Time Machine

MANY years ago, something unusual caught my eye in a shop. It was a timepiece which used ball bearings and pivoted chutes to tell the time. I was intrigued but the shop was closed and it was in a place I happened to be visiting but didn't expect to revisit any time soon. I kept an eye out for it but it was a few years later before I found it again. 

I have a bit of a trait in that; whilst I'm not particularly interested in amassing physical stuff I will sometimes get it into my head that possessing a particular thing is somehow important. I had it about my 'om' ring and it happened over this clock. When I eventually had the cash and opportunity to buy the clock I could no longer find the one I originally saw, which was made from blue plastic and, I think, wider than the one I eventually purchased. I remember being very pleased to have finally acquired the piece, but I think I elected to have it in my bedroom which proved a mistake: when the hours (in particular) change, the falling ball bearings make a clattering noise pretty much guaranteed to wake one up.

The piece was unplugged and became relegated to ornament status. It has been moved several times and I had become convinced that it had lost some of its ball bearings. It had become separated from its power adapter and took on the new status of dust-gathering"folly". I don't know what it was that suddenly made me think of the clock a few weeks ago, it might have been that I found a 'spare' power adapter, but it became a mini mission to get it going again. To my delight I plugged in and it still worked! i gleefully set it up in the kitchen and found that it kept pretty accurate time, but that there was a problem with the transition from 1.59 to 2.00. I thought it was short of ball bearings so I ordered a pack for ten pounds but continued to tinker with the piece whilst I waited for the delivery. In the end; swapping over the counterbalance balls for the minutes and hours did the trick and the clock works very well now- there is the occassional hiccough and Jamba knocking it doesn't help! I've just moved it to its fourth position in the room where it will be free from feline interference, is close to a power source and is very visible.

I don't think that I paid much more than twenty or twenty-five pounds so I was surprised when I found a used model for sale on E-bay for one hundred and seventy pounds! There was also one for sale for twenty pounds- I have been meaning to contact that seller and let them know they might be undervaluing their piece. I have no intention of selling mine, but it is nice to know what some people might be prepared to pay for it. 

I've moved my desk to an alcove in my kitchen-diner and clock now sits above a dividing bookshelf, its clatter is much less intrusive in this setting.