My wife says that I am a hoarder, I say that I am a collector, I have useful bits and pieces around the home. For example, I have a Kindermann 35mm slide projector which I last used when I was giving lectures about Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge in 2009. Most people including my wife would have sold it, I have kept it in case it would come in useful one day. I have about 2,000 non fiction books mainly about Brunel and other Victorian Engineers. I have over 3,500 pieces of mecanno in boxes under my desk for when I manage to get some free time to use it I also have a couple of thousand electronic components for when I build experimental circuits on breadboards. I still use a fountain pen, the one that I use is a Parker Stainless steel pen given to me by my late father in 1990 and it still works faultlessly. My poor long suffering wife despairs with me especially as I have now acquired a secondhand LGB Garden Railway and I have threatened to dig up a flower bed to lay the ballast for the track. Also, I have told her that I want a non working Imperial Typewriter to restore over the winter! Yes, I do suffer from the Magpie Syndrome, the only problem being that |I could do with a bigger house!
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