Blood will Flow

I just found out that the fabulous reapertownusa recently had a stroke at 39 but is thankfully recovering. She posted the news on Facebook with a smiling picture of her with one side of her head bulging strangely because they had to remove part of her skull to relieve the pressure, and she is waiting to return to have it put back. Modern medicine, man. So amazing and scary at the same time. In the meantime she has to stay upright and sleep with a helmet on...

I don't know. It's like bad things just keep happening to the nicest of people.

Anyway, if any of you know her, or even if you don't - think positive thoughts in her direction. It can't to any harm and it might help. And if you are on Facebook, you can leave her a message on her post HERE.

I've been fairly busy lately, in between snoozing for England. Yesterday's highlight was getting to meet the totally charming kazluvsbooks, over from the Land Down Under - with the only downside being I had to pre-book my trains so only got to spend a couple of hours with her and her lovely friend Julie, milly_gal, dizzojay and Sue (a fellow JIBcon-goer).

Spot the hobbit.


What else?

Art stuff
I've been working on a poster for my friend Wendy, who's off to Paris next weekend for a Spartacus convention. I'll do a post about that when the convention is over. Inktober is coming up so I'm hoping to manage an ink drawing a day for that, starting (unsurprisingly!) on Monday 1st. Though I may not be able to post them every day due to being away in Venice for a few days, followed by Manchester.

Wild in Art news - I've now sent off two designs for Plymouth's Elmer the Elephant trail next year, and one out of a possible three designs for Ipswich's Elmer trail. The latest announcements have been that there will be a trail of wallabies in the Isle of Man and gorillas in Jersey!! So I will be designing for those critters soon. Keep everything crossed for some of my designs getting picked to paint in a few months time when they do their shortlisting and selections!

Oh! And JIBland in Rome next May just got a tad more interesting, as it seems highly likely the next guest to be announced is Sebastian Stan!!! Got to say, I'm going to be rather chuffed if this is true. For those of you that don't know, JIBland is a two day multifandom event that's been tagged onto JIBcon for the last few years. Attendance for JIBland is usually much lower than for JIB, but with someone like Seb headlining, who knows!

I can't really put this on Facebook, but this song makes me think about Rachel. Her daughter Anna hasn't posted anything today, and yesterday she posted this -
For Mum <3
"Do not be afraid
For I have redeemed you.
I have called you by your name
You are mine"
I keep checking and thinking that Rachel could be dying right now. She could already have gone. Every time I get a text or a phone call (thankfully very few and far between), my stomach lurches.

Anyhow this particular fanvid was one of the first I found and still gives me the shivers, it's kind of perfect.

Adventures with chomaisky Part II took place today when she took a day out of her busy sightseeing schedule to visit my place of residence. She suffered through her first (and probably last) cheese scone, got fed more history than she knew what to do with, met Mabel the tawny owl and a pond full of mallard, cormorants, Canada geese and (appropriately) Mandarin ducks, survived the heaps of junk round my house and came face to face with a woolly mammoth.

I don't know about young cho, but I'm bloody knackered! Ha ha ha!
Here we are saying goodbye at the station - maybe one day I will make it to China.

The hubster took this photo, hence the looking down from on high angle, though yes, cho really is that much taller than me so...fair dos.

I went to London today to meet up with dizzojay and Christine (who some of you might know in another life as Purple Nurple) and foolishly left the newly enfranchised mini!Dean at home. Alas, poor Moomintroll - sadly Dean hunted him down and ganked him. Who'd have thought Moomins would bleed burgundy?

Ooops. Maybe Moomins also regenerate. We'll see...
And here is a happy dizzojay, with Christine and the hubster, in the Pride of Paddington pub.

This is my friend Mal. I've known him for about 30 years, since working for the same organisation way back when. He was a Health & Safety man back then. When he retired he moved down to the coast with his wife, Christie. And there's a beautiful love story for you.

Mal qualified as an electrical engineer and became an officer in the Merchant Navy in the 1950s. He worked on tankers/transport ships in the Indian Ocean and the Med, but then he got assigned to a cruise ship. Officers like Mal were allowed to mingle with the 3rd Class passengers, more senior officers could associate with the upper decks, and the Captain’s party was open to all. Formal dress was mandatory. It was 1930s preserved in aspic.

Every night there were parties hosted by one officer or another. A lot of drinking went on. For every party Mal and his fellow officers threw, they would borrow the big silver tureen from 1st Class and make a lethal fruit punch. One night the punch was particularly good, and Mal had decided the next girl to walk through the door was his. It was Christie, who was on the cruise with her best friend. Mal switched on the charm and chatted her up – and that was that. They fell for each other and never looked back.

If his chosen profession had been plumbing or carpentry, he’d never have met her, because Petty Officers were not allowed to mingle with passengers at all. It was fate, serendipity, good fortune, call it what you will, because Christie was the love of his life for over 40 years.

She died over two years ago now, and it is a daily struggle for him to adjust to being alone. It’s hard, so where we used to meet up a few times a year, we are now trying to have lunch once a week so he can chat. He’s got himself a new cat, a Siamese called Herman after Goering (don’t ask), he goes to the Church get-togethers and fends off the old ladies looking for husband number 4, he even goes to an exercise class once a week to try and keep mobile. He likes his food and his wine (a bit too much but who can blame him?) and still tells a good story.

He’s not quite the man he was when Christie was alive, but the way he’s working on making himself a life worth living is pretty inspiring. Having lunch with him is always a pleasure.

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everybody who sent me virtual gifts, jolly messages and even actual real cards and stuff too!  You are all lovely jubbly peeps and made my day very special.  Hopefully I will get round to thank you all individually but thought I'd throw out this fluffy blanket of love just in case I forget or accidentally miss someone out.

Okie dokie, because I just can't resist temptation...



Stolen from tifaching

I know very little about some most of the people on my friends list. Some
people I know relatively well. But here's a thought: why not take this
opportunity to tell me a little something about yourself. Any old thing
at all. Just so the next time I see your name I can say: "Ah, there's
Thingy ...she likes money and cereal." I'd love it if everyone who's
friended me did this. (Yes, even you people who I know really well.)
Then post this in your own journal [only if you feel inclined]. In
return, ask me anything you'd like to know about me and I'll give you an
answer*.


*Providing it's answerable/suitable for public posting.


Gimme some gossip!