If At First You Don't Succeed...

When I was sorting through junk up at the yard I came across this mysterious book that seemed to make even less sense than the journals and sketches I found with the inventing bench.  At the time I shoved it away and forgot about it as it seemed so useless but now that I'm out of options it might be worth another look.

For starters I now recognise some of the plants it mentions.  We've spent years growing them in our garden.

So it's back to books for me.

Even with having identifiable ingredients to hand now, and with all of my skill which I gained through the chemistry set, it's many days and nights of intensive study before I feel brave enough to try my first concoction.

Which is a complete failure.

 More study needed I think.  Ohhh, where is the nearest bucket...?  I don't feel so good.

I eventually brew up something which neither explodes or makes me lose my lunch by its stench and is, I believe, exactly what I'm looking for.  So I try it out on Edwin.

And absolutely nothing happens.

Pffh.

For the first time Edwin gives me a bit of a pep talk.  He knows how long and how hard I've been working towards this and I'm just getting impatient to finally achieve my goal.   

I'm getting sick of being patient but I do feel better after our talk and I'm eager to head back for some more study and some more experimentation. 

This time I'm sure I've got it right.  I'll pop it into a cup for easy drinking, and...

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?  WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T DRINK THE &%$%(*& THING?!!!

What, you want a nicer cup or something?!

Sigh.

If at first you don't succeed, try again. 

And again.  And again...

Until finally...

I've cracked it!

Well, I'm pretty sure I have.

Then again, that's what I thought all those other times.

Guess there is only one way to find out.

And I'll wrap up the finished product and give it as a gift to Edwin.

Yes sweetie.  It's all yours.  I hope you like it.

No more potential hickups about not being able to take it orally, this one I've designed to be airborne.

And...  Will it work...?

OMG.

You're 150 years old!!!

Why does this sort of thing keep happening to me!?

The End of the Chemistry Road

With my new idea burning a hole in my imagination I was at my chemistry set all hours.  Rain or Shine.

The season changed to winter and my pace didn't slow.  I'd work until I was so blue with the cold I had to head inside for a hot bath.

Although I now had some idea of what I was looking for I still didn't really know if it was possible and of course I had no actual roadmap on how to get there.  Like with everything I have achieved on this island I had to believe that the only limits were my imagination and how much work I was willing to do.

Life was still full of surprises.  I made this fascinating concoction at one point.

I was the only tester on the island so everything I made I had to check myself.

Wrinkles begone!  I felt like a fresh young girl, as though all my years had dropped away.

Well that clearly called for a celebration.  I wasn't able to make proper cake yet but I was able to whip up a celebratory birthday pie.  Sweetened with honey and tasting delicious!

And I also took a break and had a birthday outing.  I came back from the future with a new birthday outfit.  Looking very slinky if I do say so myself.

I had really reached the end of my explorations with the chemistry set.  I had gone through all of the ingredients and drawn a bit of a blank.  Some discovery's were useful, most not so much, but in the end I was no closer to my goal than when I started.

Now might be the right time to take stock of what I'm doing and what I'm trying to ultimately achieve.

I sat down and began to record the story of my life on this island; I'm hopeful that taking a bit of time out might bring a fresh perspective.

Writing did not come easily to me.  Perhaps it's because I'm used to fresh air and being inside the house for hours on end doesn't suit my temperament.  Maybe I would have found it more enjoyable if I could write but the icy weather wasn't permitting.

Regardless I frowned and moaned and pulled my hair in bored frustration but the exercise worked.

My memory was jogged.  There is one thing I've found here which I've yet to fully explore.  I didn't understand it when I first found it and so put it to one side and just forgot about it.  But since then I've discovered a few things and I think my skill in chemistry will come in handy as well.

Come tomorrow morning it's time to expand my work.

Back to the drawing board (chemistry set)

For a year I flung myself into my work.  Working with dedication to unlock the secrets of chemistry.

There were many successes.

And quite a few failures.

This brings back memories of my times on the inventing bench.  Ah, I was so young then.

And speaking of the inventing bench I also crafted a few handy items for around the house and garden.

Firstly I finally got around to creating a watering system so our growing garden no longer needs to be watered by hand.

And I also put together this nifty little device.  Very handy for gathering any fruit and veg ripe for the harvest. 

The fresh food tastes wonderful cooked in my new kitchen even if the cooking appliances don't really do the ingredients justice.  Maybe if I was a better cook I could work out a way to improve my stove.  Still, it's a huge improvement on only being able to roast  my dinner over an iron pot.

I've tinkered around with the stove as best I could and it does produce a pretty good meal now. 

With all of my work I think I'm as good of a home 'fix it' person as Edwin nowadays.  That's another skill the island has taught me.  Being self reliant here is a must.  If you don't learn to do something there isn't going to be anyone else who shows up to do it for you.

