I’ve had my eye on lego tower bridge for a few years but at an rrp of £209.99 and it being in 1.02 m in length, one I didn’t have room for it in the flat and two its not really an essential item. I was going to buy it in February 2015, but it felt too extravagant and it wasn’t sitting right. So I set myself the task of raising the funds using various methods/ skills:
- Complaining and negiogating. £115. From Laura Ashley for delivering a sofa with only 3 functioning legs and then a replacement arriving with a dirty mark. An offer of £55 in a 28 day gift voucher was offered, this I rejected and through emailing the CEO negiogated £115 in cash.
- Ebaying. £70.34. Sold 3 old Nintendo DS games, IKEA TV bench and coat rack. Best item was my retro 80s ski suit which I had got too fat for, I paid £4 for and sold for £28.
- Online surveys £30
- And through buying it online through Quido I got £5.25
After it arrived though I didn’t build it for about a month. My plan was always to do a time lapse video of the build. There is already several videos uploaded and having viewed them I decided I wanted a video with:
- No introduction to the set. I don’t like the sound of my own voice and people who’ve searched it probably know all about the 4295 pieces and that’s it’s the 3rd largest set.
- An organised build. To be fair even if I didn’t video it, it still would of been. I like a well prepped work area, no clutter and a clean surface. One man built his on his computer desk, he was constantly moving the mouse, desk clutter and bricks, that would of driven me mad! I also like to group my bricks based on colour and type, none of this rummaging around in bags, I like to be able to go straight to the specific piece. It’s also a bit of a game, remembering where I put each piece. The only bags I didn’t sort were the ones full of beige and white triangle 1 bricks. To my left were flat pieces and to my right brick pieces. In total the brick sorting took 1.5 hours alone (equivalent to 1:06 minutes in the video). I built the two towers in unison as I thought it would be far more efficient to only have to get the bricks for each step only once.
- The same viewing point. I wanted to be able to see the piles go down and the bridge grow over time.
I filmed it over 7 sessions using my iPhone 5s and a selfie stick propped up in an up turned plant pot. Total build time was 7.25 h. I’ve had several comments that I don’t very happy but one can’t smile for that long solidly, I like to think it’s my concentrating face. My favourite bits are:
2:12 to 2:32 The sun moving across the wall behind me
3:33 The loss of a 4 x sloped grey pieces that fortunately I had put incorrectly in the draw bridge and therefore was easily tracked down
4:07 A lot of searching for a 4 x 1 rectangular brick, which I didn’t find until I had completed the bridge and was throwing out all the plastic bags.
5:11 to 5:20 Construction of the suspension chains in time with the music.
Many thanks go to D for editing and finding a Harada soundtrack.
Hope you enjoy it
Isobel Harada 
That’s cute. You’ll have to play Lego with Scarlett when she’s older. X
Is there no limit to your creative artistry ? — I am constantly surprised by the imaginative range of your interests .Whatever next ? Aunty Lou. X
Sent from my iPad
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Good to see my training of you when a child in bargain hunting, like two drinks for you and Rick for 50 pence whilst your mother and I drank coffee in Nero’s, is paying off. It would be good if in the future you graduate to building things using my vast array of spanners and socket sets you will eventually inherit.