More Than Matchstick Men

It was difficult to get out of bed this morning after a busy weekend. I had been tutoring for all of it on what could have been a very challenging coaching course. Waking up on Saturday morning to a few inches of snow wasn't what I needed as half the course involved bike riding. Added to that, all but one of the attendee's were tutors and very experienced....the one who wasn't was a member part of the Great Britain Cycling Team......even worse, we had an external verifier coming to see the course was being delivered properly! No pressure then!

I had a great time. A quick juggle of the timetable was all it took and everyone was really cool and relaxed. The snow was gone on Sunday and the verifier said that the acid test was whether everyone was happy or not....there was plenty of laughter and learning so we were sorted!

I wasn't really in the mood for training afterwards but young Nina delivered a really good swimming session. Well, I say really good but there was loads of backstroke including double arm drills...which was horrible! However, Nina is so positive, cheerful....and technically accurate that I managed not to get grumpy and really enjoyed myself.

The day started well as I managed to get a bargain bike for Ian, the kid of our friends R&H. I never get bored of bicycles. I hit my deadline for an edit too...wow, it was challenging but I made it with 40 mins to spare. I needed the ride home.

I got the blip on that ride of the statue of L.S. Lowry sitting at the busy crossroads in Mottram. He lived in the village for 30 years. Lowry is most famous for his paintings of "matchstick men" but that's doing him a complete disservice. He was a wonderful artist who painted landscapes, impressionist paintings, portraits and so on. My favourite is 'Seascapes' a wonderfully grey painting of nothing much but sea. Imagine Monet without a colour palette, good light, any lily-pads or flowers and you get the idea.

I think Lowry was a man who was fascinated by people, by the world, the harshness of industrial life and the beauty of nature. He observed. He saw good. he saw bad. I think I would have liked him.