36 years old coming back to Edinburgh from holidays in Greece feeling so miserable, I spend so much time with my nephews in the summer and leaving is always so painful. Is it because I was 36 and still had no children? Is it because it was the last pre pandemic summer and we returned from what it was going to be our last adventure with Nek and Drosos? Or is it just me, little miserable me, always unsatisfied, always on a mission of self-improvement?
A year before, I met Nancy and for the first time in my life I experienced the full falling in love experience, without any cutbacks, it was the 6-month emotion rollercoaster ride that I was hoping to live someday. The first time I met her I felt like there was no air in the room, in the street, in the city. And this feeling was non-stop for 6 months…
So, overall things were pretty good but I needed a different kind of boost to keep me going and I was once again in a hunt for it. Found a leaflet accidentally, it said “Precious Metals Workshop” and it suddenly clicked. Felt it was the right time to start doing something with my hands, did not know what but it felt I trusted DESTINY.
Went to the workshop it felt cosy and “manageable” small tasks such as cut a copper sheet by hand and make something out of it. I made an omega letter, don’t ask why. Felt an attraction that was missing from the mechanical workshops we had at the campus. Went to the jewellery place every week for 2 hours and could not wait for the next session. After a couple of weeks training Ian, the instructor told me that for the rest of the time I would have to think of a project and built it. At that point I had the epiphany! A transparent guitar pedal with a circuit hanging in the air. So, I built a prototype just to show Ian with parts from the electrical workshop, made from a box of Colgate toothpastes, went to the electrical workshop did the soldering and the “Colgate box” was complete!
Fun fact: The colgate box is not functional. As all the connections were made from enamelled copper - which did not realise at the time as I was a complete noob…No wonder it took me ages to put things together as solder did not stick…