The thousand yard male shopper’s stare
Like Christmas this comes around every year. Continue reading The thousand yard male shopper’s stare
Category: Uncategorized
Man who wears overalls
Generally immaculate without an oil stain to be seen these are generally men of a certain age, and have been retired from their career in an executive non overall position overseeing the worldwide supply of widgets, vital in many industries. Almost certainly privately educated where they first witnessed overall wearing by the ground staff at their school who kept the lawns ( never called grass unless in the print on the sign saying ‘keep off’ ) immaculately with never the sign of a single weed. Mowing it with an Atco top of the range but ancient machine that chugged away … Continue reading Man who wears overalls
Art on a Northern Train
On my way back from Huddersfield to Elsecar, just outside of Barnsley, on a wintery night after a lovely lunch with my friends in Huddersfield. We ate at a Farm Shop restaurant and the hot beef sandwich I had was enough to warm anyone. it was the end of a great day out for me . On the train a pair of young women on their way I suppose for a night out in Sheffield. Both might be described as semi punk goth, one more striking and brave than the other who I suppose was there as general encouragement. Absolutely … Continue reading Art on a Northern Train
Going tut Thartgallery.
Thepworth to be exact. Ok, that’s enough of that nonsense. Yorkshire people take a defiant pride in their dialect and there’s a whole industry supporting the way they, or some of them, speak. No one has told the lady announcer at Wakefield train station, a city with two stations would you believe, as she spoke with the refined tones of a radio three announcer introducing a concert of Brahms. Was it only me that found it odd? The big black guy talking in an incomprehensible African dialect could be heard by almost anyone on the platform and be sure that … Continue reading Going tut Thartgallery.
Portuguese Wood
This was written some weeks ago now, but the fragrance lingers on: A planned morning out to Cheltenham Town Centre to meet my very good friend Valerie ( why do I always think of Steve Winwood when I say her name ) and we headed to the Wilson, which normal people would call the Cheltenham Art Gallery. Re branded with the Wilson name after they realised that people simply can’t cope with three words of descriptive text. Please don’t think they named it after Harold Wilson, that would bring a shudder to many Cheltonians as they clumsily describe themselves with … Continue reading Portuguese Wood
What to feed a poorly Viking:
It’s the Anniversary of ‘Custardgate’ It’s a year since I was an honoured guest of our NHS. I remember it like yesterday. I went in with the aid of a zimmer frame walking aid and walked steadily out of there ten days later without it. Better than some but not as well as others. The drugs worked. The memory lingers on, and it’s not generally a gloomy one. To get the nitty gritty out of the way I have a condition called polymyalgia. Not very pleasant, and I was a guest there to eliminate any other potential ‘nasties’. I’m a … Continue reading What to feed a poorly Viking:
Methinks you do laugh too loud.
Is that possible? I’m sorry but Americans do it far too much.We like to think we here in Britain have a brilliant sense of humour. You hear it about the regions. Liverpudlians? A breed apart, amazing sense of humour. Brummies? So dry, amazing, always get me going. The Scots, Billy Connolly? Say no more. Americans? Nah! No sense of irony? NO! Americans do comedy brilliantly. Saturday Night Live. A bedrock of some of the best in the world. A recent discovery is a stand up comedian Nate Baghatze. Dry deadpan delivery with no effingand blinding, nothing crude about him, no … Continue reading Methinks you do laugh too loud.
It’s like a cruise without the water, (actually there was quite a lot of water).
They have several ‘houses’ around the country, like big country houses in superb locations. These are the ships. They fill them with people all of at least bus pass age, then bring in the crew. The usual chefs, managers and serving staff but additionally a volunteer crew who are charged with leading these ‘passengers’ on a variety of walks in the neighbourhood. We joined the ‘ship’ in North Yorkshire for a weekend of walking and talking. Trained it up there, all quite straightforward, then the taxi from the station in Skipton, a town known for the invention of the skip, … Continue reading It’s like a cruise without the water, (actually there was quite a lot of water).
Productive days and non.
Watching most TV and scrolling is non. Productive is reading a book, almost any book that makes you think. Lying awake thinking can be both, it’s non if it’s negative going over stuff but productive if it’s determining to write something or even doing a drawing in your head. I’m sure most artists do that, if not all. They think drawings, at least I do, and I only get around to actually doing a few of those I think about.There’s a huge number of drawings in the head plans chest, but that’s about as far as they get. The journey … Continue reading Productive days and non.
Images in the memory bank
These are stored somewhere in my inbuilt memory, none exist as photos, they are sometimes life moments that you would expect to remember, like the birth of our son, being held up with his eyes open and looking all around him with no sound, and the moment we sorted out a problem with feed for our baby daughter and she was able to keep her food down. She looked like a very contented Buddha. Other moments were less life moments, just visual incidents that you might not expect to recall. Like the time I was driving out of Gloucester and … Continue reading Images in the memory bank
The Best of September
A selection box of flavours from September which stared off bright, very bright and finished wet, very wet. Continue reading The Best of September
Before the rain
Three superb days with my very good friend Richard. Me showing off Gloucestershire to him, and him being his usual easy company as we invaded the places I like with an almost permanent commentary. There are talkers and listeners in this world and I’m one, Richard the other. He has a bone dry wit that is used to good effect as punctuation in my ramblers rambling. First day a quick tour of Leckie Hill. If you’re an Archers fan then the name might be familiar. Round here it should be called Leckhampton Hill and from it I could show him … Continue reading Before the rain
Paul Davies Cartoons & stuff 