A drawing of the world as seen from space. A drawing of the space as seen from world.
The world as I know it…
Ventilator mail…
Not being one to brag, here are some letters from children in Germany.
Frankfurt European Schools sind gut…
A good time was had by all at the European Schools in Frankfurt over the past two days.
The children are voracious drawers and askers of questions, and like looking at books especially 'if they are in colour'. Most of all, they like laughing and giggling and in the case of one boy: sleeping. The students are from all over the world, and all will have interesting stories to tell one day.
Drawing with the children always make me wish I had their fearless approach to getting an idea down onto the paper. We drew bears and other things, and my favourite part was when Finn had a go at drawing Snoopy, to huge encouragement and ceaseless laughter from his class.
Children's questions are consistently surprising and Germany was no different. There is a recurring, familiar question however and it was finally asked late in the morning by a little girl who asked me if I had any children. I answered in my best German: Nein.
Profuse thanks to Renate, Ute and Stephanie for inviting me to their fantastic libraries and looking after me. More huge thanks to:
Marion (who collected me in her Mini which had been imported from the USA to Germany, and who pointed out the Australian Bar in Bad Vilbel); Finn's mother (who collected me on her school run and described Kentucky to me); Barbara (who collected me at 7am when everyone else was sleeping, met her English husband grape-picking in Australia and explained the workings of the European Central Bank while we were stuck on the autobahn); David (who explained how teachers don't exploit all the capabilities of the Smartboard, and set up my presentation so well); and last but not least Kimberley (from Texas via The Netherlands who drove me to the airport and was misdirected by the poor pronunciation of 'flughafen' by the American voice on the satnav). Danke vielmals.
Bad Vilbel, good water.
Zwei katzen. Photo by Ute Arias.
Before, not during.
Lost portrait…
Sally wearing a turtleneck jumper and sports jacket. Circa can't remember.
I wish I could draw like that…
Cats sleeping on chairs…
Cat asleep on chair:
Covert in darkened room
Watch out where you sit.
The thanks I get…
The longhand equivalent of the folded hands or smiling face emoji. All you need to do is send someone some money and you may receive a letter in the post just like this if you're lucky. It's nice that people take the time.
Sender: Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
Get out. Your time is up…
Years ago I lived in a room and shared a bathroom with an actress who lived on the same floor. We had to put a gold coin in a meter if we wanted to take a bath. The actress was even poorer than me because I once found her sharing her bath with all her clothes to save on laundry costs. (I would use the laundrette down the road every Saturday afternoon). After that encounter I would make her donations of bath money. For some reason she kept this, probably because it is still loaded with a coin.
Circa the last century. Good for one bath or three showers, whichever is longest.
These are a few of my favourite receipts…
We hit bad weather…
It was already spitting on the tarmac. I could see it on the window before we took off.
