Electricity

I was interested in wires since childhood and that made me learn all I could about electricity. I remember learning from an excellent professional that used to work with my father, named Felipe, may this be a small tribute to him. In school, my then physics teacher and now friend, Manuel Narváez fed my interest and made me learn some theory.

Thanks to all this I have been able to work easily with excellent electricians (my University colleague and friend Rafael Navarro comes to my mind) that have taught and helped me a lot with job related and personal projects.

And, as result, now I have started my biggest project: redesign and install myself all of my home electrical wiring.

Plumbing

This was another result of my learning inclinations, and my grandma's love for reforms :-). Guillermo, a complete professional that executed her projects while I was in my teens, took the time to teach me while working, and it seems he was as good at teaching as he was at doing his job.

I confess that I have not dared to use the soldering lamp, but I like changing pipes, installing taps or fixing toilet flushes. Though, I admit that I really get mad when I have to redo something several times because of dripping joints.

Mechanics

This also dates really back in my life, I think it predates the other two, I liked playing with a Meccano set I had inherited from my grand uncle, but real mechanics started when my grand dad taught me to fix my bicycle, which I still do now a days. I inherited his old Seat 600, unfortunately he died too young and I ended having a car one year before I had a driving license. Driving a car with over 100 thousand kilometres in your student days piques one's imagination. And, again, I was fortunate to find a good professional that did not mid sharing his knowledge with whom I learnt a lot basic maintenance tasks and some not so basic other ones like changing the drive shafts.

Unfortunately, modern engines are not so friendly, so it's been a long time since I've done motor mechanics, I just do bike mechanics.

Tools

All these interests require adequate tools, and I have a good collection of them, new and old. I even have a wooden spirit level, which is almost a century old, and belonged to my great grand father.

You need the right tools for each job if you want things done right.