Growing up in still bombed-out Germany in a two-roomed walk-up flat with my parents and four other siblings meant that my misspent youth was totally devoid of hobbies that may have equipped me with any sort of manual dexterity.
Then came a long period of boarding-house and construction camp living, followed by another twenty years of employer-supplied-and-maintained cars and houses, which meant that by the time I moved into my own house and faced my own maintenance work, the only tool I knew how to use was a hammer, and every problem looked like a nail.
Despite having accumulated a range of DIY-tools and some knowledge, acquired in the School of Hard Knocks and Cuts and Bruises, of how to use them, any maintenance work still strikes terror into my heart.
And so, having accidentally broken an underground copper pipe behind the under-utilised workshop, I was faced with calling out a plumber and paying $100-plus for a call-out, or doing the job myself by spending $19.90 on a copper-tube cutter and $5 on a "Sharkbite" connection.
I'm happy to say that the investment has paid off and the water is no longer dripping onto the ground but flowing in the direction intended. I feel so good about it, I almost want to chop up a few more pipes just to do it all over again. After all, practice makes perfect!
