The old Smile

22nd January 09

Not so cold this week, and although I'm prepared for the rain, it's the wind that's the problem. Great Pulteney Street (behind me) always seems to create a wind tunnel effect. I've got nothing to weigh the easel down and every so often a gust catches the painting and the whole thing threatens to blow over. It could be worse though - maybe it's the lamppost in front of me (strangely missing from the painting) helping to break the force of the blasts.

The door to the newsagents on my right squeaks (nay squeals) badly as it opens and closes. It's the old Smile shop - now there was a good name for a friendly neighbourhood newsagent - it enticed you in - 'Hey, look it's the Smile, let's go and buy something!" beam, beam. Not quite the same anymore ... a few bits of bad press, a few shops forced to close and bam! it's out with Smile and in with McColls and its sophisticated 'Boozebuster' slogan. Yep .... not quite the same.

The milk delivery van does me the courtesy of of parking further down the road and not blocking my view - Thanks, Mr. Milk Delivery Man.

Next comes the DHL man in his DHL van and he is not so considerate. Half my view is obscured. 'EEEEER', into McColls he goes,  'EEEEER', and out he comes again. Great, he's leaving, but no, he sits in his van for a bit and then, 'EEEEER', into McColls and 'EEEEER', out again. This time he's done and so am I.

What's written on the Painting Ben?

Well, I'm glad you asked. Initially, I started to write the whole blog on the painting, but this quickly became impractical as well as taking over the painting (check out http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=145520964&blogID=340202434 to see what I mean). I've moved towards just including a few extracts, so ...

F.Y.I. baby*:

"A little old lady come up and we start talking. Just before walking away she announces, 'I love Bath!' Well, YES, little old lady, so do I." taken from last weeks blog.

*Don't know why I wrote, 'baby' there, slightly off message, slightly bizarre and can you see me making a pretend gun with my hand and a 'clack, clack' noise in my throat. Cheesy, unnecessary and definitely doesn't go with the little old lady.