Welcome 2010

Happy New Year everyone,  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are now braced to take on the challenges of 2010.

I have now moved into my new home and studio.  So far it is complete chaos.  If you could see the state of the place, you might wonder what I was thinking of coming here.  There has  already had a flood and a gas leak, the wind is whistling past my face as I type.  I’ve also discovered that there is one tree in the town where all the seagulls congregate for some heavy, evening socialising -  and it’s the tree my car is parked under.  Just how big are seagulls? You would think from the copious, xxl  poo splatters that we have flying elephants here.

Since staying with them temporarily, I miss my old people every day.  I rely on them for some accidentally amusing or hair-raising incident to keep us entertained.  They didn’t disappoint at Christmas.  We had a very nice traditional roast, and a good few drinks,  when late in the evening, a bowl of traditional Hungarian fayre was offered up for our dining pleasure.

In the dish there was a scary looking scene, unidentifiable at first, but turning out to be… a pigs trotter, a knuckle and a tail, there were random bits of skin (probably ear) too – all encased in a brown jelly which was just clear enough to reveal the glory of the porcine bodyparts and this was all topped off  with  a slim layer of lard on the top.  I was assured that this ‘delicacy’ was well worthy of a Christmas day sampling.

Personally, I was still immobile from Christmas dinner, and so resisted this highly resistable offer.

My significant other was mad/drunk enough to give it a go.  It was extremely funny for us spectators, but even now, he still won’t talk about it  for fear of flashbacks and post traumatic stress.

Even our oldest Hungarian admitted it wasn’t quite as he remembered from 50 years ago…perhaps to appreciate this particular dish, you need to be living in a rural, communist and very, very hungry bit of eastern Europe?

Thank the Lord for Marks and Sparks I say.

Anyway, duty calls and I must now go and unpack my brushes and paint my way into this new year.

Best Wishes and lots of success to you all for 2010.

SJ