17th May 2001
How time flys, it’s nearly a month since my last entry and it has been work, work, work. Originally I made out a list of jobs I needed to do to spruce the house up and at that time we weren’t quite sure what we were going to do. Well I keep adding to the list as fast as I tick things off but at least we have a better idea of what we are doing. It looks like we will be shifting David into the unit in the next couple of weeks so that will get rid of the last of the crap in our place and we have put the house on the market. Not a good time to sell but we have decided to test the market. If offers don’t look like getting near what we want, we will take it off and probably rent for 12 months, we want to keep travelling and can’t very well leave an empty house.
David’s cousins have invited him along on a trip to the Philippines, not to Manila but to the provinces where Merl comes from. Apparently it is quite beautiful in the provinces, situated at the base of an active volcano that they intend to climb, life is fairly basic and that is one of the reasons they want him to go so he can see how life is for some people not so fortunate. I hope the message gets through.
Timing is good he will be in the Philippines when it is time to shift him so we will be able to get his gear into the unit without a lot of un-necessary drama and he will be away when we have our first open house, which makes things a little easier to organise. Nancy and I will just disappear to the caravan that is currently parked behind the house Lisa is renting at Manly.
I have finally managed to start watercolour art lessons, 1 – 4 pm each Monday at Scattered Arts where I did my oil painting classes. Maria Field the teacher is a self taught artist who has become a well known and respected artist and much sought after teacher. Apart from the fact she is an exceptionally good teacher, Maria is also an extremely nice person and I was fortunate enough to get to know her well when she was a volunteer at Scattered Arts during my oil painting classes. Being a friend of Marias I was able to jump the queue when a vacancy arose, so that was a stroke of luck.
Just on watercolours, if anyone is considering taking up art don’t think for one moment that watercolour is easy, “it aint” there is a lot of planning, thought and technique in watercolour painting but it’s very intriguing and a wonderful medium. The good thing with this type of medium is the small amount of paraphernalia you need to take on a painting trip. If you prefer to paint in a studio atmosphere, it is relatively easy to make small field sketches and tonal paintings to capture a scene, ambience and particularly light contrasts, then paint it later once at home. Small colour notes the size of a postcard don’t take long to paint and are ideal when travelling for reproducing larger at a later stage.
It will be interesting to see how I go over the next month or so, I am hopeful that I can achieve a reasonable level of skill so I can use this medium when Nancy and I start travelling again.
We will be cat sitting this coming weekend, Lisa is running in a half marathon at Noosa so we have to feed the cat and give it its injection for diabetes!!! We did the same last week end when Lisa sailed in a two day yacht race. Mow the lawns, fish and chips Saturday night and sleep in the caravan, go home for a late breakfast. At least we get the chance to check out the van.
Nancy went to “Braille House” last Monday to do some voluntary work like she did before we went away, I don’t know if it was a one off or whether she is going to do it on a regular basis again, it was something she enjoyed and certainly helped stimulate the old brain.
Keep you posted
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