One winter Wednesday

/ Robert / 5 Comments

One winter Wednesday, wee wan Willy Weasel whistles wistfully,
Why’re wide-eyed whelk, Wellington’s waist worn white wings waving without wind?
Wellington, Wellie-to-friends, wobbles wildly, whizzing, whirring, wending
To Wollongong wedding of Wendy Weevil to Willow Winkle.
Wendy’s award winning women’s weaves once won, way-beyond Willow’s winding wastewater wicking widget.
What a wonderful wardrobe they’ll wangle!
Wander welcomes welterweight Wombat, Walter wearing weather worn wafer-thin western wove wheat-sheaves.
Wicked waiter, Wilfred watches whilst wading in the weeds,
Whittled walnut water-raft whooshes in Wembley Womble Witch and Wakefield Whale Wizard, whispering worthwhile words to witty Wandering Wolf, Winston.
Winsome Wensleydale Wench, Winnie has the where with all to warn of a woefully wavering weighty wonton wagon whisking towards the waterfall.
Wow, wiggling Worcestershire Worm, Winona get’s to work on the wailing wheels with wooden wedges.
Willy Weazel whiffs the scent of wafting wedding whisky, wondering whether the weather will warm.

I am someone who’s:

/ Robert / 3 Comments
Almost a teenager

Diligent

Self-effacing

Scatter-brained

Passionately curious

Bored with the mundane of copy paste updating and repetition that could be completed by optical character recognition and coding

Solving problems by identifying, sorting, and organising filaments of information into threads to plait into a rope to hold on to as we take steps toward a goal

Me

Air element

/ Robert / 2 Comments
Version 2

I considered presenting a blank sheet. After all how do you paint something unseen? Weightlessness came to mind, such a heavy word to describe something ethereal; unseen, lighter than a feather.

My imaginings are viewed through a water element induced feelings lens. Increasingly with age, earthbound gravity anchors me as I am dragged along the ground like a hot air balloon basket being divested of collected paraphernalia. It doesn’t seem to matter how much is discarded I just can’t seem to get my carcass of the earth.

Both versions of the abstract watercolour are posted here.

The first feels heavy, constrained, forced, and overworked.

I am happier with second version.

  • I was aiming for:
  • Purple for spirit, and I believe, evolved thought
  • Yellow for the air element, in my view also sunny hope filled optimism
  • Blue resonates for me as free limitless sky high thinking
  • While white space represents light and calm

A decade or two ago, I was fascinated by people who read a book while completing gym based cardiovascular training. In contrast, I felt like I was soaring as I listened to dance music. The beats, sounds, and crescendoing voices motivating my body to pump and work harder to lift me higher and higher.

Nowadays, finding the music in the gym too loud, I can’t be bothered to try to compete with my earbuds. Dialling up the volume sets off my tinnitus. I can complete forty minutes’ exercise in the aerobic heartbeat zone while reading a book on my phone. It works on the reclined bike, elliptical trainer, and treadmill.

Panic

/ Robert / 1 Comment
Tallow Beach Nov 2024

Putrid pounding panic percolates,
Producing pent up pressure,
Presenting powerlessness permeates.

Deducing dreadfully dark downfall
Desperate denuded drowning
Dubious duplicitous denouncement

Avid alarm avoidance;
Amber anchored aggregates arterially
Articulating ‘AARGH!’, alleviating an aneurism

Fallen foolish faun finds feet frozen fjord;
Frenzied fumbling for frosty firmness,
Feigning fabulous feeling.

Homeward bound

/ Robert / 5 Comments

From Tuesday’s

Work weary wending walk
Carriage, shuffle tap to pay.
Glimpse Belisha beacon flash;
Fluorescent amber hoodie on a bike
My chariot awaits.

To
A handheld rainbow at Petrie station.

Burlesque

/ Robert / 1 Comment
Scarlett Fever, Wickham Hotel 2024

Last night we saw the 2010 movie of the same name starring Cher, Christina Aguilera, Eric Dane, Cam Gogandet, Stanley Tucci, Alan Cumming, and Kristen Bell. Its rich dark moody basement club and apartment scenes evoked the feeling of bygone speakeasies, jazz clubs, and Liza Minnelli in the film Cabaret.

I was reminded of awe inspiring evenings in the back bar of the Imperial Hotel, Erskineville, Sydney in this century’s noughties and teenies. We were delighted by the performance of Mitzi Macintosh reenacting the Rocky Horror Show, The Sound of Music, and Little Shop of Horrors.

In other venues in Newtown, Kings Cross, and Darlinghurst we were wowed by the antics of Miss Effervescence (Effie to her friends), Verushka Darling, Tess Tickle, Chelsea Buns, Fahrenheit, Joyce Mange, Vanessa Wagner, Portia Turbo, Miss 3D, Simone Troy, Robyn Lee, Clair de Lune, Atlanta Georgia, Monique Kelly, and Polly Petrie.

Now that we live in Queensland we get our occasional drag queen fix at the Wickham Hotel, and Cloudland in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.

Earth element and Sweaty Betty body blues poem

/ Robert / 4 Comments

It is appropriate for the earth element to be represented by something that is visually heavy, solid, grounded, and has strength.

This abstract watercolour references rock, soil, and chalk in yellow, oranges, red, brown, and white. Metals of gold and silver. Amethyst, emerald, and plants are shown in purple and green.

The poem reflects on changes to my body living life on Earth, the planet.

