Just found this interesting article here where someone has their derriere insured for $2 million… he’s a bed tester and apparently has a real sensitive derriere with which he can “literally feel the difference in materials and fillings used, simply by sitting on it.”

Now that’s a job I would love and I’ve often joked about the ideal job i would love… being a professional bed tester.

I can imagine it now…

Getting to work in the morning.

Boss says, “there you go Alex, today’s bed for you to test…

Great! I think to myself… 8 hours of sleep today during work time… heaven!

“Say”, the boss continues, “would you like some overtime today?  How about an extra couple of hours?”

“Terrific!” I reply.

So, I spend the day being paid to have a kip!

Get home that evening and say to the Lady Wife…

“Whoo… what a long day I’ve had… I’m pooped… long day… long day…

“Gonna need an early night..!”

Professional bed tester… with lots of overtime…

A dream job methinks!

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I’ve been working for my current organisation for just over a year… doesn’t time fly?

Just been told that my current contract has been extended to after Christmas… so it’s back to job hunting for a permanent position, although I’m very grateful for the extension.

Anyway, in over a year I haven’t had a full week off work; I even worked through last Christmas, so it’s with a massive YIPPEE that I’ve just booked myself a week off.

Yes, a full week

With the ear problems I had recently (now feeling fine – touch wood), together with starting a new personal project of my New Forest Podcast, I’ve really needed to take some time out.

Some of you might remember a past blog I used to write entitled “Podcast Junky UK”, where I used to recommend other podcasts that I had found.  Well, sadly those Podcast Junky UK days are gone which I really miss, so now it’s time to be on the other side of the mic.

Looking forward to doing as much nothing as I can get away with next week, although I hope to be able to visit the New Forest Show as well as concentrate on my New Forest Podcast.

Also looking forward to some great beach and forest walks with the Lady Wife and Furry Son.

Anyway, here’s to my week off.

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You’re right, I’ve neglected this blog lately.

With the better weather here and the opportunity to get on with jobs around the house as well as taking advange of the great weather with leisurely walks around the cliff tops and the beach, I’ve found that I’ve been switching on my computer a lot less lately.

Usually I’m on my computer every opportunity; playing with my blogs, getting my new podcast ready, playing with digital artwork and so on, but with the better weather here as well as feeling quite tired due to the vertigo and the medication I’ve been on, getting down with yet another ear infection finding the time  the energy and motivation to do all the  has been a bit tricky.

Yes, that’s right, I’m working on a new podcast.

Those of you who produce your own podcast will know about some of the things needed before you can launch your podcast; sorting out my XML feed, coming up a an easy-to-stick-to format, gathering together bumpers, intros, outros and so on.

No, the podcast won’t be related to this blog, well, not directly but I will post details here once I’ve got about 6 episodes under my belt.

If you really want to know where my podcast will be then feel free to drop me an email.

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You know how sometimes thoughts can drift into your head that have nothing to do whatsoever with what you’re doing or are completely unrelated to anything at all?  Well here’s one…

You know that song by Queen?   Don’t Stop Me Now?  Anyway… (now I have NO idea who this daft thought came into my head…) the lyrics go…

“I’m burning through the sky yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That’s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit”

… er… now correct me if I’m wrong… but shouldn’t that be…

…”Mister Centigrade“?

Just asking…

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Lately I’ve been chucking myself more and more into my artwork… watercolours… acrylics… photography… digital artwork… you name it and I’ve been immersing myself totally into it. When I’m in my artwork.. I *always* get into “that” zone… which I’ve mentioned before somewhere in this blog.

Recently I had the privilege of checking out Southampton Art Gallery. Up the stairs and to the right… and there… without a fanfare and without a couple of floating harp-playing angels to guide the way are 3 paintings together that made the whole trip worthwhile… 3 paintings… one by Monet, ’The Church at Vetheuil’, the other by Renoir ‘The Boat on the Lake’ and the one on the end by Pissarro, ‘Louveciennes’… (Upstairs to the left you’ll find Lowrie… and I’ll write about that some other time in another future blog posting… Southampton Art Gallery has his work too…)

I remember the time I went to visit Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London.

Having read so much about my favourite artists, about their lives, their inspirations, their muses and so on, somehow seeing Van Gogh’s Sunflowers just there on the wall somehow grabbed my entire emotions and my first sight of it was almost like that famous “contra zoom” scene in the film Jaws when Police Chief Martin Brody is sitting on the beach. (Contra-zoom… Dolly zoom… “trombone shot”…Google it…)

To me there was an “air”, actually it was more like an “aura” around Van Gogh’s Sunflowers… just like to me there’s always an aura around the works of my other favourite artists.

Sure, there was a cluster of bimbling tourists and other people around the Sunflowers, but to me it still would have had that aura had it been hanging on a graffiti covered wall down some crap infested alleyway.

I still find it amazing to know that those actual brush strokes which I saw from only an inch or so away were made by these famous guys.

Sure, like other artists I’ve tried my hand at painting some famous paintings. I’ve painted Monet’s “Parliament”, one of Monet’s Water Lilies and one of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.

Both, when I paint a famous painting or visit them in a gallery, I try to get into the minds of these guys. For instance, I try to get into the “light” thing with Monet’s works, his total obsession with light, mood, and ambiance.

I try to imagine what these guys would have been musing on while painting. Would Van Gogh have been breathless with excitement at the thought of Gauguin, his hero, shortly coming to stay with him? Was he planning to pick up some more tobacco and booze later that day?

Would Monet have been trying to grab the last few minutes of the light that had inspired him to paint Parliament and these particular water lilies before the light changed?

What about their “background thoughts”?

Were they getting hungry? Were they getting tired? Were their minds occasionally wandering to what they were planning to do that evening? Were their minds dipping into memories of recent events while they were painting? Did they need a pee? You get my drift.

… and did they get into that zone?

I’d bet my life on it that they did… that’s why they painted… I’m sure of it.

To me there’s something “gently” and kindly addictive about getting into that zone when I’m painting. Funnily, it doesn’t happen so much when I’m dabbling with 3d art work… strange…

Watching a a great film can’t capture for me the wondrous magic of seeing a famous painting, although my all time favourite film was on recently and I just had to watch Schindler’s List, as that film has so many levels to it… Anyway, like I say, not even my all time fave films can grab me like a (non-moving) picture by one of my favourite artists.

It’s probably got something to do with the fact that at the end of a movie you’re presented with dozens and dozens of names in the closing credits; everyone from the director, producer all the way to the guy that drives the catering truck … while on a painting there’s only one signature… and even that is by the hand that painted it.

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Today’s the first time in over 3 weeks that I can hear again with my right ear!

Damn nasty inner ear infection knocked me for six.

Got through gallons of ear drops and crates of cotton wool.

It’s so easy to take things for granted.

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Unplugging for a while.  Every couple of years or so I get an ear infection… and I’ve got a doozie of an inner ear infection in my right ear.

Can’t even close my jaws or turn my head properly. 

Constant gurgling and pain in my ear and total lack of hearing.

Right side of face feels like it’s been hit by a truck.

So, like I said, I’m unplugging for a while.