Hi Everyone,

well...that didn't last long.

Back under lockdown thanks to one single case.

If you read this, and need to contact me, please do so via email.

The address is ak@andrewknightguitars.com.au

Andrew

 Hi Everyone,

the lockdown has been lifted. Woo-hoo!

My little shop will re-open regular hours this week. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 1.00pm - 5.00pm.

The deputy whatever he's called, has stated that they will reinstate the lockdown if even a single "case" appears in our "region". I'm not sure specifically what any of that means, but if you have a guitar currently with me I urge you to come and get it ASAP!!

I am obliged to open the shop according to government protocols regarding check-in and mask-wearing. I know that some of you think that's a bit daft, but I can be fined a lot of money if you don't comply. If you can't comply, then please send in some one who can.

If you have read some of the previous posts to this journal you should be able to figure out why I ask this. Lisa is seriously immuno-compromised, and if a skeptic or non-believer brings the bug into my shop then that could be a disaster.

What can I say? Let's follow the rules so that sooner rather than later we can be rid of them.

I have SO many completed repairs. The lockdown has been a godsend in this respect. Pretty-well every repair that I could complete is done. The exceptions are a few that I haven't been able to get parts for, and a few that I need to have a serious chat with the owners.

If you DO have a repair with me, then please either come into the shop or contact me via email. I suspect that the "shop" is going to be SO busy that I'll barely get a chance to answer the 'phone.

Thanks for your patience and understanding. 

Andrew

 Hi Everyone,

as I'm sure most of you know, as of 6.00pm Monday 9th August, Lismore and the surrounding areas have been placed under Lockdown.

And as much as we'd all like my little shop to be classified as "essential", I'm afraid that I don't qualify. But as soon as the government health-orders are lifted you can be assured that I will re-open right away.

If you read this, and want to contact me via email, that would be fine. Clearly though, completed repairs can't be collected, and new repairs can't be accepted, as I am required to have the shop closed. 

 It's been an interesting few months.

I chose to close the shop temporarily in May, to catch up on the large backlog of repairs. I made good progress. I re-opened in June and actually booked in more new work than the number of completed jobs that were collected. Then came July, and Lisa's illness.

As Lisa's recovery continued I was able to re-open the shop at the end of July. Two weeks later I have to close again by government directive.

The only good thing about this is that I should be able to catch up even further!! Yay!!

Income? Yikes. But as Bob Dylan said, "Everything is temporary".

This thing is obviously dragging on beyond the seven days that they initially imposed, so we will have to contact the "authorities" to see if some kind of "Plan B" is acceptable regarding collection of completed repairs. Friends...I am not holding my breath!

Stay at home, stay safe, and stay positive.

Soon this journal will feature guitar stuff again, rather than public health orders...

Andrew

 

Hi Everyone,

Lisa is recovering and doesn't need me to be around all the time any more. She is still far from fully recovered, but things are looking positive.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, please read the previous entry in this journal.

So the plan is to re-open the shop next week (from Tuesday 27th July).

I have a shop full of completed repairs (!) and will be calling people next week to advise that their guitars are ready to collect.

If you read this, and you are thinking about bringing some guitars in for me to fix, could I please ask you to hold off for a week or so - I was in the shop this morning and, to be honest, it's full! It will take me a week or so to ship out the completed repairs before I can ship in some new ones. Thanks for this.

My plan is for the shop, and all incoming and outgoing repairs, to be back to normal (or what passes for "normal" in a busy repair shop) next week, or at the latest the following week.

This has been a particularly weird and trying time for Lisa and me, and it's still ongoing until she is fully recovered. I'm sure that you will respect this.

To all of you who expected me to be there to fix your guitars as I always have, I thank you for your patience and understanding. I know that rocking up to a shop and finding a "closed" sign is never a happy meal.

But we seem to be drifting onto the sunny side of this particular dark alley.

Thank you all again for your good-wishes and understanding.

Strange days!

Andrew

 

Hi Everyone,

as many of you will know, my shop has been closed for the last two weeks. My answering service, and the sign on the door, advises that we’re closed for “Personal Family Reasons”.

My wife Lisa has been seriously ill in hospital and, after discussing things at length, we have decided to make public the reason for her hospitalisation.

Lisa has had a serious adverse reaction to the AstraZeneca Covid 19 vaccination.

She has developed, almost certainly directly from the vaccination, a condition called Guillain-Barré Syndrome. This is a serious immunological disease and is one of the established side-effects of certain vaccinations including the AstraZeneca vaccine.

