Art can save the world

Judging by the small but lovely things that have happened in my street in the 2 or 3 hours I sat outside and painted, I have decided that art can save the world. All we need is about 10% of the population to go out and paint lovely pretty things everywhere and then everyone in the world will be happy and lovely all day.

I've decided to paint some pot plants on the front of my house which was a suggestion that came from Will Evans. This sounded like a fun low maintenance way to garden and since Dan recently cut down the rose bush in our actual garden (thinking it was a weed) I wanted to have flowers again. In my opinion the best kind of flowers are pictures of flowers, they are much less needy than real flowers.

This is what I've done on the house so far obviously I haven't "planted" any flowers in that middle pot yet. Two days ago I did the sunflower but I had to come in before it was finished because their was a fight on the street that I didn't want to get involved in. Then today lots of random passers by were lovely to me. Quite a few people stopped to complement the work, a guy that owns a coffee shop brought me out a free cup of coffee because he says he likes seeing people be creative, he also said the best thing about it was that 'I was actually doing it' which was an odd thing to say but I got what he meant. It's a shame I don't like coffee, I drank some of it anyway to be polite. I had a good chat with the post man about it, and my new Spanish next door neighbours, and a old man on a bike who said he's wife had told him to come and look. A woman also asked me if I did murals for children's nurseries so I gave her my business card and hopefully she'll get in touch.

I do proper love liverpool sometimes. Everyone talks to everyone, sometimes it's bad and people should learn to be a bit more private like this woman who walked past on the phone today shouting 'the sex was crap you cheeky c***!' But coming from a quiet village I would rather have interaction with people than be ignored.

Probably the best thing that happed today was that two kids that were about 9 or 10 came over and complemented me on my work and asked if they could do a bit, I would have let them but one kid persuaded the other that it would be boring so they walked off. The amazing thing about this is that I have seen these kids twice before and both times they were less than loveable. Once we were having tea in 'The Jam Cafe' and they came in with chips they have bought somewhere else and sat down and demanded a fork and salt and were genrally cheeky, and the second time was when they attempted to egg us. Even as they were walking towards me today one of them suggested robbing my painting stuff, but I like to think that the art inspired them to be nice for once. Who knows they might wait till I've finished and then come back and spray paint over it all. I hope not.

Racism Disclaimer

If you've just got back from a very nice day out at 'The Big Day In' (a christian social event in Coventry) that was only ruined by a girl shouting what may have sounded like a massively racist comment in front of a lot of people, I am that girl, and it didn't come out how it was meant to come out. Allow me to explain.....

After preforming a bit of stand up comedy Adaire the compare told his favourite joke 'Why does the baker have brown hands? because he kneaded a poo' I've always though this joke was a tiny bit racist because lots of people do have brown hands and it's not because they kneaded a poo. We should assume that the baker's hands weren't brown to begin with. So when Adaire started saying why did the baker have brown hands I stood up waved my arms and shouted in front of a lot of people. 'BECAUSE HE WAS ASIAN!!' It was only later that it dawned on me Adaire hadn't said 'why did the baker have brown hands? he said 'why did the baker have DIRTY hands'

embarrassed doesn't really come close. Sorry guys.

Tea

In my 20th year on planet earth I was converted to tea. (I have not previously drank an equivalent drink on another planet.) There are some peer pressure things that I refused to give into such as the unwritten rule in our secondary school that the more rolls you had in your socks the cooler you are. I'm proud that I stood up for myself on that one, but it's quite inconvenient not to like tea or coffee. Most social things happen around tea coffee or alcohol, thank goodness I like alcohol!

I had a friend in uni called Josh who loved tea passionately. He said that we couldn't be friends on a deep level until I started liking tea. We'd sometimes make bets where if I lost I had to drink tea. Which reminds me he still needs to go to tesco wearing my red prom dress. I can't remember what bet that was from but he defiantly owes me that. Anyway one day I was trying to cheer him up (I think I've actually written this on my blog before somewhere) so I downed a whole mug of tea, and shortly after I began liking tea.

From that day to this I have always been a social drinker of tea...it's great when someone invites you round for a cup of tea to be able to say yes rather than 'well I will come but can I have a hot squash?' I do genuinely like tea but I'm not addicted to it like some people. I only have it with other people. (apart from once when I was living in Palestine and Amber stapled a tea bag to a postcard for me. That was a good Yorkshire brew I had in Bethlehem that day.

However today and yesterday I have got home from work to an empty house and though 'I NEED TEA!' I think it's working with kids that makes me need it. So maybe the real addiction will start here. I feel there is a parallel between today and the day I bought a book just because I wanted to read and I bought it with real money not a book token. It's that kind of day that you have to re-assess your while life and principles.

On a completely different note I would like to wish my lovely husband a well done for his stand up routine last night it started with 'FREE TIBET FREE TIBET FREE TIBET ...when you purchase another Tibet of equal of greater value.' He also managed to accidental throw a packet of jelly into a chandelier, and as he predicted we weren't ready for that jelly.