You had me at Hewn

Hewn is a lovely word; a word that conjures up images of hard work and beautiful outcomes. Not much is hewn these days. In a world of disposable items and standards you really have to search hard for your inspiration.
Part of what makes me me is a desire to bring things back from the edge of disrepair. I'm not alone here; many people restore furniture, cars, and motorcycles in an attempt to bring something old (and possibly unloved) back from the brink.
Within this ethos there often lies a belief that everything new isn't as good as what came before it. But this is not always the case.
Just last week I discovered that the most recent Apple Macbook's were hewn out of a solid block of aluminum. The reason for Apple doing this, (apart from the obvious sexiness),was the resulting increased tensile strength. Tensile strength aside; it's still a bloody sexy idea!
I am so in love with the idea of making something from a solid block of metal - a modern day corporate sculpture for those who appreciate the exercise.
Thank God there are still companies out there building quality non disposable products. One day thirty years from now - I wonder if some geeky twenty year old will dust off an old 2009 Macbook pro he found in his Dads garage and marvel at how they did things way back when people actually took pride in what they built.

And that's today we're taking about here people :)

Meanwhile, back in the more immediate future, my Raleigh Chopper build is reaching it's final stages. In a wild fit of recklessness I have thrown logic to the four winds and have replaced all the old imperial nuts and bolts with new stainless steel metric equivalents. One wonders if one will be struck down for such heresy; perhaps my saving grace being the extensive re-chroming work undertaken in the last week. I cant be certain, but I suspect that the bill for this rebuild, if spent wisely, would have purchased a pretty nice motorcycle from the late 80's.
I take a certain solace in the fact that that said motorcycle restoring would have probably cost me as much as a pretty neat 1966 American Ford "Pony" notch-back in original condition - and thus the cycle would have perpetuated ad nausium, culminating in night terrors with me waking up screaming "What the fuck am I doing! ". {1}

The one remaining question yet to be answered is what the hell I'm going to do with the bike when it's finished; given I'm not actually going to ride it .....kidding...... I hope.

I wish my laptop was hewn.
It isn't ....
But it is the next best thing, in it's aluminum skin.
And that, my friends,
Is the story of this lads life. :)

{1} I'm only saying this because I've been there before - and it's only now I realize all these years later - I haven't really learned a fucking thing.