It occurs to me that
even with the best of intentions life sometimes gets in the way of
planning. I vowed to myself to
write a blog episode at least every other week but sometimes it is simply
impossible as life takes its own twists and turns and takes decisions out of
your hands. Take the last few
weeks for example:
On the 25th
of September an email dropped into my box, from a numismatic friend of
mine. He did not know if I had
heard about the open competition to design the new British pound coin, but
thought that I should enter a design or two. I was delighted and started researching and scribbling
straight away. I did not have
absolutely oodles of time, as the deadline was the 30th of October
and obviously I had to hold down my teaching job in the meantime too, but I had
enough time to let my mind wander and to do some serious drawing as well.
I was getting some
exciting designs together in my head and some interesting sketches on paper and
enjoying the whole process. I even
asked my colleagues at the school to fill out a fun little survey for me on
what Britishness meant to them.
The results gave me some very nice little avenues of exploration which I
was following up on until, on the 10th of October, I got another
email in my inbox. This one was
from the Central Bank of Ireland.
I had been shortlisted for the design of one of their new coins. As this was a shortlist and as I have
designed for the CBOI successfully on several occasions I was forced to drop
the pound coin challenge and apply myself to the new brief, which scarily had a
deadline of the 31st.
From experience I have found it is impossible to work on more than one
design at the same time.
Everything gets watered down and concepts get confused and you usually
end up with two messes, so I had to expunge all my British coin ideas from my
head and go for the new design hammer and tong. Which I was doing until my daughter Kate arrived for a visit
on the morning of 16th of October, followed later that evening by
Victor. I had promised that I
would not do any work on the coin while they were there. On the whole I did keep to this
promise, though I did manage to slip away for a couple of hours on one of the
days when we were all just doing our own thing.
Kate left on the
Sunday and Vic was with me until the Wednesday, obviously I had to teach as
well from Monday to Thursday and was understandably knackered also. Come Friday the 24th I had
to give myself over completely to drawing, designing and thinking and trying to
get my last, and I think best, design into serious shape for my
presentation. It was a seriously
large feat and I had to have my submission in the post on the Monday, by
express courier at that, if I was to get it in on time. And still in the back of my head the
pound coin was lingering.
My Irish coin was
finished by Saturday lunchtime and I tweaked and printed it and finished
writing my concept, covering letter etc and had it all packed up and ready to
go. This was to leave me free to
concentrate the remainder of the weekend on the British coin. However by this time I was tired and
having reached one deadline it was hard to rise again to tackle the second
one. My drawings were not going
the way I wanted them to and my mind was awkward and numb with the euphoria of
reaching one deadline. So I poured
myself a vodka and sat down with the dogs and watched rubbish telly.
On Sunday morning I
sent an email to my ever-loving Victor, and told him that I thought I should
throw in the towel. I was depressed
and uninspired and I had been rudely woken by the alarm when I was just
negotiating terms of fidelity with George (yes, Clooney) and when I came to I
of course remembered that he was now married. A further let down!
Though for some reason my own relationship with Vic did not enter into
the discussion. Vic was
wonderfully supportive about it all, though perhaps less about my 'friendship'
with Mr C. I just felt
overwhelmed. It was all too much
and I had lesson plans to write and some neglected housework to catch up, not
to mention a duty to rub a few Westie bellies, which brings me to the subject
of this episode: Those dogs will
do anything to get one's affection, and keep it!
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| It's useful to have a bit of help |
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| Or you can end up covered in dogs! |
They all have their
own special ways about them. Some
more subtle than others, well, none of them really subtle. Dogs don't do subtle that well really.
As you will know by
now Kerry is the vocal one so when she thinks she is being neglected she will
come right out and tell me. She
will stand full square with her roly-poly body on her very short slightly bowed
legs, look at me with her serious little face, tip her head back and
gargle. I usually find this so
endearing that I gargle back at her, which of course means she has to reply to
me. This can go on for several
back and forths and she gets more and more strident with every response. She also starts shuffling towards me
ominously every time she speaks to me.
