Post #297200 by POCKETIKI on Thu, Apr 5, 2007 7:35 PM

It's gone three in the morning, here in England, and I've just finished bagging, stuffing and numbering the few copies of POCKETIKI #2 I managed to get done today! I went to bed at around two this morning and was up at around 6.30am! Sian took me into work for 7.15am where I spent some time drilling the card toppers and preparing a small insert for this issue's Tiki Competition (more on that later). Lunch time I finished the insert and reminded the guys in the print room that the engineer hadn't been to fix the dodgy copier that I intended to use later that evening.

I went off to a meeting and on my return was greeted by the engineer who informed me that if I was lucky I might just get away with some printing, if I kept my fingers crossed! GREAT! Well I sent a short run to the copier and they looked fine. I just needed to run them through the folding machine and I was home and dry!

That's when it all went 'orribly wrong!!!!! The machine would just not take the copies and was skewing them and eventually chewed them up, but didn't spit them out! We, the print room guys and myself, spent the next hour digging around at the machine with screw drivers and bent wire trying to remove all of the paper that had wrapped itself around umpteen rollers. NOT GOOD! Chas wheeled out the old antiquated back-up folding machine which took some clear test sheets without batting an eyelid. Wahoo! It really didn't like POCKETIKI though and chewed great lumps out of the first few copies before giving up the ghost entirely! Bollocks!

I needed to print some more copies so whilst we figured out what to do twenty squiffy copies came rolling off the copier. What the...? I couldn't believe it! The pages were all over the place, just like your auntie after a few sherries at a family do! This was not happening...ONLY IT WAS! The next batch were o.k. and with the print room guys bidding me farewell as they headed off for the Easter break, wishing me good luck and saying how sad they were that this had turned into such a nightmare...I ploughed on! It took me several hours and a damn good pair of trousers to get just a few finished but I DID IT!!!!!! YES I BLOODY WELL DID IT!!!!!!

I kid you not, I split my bloomin' trolleys whilst tryin' to get POCKETIKI finished! Now, whatever way you look at it, that has to be incredibly bad luck!?!!

Whoops that's torn it!

These pictures might be posed, Sian brought the camera along when she came to pick me up at around 8.30pm as she said no one would believe such a thing could happen, but they are genuine. Belive it or Not Mr. RIPley, I tore the seat right out of my pants for the greater good of TIKI! STRANGE BUT TRUE!

Anyway, it's now 3.30am and I really must go to bed. I do have some finished copies, very few at the moment, and will put some up on eBay over the weekend.

Wendy! Your 'MAHALO' copy will be in the post after the Easter Break! I think you and Dan are going to enjoy this one even more than the first! Also thanks Sven for your very encouraging words, they really hit the mark. You see, like you, once a punk rocker, always a punk rocker! That's why I was so keen to do the HULAPUNK cd, it really is FUN! I guess you may have seen them in Germany? Everyone should see them, end of story! I'm glad you appreciate our (my) approach to documenting what's happening out there, we really are looking for 'TIKI with a TWIST' in POCKETIKI, there is some wild stuff about and we want in! MAHALO!

Damn! Look at the time! Catch you later - Trader Jim ( Make mine a... ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz).