Type Talks

A neat movie currently doing the rounds on YouTube and Facebook, showing (for me) the power of written words and the ability of type and letters to convey powerful messages and imagery.

A walk on the beach, followed by lunch alfresco

Whitleybunions #4 Leah's off to India....

Last night we were attending a fund-raising quiz night. The event was to raise money for our friend Leah's impending trip to India with Tearfund. She's off in less than a fortnight so hopefully last night's efforts will have helped to swell her funds for the trip. A great night was had by all, the only slight annoyance being that my team (that is, the team I was part of) did not win. However, it's the taking part that matters isn't it? Here we have our hostess and the quiz master, fixing, sorry, checking the scores.

Among the glitterati present were the North Shields Jarvis's, who brought along their new baby Keona. She was definitely the youngest attendee, and her parents obviously wanted to give her an early introduction to the nightlife of Whitley Bay. Mind you, the Berkley Tavern would certainly not have been the place to introduce small people in my day. I remember it being the kind of place you were warned about by your parents, where bad people would no doubt acost you with a motor bike chain for no reason and plunder your innocence. How times have changed.

I know your Type #5 Baskerville

Monotype Baskerville was the first true recutting of type shown by John Baskerville of Birmingham, England circa 1754. Baskerville is an important typeface historically because it represents a deliberate move away from the Old Face of preceding centuries, and was to influence the development of the Modern face undertaken by Bodoni and Firman Didot. Baskerville has become one of the most widely used book faces available. It imparts an elegant and distinctive look to text without distracting the reader. The Monotype Baskerville font family can be used with success in display and advertising work where an air of refinement is required. (Hat Tip - Fonts.com)

Sweet William

The other day we had a visit from William and his owners. Here he is being entertained by Leon, and having a great fuss made of him. The other aspect of his visit was the various 'affectionate' attentions given by him to Gracie. Gracie is not in this picture... she was resting.

Men at Work

Last week... Tuesday and Wednesday to be precise, I was helping my mate Terry with his shutter business. I'm not usually one for hard manual work, as I like to keep my delicate, lilly-white hands callous free for other, more artistic tasks. However, I had a really great couple of days as we set about fitting some plantation shutters to a house in downtown Forest Hall.

To me was entrusted the crucial role which involved 'handing Terry the tools'. I soon got into the swing of things and in no time had mastered the rotation of drill, countersink, screw, screwdriver. I repeated this mantra under my breath as Terry set about fitting the shutters in very short order... upstairs first day, downstairs second day. Apart from one small error on my part, which I will describe as 'drilling through the end frame of one of the shutters', everything went very well. Terry himself had one small accident, although it would be wrong of me to mention it in detail in these lines.

The photograph above is slightly misleading, as I was not to be entrusted with 'caulking'. I did get to hold the caulking gun though, which gave me strong macho feelings of being a working bloke, if only for a short period.

Creative Muscle...

These two men have it in spades. On your left may I present Colin Woodcock, a true artist and entrepreneur... someone who walks the talk when it comes to producing original art, whether it be makin' pots 'n that, or painting beautiful pictures of the Isle of Tiree, where he and his wife, Susan, live. On your right I give you a man who is not a stranger to these pages... Mr Jason Thompson, web designer, drummer, musician (yes, both those!), entrepreneur, community mover and shaker. Jason has mentored me in the area of web design for the past ten years and he is someone I am very grateful to for his input, teaching and support. He is also someone who is about to become 40 years old! Today I was with these two men as they discussed important matters, and as Colin presented Jason with a beautiful picture from his gallery on Tiree.