Sweaty Betty body blues

‘I can’t live if living is without you’* ear worm………

Why is it dry, oily, and moist?
Are they sunspots, freckles, liver spots or moles?
When and why did the lines, wrinkles, crows feet, and crêpe texture first appear?
Surely not from rare UK sunny days or coconut oil frazzled lobster red to peeling brown trips abroad?
Or from living in antipidean glare?

Journeyed from Johnson’s lotion slathered babe
Through acne ravaged, Clearasil cleansed teen,
Twenties, thirties, forties; Clarins, Lancaster, Clinique treated T zone, factor 10 to 30 suncream
To fifties, sixties; Simple, Nivea, Olay, spf 50+ sunscreen, and shade.

Joie de vivre patina of itches scratches, burns, grazes, cuts, bites, blackheads, blisters, blemishes, bruises, fungal rashes, warts, tags, scars, ingrowing hairs and whiskers, and blocked pores.
And,
Yo-yoing weight stretches, sagging wobbling rolls and folds loosening; losing battle against gravitational pull and aging.

Sweaty Betty body blues; love the skin you’re in!

*Harry Nilsson 1971

Working on earth element

/ Robert / 7 Comments

As I am working on a concept for an abstract watercolour earth element painting, carrying on from last week, I decided to share a couple more primary school reports.

I have no recollection of class 2.

From the above, it appears class 3 was split into two terms. The first was taught by Mrs Elway whom I adored. Mrs Elway played the upright piano in the school hall. It had an elaborately embroidered drop cloth affixed to the back of it.

My technicolor memory of Mrs Elway merges with the black and white film ones of English actress Margaret Rutherford. They both appeared to be nurturing, driven, crone spirits.

There were no excellent scores in class 1. At 6 3/4 my performance had markedly improved.

I don’t know why I missed 43 days of school other than having measles, chicken pox, and debilitating bouts of tonsillitis culminating in having them removed at the grand terracotta brick Ear Nose and Throat Hospital, junction of Edmund and Barwick streets, Birmingham.

https://www.birminghamroundabout.co.uk/2009/birmingham-midland-ear-nose-throat-hospital-edmund-street/

After getting over the pain of healing wounds, I loved being in hospital. I have vivid memories of the late Victorian ward with beds either side of a central aisle with a table in the middle for meals. I loved the jelly and ice cream they served post op. Eventually, I was allowed to eat cornflakes although they had to be scratchy.

Good for P.E. Games? Perhaps due to it consisting of musical statues, throwing beanbags, maypole dancing, and running around.

Note, needlework was now added to the curriculum. Mrs Box taught us to hand stitch, embroider, and use a sewing machine.

Mrs Elway kindly reports I ‘tried very hard, particularly with reading and writing. Particularly good at collecting nature specimens.’ I admit to proactively contributing to the nature tables in most classes. Perhaps I could have been a botanist. Excellent for art and handiwork encourages my current endeavours.

My grades slipped significantly under the tuition of A.M. Lloyd, of whom I have no recollection. Maybe due to my father ‘running off to be with that Walker woman’ as my mother frequently shrilled whenever my five year old brother and I needed to hear it. Dad left us the day before my eighth birthday. I don’t remember whose choice it was. I know my Mom would not have been able to silently endure adultery. At least during this time I had a flair for ‘oral work’.

The formidable jacket and skirt suited headmistress E Lyon would have been sporting a French pleated hairdo while signing off on this report.

Pink rock Airhead

/ Robert / 2 Comments

Wishing you great health and happiness in 2025!

I am consciously stating the obvious when I write, spending quality time with family is limited when you live on opposite sides of the planet.

When we moved to Australia in 1998, my niece was a child. We are getting to know her and partner as adults whilst they take working holiday breaks from Spain here. Initially in 2018/2019 and again this year. We just spent a joy filled time swapping stories and creating happy memories with them over Christmas.

Whilst reviewing my sketchbook, my niece and partner were drawn to a rendering of a Pink Airhead from March 2024. They remarked on the way the character had developed over time.

Today’s whimsical Airhead represents both outward airy lightness through the pink rocks/stones and inner darkness contained in the black outlines.

‘Pink rock’ is a play on words reflecting a lack of self confidence to display goth/punk/emo individuality. I believed, to be accepted, I had to hide my true self and conform to societal norms. I wonder where this belief began.

As a shy young teen distracted by fantasy, horror, sci-fi, and daydreaming, I expressed myself through coloured handwriting. Setting aside traditional black and dark blue, I favoured apple green and turquoise inks in my fountain pens. Both of them intermittently leaked over my fingers and exercise books. Also, I had a hot pink felt tip pen reserved for doodling, sketching, and creating organic shapes filled with circles/bubbles.

Going further back, in the first class of primary school 1968-1969, taught by Mrs J. Booth, I have three distinct memories: winning a prize for hand painting/printing; enjoying singing along to “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” accompanied by guitar; and exposing myself in the communal handwashing area of the unisex toilets.

I have no recollection of the reason why, having removed all of my garments, I minced out, hands in the air from the cubicle like a bawdy butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. Nor do I remember any repercussion of my action.

Up until that point, I believe I was as carefree as any other five year old. I dressed my teddies, floated around like a bird, and coloured in.

Above is my report from the end of the first class of primary school. 3 (satisfactory) for conduct stands out from the 4 (good) grades. I suspect this was due to memory number three above.