Posts in Category: Friends
Nursery School – 13 February 2014
For one and a half hours I had a shot at being a nursery school teacher. They knew I was coming so made it like the day job: we drew what we wanted, then we built it.
Two castles and a treasure map, then some dragons. Then, like actual lunchtime CPD, they watched a programme about bricks: grow you’re own clients. Great fun, and thanks to the kids who chose not to bully me at all.
Royal Festival Hall – 27 January 2015
Our HTA Sketch Club joined forces with the London Society for a trip to the Royal Festival Hall. I was inspired by some 1951 illustrations of the design, and by the characters who came along to draw and chat about it afterwards. 
It was a great pleasure to meet octogenarian former architecture tutor Maggie, who set me straight on a few things.
Earlier, I felt among friends with oldest pals Scott, Pete and Dougal…
…and alone hogging a big empty table in an otherwise packed west London restaurant.
Back home with Isla and Fraser.
The Stand – 10 January 2015
In the Stand with Jane, Keith & Julie after supper at the Malt Whisky Society. Their pal, the amusingly unconventional Jojo, is compere.
From my limited Festival experience there can only be two stars of these multi comic stand up nights: the compere and the headline, like tonight.
I need to earn my nights of comedy and whisky, so in the morning I ran around a snowy Arthur’s Seat.
Slowly.
How to Predict the Weather – 3 January 2015
On the first day of the Christmas break I read an article about how the Romans had used the Twelve Days of Christmas to predict the weather for the coming year, so I thought I’d take a look. 
Starting after Christmas Day (above), watch what the weather does each day and extrapolate that to the relevant month. Now I’m sure that the Augurs had a system to make it seem much more complex than that but that’s what I did. January isn’t looking great but March will be nice. 
Trouble is, it’s hard to keep track even of something as simple as that. Stuff happens: this is Fraser in the Sick Kids (he’s alright now). 
So I missed a couple of months through spending too much time inside. 
I’d recommend that if you’re planning to take a holiday in July you go abroad as it’s going to be very wet here, and if you’re going to visit Edinburgh for the Festival, go for the second half of August. September should be lovely.
Thinking about it, it seems surprising that the Romans would have had Twelve Days of Christmas. Perhaps two weeks of parties, family illness and little exercise have left me a bit confused.
Time to get back to work.
Boiling an Egg – 21 October 2014
Step One: Boil the right amount of water then insert egg for 60 seconds
Leave to stand for three hundred seconds.
Perfect
Year In Industry – 31 August 2014
In Hemma: Finlay, Matt & Tom.
Year In Industry guy Finlay Clark has moved us to a new office and kept the place running for another year. He’s a star and it’s a great programme, giving kids jobs in business for a year before they go to college. We get the ones that want to be designers and give them some business experience and some design experience. It’s amazing what they achieve. Finlay’s off to be a product designer (but I think he might end up an architect!)
The wee guys, enjoying the season’s Ice Bucket Challenge videos. “Don’t do that to me!”
Lysistrata 22 August 2014
Lysistrata is good festival stuff: an audience of thirty, a cast of four, a tiny venue and art with ambition. Maybe this was the Fringe before the stand-ups came to dominate.
Most of the energy comes from Louisa Hollway, who covers the small stage in a few short strides.
The characters are less energetic on the sleeper to Edinburgh. There’s wi-fi in the bar, so you can catch up on the day, but I think mostly people are just trying to avoid going to bed. 
Earlier I sat outside the kind of independent café I love and admired the flamboyant gables on some Victorian housing in Finchley. I like the fun in this that’s missing from most contemporary brick built London housing.
In Between Days – 25 July 2014
“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle I no longer despair for the human race” said HG Wells. This is the first step on my post surgery recovery: learning how to get around when you aren’t allowed to cycle. Everything takes ages.
Also I’m not allowed to travel. In Edinburgh in August that’s not a problem as the world comes to you. This year, alongside the festival, it’s the Commonwealth Games. The divers are in Edinburgh, staying at the hotel by our office and surrounded by a surprising number of policemen. 
Where there are crowds there are people pretending to be statues and, oddly, other people filming them. This is a real statue of Kirkcaldy hero Adam Smith, in the Royal Mile. Smith was famously odd looking but Sandy Stoddart, the sculptor, has sorted that out. 
I don’t know what this self determining free marketeer might have thought about independence.
After a couple of weeks I was back to working and travelling, chatting to artist Chris Jones:
https://www.facebook.com/chris.jones.3954?ref=br_rs
Recovered, we went to Liz & Simon’s and then to London, which is rapidly, and pleasantly, becoming the home of the cyclist.
HG Wells would be pleased.
Etape Caledonia – 11 May 2014
‘A bunch of mid forties blokes banging along like they’re professional road racers and no one has a clue what they’re doing.’ That’s what they told me about the Etape before I went, and whilst they might have been right, it was brilliant fun.
We survived and this is Tom driving me home with the bikes in the back. Nobody had less of a clue than me but I gritted my teeth and got round in four hours and sixteen minutes.
Earlier in the week I spent some time pondering this DRMM building as part of the ongoing Kings Cross regeneration.
http://drmm.co.uk/projects/view.php?p=kings-cross-central-arthouse
Not Working – January 2014
Most sketching opportunities are work related: there’s not much time otherwise. Here are a few that aren’t:
A couple of pints with Scott and Dougal. I’ve been enjoying Scott’s insightful view of the world for the last 36 years and it still takes me by surprise.
Isla and Julie at Gran & Grumpy’s
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