2013 already! I’ve never known time go by so fast. It gets
faster all the time. Edward De Bono – the great lateral thinker – gave the
answer. If, for example, you are a small 5-year-old boy and ask your mother for
a toffee and she says you can have one in half an hour, the equivalent time
span apparently elapsed for a 50-year- old man is ten times that of the boy. In
other words his half-an-hour is your five hours and you’d need to wait for that
much longer for your toffee! So the older you become the faster time seems to
speed by.
It’s already January 12th and I can’t believe
it’s been nearly two weeks since I last wrote a blog. Not that much has
happened since New Year’s Day anyway. I’ve been working very hard on a small
portrait of a lovely lady. I know a workman shouldn’t blame his tools, but I’m
convinced the quality of hot pressed (the smoothest) watercolour paper has
deteriorated lately. Yesterday I spent over £70 ordering samples of a variety
of watercolour papers in the, hopefully not forlorn, attempt to locate the
quality I need. The lady’s portrait is coming on well however as I’m using just
the point of a new Winsor and Newton series seven size zero sable brush.
We are due a heavy fall of snow tomorrow, so just before it
comes a here’s a view I took yesterday of Henley bridge, St Mary’s Church and
the Angel pub,
We saw two films last week – ‘The Life of Pi’ and ‘Quartet’.
The excitement and adventure of Pi’s travels compared to the tranquillity and
humour of Quartet couldn’t have been more different. I really thought that all
the animals in the shipwreck had been marvellously trained to act, until my
young friend informed me that I was looking at a very clever example of digital
imaging. Some were real. (I still prefer to think all the animals – especially
the tiger – were real). We nearly didn’t see The Life of Pi as it wasn’t on at
our Henley cinema so we had to drive over to High Wycombe. Having booked our
seats on line, when we arrived there (with a diversion via Marlow
because we were rapidly running out of petrol) we discovered we were at the
wrong cinema. I didn’t know there are two cinema complexes in High Wycombe, however after a
quick consultation with my satnav we arrived just in time.
Talking of sculptures, I’m getting on quite well with my
second effort. It’s of my great nephew Max. Probably only two or three sessions
to go before I start the final bronze.
Paul Daniels came over the other evening to have a ham and
eggs dinner. He was joining Debbie the following morning in Barbados and I
thought I’d save him cooking for himself. He showed me two great card tricks –
which I’m determined to master soon. This is a picture of Paul I took the other
day – I think he’s practising for his part in the next Hobbit film.