In the end though, no matter how good it tastes, my meals are eaten alone.  Edwin still being on his metal only diet.  He has tried to accustom himself to my food but no matter how he tries the most he can do right now is dream about it.  My candlelight dinners are strictly for one.

The other gadget I've made is this little thing here.  Small but efficient.  One zap with this and all of those troubles and worries pressing on my mind just go away.  Well.  Mostly.  Usually. 

Actually sometimes it feels like pot luck.  Maybe I've got a setting wrong somewhere?

When I'm not tinkering around in the kitchen or making gadgets I'm working on my chemistry homework. 

Excepting the occasional stress break. 

Edwin takes over the running of the house again while I'm preoccupied.  Catching my dinner.

And working on the Time Machine.  I'm not sure if he sneaks off on the occasional trip but he does seem very determined to work on its safety and directional features.  If he keeps this up one day I might even be able to pick a spot in history and have some vague sort of hope of actually making it there.

The Time Machine is a rather tricky piece of work though; even for someone with Edwins skills.  At one point he crossed the wrong wires and gave himself a bit of a shock.

And then the Time Machine caught fire...

We managed to put it out but poor Edwin took it hard.

Have I mentioned before about how suspicious I am of their relationship?  Maybe he is sneaking off with the Time Machine just so they can have some 'alone time'.

There Edwin, see.  She's soon be as good as new.

Baring that personal tragedy life just continued on.

I had the occasional success at the chemistry set.

And some more failures.

 And then one fine day when Edwin was entertaining me with music while I was working (badly I might add, I think he might have copied that grip from me) I drunk down my latest concoction and...

felt rather peculiar.

Edwin seemed to find my new look quite interesting though and that gave me the glimmering of an idea...

Hello Edwin.  Looking good.

Well looking transparent actually but after so long in a metal body he loved being a ghost even if it was only for a few hours. 

That was fun.  Now back to the drawing board.  Although all of this transformative business has made an idea start to itch at the back of my brain.  Maybe being a ghost didn't work out, but maybe... Hmm.

Learning the Lessons of the Island

Sometimes an epiphany can be a long time coming.  I don’t know why I was so depressed about how stale and stagnant I found my life and I don’t know why I woke up one cold frosty morning and just ‘felt better’.  My situation hadn’t changed at all but somehow I was looking at it through a different pair of lenses.  Basically, I just got over myself.

Maybe it was spending time with Edwin catching fresh fish for my dinner.  Edwin doesn’t like water and he doesn’t eat fish but he stills goes out nearly every day for my sake.  Or perhaps just to enjoy my company.

And then there is all the time he spends in the garden.  I know he likes gardening (thanks to a little personality adjustment by yours truly) but his dedication in trying to keep the garden going even when it's practically buried in snow is somehow very touching.  Completely pointless and a total waste of time of course, but sweet all the same.  Those plants are dormant love.  No chance!

I stopped travelling with ‘work’ as much to make more time for Edwin and we started rediscovering the joy we had together as friends, playing silly games outside having snow fights until I was nearly blue with cold.

Occasionally I may have overdone it a bit but fortunately Edwin was always on hand to thaw me out.

I carved a chess set for the two of us to use when we didn't feel like freezing outside.  Or at least, I didn't.  

 A few more things were added to the house.  It’s really starting to have that homey feel now I think. 

Ok, yes, the picture does look a bit eccentric but I have no complaints with this other item I picked up on my travels.  My bath time is now complete!  'Oh rubber ducky, you're the one...'

Edwin also created a shelf for all of our books, he’s always got his nose in one so it’s nice to give them a proper home rather than being left in piles on the floor.

With less time spent time travelling and more time spent in play, my brain, which had fallen into a bit of a rut began churning again.  I put together a rather rudimentary chemistry bench and began some experimentation.

Using myself as a guinea pig which lead to some interesting results.



Some of the stuff I put together tasted seriously awful.  One in particular was a cross between a pile of rotting fruit, fish and an incontinent dogs doings.  

The fumes from that particular concoction may have impacted more than my olfactory senses; shortly after imbibing that while I was working on creating another, hopefully more palatable potion, wandering past the house came…

 Who in the blazes are you?

 HEY, get away from that!

Ok maybe I’m still high from the fumes because where the heck did you come from?  And what’s with the green skin and pointy ears?

You do have nice eyes though.

You want to take my picture?  Oh, how nice.

And my imagination has given you a great sense of humour.  I like it when people laugh at my jokes.

Even if you do seem rather interested in odd things.  That’s a lump of dirt.

And that’s a frozen tomato plant.

And that’s you running off into the distance...

Oh well.  I guess you weren’t real anyway.

But I don’t think I’ll mention this to Edwin…

Time to get back to my chemistry set.  The key to my dreams is somewhere in this place, I just have to figure it out.