Engerland

On holiday. Back in mid October sometime. Maybe a few stories from the Lake District of England. Thanks for visiting. See you soon.

What do babies dream about?

I've always wondered if baby mobiles and gaily coloured bed covers do not have a comforting effect but may be terrifying? They could easily come to life and there's the baby stuck in a cot surrounded by birds flying out of the sheets. No wonder babies cry so much.

I had the brush opacity set to 23% in this and I find it easier to colour in when the image is at least 1500 pixels wide. I reduced it to 600 pixels to upload. Drawn in pencil, scanned, lines darkened and a second layer created to colour in.

A definate change in the air. Everything is very bright and you can see for miles. Much less people on the beach and the ones that are there are staring at their feet in the water's edge or staring at the mountains in a reflective mood. All the portaloos have blown over and when I was coming home I leaned my bike against a wall by a real estate office and its drainpipe fell off, the wall that is.

And here's a link to Joegalambos playing "Mysterious Habitats" by Dusan Bogdanovic. I ordered this piece of sheet music months ago after seeing this clip. It arrived yesterday. Hooray! No wonder I couldn't work it out. The low E string is tuned to F. But it looks like I may be able to play it in three months. At least, basically...

I got a copy for my guitar teacher too because he gave me lots of free minutes last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeK8B4Wq6BY

Play Away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdFRrZQags4

Hmm...just adding a link to one of my favourite guitarists, Tommy Emmanuel. Enjoy!

Gently and Darkly Dead.

Introducing Gently and Darkly Dead, the teenage twins from Hell. Sullen, moody, Metal Heads who know it all. They disagree with each other about everything and talk in text message form when feeling emotional. They live in the murky underworld of chatrooms. Melanie, Maureen's best friend, is their aunt.

Cycled to the next village but I had forgotten it is market day and it was packed and all to the strains of Peruvian pipe music played by an exceedingly large man wearing copious amounts of feathers who was plugged into an equally large sound system. There is an enormous amount of pushing and shoving in the market or the people who suddenly stop dead in their tracks and stare at their feet.

Avoided the stalls and took a shortcut through the port. They have finally finished the bridge across the beach for pedestrians, just in time for the mass exit of tourists, except they don't seem to be leaving yet this year.

The storms have left everything a mess. The beach was covered with onions, hazlenuts and red clay for the last week but it's been pretty much cleaned up.

Nicolau

This is Nicolau, a great friend of Maureen. He comes from Miravet in Catalunya and is a philosopher, accordion player and guardian of the original Voynitch Manuscript. He is fiercely jealous of Maureen's suitors but has a heart of gold.

Thunderstorms all night here which Arthur did not like at all. Everything is soaking wet today but there still seem to be millions of tourists, mostly French and German now. School has started and one can actually get into the supermarket for a change but their shelves remain pretty empty.

Baby Talk

Oh aaargh. Why is that panel down there?


I give up! I had the bright idea of uploading two panels at a time so it would be easier to read. Did they upload in the right order? No. Print it out and cut it up if you like. See if you can work out what order it's supposed to be in. It's not a Maureen cartoon but soon will be.

The barbeque took place the other day with the dream team. The two most unorganised people I know. Lamb chops and chicken burnt to bits but it wasn't as bad as the moussaka I defrosted last night which I am secretly hoping wasn't emergency dog food. I am married to one of the Dream Team who I will refer to as Patrick. Paco, the other half of Dream Team is on a quest to find a girlfriend. He met someone through the internet the other week. She arranged to meet him on the Nudie Beach for their first date. Even Paco was shocked but he went anyway. Instant failure. She said he was too young.

The beach is full of French people today but the tourists are thinning out a bit. The locals are going swimming and sunbathing now and even call me over to join them which makes me feel surprisingly nice. I am looking forward to starting guitar classes again in October. I'm learning not teaching.