If it feels as if I've neglected this blog recently my apologies! It transpires that the one way to get the phone ringing and loads of interviews isn't to focus on business at all, what you have to do is make a public comment to do something else like write a book. Once you've done that the rest of your life springs into action to keep you away from the keyboard! Fortunately I've managed to find time to produce 5,000 words in the last couple of days - still way behind schedule though!
Hence a Thursday Taster post. Here you'll find a taster from a few shops that I really like plus an extract from the misAdventures book (we had tennis the other week so I think today it'll be swimming).
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| The Landing - Original Acrylic Painting |
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| Purple Guitar Cat Print |
CatHousePrints' shop is an exercise is clean lines and bold colours - beautiful! Having a love of music and with my favourite colour being purple how could I not choose the
Purple Guitar Cat Print?
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| Upcycled Clay Mosaic Teapot |
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| rust flower - sculptural painting |
At
kgosh's shop (aka
Velvet Bulldozer Studios - such a cool name!) I love the sculptural aspect of her work. This
rust flower has a real metallic feel
to it despite the fact that it's actually
made from watercolour paper scraps!
ArtySandp and Swimming
At Junior School we had an outdoor swimming pool., if I went back there now I know the pool would seem miniscule (I think it was only 10 - 15m long), but back then it seemed enormous with dangers lurking in its hidden depths. During the four years I spent there I managed to splash my way to a 10m swimming certificate but that was all, most of the time in the pool I just sat on the edge talking with friends.
Once a year we had a swimming gala when the school gathered round this little pool to watch all the good swimmers race properly and those who were just there to make up the numbers take part in embarrassing side attractions like the walking through water race or, just to vary it slightly, the walking backwards through water race. Previously I’d been subjected to the walking races but this was my final year at Junior School and the sports teacher was adamant that I would take part in a ‘proper’ race because he knew I could swim. I refused to do the swimming and so he told me that he was putting me down for the floating event, no arguments allowed.
The floating event consisted of six contestants who would, in turn, push away from one end of the pool and see how far they could get just by floating. The winner was the one who travelled the furthest. Doesn’t sound difficult unless, like me, you could only just about tread water and just the thought of trying to float filled you with dread.
I spoke to my friends about it, I’d never tried to float before, I was certain I couldn’t and I was going to have the school watching me - what could I do? I think it was Gary that came up with the solution. “What you need to do,” he said “is push off and then give a little kick with your legs and you’ll be disqualified. No one will know you can’t float, it’ll just look like you were cheating.”
The day of the swimming gala arrived and the school was crowded around the pool. I stood with the others in the pool waiting for the floating to start. I liked Gary’s plan but I had an awful feeling that it wasn’t going to work.
I was in the final lane and by the time it was my turn to float one competitor had already made it the length of the pool, I really couldn’t see the point of me even trying. The sports teacher leaned towards me and said “Ready?” and I replied truthfully “No”. He just smiled a sports teacher smile and ignored me. I thought about it, it couldn’t be difficult, everyone else had done it, all I had to do was push off, kick my feet and get disqualified. I pushed, the water enveloped me and I sank like a stone. I staggered upright and through water filled ears I could here the whole school laughing.
Louder than that however was the sports teacher laughing at me. At least, I thought, that’s it, it’s over. Wrong! The sports teacher then leant over and grabbed me by the shoulder, “You just slipped that’s all. Do you want another go?” “No”, I spluttered. The teacher smiled and called out to the school “He just slipped, I’m going to let him have another try.” Of course exactly the same thing happened the second time and I left the pool with the school and sports teacher laughing at me.
My career as an Olympic swimmer never recovered……………..
To underpin how bad I was at swimming some five years later I spent a week at Crystal Palace Sports Academy with a number of other children from across South East England who were particularly good at sport.
During my week there I concentrated on Squash and Basketball and even found time to be followed by a camera crew as they featured me in a promotional film (if anyone has a copy contact me! I’m the skinny kid walking down a corridor while being interviewed, I’m also responsible for a really pretentious voice over and I can be seen pogoing to Hurry Up Harry by Sham 69 at the end of week disco). The big treat was the chance to swim in the Olympic sized pool. I jumped in and then had to be dragged out by friends - I’d never swum in a proper pool before, how was I to know that swimming pools existed without a shallow end I could stand up in?
