Why can't I buy what I want?

[luckykaa]

Or at least at a price I want to pay?

Broke hawkida 's guest bed last week.  Said I'll fix it.  Was hoping it would be easy either to buy a,metal plate or some short pieces of wood to reinforce it, or a replacement slat.  Can't be done.  Only long planks, which is fine except I can't get one of them home on the tube. 

Was also hoping I might be able to get a charger for my laptop.  40 Quid!  I could get one for half that off ebay, but that would involve waiting.  I can get one for a tenner but it's an unofficial one and I'm slightly wary of those.  Car chargers are no cheaper.  Guess I'll just do the detour to home before Eastercon.  I'm only in one evening and there's a good 3 hours of life in the laptop.  Plenty for checking email/facebook/LJ

Comments

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

When I broke a slat at the place I was staying, I found a workmate into woodworking and he made me a matching slat.

If you can find the right thickness of wood, Homebase (and most other DIY places) have a timber cutting desk that will cut it to size. The shelves next to the fireplace were 115cm, the plank of wood was 240cm, so I got them to cut a 10cm piece out of the middle of each plank to give me two shelves the right length.

Good luck with the charger.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Also Homebase has, in a bin/box near the wood cutting desk, offcuts of wood, one of which might be more to your requirement, and quite cheap.

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about the bed, I can deal with it. If you feel indebted then buy me a couple of drinks at Eastercon but even at that level don't feel obliged. Accidents happen.

[luckykaa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know you're cool with it and quite able to deal. It's more a personal fondness for fixing things. Was expecting it to be a lot easier. All I need to do is buy some wood and screw it in. Stage one is harder than I expected.