New paintings and regular art updates.
Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.
This cat comes in every day now. He pinches my cats food and then cheekily plays with their toy mouse. It’s filled with catnip and they love it.
I’m jotting this down because I will remember to post on line that he’s coming in. That’s so I can try and find his owner. Cats now should be microchipped, he possibly is. His markings are unusual so he might get recognised! X
What is your favorite restaurant?
Miso is a Japanese Restaurant in Stoke-on-Trent. It is my favourite place to get Asian food. I enjoy their Miso soup, sushi, bento boxes and sesame ice cream.
The restaurant is on London Road in the town of Stoke upon Trent and there is limited parking but there are three hours of parking at the local superstore. The restaurant is upstairs at the moment as I think the downstairs area is due to be refurbished.
The food is tasty and plentiful, it’s about mid range for cost. The plum wine or sake costs a bit more but you can have cheaper drinks.
It’s interesting that Miso was mentioned in one of Richard Osman Thursday Murder Club books. It must be good to get such recognition.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I’m out of my studio, and I’ve lost my partner, but I don’t want to give upon life just yet. I’d like to future proof my life, make it more stable again. I don’t know how I’m going to do that but I’ve got to try.
I’ve always said I want to be around when Halleys Comet comes back. That’s not till 2061! I know it’s a big ambition to last such a long time, but why not? I’ve got to have some goal, yeah, the next ten years will be hard but I want to last longer than that!
What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?
Three cats, birdsong, books.
My family is my cats, they keep me company, amuse and irritate, sometimes in equal measure. They are loving but also bonkers. Chasing each other around the house, up and down stairs, jumping up and sleeping on my chair when I’m out of the room.
Today I heard birdsong from the garden, the sun was shining and the wind had settled down, suddenly a blackbird started singing loudly. The song was thrilling, musical, lyrical. Complex and melodic. Blackbirds songs increase in complexity as they get older. It was beautiful.
Finally I’ve included books. I bought back some lovely art books from my studio. One is about Women Surrealist Artists, another about The Faery Garden by someone called Beatrice Phillpotts. There are more, images from Nasa about space exploration, micrographic images of plants, and other books.
These five things are everyday things that bring me great happiness.
Describe something you learned in high school.
I’m not sure what high school is? When I was at school we went to primary, then secondary school. The top (final year) was the sixth form where you took your final exams.
One of those was biology, we studied a lot of information, photosynthesis, stomata in leaves (the holes underneath leaves that allow gases in and out. Things like the function of the kidney (was there something called a glomerulus?), the layers of skin, probably the structure of the eye? I think liking art helped because I could draw diagrams.
I enjoyed biology and am glad I chose it as one of my subjects.
What’s the most fun way to exercise?
I’ve cycled for exercise when I was younger and I loved the freedom of it. You could travel for miles, with the ability to see places you could never get to on foot and if you travel in a car or a train the world goes by almost too fast so that you don’t get the connection with the land that you do on a bike.
We cycled for many years and I went from pushing my bike up hills, to slowly slogging up in bottom gear to being able to make good progress up to a summit. I could tell my fitness was improving, my breathing improved and my physical strength improved too. My hubby and I could cycle up to a hundred miles in under eight hours!
The worst thing that happened to me was a bike accident that eventually persuaded me to get a car. I should have continued to cycle.
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?
The, Martian is the book I’m currently reading and the film was recently on TV.
I like it because the story by Andy Weir is more science based for a sci-fi film than fantasy. It depicts an astronaut who is abandoned on Mars after a freak accident. His colleagues assume he is dead and have to leave because their escape rocket is about to topple over which would trap them on Mars.
Why do I want to be the character in the film? I like the problem solving that has to happen to save the astronaut. He has to work out how to increase his food supply, chemically create water, travel across Mars and communicate with Earth after the communication system was destroyed. There are humourous episodes throughout the film, and tension increases as various mishaps occur. Not all the science is right but it is an enjoyable film. If I knew I was going to survive and come home I would do it.
What book could you read over and over again?
Set on a planet where the inhabitants hardly see one another except holographically, where babies are ‘made’ by being grown in tanks. A human, detective Elijah Bailey is bought to the planet to investigate a murder.
Baileys home on Earth is a crowded underground mega city where humanity is living cheek by jowel. Spacers (other world citizens) have little to do with Earth, thinking the beginning world of humanity is beneath them. Bailey had previously worked with a Spacer called Daneeil Olivaw. (the Caves of Steel, also by Asimov) Bailey did not realise that Olivaw was a robot and so could work with a human. After they successfully solved a murder on earth Bailey is promoted and bought in on this investigation with Olivaw as backup.
I first read the Naked Sun as a teenager, I still have the copy, and every so often reread it. The science fiction is interesting, it examines the way humanity has diversified, how robots are integrated into society, the completely opposite lifestyle of Spacers and how detective Bailey has to try and live on the surface of a planet after an entire life in subterranean crowds.
Asimov book is dated, but insightful, it’s sometimes melodramatic but enjoyable. It’s not just a “shoot em up” cowboy or cops and robbers story in space.
Asimov wrote many robot books, came up with the three laws of robotics which with a bit of thought I could probably quote.
His book “I robot” was the basis for the film of the same name starring Will Smith. Other films have been based on his books.
I think it was written in the 1950s? So expect the Naked Sun to be a little old fashioned, but maybe give it a read?
What animals make the best/worst pets?
Cats are fun
Cats are free spirits
Sometimes they love you
Sometimes they fight you
They won’t take tablets
They will eat your food
If you turn your back
If you leave a morsel
Will steal your chair
Will hide in mysterious places
Appearing at odd times
Appearing when you least expect it
Get lost when they are due at the vets
Get tangled up in your feet
Have their means of communicating
Have to have their own way!
What job would you do for free?
I’d volunteer for a job as a garden guide if I was looking for something to do. There are several beautiful gardens in this area. Rode Hall, Trentham Gardens, the Dorothy Clive garden, Biddulph Grange garden or further afield I would love to work at the Eden Project in Cornwall. I don’t actually know enough botany but I would try hard to find out their Latin and English names, it would be embarrassing to confuse my Aqualegia with Calendula or Gerbers. I would enjoy the exercise and chatting with people who enjoy nature including the birds insects and mammals that thrive in beautifully tended gardens.
If there is no such job I would just go and do it anyway. Each season has its beauty. One inspiring book is a very old story called the Secret Garden. I can’t remember the author though.
Mallaband-Brown