PetosPainting
Dec. 26th, 2007 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skyringTwo years and eleven months ago I made my first big trip overseas. I know my life changed forever then. I met some of my BookCrossing buddies, and I found the self-confidence to make more international trips. Seeing ResQgeek waiting at Dulles, watching my big yellow tote bag go round and round to see who would pick it up, was one of the happiest moments of my life, after a very long Friday indeed, where I found myself on the other side of the planet, bewildered and amazed by everything around me. Snow in January!
Or meeting Sparky-Redhead in the Confederacy's capital, seeing squirrels scamper across icy pavement. Squirrels!
My wife and I had one day together before her conference began, and we wandered through the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art. That was another amazing day, and I drooled over some of the architecture and art we saw. One painting caught my eye, more than any other. Not surprisingly, its subject was a lifelong passion of mine. Books!
I snuck in a photograph later, and bought some postcards of the painting, and every time I looked at the picture, I remembered my wonderful trip to Washington.
And I've gone around the world four times since then, meeting more online friends and seeing some of the planet's great sights, from Larry McMurtry's second-hand bookshop to the main Osaka railway station.
Now, years later, it's my 50th birthday, and my family bought me the painting. No, it's not a print. It's a fair dinkum, oil on canvas, brushstroke painting.
Now it's hanging on my wall, and I'm very pleased about it.
PetosPainting
OK, it's not the original. There's a mob in China that will make copies of paintings. Not exact copies - they don't reproduce the signature, for example. A close eye can pick the differences. And of course, the frame is different. But in casual passing, it's the same painting, and I love it!
I've had a lovely birthday. Calls from family, lots of online birthday wishes, including possibly the world's biggest smile from DiscoveryLover. Afternoon tea at the Hyatt with Kerri and my two children. Young adults rather than children, and to have helped raise two fine young people is something that makes me proud.
We had a glass of champagne apiece, sitting outside in the Hyatt's elegant portico, the dining room on one side, the green of a courtyard garden on the other. Tea and a selection of high tea treats, cucumber sandwiches, scones and jam, slices of Christmas pudding...
"Those little cakes pack a punch!" Kerri sighed, maybe a lazy hour later. I don't think any of us over-indulged, but we certainly didn't feel like dinner.
The evening was spent at the cinema. A treat in the Dendy premium lounge, watching Atonement, a lovely English drama, very well put together, full of dark passions. 1930s costumes and some great cinematography.
And so home to blog. Maybe I should sum up a half-century of life at this point, but I'll pass on that. High points and low, but I'm a very happy man at the moment. Marvels in the past and wonders ahead.
Or meeting Sparky-Redhead in the Confederacy's capital, seeing squirrels scamper across icy pavement. Squirrels!
My wife and I had one day together before her conference began, and we wandered through the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art. That was another amazing day, and I drooled over some of the architecture and art we saw. One painting caught my eye, more than any other. Not surprisingly, its subject was a lifelong passion of mine. Books!
I snuck in a photograph later, and bought some postcards of the painting, and every time I looked at the picture, I remembered my wonderful trip to Washington.
And I've gone around the world four times since then, meeting more online friends and seeing some of the planet's great sights, from Larry McMurtry's second-hand bookshop to the main Osaka railway station.
Now, years later, it's my 50th birthday, and my family bought me the painting. No, it's not a print. It's a fair dinkum, oil on canvas, brushstroke painting.
Now it's hanging on my wall, and I'm very pleased about it.
PetosPainting
OK, it's not the original. There's a mob in China that will make copies of paintings. Not exact copies - they don't reproduce the signature, for example. A close eye can pick the differences. And of course, the frame is different. But in casual passing, it's the same painting, and I love it!
I've had a lovely birthday. Calls from family, lots of online birthday wishes, including possibly the world's biggest smile from DiscoveryLover. Afternoon tea at the Hyatt with Kerri and my two children. Young adults rather than children, and to have helped raise two fine young people is something that makes me proud.
We had a glass of champagne apiece, sitting outside in the Hyatt's elegant portico, the dining room on one side, the green of a courtyard garden on the other. Tea and a selection of high tea treats, cucumber sandwiches, scones and jam, slices of Christmas pudding...
"Those little cakes pack a punch!" Kerri sighed, maybe a lazy hour later. I don't think any of us over-indulged, but we certainly didn't feel like dinner.
The evening was spent at the cinema. A treat in the Dendy premium lounge, watching Atonement, a lovely English drama, very well put together, full of dark passions. 1930s costumes and some great cinematography.
And so home to blog. Maybe I should sum up a half-century of life at this point, but I'll pass on that. High points and low, but I'm a very happy man at the moment. Marvels in the past and wonders ahead.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
You can't see my face at the moment
Date: 2007-12-26 09:06 pm (UTC)