The Amazing Artichoke, picture a bit fuzzy because the best view is through the window. I probably won't eat it, just paint it. Looked up on youTube last night about how to cook them, it seems like a lot of effort, and I think this is not one of the best kinds to grow anyway.
My first zucchino. I know that in three months time I'll be saying "no, not another bloody zook" when they've grown into whomping great inedible marrows.
This is an apple I painted at watercolour class last week. I did a green apple at home, but that didn't work out so well.
Tidy painting nook before
Untidy painting nook after. Note that the green apple is missing - I ate it.
Painting class again this afternoon, at the local Baptist church. I hate to offend all you Baptists out there, but I really don't feel comfortable there. There is one woman in the class who is a born-again, and she keeps bringing the Lord into conversation. "The Lord told me to..." "The Lord spoke to me and said.." I have no problem with people having a faith but this just makes me cringe. It's a sort of spiritual exhibitionism. I'm not really sure why it bothers me so much. Is it the sin of spiritual pride, to go on and on about how you and only you have a hotline to God that obviously lesser people (like my atheist self) don't have? I think so. "God talks to me, OK, not to you, you miserable sinner". She wants to go to Japan, both to see the culture and the art, and to evangelise a little on the side, because "they've had such a bad time with the earthquakes and such". What makes her think that they need her? What makes her think that her beliefs are so much better than theirs? Perhaps I should phone the Japanese ambassador here, and tell him another disaster is on the way.
PS. I received my end-of-year holiday bonus yesterday, yay! it's been a horrible, nasty year at work, and I feel that it's some compensation for the mental anguish that's been going on. One of my colleagues has now been forced into early retirement; I don't think it was what she wanted at all, but I'm relieved for her that she will be out of the fray and can get on with her life. No doubt the powers that be will look around for other target/s now; we've seen our team picked apart in the last nine months. Painful and distressing, this has been a textbook case of how to take a good, functioning team with high morale and convert it into people who just don't care anymore.
Love your apple painting. More please.
ReplyDeleteAnd share your discomfort with the holier than thou. Often (but not always) born again. Self-importance?
And hooray for holiday bonuses. Fingers and toes crossed that next year is better.
One of my friends works for our Radio National. The savage cuts to the ABC are likely to mean that she is jobless - but the powers that be have very generously said she will know before Christmas. Hiss and spit.
Hope the news is good for your friend. It's horrible that these mass lay-offs are always announced just before Christmas, thus ruining the holiday season completely for the people affected. Jobless is no way to go into a new year. Tony Abbott is one of those people that I'm increasingly referring to as the 'forces of Darkness' - they are devilish. Perhaps aliens are running the planet, but we call them politicians.
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