She is recovering from the condition, but the recovery time is wide-open…it could be two weeks, it could be two months,  or it could be two years.

But she is recovering.

The most common “side-effect” of this vaccine is the much-published “rare-blood-clot” syndrome that the media has latched on to, but it turns out that the blood-clot thing is only one of several known reactions, Guillain-Barré being one of them. I’m sure that many of you who read this will google “Guillain-Barré”, so I’ll leave that with you! There are a couple of other serious adverse reactions to AstraZeneca documented, including heart ailments, and another condition, just confirmed, called immune thrombocytopenia.

I am not a mathematician, but as a technician I am required to have a reasonable understanding of numbers and I DO have a decent grasp of percentages and statistics etc. And I also DO appreciate that the statistical chance of a serious adverse reaction to the vaccine is teeny-weeny (about 0.004% or something similar). Tiny.

But in our house it is 100%.

One vaccination, one serious adverse reaction.

Twenty years or so ago, my brother’s infant daughter developed Meningococcal Disease. A doctor told him that this was a “one-in-a-million” chance. Paul replied, “yes, and THIS is the one!”

Statistics are usually pretty meaningless, and completely so when you are the “one”.

I don’t usually do "politics" - and generally run away as fast as I can - but I do think that our government may have fucked up a bit and ordered a huge load of a marginally-efficient and slightly-dodgy prototype vaccine (perhaps in a genuine attempt to seem to be ahead of the game). And now they’re trying to unload it on anyone who is spooked enough to take it (whilst indemnifying the doctors that recommend it – yikes!!).

Most of Europe has backed away from AstraZeneca, and the United States FDA refused to approve it from the start. Our government recommends it, but protects GPs from legal action should any adverse reaction and illness entail. Take from that what you will.

Personally, I’m going to hang on until a better one is available to us all. 

I DO know that the chance of BOTH Lisa and I having a bad reaction to the same vaccine is vanishingly small but, after what has happened, how can I now possibly say, "fine, give me a shot of that stuff too!".

I am certainly not an “anti-vaxxer” or any other kind of conspiracy theorist, but I do have concerns about the AZ vaccine. I’m not alone in this, and have the US Food and Drugs Administration and about half of the European Union in agreement. The AZ vaccine would seem to be almost, but not quite, right.

Most importantly, Lisa is recovering, but it will take some time. Hopefully she will recover 100%.

Regarding my shop and guitar-repairs etc. – Lisa is now home from hospital and I will have to spend some time at home looking after her as she recovers full mobility. My workshop is next to the house, so I will be able to catch up on the always-existent backlog of repairs while being there should she need me for anything.

I anticipate being able to re-open the shop in at least a part-time way in two to three weeks. That will allow those of you who have repairs currently with me to come in and collect them. And I should be able to start taking in new repairs as well. But I will be slower than usual at turning around jobs from book-in to completion until we all get back to where we were.

Any questions call or email. I will get back to you, but it may not be straight away.

Thank you all for your understanding and patience.

Andrew

 Hi there my friends,

I have to close the shop for a while to deal with a very serious illness to one of my immediate family.

I will continue to do repairs between hospital visits, and may even be quicker without the banter and serious conversations that make up much of my "shop" time!

If you have an instrument already booked in with me, it will be finished according to what we discussed, but the time-frame may be a little longer.

Please contact me either via email or the shop 'phone. My replies may take a little longer than usual. Actually, they will take a lot longer than usual (mainly because Telstra has, for some reason, disconnected my "remote" connection to my message bank).

If, as I truly hope, the medical situation improves then I will be able to gradually re-open the shop for a limited time each week so that you can collect completed repairs.

I must apologise to those of you who were expecting to collect their completed repairs this week, but I assure you that this illness was unexpected and very concerning and, that no matter how much I consider your guitar and their repairs to be of absolute prime value to you and my business, the medical situation that my family has be-fallen takes priority.

Andrew

 

 Hi Everyone,

back to "normal" now - the shop is back open usual hours (1.00pm - 5.00pm Tuesday, Thursday and Friday)

My month hiding away and catching up on the big jobs worked out well. Only the refinishing work didn't quite get completed (still a bit too humid to be confident spraying clear lacquer over sunbursts and tinted solid colours such as cherry). But we're close.

Still finding some parts supplies (especially binding materials for some reason) to be tricky, but generally things are back where they once were.

To anyone that was inconvenienced by my shop being closed for a few weeks - thanks for your patience. And to be honest, I wouldn't have gotten your guitars fixed during that time anyway.

So. I'm back to "regular" busy rather than "silly" busy.

And taking new work in as usual.

Andrew