Monday 18 May 2020

THE PLANK



The Plank is an excellent short film featuring Eric Sykes, Tommy Cooper and other British greats.
It was made in 1967 and is about a couple of useless builders who need a plank to complete a floor they are making. Sykes wrote it  and it's a follow on from an earlier spot in his TV series Sykes and a ... from 1964. Well worth watching.

Why The Plank?

Well I'm getting set to replace the light fitting in the snooker room and set up the two Gorilla ladders and a Gorilla extendable 'plank' but it's high up and it will be difficult holding and affixing a cumbersome 3-light fitting while balancing on a narrow platform. For safety's sake I want another couple of ladders and a plank to go alongside the main one. This is so you can have a foot on each for balance. I have another stepladder which I'm using and I borrowed another from Rod. He dropped it off this morning. He didn't have a plank though so I've borrowed one from a neighbour down the road.
This was too long to fit in the car though so Rod and I carried it along the road back to my house.

Now Rod is unusual. This morning, after he dropped the step ladder off said he was off to town (30 minutes away) to get a WOF for the car. When he got there he realised that he was driving the wrong car. He had his wife's car so had to come back, swap cars over and head back into town.

This afternoon, when he was back and in a frazzled state he gave me a hand to collect the plank. Now normal people would carry a plank in 'Indian file' along the side of the road as I tried to do. Not Rod who is one of those people who must see you when talking to you and is a 'close talker' -  the last thing you want in a pandemic. Rod then was continually walking alongside me, in the middle of the road with the 3 metre plank separating us. Fortunately we live on a dead-end road which has virtually no traffic but, as we came around a slight bend two cyclists nearly rode into the plank and had to take evasive action. Rod cracked up and we discussed 'The Plank' as we both love old British comedy. Rod, when he was working in a bar in the UK used to serve Tommy Cooper with Cognac on a frequent basis.

We got the plank safely home and it's now in situ awaiting the electrician.


The plank in position on the left.

7 comments:

Richard (of RBB) said...

You boys!

Robert Sees Things in Sky said...

Why didn't you just move the billiard table?

THE CURMUDGEON said...

"Why didn't you just move the billiard table?"

When we bought it, two guys came up from Auckland to deliver it and to assemble it.
It took them several hours to put it together.
There are three slate plates that make up the base of the table under the felt.
Each plate is extremely heavy.
It took the two guys, me and a friend of mine to carry each plate into the house and to put in place.
Then, after assembly the experts spent a lot of time getting the table balanced using keys on the legs.

That's why we don't just move the table.

Richard (of RBB) said...

Why didn't these experts think about the lights? Wankers!

THE CURMUDGEON said...

Rude!

Richard (of RBB) said...

No new post.













Big surprise!













Not

Robert Sees Things in Sky said...

I understand. We had enormous effort to balance our portable one every time we set it up.