lovely people at the centre providing tea and yummy biscuits, which rather made up for the lack of dolphins.
Once Alan had put everyone of their tea by describing some of the yoga poses he had done the night before, we got started. The first task was to rip up the old decking, a job that was made a lot more complicated by the random mix of screws and different sized nails that had been used to secure it. This was achieved with the use of the latest in long lever technology ( crowbars), aided by high velocity impact tools (hammers). Unfortunately, the weather appeared to have made the mistake as me, and was determined to turn the area into a habitat suitable for marine dwelling mammals. This made our job quite a bit more difficult as it turned the old decking into an ice rink, so we all had to waddle around like penguins to avoid unfortunate losses of dignity.
Once a suitable amount of the old decking was ripped up, we started to get going on the new stuff. Unlike the old surface, the new decking had a special rubber coat, making it much easier to walk on.. Alan and Victoria started on this, cutting the new planks to length before screwing them in. The lure of saws and power drills was too much for the rest of us to resist however, and after lunch we all joined in, laying down a deck that Captain Jack Sparrow would be proud of.
To see a selection of photos from past and present projects, click here