Illustration Friday - Blues

Cedric has already amassed a collection of blues;  now he's about to pick some complementary oranges.

How crime makes life INEFFICIENT

Sometimes I reflect on how much of my life is spent on security - you know, just making sure things are locked an' all that, because actually you can't trust your fellow human beings to leave you alone.

Computer security takes you to dizzying new heights of paranoia, though.  Again, I spend so much time deleting spam from my inbox;  I've got the 'message rules' bit set to dump these messages in the plop bucket.  I then end up checking the 'Deleted items' anyway, just in case something I need to see has been put in there.

A while ago there were five Trojans lurking in my virus vault, and I was obliged to seek advice as to their care.  Luckily I stopped them before they started working ...

And I've downloaded various bits of software which are supposed to protect you from Armageddon,  at which they are quite effective - by stopping any Interweb connection at all.

Anyway, to celebrate all these happenings, I'm starting on a series of illustrations. Here's the first one.

Illustration Friday - Juggle

It was a misread recipe for jugged hare which incidentally launched Gilbert's circus career.

This is what I've been doing today

I can't claim credit for the concept of being addicted to cold turkey;  no, that accolade belongs to a mad, bald Geordie with a blue Vauxhall Astra (with a guitar in the back).  The rest of it's mine, all mine though!

Apart from that, I've been preparing for an interview as an Occupational Therapy Technical Instructor.  They wanted me to prepare a timetable of activities for patients - who would be people with mental health problems, in an acute ward.  I sent my ideas to a friend of mine, who has lots of experience of this sort of thing (as an OT rather than a patient), for feedback.

One of my proposed items is spiritual practice, but by means of guided meditation rather than Bible readings, which aren't likely to be very helpful to any non-Christians or atheists.  She also pointed out that you never know how many Jesus Christs you'd already have in the room anyway!  

I'd forgotten how surreal working with this client group can be!

Blugger is trying out New Adventures

Is anyone else having this problem with Blogger?  It seems to have changed selected items in my profile into German.  It states my astrological sign as 'Krebs', which, if I remember correctly, is actually 'Cancer' rather than 'Scorpio'.  As a dedicated Scorpio, with Scorpio rising and Mars and Pluto also in this rather scuttly sign (nice to have an integrated personality I always think) I am somewhat perturbed about this, especially as the option to change it seems to have vanished.

Still, I guess that we're dealing with the unholy world of cyberspace so anything could happen ...

Illustration Friday - Wedding

The theme for this week is 'wedding', but due to a typographical error this one has come out as 'Weeding' and is a bit of a warning about remembering to wear strong gloves when you're weeding.

Plants can be very dangerous - this has been celebrated in literature by such works as 'The Day of the Triffids' and in music: 'Be Careful of the Flowers cos I'm sure they're Going To Get You', but you can see very clearly from this illustration that lots of planty-type things will bite back, given half a chance.

Certainly, when I trim my pyracantha hedge, it's usually a 1-1 draw, and it takes approximately the same length of time for the bits I've removed from IT, and the bits it's removed from ME, to grow back.

As a concession to the original theme given by IF, this pic at least has lots of white in it.  Sorry.

Today's the Day ...

An air of expectancy hangs over the neighbourhood.  Some have gathered together their worldly goods and placed them carefully in front of their dwellings at sunrise this morning;  some did so under the cover of darkness last night.  Offerings from gardens take their places beside the detritus of everyday life.  Recent happenings are recorded in newspapers and journals, yet these too are sacrificed.

The grey sky and total lack of wind add to the impression of stillness.  Yet this is not a tranquil stillness;  those who would flee the area have already done so.  Those who are not yet prepared are nevertheless aware that all routes from here may be blocked by the huge, all-consuming vehicles belonging to THEM - and shudder!

Yep, today's the day Worcestershire County Council send their recycling lorries round!