A Saturday Less Ordinary.

Today's been only slightly less mundane than most Saturday's.

I decided to go shopping for shoes, because my work shoes are frankly falling apart. Now, we have a shoe shop in town... I used to work their for a summer job while at college. My mum works their part time now. It's because of those facts that I won't go there, despite there being a possible discount. I'm just not comfortable being served by people who know me... especially family (though mum wasn't there today). I don't know why, its just the way I am. I suppose that's another thing that has to go out the window in the continuous evolution of Nick Payne.

So I checked my blog and emails.

Then I did a Monet!

I decided last night to wipe the mega long entry "Live and Let Live". I don't feel there was anything wrong in what I said... but it was that post which was throwing the sidebar on my page out of whack and after sleeping on what to do about it, I felt it was probably something that people didn't need to hear.

The reason I mentioned Monet, is because I was told a story about him once. He was renowned for his soft blue and green works... but there was a period in his life when he suffered from cataracts. It was during this period that he painted pictures in vibrant reds and yellows. He had one set of cataracts removed and painted half the picture in his older colours and the other half in the reds and yellows. When Monet realised that his eye problems had interfered with his artistic efforts, he destroyed most of his paintings from that time. Now that is a philosophical question for art... our pains, hardships, joys and sorrows form the backbone for our creative works... so was Monet right? Did his cataracts damage those particular works... or enhance them?

I digress. As I waited for the bus, a teenager came and asked what time the bus would come, he was very civil. However, five minutes later his mates came along and he had a personality transplant. It's interesting how easily we change our behaviour to suit our company... all the more interesting for me having made personal observations regarding myself.

Got my shoes and purchased two books from Waterstones to keep me out of trouble - "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman and "Hood" by Stephen Lawhead. Looking forward to get stuck in to those. The latter should be extremely interesting because it relocates the Robin Hood legend into Wales. Having said that... Robin himself is most probably an amalgamation of several different legends. I'm a fan of Lawhead's work, especially the books he has written that tie into Celtic culture and the ancient legends and lore of the British Isles.

Part of me was thinking of going out tonight and wandering into a pub to do some crazy man dancing. However I'm cooking myself chicken and asparagus with pasta in a pesto sauce... so I won't get time.

I'm hoping to cycle over to Astwood Bank tomorrow, to attend the church of some friends. However there is a very big hill between us... and last time it nearly wiped me out. I want to tell some of them the things I have concluded here recently. I'll let you know how I get on.

Blessings

N