Knackered of SE1

Visited the quack who suggested more visits and investigations so I slithered off rapidly. My birthday present to David: the book from spitalfields life,arrived. Also a small package from Nibby containing ten absolutely amazing chocs from Misco oop north. Intending to taste one, I inadvertently ate the lot. Dear me. Met Francesca at Toulouse Lautrec where we went to the jam session and her husband also turned up later. Did a few sketches before leaving early at midnight. On Sunday I had managed to see the Jerwood Drawing prize show just before it closed. Excellent. My young Provençal couple left on Wednesday morning. This was rather chaotic. I managed to have coffee with David before my cleaning lady turned up. Then Romy came as her bro in law is going to recover my little yellow chair which had been ruined by Kooky. This will cost a fortune but I am so fond of it. Also cheaper than the £800 plus small chairs I could have replaced it with. Fabric samples are coming soon.Quite exciting. Then Romy dropped me off in the Strand and I got a bus to Holborn for Art in the Afternoon. Robert had set up a table with still life objects but I decided to sketch the sketchers, one of whom was distinctly horrified at my drawing and called me a witch, which livened up proceedings. This sketch can be seen on my Facebook and on twitter. I still can't deal with IOS 7, which seems to move the cursor at will, but not at my will. Still can't download snaps which is quite annoying. Oh well. Today I shall meet David for coffee as usual, and prepare the spare room for my new guest. Sketching again on Saturday. Must buy some sweets as I will no doubt be inundated with trick or treaters since tonight is Halloween. More post arrived yesterday including £30 from Nibby which I had apparently lent her ages ago. I had urged her to spend it on lunch, but no, she insisted on sending it back. Dear me. My brass Chiavari chairs have been attracting much admiration from all my visitors. On a recent visit, Julian snapped them with her mobile.

Plodding on

I still don't know how to get images into this blog so have rather given up. I had a rather unfortunate evening on Friday. Lunch with cafe sketchers at Peter jones was good, then I rushed home and changed to go to fabulous fashionista sue kreitzmann's party at st pancras. I had intended to go with Jo to the last meeting place of the sketchcrawl going from the jeer wood space to backside.. Though it was not clear where they were meeting so I posted an enquiry. I suppose rather oddly, in retrospect someone from SLAM informed me that it was ending at some studios I had never heard of in Vauxhall. We hung around there until it closed before we realised that someone had sent us to the wrong place which was very annoying. We had hoped to see Janie Skuse and some other familiar faces. Pissups and breweries came to mind. I have to say the cursor on this thing is a nightmare also some kind of predictive text thing which turns things into nonsense. So I can't correct my fourth sentence which should read Jerwood to Bankside. Yesterday we sketched at the National Gallery. Trafalgar Square had been taken over by football fans so did a brief sketch before retiring to the National cafe with Francesca. Then went and did another at the Salisbury in charming Cross Road. Passed through Cecil Court on the way home and purchased Rather flashy necklace which I proudly wore when Lucy and Philippa arrived bearing masses of food which the proceeded to cook. Delicious as it all was I managed to gain 1lb this week, sadly. My new guests arrived today from Provence. Just about managed to make the place presentable in time. I shall again attempt to visit the Jerwood space today before the current exhibition disappears.

Stuff

Is stuff I can see while watching or pretending to watch television in the evening. Usually pretty boring. But useful drawing practise in the sketchbook. Caught a couple of my punters while they were doing their postcards the other day. Dorothy came around for a gin tonight. I need to get on a stepladder to try and retrieve my Cornelius Cardew biography for the guy I met at Brixton, but it will take a day or two for me to summon the courage to do this. Of course I may have chucked the book out and it will be wasted effort, but I have a feeling I kept it. The only way I can get snaps onto my blog is to photograph them and put them onto my laptop or somehow join this thing with my laptop so they go on to that, then write my blog from the laptop. I might try this soon as it is a bit boring without any visual content. Just heard that Jo Malone is opening her first Jo Loves shop in Elizabeth Street on Friday, so may well get along there. I can try things out, which would be a welcome diversion in my old age.

Finally

The boiler is in, and after a week of awful noises like a jet taking off and some pipe work adjustments from the plumber, it is working well. Now awaiting the guy who is supposed to be painting my front wall and windows. Spent all last week at the Brixton Drawing Project. Run by Janie Skuse, it was great fun to spend time doing large messy sketches in this old furniture factory, cleverly converted by Andy and hired out for all sorts of occasions. Janie managed to raise the money with crowd funding which is an excellent idea. I fell by the wayside and purchased some totally amazing old brass dining chairs. Made in Italy they are called Chiavari. They look a bit gorgeous in my living room though I am tempted to sell a couple. They fetch hundreds of dollars in America and have sold on Ebay here for up to £350 each. However I intend to hang on to them for a bit and enjoy them. I cannot find out when they were made, could be nineteen forties to sixties, but they have a real charm. Just one looks so elegant in the right place. Also discovered some wonderful French watercolours based on honey which apparently the impressionists used, so have succumbed to temptation and ordered a few. Calledl'Aquarelle by Sennelier.