Christmas beckons

and the living room is covered in sprayed silver kitsch items: nuts, robots, plastic men, motorbikes, trains and princesses in castles. Dear me. I have started so I shall carry on. I am decluttering, giving away some old painted canvases to artist who can paint over them, to make space for my recent work. I shall then clean my real silver, and seek out more decorative items. I shall try and find a narrow fake silver tree to match the other stuff. I need some silvered almonds to sprinkle on the table. We shall see. I have told my lodger that Nicos is coming back to England on 22nd and intends to stay for a few months. She said she could leave by 17th so that's that. She has kept a very low profile recently, which is ideal for me. Today I did lots of tidying and decluttering and even changed my sheets which I eventually found after putting away masses of clothes. Nicos is organising a ceremony in Barcelona as a farewell to his father. This will be attended by the Spanish contingent as it is too difficult for us to get there at such short notice. Apparently there will be a boat setting off at sunset with an African band playing funeral music, then a speech about him, followed by casting of ashes with rose petals into the sea and the band playing upbeat music as a farewell on the return journey. Very touching. I shall raise a glass to my ex at this end. Yesterday I went with Drawing London on Location and Urban Sketchers to the Natural History Museum and managed a short and inadequate sketch before escaping to the V & A which was considerably less crowded but still not very conducive to drawing, so again, just did a short sketch of some statues. It is my birthday tomorrow,72 years bloody old.