Last crumbs from the Yule Blog

Back at the Athenaeum Club and it's probably time I turned the radiator back on. The mild spell has disappeared in a splash of mid-winter caprice, and my observation that central heating made The Tower too hot was probably a little premature. The old tootsies are a little chilly (putting socks on would help, but what's a lazy bloke to do?).

I got back from Yule in Foxton yesterday, about five-ish to find an already returned Beastie in the middle of a rather uncharacteristic bout of tidying up. My first inclination was to apologise for the intrusion and go back out on to the street and go to the proper house, but that passed.

My return was a little earlier in the day than I originally intended, spurred on by the severe weather warning issued by the Met Office. Three millimetres of snow and a partial thaw later, I am wondering quite what the urgency was; I've spilt talc deeper than the snow we've had, and over a wider area. Doubtless Niclas, the co-Godfather of my God Daughter with whom we all spent Christmas, is wondering if it was all some kind of bizarre practical joke as he prepares to travel back to Stockholm today. Still, they get several metres of the stuff every year. We may get a foot or so every twenty, so I'd be a bit miffed if the council spent a fortune on snow-clearing equipment which will still only have 500 miles on the clock in thirty years time.

A little later on I am going down into Finchley to try and get hold of a drawing board and some decent pencils. I have found that I cannot get on with drawing flat on the table, I have got used to shifting the picture around to strange angles while I draw to make life easier. A table is a little big for such shenanigans, though indispensable in other ways. I have several sets of drawing pencils, but I'm damned if I can find them just when I want them, so it's time to acquire more. They're not expensive. I'm not sure my small supply of sugar paper survived the move from Clapham, but I still have several pads of cartridge paper, so that will do until I get down the West End next where I can get supplies from Cass Arts or the London Graphic Centre. Probably the former, as the latter seem to be convinced that true art can only be produced through poverty and charge prices designed to ensure the continuance of the would-be artist's bohemian living conditions. They do have a cracking selection of stuff, though, and I still haven't acquired the Japanese calligraphy brush I'm after, so...

Right, that's it for now. I've just had an email from ebay telling me that someone has outbid me on the Lennon-style shades I was after. Judging by the price they've bid, I imagine that they must think they're buying a pair worn by the man himself. Good luck to them; I'll search for a cheaper set.

Later, kids.

Last crumbs from the Yule Blog

Back at the Athenaeum Club and it's probably time I turned the radiator back on. The mild spell has disappeared in a splash of mid-winter caprice, and my observation that central heating made The Tower too hot was probably a little premature. The old tootsies are a little chilly (putting socks on would help, but what's a lazy bloke to do?).

I got back from Yule in Foxton yesterday, about five-ish to find an already returned Beastie in the middle of a rather uncharacteristic bout of tidying up. My first inclination was to apologise for the intrusion and go back out on to the street and go to the proper house, but that passed.

My return was a little earlier in the day than I originally intended, spurred on by the severe weather warning issued by the Met Office. Three millimetres of snow and a partial thaw later, I am wondering quite what the urgency was; I've spilt talc deeper than the snow we've had, and over a wider area. Doubtless Niclas, the co-Godfather of my God Daughter with whom we all spent Christmas, is wondering if it was all some kind of bizarre practical joke as he prepares to travel back to Stockholm today. Still, they get several metres of the stuff every year. We may get a foot or so every twenty, so I'd be a bit miffed if the council spent a fortune on snow-clearing equipment which will still only have 500 miles on the clock in thirty years time.

A little later on I am going down into Finchley to try and get hold of a drawing board and some decent pencils. I have found that I cannot get on with drawing flat on the table, I have got used to shifting the picture around to strange angles while I draw to make life easier. A table is a little big for such shenanigans, though indispensable in other ways. I have several sets of drawing pencils, but I'm damned if I can find them just when I want them, so it's time to acquire more. They're not expensive. I'm not sure my small supply of sugar paper survived the move from Clapham, but I still have several pads of cartridge paper, so that will do until I get down the West End next where I can get supplies from Cass Arts or the London Graphic Centre. Probably the former, as the latter seem to be convinced that true art can only be produced through poverty and charge prices designed to ensure the continuance of the would-be artist's bohemian living conditions. They do have a cracking selection of stuff, though, and I still haven't acquired the Japanese calligraphy brush I'm after, so...

Right, that's it for now. I've just had an email from ebay telling me that someone has outbid me on the Lennon-style shades I was after. Judging by the price they've bid, I imagine that they must think they're buying a pair worn by the man himself. Good luck to them; I'll search for a cheaper set.

Later, kids.