Bad to Worse to Better Again

If the leaks were not bad enough, my lodger saw a mouse in the kitchen on Friday. I have now put down a couple of poison trap things, reluctantly. The mouse has not reappeared. Forced myself out to Mamuska for their open mic night on Friday. Starts quite early and they turn the lights down for a bit of atmosphere. I managed to find somewhere to sketch and drew a few quickies of my fellow diners after I had eaten a large but virtuous salad. Later the owner, Ian and a friend belted out some good standards and played requests from the audience. These however, were reluctant to get up and perform themselves, but later a guy turned up and did very well. Ian is quite a good singer and it made for a very pleasant evening. I only did one main drawing (below) which I may work on a bit more. The only drawback was that I had a very large vodka shot later on (only £3) which I managed to spill all over the table after a couple of sips. Suppose it saved me from drinking it all. On Saturday I set forth for Greenwich to meet the other sketchers. I was lured away from virtue in McDonalds by the siren call of a Crunchie McFlurry. Having ordered this, I commented that there was no calorie number on the pot, whereupon the waitress gave me a piece of paper with all the calorie contents of all their stuff which is very handy. The only problem being that the McFlurry was 330 calories, of which I ate at least 300. Met up with fellow sketchers and Sally and I decided to sit at a pub by the Cutty Sark. She drew me and I drew what I could see over the foliage on the wall. This was mainly bits of the masts etc of the Cutty Sark. Given my general inability to draw a straight line, I became a bit frivolous with the brush pen resulting in what you see below. We then went to a pub near the park gates after lunch and chatted and drew punters and bits and pieces. As we arrived at the point where we were to show our wares, a local photographer from something called 'Daily Shopper' assembled us in a group for a photo, then asked me to sit with my drawing and took another snap. Dear me, I don't suppose they will use it, otherwise I can look forward to chips being eaten and Greenwich backsides being wiped with my image. Then we all went home. I had fun watching the X-factor, but compounded the McFlurry felony by defrosting and eating some of my boiled orange cake, which was rather delicious. This morning I very reluctantly got on the scales to find I had lost half a stone! Things are looking up. Must try harder this week. Kook, far from hunting mice, is lying on a suitcase under the window.