GADGETS TO DIY FOR
There is a handyman in all of us – you just need the right hi-tech tools...
The tell-tale rustle of a newspaper opening is often what does it, but even if I tap on my iPad in total silence, my wife seems to teleport next to me with a list of DIY tasks I could be doing instead of wasting my time on a moment of this so-called ‘relaxation’. Her silent approach is much like Jeeves’s ‘shimmer’ in PG Wodehouse’s novels – except the master-servant relationship is, obviously, the other way round.
My DNA does not equip me for DIY. My father once screwed a door back on upside down. But thankfully, I live in an age where technology has made it nearly safe for idiots like me to grapple with such problems: hitech power drills that stop your mistakes before they happen, sensing how hard to drill a hole. Jobs that used to require me busying myself brewing up cups of tea for handymen now self-install. Switch on my phone, and I have a spirit level; take a photo with the camera and I can easily add room measurements; there are drills that unscrew fittings from your wall, but also moonlight as wine bottle openers.
Best of all, though, is that someone has invented a truly magical DIY aid – a substance that fixes anything, without gluing your hands to it, cracking or requiring you to sit stock still for hours (see panel, below).