Saving my blip day!

Today I'm sharing a close-u of one of the Pollack dry-point prints - requested by my friend from warmer climes Guiri. This was the second of four artist proofs that I took from the perspex plate yesterday. I usually try experimenting with different ways of inking up the plate and although I quite like the extra dark ink that I used on print four I rather made a mess of inking the eye - so I've rejected that example. I want to work with some colour - I'll probably experiment with using watercolour on two or three of these original prints and follow this up by inking the plate with colour.

The request for this image has rather saved my blip day today. I had a successful morning in that I was able to progress my writing for an online CPD (Continued Professional Development) unit for teachers of primary aged children.

However, the afternoon fell apart when I tried to remember my user account name for one of my bank accounts, one that I haven't accessed for some time. To maximise my embarrassment I could answer very few questions on the helpline - I'm sure they've changed the questions. I mean `What's my special place?' he asked - well I've got lots of special places in the world - it all depends - it might be Low Netwon on the Northumberland coast, the hillside above our village, Norah Head in NSW, the top of Dead Woman's Pass in Peru (where we saw an upside down rainbow) and I loved some of the coast and the mountains above Almunecar. How am I supposed to remember what I might have said five years ago. Is this one of the problems of getting older? Is it time to retrench in banking terms and keep my money under the mattress? My partner seems to think that this is the question that replaces, `Where were you born?' Well I can answer that - so perhaps I'm not going completely dotty. Anyway I now need to go into the bank next week as my acount is locked! It makes me think of a few lines I've just read in a novel set in Libya called, `In the country of Men', by Hisham Matar. A decree is issued for everyone to deposit money in the state bank. Once the bank has the money people quickly find out that the amount they are allowed to withdraw each month is far less than the amount they need to feed themselves. Perhaps I should avoid the fiction and work on sharpening my memory!