Cheese and Beans

It’s now 10:30, Sunday morning. I’ve been up for about an hour – I arrived downstairs to find the children had made their own breakfast without complaint. They hadn’t cleared up after themselves, but I’m not about to start picking at straws. Little victories.

I just caught our youngest stood on a stool alongside the toilet, doing a very loud and enthusiastic Thunderbirds style count-down towards flushing it.

I was talking to a wonderful friend on the other side of the world earlier, and the question of perception came up – how we see the world, and perhaps how the world sees us. It’s interesting because it’s often been remarked that I am – how best to put this? – different than most people in this regard.

I decided – after at least half a minute’s thought – to give Katherine Jenkins another try. She became incredibly famous during the time I worked in London – her face (and body) were emblazoned across billboards all over the city for months. She appeared from time to time on television – singing at New Year, at big football matches, and on various television chat shows. I hated her. Sure, she’s beautiful, but much of the time I thought she sounded like a trumpet rammed up a very large nose.

I continue to wrestle with the idea of drawing a regular comic strip…

When I was young I watched all manner of movies, television shows, and read all manner of books about space, the universe, and the idea that we might not be alone. As I grew older, as many of us do, I became increasingly cynical, perhaps even mocking about the various stories that occasionally crop up [...]

Tumblr is something that needs to be experienced rather than read about. While it could be described as superficial and shallow, it’s also hugely refreshing, interesting, and as I said earlier – inspirational. It’s also a wonderful insight into the coming generation – their art, their opinions, their concerns, and the infectious hope they hold for the future.

While rooting around for something in our bookshelves yesterday I found an old sketchbook tucked down the back of a row of books – a sketchbook I had presumed lost years ago.

My once mighty notebook – a “Moleskine” no less – seems to have been reduced to a container of drivel. A real-world twitter account. Notes in passing. There was a time when it – or it’s ancestors – carried deep thoughts, observations, drawings, and various other brain dumpage.

With the children on half term, and the house seemingly running on autopilot at the moment, something quite unexpected happened this morning – I found myself with a couple of minutes to myself.
I was up, washed, dressed, bag packed for work, coffee in hand, and sat in our study. I could hear the kids waging [...]