“We’re installing an update”

That actually means that we’ve sold you a product and tested it on you, but it does not work properly. So we are fiddling with your existing product, that does not work properly and we will then test this on you, to see if this one works. If this does not work we’ll be coming back and trying something else. When you bought your Standard Motor Car you got exactly that. They’d tested it as best they could back at the factory and it was safe, within reason, and had the basic bells and whistles. It stayed pretty much like … Continue reading “We’re installing an update”

Have a good week

A Park Ranger and a bear in April in LA, Bet it was hot in that suit. One of a series of drawings from earlier posts when I tried to use the same basic drawing as often as possible. I tired of it eventually, I think others did too. A truck in a farmers yard in South West France, it’s a mobile still, he used it to brew a sort of liquor, probably highly illegal but it was in France so people probably just gave a Gallic shrug. Sign in LA. Guiting Power: An actual place name in Gloucestershire which … Continue reading Have a good week

Hair

I’ve not seen my neighbour for weeks, that’s not unusual as he’s quiet and reserved at the best of times. Then this morning he’s there stepping out early to take the dog for a walk, and he’s grown a beard. Another quiet neighbour has also disappeared, his normally manicured grass cut to within a centimetre of its life is now growing like the other neighbour’s beard. The company that descend on his place every week are nowhere to be seen and the regular sound of mowing and blowing, even if there’s nothing to blow, have evaporated into the new normal … Continue reading Hair

” Use sliced bread”

These were the almost last instructions from my dear late father when, back in 1966, he and my mother were flying off to Norway for what for them was a once in a lifetime holiday. They were leaving me and my elder brother to cope as best we could by ourselves, when he uttered these words I asked, not unreasonable, ” Why? “ “So you don’t cut yourself” was his simple reply, thinking that I was obviously far too young to be wielding a bread knife and that I’d be found lying on the floor soaking up blood from a … Continue reading ” Use sliced bread”

Making yourself feel useful

How do you do it? Some people can turn their hands to all sorts of practical tasks to help in a crisis, and for the first time the word crisis is the correct word to use in the present situation. Perhaps a first time in recent years, makes Brexit seem almost inconsequential, even though it’s not. I do it by banging on about stuff and trying to extract a smile. I wake up with ideas, go back to sleep and then forget what I thought of. I’ve been writing “Keep your distance posters” as if I’m employed by the Ministry … Continue reading Making yourself feel useful

Sporting Distance

I originally posted this some time ago, and honestly thought that we might be getting out of this business by now, but we seem to be having to continue the effort to be sportingly stand offish. Stay safe. I recently posted a short video of me drawing. The clip was done on time lapse so it looked quite speedy, I draw fast but not that fast! So here’s another with the drawing in real time. Here’s the drawing as it was finally used, though come to think of it, although this is the final I might well have done it … Continue reading Sporting Distance