Friday, January 11, 2008

baby, it's cold outside



So, I've been awol, huh?
It's been a while, honey, but hey, don't go all huffy on me. Sure, I still love you.I'm here now, I've done gone and showed up, so that must count for something.
Where the hell do I think I've been? I've been busy with...er...life? Work? Stopped work on Midwinter's day just in time to come down with The Mother of all Rhinoviruses.  Wow - I mean we're talking one complete box of balsam tissues per diem. Heavvvvvy. Damp, too. Loud on the sneezing front, and the endless snurking made people edge away from me as they tried to politely pretend they hadn't noticed that I was dissolving in front of them. Horrible, horrible, thoughts filled my head in what little space wasn't already filled up with phlegm. At certain times of the day, I had to stop myself from tearing my nose off and hurling it into a corner of the room( there - that'll teach you to run like that). We threw a Midwinter's Night dinner party and as soon as the last guest tripped happily out of our front door, the Plague descended.  Happy Christmas - couldn't taste, couldn't sleep, could barely see through streaming rheumy eyes. Oh, what fun. NOT.
So. You don't want to hear my pathetic excuses? You're going all frosty on me? You're doing that ice-maiden thing and clipping the ends off your sentences. I can hardly hear you - what's that you're squeezing out through your gritted teeth?Your mouth goes all pinched and mean, hon. Try and be a little more understanding.  No knitting? Well, er, no. I did try and finish the dolly from helly, but honestly, hand sewing every ferking strand of her hair onto her dear little bald head was more than I could take. Look, I tried. And the individual dragon bags for all family members - well, I did finish those. Those were good. Even if everyone thought I'd bought the bags and then stuck the picture on to them. Jeez. All that effort. 
But it's all over now.Eldest daughter has been and come back from California to visit her seriously ill paternal grandmother. She left, in tears, on Boxing Day. I dropped her off and wept all my way home. I missed her like a hole in my life all the way through the holidays, and that can't have been any fun for the rest of my family. I may have said this before, but it's hell, living with the aftermath of a Dee Eye Vee Oh Arse. However, that was then, this is now, and now, I'm so happy she's back home safe. 
It's a brand New Year. We've had snow, we've had gales, we've had waaaaaay more Christmas cake than could ever be considered good for us, and we're now into the January Repentence, big-time. No money, no waistline, no sunshine....
And just before I stopped for Christmas, I had a phone call from those nice folks at Customs & Excise to announce their intention of conducting a VAT inspection at my studio. To which, the only reply has to be a resounding fuuuuuuuckittty fuck fuck. Our longstanding acccountant has just retired, and we have to acquaint a new, untried accountant with the weirdness that is GlioriCorp a.k.a Artists-Without-A- Clue-About -How -To -Fill -In -A Tax -Return. So, up there at the sharp end with the number crunchers from Hades, is, ulp, me. Oh, ghoddddddddd.
Meanwhile, artwork for 'The Trouble with Dragons' is finished. It looks as good as anything I've ever done. No, that's not right. It's the best thing I've ever done. It is the sum of everything I've ever wanted to say about our place here on planet Earth. The artwork makes me cry, and that's never happened before. 

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