17 October 2009

"Silly Saturday"

Rather than turn on the computer first thing, I had a relaxed sort of morning. Drank several cups of this tasty coffee that's on special at Tesco at the moment -
Sorted out my course notes and tucked them into their tidy little box, doing a bit of review along the way, and thinking about the essay topic. And finished watching this DVD of the "Date with an Artist" programmes that were broadcast on BBC years ago, in 1997 in fact. I saw the ones with Cornelia Parker, Andrew Gifford, and Chris Ofili (but had totally mis-remembered some of them!) and the others were interesting too: Catherine Yass photographed eastender Mr Archer in the lift of the tower block he was living in; Peter Randall-Page made a stone bell for percussionist Evelyn Glennie; Nina Saunders did some upholstered swarms of bees for the sitting room of a beekeeper (who thought they were wonderful) and Brad Lochore painted some shadows for a visual-perception researcher.
Then I got out the fountain pen and wrote a long letter to a friend who's not all that comfortable with email. Took it to the post office, and bought a newspaper.
Noticed that the sign in the fish shop: "SNOEK now available". Researched snoek when I got home - this involved turning on the computer, and writing several long emails to neglected friends. Wonder why the greetings-card manufacturers haven't invented an international "get in touch with neglected friends" day...

Next, a bit of tidy-up of the room, leading to all sorts of discoveries - and a review of my notes and cards from Origin (week 2) yesterday (note the major purchase, ring by Gail Klevan) -At Origin I had good chats with ceramicist Lok Ming Fung, wood sculptor Chris Elmer, tried on one of David Poston's amazing bracelets, smiled at Catherine Tough's african-fabric owls and Hanne Linding's wristwarmers, and coveted a jumper from Ollie Zwitserlood Knitwear (but resisted), and just before rushing off to a talk by Gabrielle Koch, chatted with Fenella Elms about her ceramic wallpieces.

The washing was ready to hang up - that is, drape over radiators, bannisters, and doors -
Another discovery - neglected post! - quick, open it -
And from under that pile of paper emerged my carry-along sewing -
Big decision coming up: can this stapler be fixed, or should it simply be thrown out - such a nice colour, but rather useless -
Did you know that if every one of the UK's 10 million office workers used one less staple a day, that would save 120 tonnes of steel a year?

My next purchase will be a staple-less stapler - this one will clip three pages together, how often do you need to staple more than that?

Midway through Saturday afternoon, I've enjoyed adding all the links and following up websites and finding other scrumptious stuff - thank you for following my ramblings - it's time to do some real work now!

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