Old friends

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brian alan saltwell

Really nice to meet up with my old friend and reader Brian Pears in Saltwell Park, Gateshead, while I was in the North East. As always we put the world to rights, in particular the education system and social care while we had a cup of tea. Newcastle truly does have talent! And what Brian doesn’t carry in that shoulder bag of his really isn’t worth carrying!

Naturally while in the North East we also caught up with my family Tracey, Bubbles, Mia, Elisha and Eden; great to see everyone x x CU all again real soon x x

A brief pit-stop…

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student

Just a brief pit-stop between preparing for a job interview on Thursday to say hope you are enjoying the sunshine. Thank you for your warm messages of support and the ‘likes’ you have been putting on my posts, they really are uplifting. Whatever the outcome of my interview I’ll let you all know. Fingers crossed xx

It all began back in 1983…

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JL 1983I’d promised myself that I wasn’t going to delve into my old Art suitcase but curiosity got the better of me and when I opened it I found this little gem. It’s a piece of quarter inch plywood about eight inches by four inches, smeared with poly-filler and then scratched into while still wet.

I remember the day I made this clearly; Carol and I were youth workers and we took a group of disabled children to Chatsworth Park in Derbyshire for an art taster day. This activity was one of several we facilitated but the kids particularly enjoyed the tactile element – some used their fingers to make their painting..

Historically this art work is very poignant for me because it shows me that the idea for my cartoon strip J.L. was in my mind two years before I began to draw it. For those readers who haven’t seen that cartoon strip and would like to just click on the link below (or above) where I am uploading the stories.

https://spailpinfanac.com/j-l-against-all-odds/

Happy Christmas to all my readers x Alan

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HAPPY CHRISTMAS to all of my readers over the past year and thank you for your support; the graph below shows where you all come from. The countries in BOLD are ones that I have previously visited although there are many more (e.g. Seychelles, Guernsey) but I haven’t had readers from those countries yet. When I continue with my Royal Navy page I’ll be writing my memoirs of my travels.

Meanwhile with retirement about a year away I look forward to visiting places I haven’t been to yet and all of those in low case type below are on my bucket list. So if you live somewhere I haven’t been yet please do let me know what I’m missing. Cool Yule x Alan

Country

Views
UNITED KINGDOM

6,715
United States

1,971
Japan

424
AUSTRALIA

197
GERMANY

174
Canada

139
INDIA

122
Israel

48
IRELAND

38
FRANCE

35
Spain

31
Pakistan

28
Republic of Korea

28
ITALY

26
SOUTH AFRICA

22
Philippines

20
Ukraine

18
NETHERLANDS

17
NEW ZEALAND

15
MALAYSIA

13
Norway

12
Sweden

11
Russian Federation

11
Taiwan

11
TURKEY

10
THAILAND

10
Sri Lanka

9
GIBRALTAR

9
SINGAPORE

9
Indonesia

8
United Arab Emirates

8
Malta

8
Saudi Arabia

8
AZERBAIJAN

7
Mexico

7
Argentina

7
ICELAND

7
Croatia

7
GREECE

6
Czech Republic

6
Jamaica

6
Chile

5
CYPRUS

5
Romania

5
HONG KONG

5
Estonia

5
Poland

4
DENMARK

3
Georgia

3
Belgium

3
Hungary

3
Iraq

3
JERSEY

2
Montenegro

2
Bahrain

2
Portugal

2
Switzerland

2
Lithuania

2
Brazil

2
Austria

2
KENYA

2
Cayman Islands

2
Mauritius

2
Bangladesh

1
Qatar

1
Tunisia

1
KUWAIT

1
Finland

1
Bolivia

1
Bulgaria

1
El Salvador

1
CHINA

1
Oman

1
Algeria

1
GAMBIA

1
Uzbekistan

1
Egypt

1
Barbados

1
Albania

1
Maldives

1
Colombia

1

The power of a Christmas card

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Twenty five years ago someone sent me this Christmas card and I liked it so much that I sent it back the following year; it’s been going back and forth ever since. I suppose the interesting thing about it is that at the time (1988) we didn’t like each other. I was quite a laid back arty type and she was very straight John bull sticking to the rules – we both worked in a day centre for people with learning disabilities and had nothing in common other than working in very close proximity.

These days we both treasure the little card and it has become a fundamental card of both of our Christmasses. We’ve also become very good friends…all because of a piece of cardboard.

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Shukriya

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Leaving a place of work is sometimes a difficult thing particularly when you have a group of colleagues who have become firm friends. Last night my closest friends turned up at an Indian restaurant to share a meal with me and Ms Grace and to wish me luck in my new job and it was nothing short of a blessing. The cherry on the top was not just their choice of farewell gift – a food hamper because they know how much I love to eat – but also the £30 they threw into my children’s charity fund (which when I have updated the web page will publicise it widely).

To Carol, Catherine, Jean, Vanessa, Anna, Paul, Tony, Mark and Stuart…thank you x (Shukriya)