Not a brass knocker but ….

I mean — for goodness sake!! Works me blooming socks off and still she’s not happy! Well, I jolly well told her what I thought about that and she got the message, make no mistake!!

Got a bit chilly outside the front door after a while so gave up hammering on it and shimmed back up to the Biggun’s upper level where Oldie makes a lot of noise and a big mess to see what I could find to keep Madam happy. He calls it singing but the boss Biggun says it sounds more like a youknowwhat in pain and to cut it out - but frankly we think she’s being far too kind with him.

Oldie can’t remember all the words to some of the songs he ‘sings’ and who would remember or even want to? Mostly they’re by Bob Dylan who couldn’t sing in the first place but by the time Oldie has finished with them it’s a terrifying ordeal for most folk. We quiver and quake behind the skirting in fear of our lives while its going on - Nipper didn’t sleep for weeks when we first came here and when he did he’d wake up crying pitifully.

What really drives Boss Biggun to distraction is when Oldie suddenly, and for no good reason apparent to any reasonable mind, suddenly bursts into a vague rendition of Whale meat again. Not sure if he can help it anymore. Once I thought he’d pushed her too far but she took a deep breath, shook her head sadly and put the roll of book cloth back down on her table very, very gently.

But I digress. Up on Oldie’s table there’s some pretty interesting stuff lying about, some of it jogged memories of my days in the Bindery - then the penny dropped - the Bigguns were making books! - what else would you use a laying press or a stitching frame for?? We’ve ended up in a blooming bindery for goodness sake!!!

Well, Shake Me Tail!!

Which I did and in the process, luckily for me, knocked over a box of stuff including some very nice brass binding rings. Not a big brass knocker but I wonder if Madam would settle for a really impressive front door chime?