Friday 19 February 2010

Throw away...yesterday, Today is a brand new day



Just thought I'd pop by and give everyone a bit of an update on whats new in my life at the moment. Not much by all accounts but there a few things I wanted to talk about...

Firstly, I have started to have a bit of an issue with one of the penquins at work. I'm not going to mention names as I know that a couple of them from The Hotel have occasionally read this and I don't really want things to go any further than they have already ~ though there will be those who read this who will know
immediately who I'm talking about! Anyway, she has this whole aggressive attitude thing going on and me, her and Bon Jovi Roy have all got into the habit of sharing a bit of banter. Anyway, she claims she doesn't much like it and yet she still insists on dishing it out whenever she's on shift. It seems to be okay for her to go about throwing it all about, but as soon as you return the favour and she runs out of witty things to say then she seems to constantly resort to abuse. Not that I'm bothered by that, I actually think it's quite funny, but it's like if you can't take it hon, then don't dish it out. I know she is only 17 so technically me and Roy should probably know better but in the kind of enviroment we work in, it is hard not to respond when she starts spouting off.

Anyway things came to a head the other day on FB when I made a comment on one of her photos and we started exchanging what I thought was banter when she seemingly got all defensive and started getting hostile. Which is fine but I have kind of had enough of it now. If she wants to be like thast then fine but I am taking the higher ground and am going to refuse to respond. This person has now been eliminated from my Friends list on FB and I have decided that from now on, I am going to ignore her at work and essentially ostracize her whenever she tries to talk to me about anything not work-related! I doubt very much whether she will be too bothered by this and I doubt she even cares whether she is on my FB Friends list or not but I am not doing it to get back at her. I am doing it because I am tired of her getting on her high horse and acting all defensive whenever anyone says anything she doesn't like. Basically, talking with her and exchanging insults has begun to get quite tiring and it exhausts me just trying to have a conversation with her so frak her! It's not the first time I have taken such measures. A few years back, there was a Receptionist at work with whom I had issues with so I gave her the silent treatment and refused to talk to her. I remember she got quite pissed off at that but hey, my mother always said "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all" so really I am just following my mother's advice!

The second thing is that I have started drawing and painting again! I haven't picked up my pad and watercolour pencils in ages but recently, re-reading IT by Stephen King, I have felt inspired and my muse has come back. For several days, my thoughts have been haunted and plagued by images of the clown, Pennywise, standing at the outskirts of Derry whilst, in the background, The Dark Tower looms over the town. It got to the stage where I had even begun sketching out ideas of how I wanted the clown to look, a whole lot scarier than Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise in the awful, awful mini-series they made of IT, and of how the picture would come together on the page. Then finally Wednesday, on my day off, I started it and though I have not yet done much, I have got as far as almost completing Pennywise, I am pleased with the initial results. I could talk about how, when I find my muse, the picture almost draws itself; how although I have an idea how I want it to turn out, the truth is I am never quite sure how it will until the painting is complete. But, unless you have an artistic streak in you, these things often sound daft. The fact is, I can only really paint and draw when I feel like a picture is right and this feels right. Don't ask me why but it does. I may not be as good an artist as I would like to be but I am hoping that, by watching her daddy paint, it will also inspire Emilie to start drawing. At the moment, she seems to enjoy putting pen, pencil or crayon to paper but all she can manage is scribbles. But the fact that she even gets simple enjoyment out of that is encouraging to me and I hope we can spend time in the future when she is older, drawing and painting pictures together. I have already got her interested in books by reading to her and she is quite happy to pick up one of her Peppa Pig's on her own and sit there turning the pages and talking to herself; almost as if she is making up her own stories to go with the pictures. Being a dad is so unbelievably rewarding and I never could have imagined, before Emilie, that I would get so much pleasure teaching her simple, basic things! Every moment spent with her is such a delightful joy!!

Talking of IT by stephen King
(5), this is my fifth choice for my list of 1001 books to read before you die. I have read it like 10 times now over something like fifteen years and I never get bored of it. Each time I go back, it is like reuniting with lost friends and forgotten memories. It is my favourite ever Stephen King book and easily the best thing he has ever written! It tells the story of six friends who are called back as adults to their childhood home by the friend they left behind when a series of gruesome murders start occurring. Twenty-seven years ago, the seven of them confronted something that preyed on the town and swore on their blood that they would come back if the murders ever started again. Now they have...and it is time for those seven to finish what they started and take on IT; a creature that preys on the young and the helpless, feeds on the anger and fears of the town and can change shape to resemble that of which you are most scared of! It is an awesome book, to my mind like the film STAND BY ME (also a story by Stephen King originally) but with monsters in! It is also a story with two acts: the first set in late fifties America, the second in the mid-eighties where a group of adults have to face the fears they thought they had left behind them as a child.

IT will not be the last Stephen King book that makes my 1001 list, but it is by far the most important to me and one of the greatest novels I have ever read in my life! And trust me when I say I read a lot!!!

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