Unexpected picnic bench building at work

The University has started a well-being initiative. And quite suddenly, we found out that there is actual money involved in that. Our wellbeing champion suddenly had £100 to spend. She made the quick decision that a good way of spending that was to buy a picnic bench for the terrace adjacent to the staff lunch room. It is entirely bare! Sometimes we will go there for lunch anyway, but then either sit on the bare floor, or have to drag our chairs outside. It needed assembly, and she asked for volunteers to help with that. I decided to put my name forward. It sounded like a fun job!

Next working day an email arrived. Our wellbeing champion didn't have time for our bench. But by coincidence, I was having lunch with Robin, the other volunteer, and we decided to just go and do it. We needed to borrow some tools but that wasn't a problem. So we went to get these, and then set to work! And  instructions were straightforward.

No time later (and one correction, and one lost screwdriver head) we had a bench. It was a fine specimen! It wasn't as robust as would have been ideal; it was already straining a bit under my weight, and I am hardly one of the heavier people within Ocean Sciences. The instructions say you could have a maximum of 150 kg on each side. Although there is space  for 4, at a push. With that 150 kg limit, you could only realistically have 2 people on each side. But it would do! It was a lot better than nothing!

Since we built it, it has been in use every single lunchtime. I am glad we have this thing now! And the Head of School was already thinking about buying an additional one from the School budget…

Work in progress

Finished!