Tag: Travel

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Jodie could…

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For some unknown reason I got a posting on Facebook featuring Jodie Foster, the well known American film actor now an equally, if not more talented director, asking about impossible words to pronounce in French. She is a fluent French speaker. Now I did ‘O’level French and then got another one when I tried to do the ‘A’ level version, way back in the mists of time. I never got around to doing the reading of all those French classics, like the eternally miserable books by Albert Camus. Wrist slashing stuff. My French is not great despite my being a … Continue reading Jodie could…

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Who buys this stuff?

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Insurance? It’s a mystery tour to me. Seems like they get their prices by throwing a few number blocks in the air and then settling on the red ones. Some companies, like plumbers, give you such an astronomical price that you wonder if they do it to make sure you won’t buy.. Of course, as one gets older, it gets more expensive. I’m talking about travel insurance here, but it can apply to driving. While driving, the risks do increase as our faculties and reactions slow to the same speed we now drive. Younger drivers toot for no apparent reason. … Continue reading Who buys this stuff?

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The Black Shed of Slad.

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From quite some years ago now, I was driving in the little, very bright yellow van ( 100% Yellow plus 15% Magenta for complete accuracy) towards Stroud on a mission for the company I worked for: Severnprint. I was probably delivering proofs for a job and trying to drum up a little more work from the area. In those days, one could wander around trading estates and shops looking for work. I learnt early in my brief and not that distinguished career as a print salesman ( though it read ‘ Account Manager ‘ on the business card) that one … Continue reading The Black Shed of Slad.

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‘Tis the season of ye additive.

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What is it with food people, the ones who decide that it’s a good idea to lace food with booze, for instance? It sells is the answer. In a moment of ‘idea spasm’ when shopping for ‘someone difficult’, some shoppers think that buying a jar of overpriced marmalade that has brandy or whisky added is a jolly good idea. When aforementioned marmalade is unsullied by alcohol, it tastes good; but laced with booze, it tastes odd. Once the idea gets a grip, there’s an outbreak of buying additive-added foodstuffs. Double cream is probably bad for the waistline, but with added … Continue reading ‘Tis the season of ye additive.

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Bruvver.

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There are 11 months between us, and my surprise arrival may well have generated some ‘heat’ for our father at the time. Me on the left, John with one hand protecting me and the other picking my pocket, perhaps. His birthday is on the same date as the King’s, so he gets a reminder. The cartoonist and the antique dealer, who would have thought it, both now at an age where we are both not quite antiques but might be termed ‘collectables’. The plan was to take a trip to West Wales to celebrate my brother’s significant birthday. I thought … Continue reading Bruvver.

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Never buy from your Auntie

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She was a lovely lady beneath the grump. Smoked like a chimney and as if she had to suck the thing to death. There I was without a car back in the early Rooster years. My partner (business rather than pleasure, but a pleasure doing business with him) and I were doing okay and managing our fledgling business quite well. Our only sleepless nights were when we were working due to the demands of the advertising businesses we served. It was the time of the three-day week in the 1970s when the lights went out, for Graham and me, the lights … Continue reading Never buy from your Auntie

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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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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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Restaurant trousers.

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I don’t go out to ‘restaurants’ very much these days, I’m more at home with cafes after a good walk. There are some where I will go out of my way to visit, one being the local privately owned Garden Centre ( here ) where I can feed my plant addiction as well as my food addiction. One of my acid tests for a good eatery is the quality of the coffee, and Dundry coffee is second to none. More recently we went to a Cotswold pub which is these days a pub/restaurant. So a notch up or two from … Continue reading Restaurant trousers.

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An Approximate Biker

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Working on a book by a chap called Jim. This is one of the many characters in the book and my approximation of motorbike at speed. My drawings/cartoons are always approximations. This tends to elicit comments from people like motorbike purists. I was once asked to draw a bloke’s favourite bike, approximation would not do, it was a nightmare for me. I gave up in the end and we never spoke again, sadly he assumed that as I could do approximations I might be able to do exact. No, not exactly, in fact not at all. Some illustrators can draw … Continue reading An Approximate Biker

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Northern Soul in a former Museum?

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A trip into Gloucester to the Folk, what was formerly the Folk Museum, but is now just “the Folk” with most of the Museum displays removed. It’s a sort of rebranding that seems to say “ we like the building, but we don’t know what to do with it”. They have events and volunteers coming from all directions who are hugely enthusiastic and friendly and will tell you all about the place. And they have events, on Saturday afternoon they had a couple of Northern Soul enthusiasts with their dj deck and massive speakers blasting out some brilliant Northern Soul … Continue reading Northern Soul in a former Museum?

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So British to talk about the weather.

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So perhaps we might give it a rest as our present weather seems to stay the same every day. Hours of unbroken sunshine every day has been the recent norm. Recent Norm sounds not unlike a nickname that you get on an early American TV Sitcom. He’d have had a catchphrase that would be adopted by the public, or at least that public that watched TV, which unlike these days was a large percentage. Remember “What do you think of it so far?” the answer: “Rubbish!”. A catch phrase that only people of a certain age would understand these days … Continue reading So British to talk about the weather.