I bought a new toy

yesterday - and didn't get to play with it.
Our old guillotine no longer cuts it. It must be almost as old as I am. I remember it from my early childhood - being told to stand well back while the Senior Cat brought the blade down with a sharp thump. I suppose he was making teaching aids. You did make all your own back then. You made them out of whatever you could find. 
The old guillotine has had a lot of use. The blade was sharpened more than once, many times in fact. The tray is marked out with "inch squares". They were probably accurate enough for anything the Senior Cat ever wanted to make. He was never too worried about accuracy down to the last millimetre. 
But now the blade is blunt again, a little rusty if truth be told. The guillotine is too heavy for him to lift - or for me to lift comfortably. It no longer cuts as accurately as it once did even if the blade is sharp.
I went off to the Untidy Shop and bought a new one yesterday. It is a completely different affair. It is made of plastic and it claims to have a blade made of titanium-steel. The blade is not much bigger than the head of a small nail. You slide it through the paper or cardboard. The guide allows you to measure units much smaller than an inch. They may not be millimetres - or even centimetres - as the thing was made for the United States but still the smaller units are there.
I brought it home. The Senior Cat pounced on it immediately. It was a new toy! Something to play with! 
      "I'll help you,"  he told me. He undid it from all the plastic packaging. He investigated it closely. He slid a piece of paper in and moved the cutter. He purred.
Yes, it cuts. The cuts are clean and accurate - far more accurate than the old one.
I  handed over the sheets of card that need to be cut. They were to be put into the cellophane envelopes to pack the little items I have made for a craft fair.  The Senior Cat measured and then cut. I could hear him purring happily to himself. He even put the card into the little envelopes as he finished.
      "Don't you want some more done?" he asked  hopefully.
It was my new toy but it was lovely to see him playing with it.