22nd December 2008

Bleak mid winter, no sales in view.
I've been Christmas shopping in the local book store and all I can see are the same old suspects, namely Steven Fry, Clive James and Andrew Motion.
What shall I do differently next year?
My elder brother, in Somerset, knocks out photographs of local scenes, framed on canvas: they sell like hot cakes.

27/10/08

Another angry day.
Painting going very badly- very inconsistent.
Good or bad- I still can't sell anything- but not for want of trying.
Drawing shown is one of my better efforts.
Took me all of 10 minutes and Whistler's knowledge of a lifetime.
Painted a brilliant landscape a few days ago, but can't even mix the same colours again. Catastrophic memory failure.
Christmas is coming and the geese are on a diet. But my daughter wants another penguin from America. But of course she'll get it, even though it will cost a fortune in current exchange rates-pounds against the dollar.
My other daughter has left home,although she still lives upstairs. Although i don't think staring at a laptop is living.
"University challenge" has been cancelled, for that phoney programme -Autumn Watch with Bill All-Too-Oddie. I like "University Challenge" and all quiz programmes because I can shout at the television constructively. Also watched "Only Connect" on BBC4. Three adults, between them, failed to spot the simplest connection between Gordon, Harry, Photography and Flood. Amazing.
News is very depressing. A new drug for arthritis is promised for some at £10,000 a year. Some hope. It has only just occurred to George Osborne that knocking around with a Russian billionaire is likely to anger the poor devils who can't afford to shop at Sainsburys.
Signing off now to check emails from the most eccentric of my eccentric clients. Architecture is a profession for the bravest of the brave.