I spoke too soon

It has been a few weeks since my last post on the Workshop blog and all the things I intended to do in that time have all been sitting there awaiting my attention - to be honest, it has just been too cold out there. The weather here in London has been uncharacteristically cold for the past few weeks and I have been concentrating on things I can do indoors. I decided to use some of the time getting to grips with a Meccano drawing programme called VirtualMec. You can see what I have been up to, on the Meccano front, by checking out our Meccano News blog HERE, so I will not repeat it all on this one!

40 years ago...

...in a small way, I studied art and passed all my exams. I then got involved in publishing, design and graphics, and the 'art' got forgotten. Since then I have always had an interest in The Arts and have had plenty of ideas for works but have never followed them through - until now. A few weeks ago we were doing a bit of shopping in our local Aldi store when I spotted a watercolour set. Pad, pencil, paint and brushes all for £3.50. To good to pass, I thought, the purchase was made and my 'bargain' was carried off home. Filled with enthusiasm I unwrapped my purchase and set about giving it a go... You know what they say about if it seems too good to be true... Well, it was a disaster. The paint was horrible, the brush lost most of its hairs within the first few minutes, and the paper was very poor. In fact so poor was the quality I have not even bothered to photograph it! My new-found enthusiasm was quashed and I put it down to experience while depositing the paint and pad in the charity box - the paint will be fine for a nipper to play with.

The real deal

A week or so later and we were off to the Science Museum to check out a rumour that there was some Meccano in a showcase in the entrance. Sure enough there was - but that is another story for the Meccano blog. From the Science Museum we headed into Soho for a bite to eat and found a really nice restaurant in Berwick Street (You knew food would figure somewhere didn't you!).

After working our way through three courses and a bottle of red, we were off to Oxford street to pay homage to one of the famous department stores, where we had a pile of tokens that needed spending - well, you wouldn't find us shopping otherwise! On the way through the back streets of Soho, we stumbled across Cowling & Wilcox's central London branch (they are art suppliers - as if you didn't know!). Well, the place is heaving with lots of goodies, I could have got really carried away in there. I found what I wanted; a nice little pocket box of twelve, half pan, decent quality watercolours and a folding brush... plus a nice new set of full length watercolour brushes and... No I am not confessing to any more. Anyway suffice to say I have been having some fun. I might even show you one day...

Ralph.