Ceramics update

Continued with the painstaking repair of the component walls to my ceramic model building.

It's like what I imagine the process would be when an archaeologist  re-constitutes into a jug, shards of pottery found under a field in Iran.

In the first picture, what looks like a section of the Coliseum is a facade with cracks all over the place. The numerous pillars are, in fact, supports to keep the window apertures in shape.

The next three pictures some of the cracks that have to be repaired.

One glues things back together with a mixture of 'slip' (ie liquidised old pieces of clay) and a kind of magic mender which also turns out to be a kind of commercially prepared 'slip' in a bottle.

Firstly, one wets the edges of the pieces to be repaired and then paints on generous amounts of the sticking mixture.

Three repaired joints are visible.

Repaired with the support pillars removed and gathered at the top edge of the baseboard.

 

One decision I have made is that I am going to glaze the building a pale rose colour.

I'm going to re-type that in block capitals so that I remember to do that; memory is so poor these days.

ONE DECISION I HAVE MADE IS THAT I AM GOING TO GLAZE THE BUILDING A PALE ROSE COLOUR.

Note: I remember the old BBC word processor would allow you to 'paint' over lower case text and instantly transform it into upper case, and vice versa. Not sure that Microsoft Word allows that.

Found some time to further experiment with the terracotta tile that I had covered with porcelain slip last week. Scraped out an Eiffel tower shape. More work and thought required.

 

As I was leaving I looked over the shoulder of this student called Brian and saw these two sketches in his postcard sized sketchbook. (He did them in 1994.)

 

 

I think they are brilliant and they've given me ideas for background landscaping.

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Hot Chip:

As I write this, I've got Hot Chip on shuffle on my iTunes library. Still not getting sick of them. There is still one album I have to download. Will save up that action for a rainy day.

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Last night's dinner:

Left-over rolled lamb etc from previous day - even nicer.

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Tango class tonight:

Feel worryingly complacent.

In my experience, complacency comes before a fall.

Have been practising every evening - with and without spouse. Simply cannot gauge progress.

Ceramics class tonight

Ceramics class tonight:

The main item on the agenda should be assembling the 4 walls of the Boulevard Haussmann type building.


But, will they have all survived their first firing in the kiln?

If not, will they be reparable?

And, I've actually no idea how they are to be joined together?

If I have time on my hands then I am going to toy with this idea of making background terracotta tiles with a townscape on them.

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Currently listening to:

Alfred Brendel's farewell concert in Vienna from a couple of years ago.

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Last night's dinner:

Prepared by spouse: rolled lamb, potatoes and parsnips.

Top Ten Comedians

A little bit more:

Decided to lay the remaining whole tiles for platform 2. I'll fill in the gaps tomorrow or Wednesday.

Not entirely sure I've done it properly.

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O Sole Mio, Glasgow:

Forgot to take a photograph of last night's pre-theatre dinner at O Sole Mio.

Mine was Chicken Liver Pate followed by Hake and boiled potatoes. Spouse had a pizza with artichokes and black olives which I finished off.

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Mark Watson:

His show was very, very badly attended at the Pavilion and that killed the evening a bit. But, he was very funny for the whole of the evening.

But it got me thinking about present day comedians. Are there any who are funnier than Mark Watson?

Not many. But, hardly any current comedian would appear in my top ten. I did make such a list in an earlier blog. Perhaps this list will be different. (I can't be bothered going back to look.) What I was thinking, though, was that much as I like English whimsy, US comics stand the test of time.

So here is another list of my top ten comics/comedians/comic actors:

1. Woody Allen

2. Richard Prior

3. Peter Cook

4. David Mitchell

5. Jackie Mason

6. Garry Shandling

7. Bob Newhart

8. Steve Coogan

9. Kenneth Williams and the Round the Horne team

10. Tony Hancock

Riding for the Disabled

Every little counts:

Managed another 7 rows of tiles; every little bit counts.

You can see a couple of blobettes of PVA glue between some of the tiles - supposed to dry transparent.

Will have to cut some green and white tiles to fill that gap. Will do that tomorrow.

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Last night's dinner:

Sheer piggery - sweet and sour chicken. Suppose I should have had sweet and sour pork.

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Riding for the Disabled:

In yesterday's blog, I mentioned a charity ball that was held last night and organised by my niece and her husband.

It was in aid of a charity that my nieces's daughter gets great satisfaction from -  Riding for the Disabled. As in horse or pony riding.

Many years ago, as part of a rota, I took a middle-aged lady to this activity; she was dependent on volunteers with cars taking her one evening a week. She would appear at her door in full jodhpurs etc. Her excitement was child-like and uplifting.

Several years later I met her in the street and she said that she had had to give it up because she had broken her back and been in hospital for almost a year. Apparently it was a progressive bone disease that she suffered from.

The upshot of this cogitation should be to counts one blessings.

Count Your Blessings

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When upon life's billows
You are tempest tossed
When you are discouraged,
Thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings,
Name them one by one
And it will surprise you
What the Lord has done.

####Chorus:
Count your blessings,
Name them one by one
Count your blessings,
See what God has done
Count your blessings,
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings,
See what God has done.

Are you ever burdened
With a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy
You are called to bear?
Count your many blessings,
Ev'ry doubt will fly
And you will be singing
As the days go by.

####

When you look at others
With their lands and gold
Think that Christ has promised
You His wealth untold
Count your many blessings,
Money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven,
Nor your home on high.

