Tag: life

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Glossary: Bagendon to Bibstone

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It’s not a new book or even a new idea, but my own little book: Glossary is a diversion, hopefully not a contraflow. It’s available on Amazon, and briefly, it is a collection of Gloucestershire place names given new meanings by me. I am publishing some selected pages here over the next few weeks. If you would like a copy of the entire collection, you can find it on Amazon. I suppose this is my version of sharing a joke. For the uninitiated, it is a great pastime when travelling: to give new meanings to place names. Try it! Bagendon … Continue reading Glossary: Bagendon to Bibstone

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I wonder why I do this sort of thing.

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I first started writing these things over 12 years ago. I’m not quite sure why, but back then I think it was simply a way of putting my cartoons and drawings in front of people, and since I took up landscape drawing and then painting, it’s been useful to me at least. I’ve got over 300 followers now, which makes me sound like a third-rate prophet. And I make no money from it either, it’s profit less. How does one measure success on this? I may have the loyal 300, but I doubt that they all bother to read my … Continue reading I wonder why I do this sort of thing.

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Why do men not do this sort of thing?

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I’ve been on two ‘art courses’, the first up in the Southern Peak District, where there’s an ‘art school’ called Bullclough. It’s run from a lovely country home in the middle of a beautiful landscape. At that one I was the only man amongst about 12 of us. So I was surrounded by charming women. Our tutor, Rachel, was enthusiastic, encouraging, knowledgeable and generally charming, getting some brilliant results out of us. Some beginners, others who’d been doing this painting thing for quite some years and me, who has been drawing for aeons, but not painting. I’ve been at it … Continue reading Why do men not do this sort of thing?

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Heidelberg, string, elastic bands, and Severnprint.

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There are several sorts of workers. Some love the job, and some can’t stand it but have to do it. I’ve always been lucky that I’ve loved my work. Not every hour of every day, but for most days it was a pleasure to work. In fact, some people thought, when I was drawing cartoons for a living, that it wasn’t really work at all. I’m not sure whether they were right. When I changed career and became a salesman, I was surrounded by people (which was a change from the lonely desk experience that drawing had become). Here are … Continue reading Heidelberg, string, elastic bands, and Severnprint.

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Pond Maintenance and Dentistry

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Look after your mouth like you look after your pond. I have a fine dentist; she and the hygienist do a great job of looking after the few teeth I have left. There are unknowns I have recently delved into, like the scoring system for the state of the gums. I ask about the meaning of the numbers she calls out like a quiet bingo caller as she probes my mouth. I know now that a 4 is bad, 3 less so and if you get into the heady realms of 2 and 1, you’re on a winner. X was … Continue reading Pond Maintenance and Dentistry

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“Great spatial qualities“

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There were four of us students in the room and one large detective. We were there to tell him our side of the story. We were just into our twenties and in the second year of our studies at Manchester School of Art, and all four of us lived in a modest ‘flat’ on the first floor of a house in Chorlton Cum Hardy. Good friends, we shared two bedrooms, two in each room. Me and Dave, Bryan and Manfred ( real name Paul ). We’d acquired the flat through a letting agent and paid for the privilege, and once … Continue reading “Great spatial qualities“

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Buses and fresh trout

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It started at a bus stop just yesterday. “Have you seen the Cirencester bus?” No, I replied, but I was not looking for it. Cirencester is some miles from where we were both sitting on a handy bench opposite the Ivy: the posh restaurant at the top of Cheltenham. I would not have expected a bus to Cirencester to come this direction, as it would be going in the opposite direction, but my newfound bench-sharer assured me it did. It seems that it does a round tour of Cheltenham before setting of in the right direction. To say he was … Continue reading Buses and fresh trout

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He ain’t grate on the spelling…

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…but ask him how to fix a door knob and he’s your man. I’m a big fan of YouTube short videos on how to fix stuff, and there’s always stuff to fix. Imagine this blog spoken in the same style as Tom Hanks’s in Forest Gump, and you might see the bigger picture. Speaking of pictures, he can fix them too. How to hang them, that is. In fact, he can fix most things around the house. He’s a guy from ‘Down the Deep South somewhere about’, who tells folks how to fix stuff. He’s not a natural performer, but … Continue reading He ain’t grate on the spelling…

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A Map of Peru?

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The eccentric: Actually, there was more than one. I worked as a print rep for a large printing company starting when I was a mere 58. It was my first proper job since my erstwhile career in the world of cartoons and illustration; it made a refreshing change from working alone and trying to get on top of the new digital age, without a great deal of success. And it was regular money and paid holidays- what’s not to like? My remit at the company was to sell print, simple. I knew a bit about print but was about to … Continue reading A Map of Peru?

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Ashton in Makerfield : beware of the dogs.

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In my Facebook outline it asks where you are from. I put Wigan, but I could have put in three places in Wigan: Lower Ince, Ashton in Makerfield and Standish. My father was a policeman, and on each promotion, of which he had a lot, he was moved to a different location. My parents did not own a house until after his retirement; all of our houses were police properties. They got progressively smarter as he rose up the greasy pole. Ashton in Makerfield was in the middle, a detached house on a relatively new estate, so he’d been promoted … Continue reading Ashton in Makerfield : beware of the dogs.

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Looking back, was it ham sandwiches or Trevor that saved me?

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We lived in a police house just outside the police station on the edge of Manchester in Ashton-under-Lyne. I was around 22 and had just left art school in Manchester, scraping my diploma, and feeling a little sore at just scraping through, but looking back it was probably about right. I was in a year that shone but the light coming from me was more of a flicker than a beam. I was determined to get off my backside and get a career in advertising as a so-called ‘creative’ in London. There was a plan to share a place in … Continue reading Looking back, was it ham sandwiches or Trevor that saved me?

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Wingnut assembly by the River.

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A friend and I have started to put aside a day per month to go out drawing, en plein air, as the French would say. We had quite a lot of plein air yesterday, choosing a dry but flat sort of day to go down by the river, and the river around these parts is the Severn. Turns out that the third member of the drawing club I’d met before some years ago, when she came to me to have some printing done. So she’d had the unfortunate experience of my smooth talking print rep persona. She recognised me but … Continue reading Wingnut assembly by the River.