Bike vans of the stars.

Yesterday was a day of art and Team Manley made its meagre way around some of the Exeter Open Studios exhibitions.

I woke up with a hangover after the rather splendid vegan party and put down some skirting in the kitchen and quadrant around the door. It looks somewhat ''laminate' in the very worst way, which puts me off. Strange how fake flooring can make me less inclined to lay real flooring, but it'll soon grow on me.

Veronica Gosling

We started with Veronica Gosling who's work I love for its childish humour. We spent far too long at Gallery 36, but I did get some good ideas for the shelves above the radiator in my kitchen.

I could have spent far longer there, I really like to freshness of untrained artists - Whilst there is a requirement for some form of education if one is to move forward, rather than just keep up (I am not generally a fan of outsider art), there can be a stifling quality to over exposure to training and I do find that every final show, A-level exhibition and GCSE coursework display contains the same style of work, or rather the same group of styles of work.

From here we moved on to the Double Elephant print workshop, where we had a lot of fun with the girls. Print making is excellent to play at. I think that I'd find it a limiting medium before long, but in the short term it's a joy to mess about with.

Gail Strong

We stopped off at Exwick Mill to see some work by Gail Strong, who I have not heard of before, and of course to have a cup of tea with Dick and pester people into playing with my hordes of offspring, in the impossible hope of tiring them out.

As well as life drawings, Gail Strong uses loose paint effects to produce some stunning visual assaults. There were some really exciting material usage, but sadly I have no imagery of the more vivid work.

Finally we visited an exhibition of Brenda Lambert's work, where I came very close to buying this painting:


Brenda Labert

but thankfully it was already sold and I was saved money I don't actually have.

We had pasta and pesto for supper, but I did go on to have a few bowls of cereal, some sandwiches and a tin of grapefruit segments after I returned from visiting our friends from the other side of the river in the evening.

If you don't care about art, and why would you? here is a van I have seen:


I want me one of these!

I weigh 194.9lbs

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I am having a poo
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I weigh 193.3lbs. I am not sure what this portends, it doesn't seem overly large, but I am mostly just ha[sic]

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At this point I was clutched by a stomach cramp, which was particularly poignant as I was about to mention how Benji and the Dagnall have the squitters and how I was ha . . . ppy that I was not excreting through the proverbial needle's eye myself. I did have time to weigh myself at 194.8lbs before I fled, but I wonder how well I will be able to continue this experiment if the proper bum-wees kick in.

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I was having a poo
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I weigh 194.2lbs. I suddenly feel like I should eat 50 eggs, Cold Hand Luke style. Hopefully this will pass.