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One tiny coin and a massive story

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A trip out with good friend Mike and abandoning the idea of a very wet walk we settled on culture. This time to the Corinium Museum in Cirencester. It’s many years since I’ve been there and in the interim they’ve had a massive upgrade. Terrific place, light and airy and with loads of fascinating stuff to look at hear and read. We only got as far as the Romans and plan another trip to delve further. Cirencester is well known for its Roman ruins and ‘finds’ but this coin featured here and found in the area came from well before … Continue reading One tiny coin and a massive story

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“Mustn’t grumble.“

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It’s a phrase that sort of kills the conversation. Grumbling may be the thing that I do best. There’s something very British about it, as we seem to have specialised in grumbling on a scale that is unheard of. There are of course legitimate reasons to grumble, loads of them , so plenty of fuel for the fire. But the grumblers seem to have the upper hand in almost everything, and some earn a living from it. I find it difficult to think of the opposite to a Grumbler, perhaps we can find a word for those people who are … Continue reading “Mustn’t grumble.“

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The Potter and Funny Business

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Back in the early 80s I had an agent, their business was marketing and selling illustrators and cartoonists like myself to ad agencies and design companies. There were only 2 or 3 people in the business and they were good at what they did. Generating work for us and generally getting very good fees for us, the sort that we artists would never have the brass nerve to ask. We got on well. Times were good. Each Christmas we were tasked with thinking off something novel to give to out clients, apart from just a free lunch at a fancy … Continue reading The Potter and Funny Business

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Face to Face with Napoleon

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“Can Simon come out to play?” It was a simple request to the father of a boy along the modest terrace of houses where we lived way back probably 70 years ago. The father, like my own dad, was a young police officer and the police houses belonging to an estate where the big estate house served as a training establishment for the force. My father and this neighbour of ours would both have been instructors at the Police College. “I’m sorry” came the reply “ he’s busy reading ‘Face to Face with Napoleon‘ so he cannot. I went home … Continue reading Face to Face with Napoleon

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Side Effects

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Many medications come with side effects, and the dialogue tends to go like this. “As you are on these it’s best that you take these to counter the side effects of those, however those will come with their own side effects for which it might be best if we give you these, so with those and these we might be able to improve your condition. Take them when there’s an r in the month but never on a full moon, eat huge amounts of fibre just so you don’t get too constipated as with this level of medication it’s possible … Continue reading Side Effects

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Reading aloud should not have been allowed.

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I started writing this blog over ten years ago. I was encouraged by being in a local writers group, though somewhat intimidated by some of the more skilled members who could write superb stuff straight off in our meetings. The idea of the group is to be given a subject, write for an hour, then read it out. I wrote some awful drivel and eventually gave up, but used to pop in now and again to listen to some of the stars. I then found it more natural to write this blog, at home! I’m still in the group, I … Continue reading Reading aloud should not have been allowed.

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Butter on the ceiling

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I’m doing a bit of recycling here, I originally published this 3 years ago. I have been back to the school in the past year for a Reunion dinner, which brought back a few ghosts of my time there. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I went to boarding school, many years ago. At meal times, if you could call them that as the cooking was a not the very best, but there was alway bread and ‘jam’ to fill up on. The bread was thick white sliced, the butter was margarine in a plastic bowl, and the jam was normally red stuff that tasted … Continue reading Butter on the ceiling

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MEGA

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I’m not one for pre grated cheese, it’s one of those things that I would ban if I had the choice, and this is not just my opinion. The respected politicians for the Monster Raving Loony Party ( for you people outside the UK, there is indeed such a political party, and Such is the key word here, as it was founded by the late Screaming Lord Sutch, and he did exist ) One of the chief aims of the Party and stated in their manifesto was a promise to ban pre grated cheese of any kind in order to … Continue reading MEGA

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The Road Trip, The Reunion and an Italian speaking Uber driver.

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We decided to take a trip back to our lives when we were 6 and even younger. My brother and I set off on a journey to Lancashire where we spent out early years. John’s good at driving so he was roped in to be at the wheel. He’s used to long hours at the wheel gathering antiques for his business from contacts up in the North. I only ever went on one of these buying trips once but it was an education. He had what seemed then to be a bladder the size of a garden water butt, able … Continue reading The Road Trip, The Reunion and an Italian speaking Uber driver.

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Jane Austen’s ‘desk’

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On the face of it an unremarkable small table and chair, but this is where the words of some of Jane Austen’s best works were written with dip pen and home made ink. It resides in the small village of Chawton near Alton in Hampshire. I’m not a frequent visitor to the area and we were on our way to further south, so we took the opportunity on the way to book ourselves into this lovely house. They get as many as 250 people a day there, so one has to book in advance. I loved it and the fact … Continue reading Jane Austen’s ‘desk’

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Back to school

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I was last at art school in the 60s and if my memory serves me right, the art bit was not on the top of my priority list. I was then a recently released internee from a boarding school I was not terribly aware of the world. In my first year at this art school I was allowed to have a go at everything, with a base layer of life drawing. The first time I’d ever seen a naked woman for life drawing, and this one seemed to be having a day off from being a traffic warden. I did … Continue reading Back to school