####

So, amid the conflict,
Whether great or small
Do not be discouraged,
God is over all
Count your many blessings,
Angels will attend
Help and comfort give you
To your journey's end.
####

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I find it difficult to "count one's blessings". I'm scared that if I do  then rather than being grateful I'll end up expecting them to be taken away so that I get my fair share of suffering. It's as if by not counting them aloud I'm keeping a low profile so God won't notice that he has missed me out in the handing out of the sufferings rota.

Childish, I know.

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Mark Watson

Off to see Mark Watson, the English comedian, at the Pavilion, Glasgow. I like his kindly and whimsical humour. I simply can't stand nastiness of any kind. (That sounds a pompous statement - but even after a little bit of reflection it seems to hold true.)

Albums and singles

Nearing the end of platform 2.

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Currently listening to Photek: Modus Operandi

Uninterestingly, I would never listen to just one track from Modus Operandi. Rather. it's an album  whose atmosphere one can find oneself being in the mood for.  And, if one is in the mood for that kind of  brittle, bleak and percussive electronica then one just as well stick with the entire album rather than jump about between it and other albums with a similar mood.

But, if one is in the mood for poppy music eg Hot Chip, Teenage Fanclub, The Beatles, Tamla Motown,  then one is more than happy to jump around from artist to artist and thus song to song and thus single to single.

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Last night's dinner.

Forgot to take a photograph of last night's carry out chicken curry from my favourite Curry House in Glasgow, The Shenaz.

Uninterestingly, it was the first Indian restaurant I ever went to in approx 1971.

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Today's timetable:

7.30 to 8.00   Prayers at home;

8.00 to 8.15   Cup of tea, apple and get dressed.

8.15 to 9.45   Go to Tyre Fitter to get tyres changed on car from summer to winter. (Tried to mug up on forthcoming exam whilst waiting but couldn't help but listen to a fellow customer describing to his friend "how shit" his life had been the past 12 months.)

9.45 to 10.30 Went straight from garage to morning Mass at St Paul's.

10.30 to 11.00 Read Glasgow Herald - mainly Arts section.

11.00 to 11.10  Ran up to local Spar store to see if they had left any bottles of their own-label Chateauneuf du Pape which had been highly recommended in the Herald and said to be on special offer. (The staff had heard neither of the wine nor the offer.)

11.10 to 13.10 Worked on a client's paperwork.

13.10 to 14.30 approx had lunch of a fried egg sandwich while watching on TV Arsenal beat a 10-man Spurs side 5-2.

14.30 to 16.00 Laid more mosaic tiles and wrote this blog.

16.00 to 17.00 Projected snooze.

17.00 to 17.30 Projected cup of tea and sandwich of some kind.

17.30 to 18.15 Will drive Spouse, Adam and Kellie to Helensburgh for a charity ball in aid of medical and care support for children with health problems. Ball organised by my indefatigable niece and her husband.

18.15 to God knows when (1):  Will spend pleasant evening with my brother-in-law and my niece's children waiting for the ball to end.

God knows when (1) to God knows when (2): Drive everyone back home from Helensburgh to Glasgow.

La Nausee

No time or energy to lay any more mosaic tiles so surfed the internet for images of French model railways.

Found a blog by a chap building a layout based on the Limousin area of France which he says he loves and thus wishes to model.

Therein were some images of some rough and ready card or perhaps paper model buildings which I really liked.

The following pictures are of station items made by a company called ABE. Unfortunately, they are kits and I don't have the patience to assemble kits any more.

The first one is a pissotiere or urinal which I think would really grace my layout.

The second is an escalier for passing from one platform to another.

But, as I say, kits are out of the question. They have, though,  given me ideas for features that I could make from card or even clay.

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Maurizio Pollini:

Currently listening to Beethoven's Piano Sonatas nos 24 to 27 played by Maurizio Pollini.

Very disappointing compared with the same played by Daniel Barenboim.

Pollini smoking!
 

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Last night's dinners:

MINE: Scallops, salmon, samphire and asparagus

HERS: breaded haddock, samphire and asparagus

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Today's lunch:

And, because it was unusual to be having lunch at home, here's a photo.

Poached eggs on smoked salmon plus coffee.

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La Nausee:

For the umpteenth time have turned  to Sartre's Nausea. I don't think it's a great novel - perhaps that's a result of the translation - but it has brilliant passages describing the difference between the world as we see it and the world as it is.

This has been a recurring interest (almost passion) of mine since my late teens.

Tango Report

More mosaic tiles laid.

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Last night's dinner:

Since I was going to the Tango class later I didn't want to have a heavy meal. So I had two lemon sole. Forgot to take a photograph, so here is a diagram.

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Tango update:

The class was fairly uneventful last night. The women definitely have the more complex routines to learn.

My main problem is that I don't listen to the music so it doesn't really guide me - an obvious deficiency. Also, although I can do the proper stepping motion on my own at home going up and down the corridor, when dancing with a partner I revert to my usual walking down the street gait.

However, I did several laps of the hall with a variety of partners without any major catastrophes occurring.


PHOTEKPHOTEKPHOTEKPHOTEKPHOTEKPHOTEKPHOTEKPHOTEKPHOTEKPHOTEKPHOTEKPHOTEK

Decided to see what Photek was up to - real name: Rupert Parkes.

Modus Operandi was released in 1997 and is bleak and atmospheric.

Just released is a collection of re-mixes by Photek. Much more upbeat but still very clever. So downloaded it from iTunes.