Party time!

This weekend Wilson will be helping me sell my photos at the Uckfield Art Trail… though I'm not certain 'help' is the right word. 

He's very excited as tonight is the Launch Party, and he likes parties… but I've a feeling he's expecting jelly and ice-cream and games. I'd better try to lower his expectations before we set off.

It's at the Uckfield Civic Centre, if you fancy coming along. Lots of my photos, lots of other people's paintings and stuff, but probably no jelly, ice-cream or games. 

http://uckfieldarttrail.co.uk/

Is it armed, I wonder?

Wilson's robot is big - its antennae brush the ceiling. 

It's sinister and makes a scary noise as it walks. 

It reminds me of the ED-209 in Robocop, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it had concealed artillery. How can it be so massive, when the kits it was built from came out of two little cardboard boxes? 

Maybe it would be less scary if it had a friendly name. I asked W what it was called and he said he was open to suggestions but at present it was the WTBBR-1. He explained that this stood for Wilson's Teddy Bear Building Robot, but I was more concerned by the '-1' bit, which suggested to me that this was just the first in a series and there may be more robots to come.

In an effort to sound positive, I admired the bear WTBBR-1 had made. W then confessed there are still some bugs in the program and he made that bear himself. Out of a cushion in the living room. 

I finally get to meet the robot

Wilson has been thinking about how nice Uckfield's current mayor is, how kind and friendly he was towards W during the Freedom of Uckfield ceremony etc, and now he has decided it would be unfair to run against him. 

He put it to me that he 'couldn't bear to see the mayor in a queue at the DSS, because he'd probably never get another job. I expect Mayoring is all he knows!' 

Once W had made his decision about not running for mayor, he proceeded to bring his robot in to the house to meet me. 

It is bigger than I expected. MUCH bigger.

Robot put on hold

I was preparing myself to meet Wilson's robot for the first time when W ran in, very excited, from the Museum where he had been making the 'final adjustments' to his mechanical man. He told me he had been listening to Uckfield FM while he worked, and heard them talking about a town in Alaska that has a cat as its mayor.

I thought W must be mistaken, but together we Googled the story, and guess what we found: http://tinyurl.com/bvy6ovp

The robot will be staying in the shed for a little while longer while W researches whether non-human mayors are legal in England, and plans his election campaign. 

Robot latest

It's been a lot of work, but Wilson has finally completed his teddy-bear-building robot! I've barely seen him for the last few days as he's been labouring away at it in the Museum of Old Stuff building. I've taken food and drink out to him there, but I've not been allowed to see the completed robot. 

W says he will walk the android into the house tomorrow, and then I will be allowed to behold it in all its robotic glory.