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And, trying again to paint, get started, only for some reason I can't find my tubes of Titanium & Zinc white. Which is like the watercolour pencils, I know I have them, only where, and never where I think they should be (naturally in the tub with all of the other Acrylic Paints).
This is getting ridiculous, but it highlights the state of my flat. I've got to start cleaning...
Meanwhile, been practicing my watercolour techniques, small exercises to get me back into the habit of painting, an hour in the morning, just to get started, get something done, show some improvement...
Which next I have to go grab a few vegetables, make some lunch, and get back to work.
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Friday night, long, unending streams of walk-ins, parties of 5, 6, the phone, take away, that's become a full time station.
It's not smooth and by the end of it all I'm done. Just done.
Get home, text message from - who of all people, RJr, the owners son from Balfour, and so - not bearing a grudge, head out for a drink with him. He's in a fine humour, has his dream job, the restaurant is just a bad memory lost in the past.
It is after a perverse fashion good to see him.
Then home, to the mess that has become my living room. Yesterday, a bunch of books to the bookstore, today I'll go through the apartment and drop some more stuff off at the antique shop. For now, a beautiful day outside, time to go home, put my hands on my hips and try and figure out where to start on this mess of a studio.
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And this, somehow or another I came across an article about it, plenty of industrial uses, and named after "Tantalus", so of course it would be interesting to me.
Anyways - my hot-stock take - substantially rarer than gold, potentially in the future much more in demand, and at the current price of $300-320 per troy ounce probably a much better buy than gold.
Link: Wikipedia on Tantalum
If I had some spare cash I'd be stocking up myself.
Compare the price of this vs the price of the Platinum Group Metals - and see how far they can go. And wasn't Rhodium a wild ride?
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These are things I know I have. Watercolour pencils, yes, and I need them now for the members show at the Museum. I need them to vaguely outline my painting.
Only I search through the 5-6-7 bins of art supplies I have and I can't find a single one. And I know that I have many.
I'm not as organized as I think I am.
I check the dollar store, but they're all out. I didn't want or need them - or more of them - anyways.
Never-mind, in my search for the watercolour pencils I turned up a white charcoal pencil and some conte crayons and they will suffice.
But, as luck would have it I'm in need of a pencil sharpener.
I have many of these, I know, the fancy aluminum-block ones that you buy at the art store for 3 or 4 $$. I have good taste in pencil sharpeners.
Again, I search my 6-7-8 bins of art supplies, charcoal, oil pastels, watercolour tubes and palettes, acrylic, oil paints, my box of fountain pens and hundreds of loose nibs, calligraphy pens, supplies out my ----- and I can't find a single pencil sharpener. Checking my drawers, my bags - the ones I take to the cafe with my books that I'm reading, my laptop, my whatever, and again I can't find a single one.
I'm loathe to buy another, but I have no choice, and so it goes, the dark matter of the universe, 100 inexplicably invisible pencil sharpeners and the one that I've set very conspicuously on my easel.
Now to get started...
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This is how we mark the years in restaurants.
The Valentines' Day Massacre.
Friday the 13th, slow in the book, but in real life we're slammed. Busy, busy, busy, just the two of us.
Then Saturday, again - slow in the book, tables, 2 every half hour. We've scheduled for the nightmare, 3 servers, the owner's wife to manage bar and take-outs, only the take outs are crazy. People are smart, don't go out for Valentines, get a take-away, but the sheer volume of take aways exceeds the volume of food we're selling in the restaurant, slowing us down in a major way.
And the low volume of reservations, well, we're still getting them, "we'll be coming down in 20 minutes and would like a reservation for 6 people" sort of idiocy, less a reservation than "do you have room?"... and we do, we think. From 6:00 to 8:00 we're full, full up, line out the door, walk-ins, reservations, can't keep up.
Keeping up on the bussing, resetting of tables, it's a nightmare. And chaos slowly builds, servers take shortcuts, drop their dirty dishes off on the bar meaning to pick them up later and shuffle them to the bus-bins, glasses piled by the sink for washing, empty drink cans and containers tossed wherever, the mess compounds itself, a thousand trifles soon add up and then there's the unending volumes of plates, glasses, washed and to be put away...
On my own I'm not so busy. If I had this section, 7 tables, all deuces, on my own, I'd be fine. But the interference of others, waiting to get into the till, the bar, working around the increasing piles of rubbish, this is the craziness.
****
The night ends and now time for the plan, the Valentine's Dosed party. I've bought tickets for everyone. H*, cafe acquaintance, E* and his wife, R*, Mr. Tickles, I've assembled a posse.
We meet outside the rave, get our wristbands. R* takes his and promises to come back later, around midnight. He never does.
E and his wife, well, she's not comfortable, finds a sofa, sits in it, scrolls her phone. She's out of her league. E* gets it, he's down to party, but what can he do?
They're gone by 12:00. As is H*, who is as well a fish out of water. Leaving just me and Mr. Tickles, who's taken the MDMA and has become, as he always does, a security guard standing by the doors looking for trouble...
***
It's pretty damned good, I have to say, Tickles gets it, E* gets it, I go until 2:00 and then pack it in. The outfits, the crowd, the people, it's great, but it's been the Valentines Day Massacre after all and I'm a little bit exhausted and have vague hopes of being somewhat productive on Sunday.
Vague is the key word.
***
Sunday, wake up around 9:00, grab a coffee, head back to bed. Wake up again at 1:00, up until 4:00, having foraged for some lunch, then back to bed. The Valentines Recovery. Today, up at 8:00, feeling surprisingly refreshed, but - not taking any chances, will be back to bed soon. In a few hours, back to the real world, work, the land of the fairies left far behind...
E left in a hurry, his wife upset, I will catch up on that, and R will make his excuses and the night will pass.
Outside now it's snowing, the snow, gently falling, flakes, the tell-tale signs of winter that's never arrived...