So of course by the time her gargles have reached a pitch of fever she
is at my feet and it is all rubs and cuddles.
Of all the dogs she
is the one who uses her teeth the most as well and not just for eating. Sometimes she gets so absorbed in the
loving that she nibbles your arm, but the nibbling does not hurt, in fact it is
the cutest thing, done with her tiny little front teeth, it reminds me of a
swan when you see them nibbling at waterweed. She nibbles her toenails sometimes too, very endearing, and
of course loves nibbling her own little dolly. Once, when I had shorts on, she nibbled my bare leg. Ouch! That hurt, as she got me on a rather sensitive bit of skin,
but it is clearly a nurturing nibble.
She is not hungry
When I am cooking in
the kitchen it can become very dangerous with dog paws and tails underfoot, not
to mention boiling pots and spitting frying pans, so I have to tell the doggies
to get out or, as we have now established some ground rules, I order them to go
under the cupboards. Looki is the only one who fully understands this command
and does comply. The other two
sort of slouch back a step or two and sit or lie down again. We have a fitted kitchen on legs,
without a kickboard, I prefer it for cleaning and for the dogs it has become a
perfect sanctuary. When they are
stressed they sometimes retreat there and, as I have just said, when I am
cooking and flying about the kitchen with sharp knives and boiling water I send
them under. Well, lately, when I
have sent him under Looki has developed a fake snore. I know it is fake.
It does not sound like his usual rhythmic snoring, rather it takes the
form of a sudden rather wild intake of breath, more like a snort than a
snore. I know that this is only to
make sure that I remember that he is under the cupboard. How could I forget! I also know he is not asleep because if
I drop the slightest crumb his nose and forepaws creep out immediately to see
if it is something tasty.
They can all be
quite in-your-face at times. If he thinks my love for him is diminishing Looki
has been known to launch himself in one move from floor to couch and spread himself
proprietorially across my lap, but Candy has to be the queen of direct
affection. She is the one who
literally walks up you, whether you are lying in bed or slumped on the couch. She walks directly up your body with
her piercing little claws making painful indentations in your flesh the whole
way up until she reaches your head.
Then, if you are not quick enough, she licks your mouth and will
continue to make as much face to face contact with you at this time in order to
get you to stroke her.
Another way she gets
your attention is with her nose.
You might be standing in the kitchen, or sitting at your desk or on the
couch and out of nowhere you get a quick double nudge in your calf. It is quite a hard nudge with a very
cold wet nose. Bonk, bonk. And if you ignore it, again bonk,
bonk. It is ridiculously cute and
of course you are impelled to pick her up and give her a special cuddle.
Candy also does the
toe-licking thing. I rather like
it to be honest, though Vic is not partial. She has a nice raspy tongue and I have always enjoyed a
pedicure, it is rather like having your own home beautician. And if she really needs to turn on the
charm she just looks at you like an injured Bambi and lifts one forepaw up, as
if to say, look at how defenceless and cute I am. Love me! And
you do. Oddly in recent weeks
Looki seems to be learning this habit from her too, though he has yet to
perfect the injured deer look. He
is still quite cute.
All of them can fall
to the floor and do a full submissive roll at the drop of a hat. Rather like those fainting goats. Sometimes all I have to do is start
bending down to tie my shoelace and they go over like dominoes. Now having two able-bodied hands. I can rub two bellies at one time no
problem, but three takes a bit of juggling and they do get impatient waiting
for their turn, so you get gargled at, nudged or snored at if you are too slow.
And all this has to
be fitted in around lesson planning, coin designing, familial visits and of
course blogging. Is it any wonder
I get distracted!
And so, after a bit
of toe licking and tummy rubbing on that final Sunday, not to mention the
housework and a spot of gardening, I took a shower, and while under the hot
water, washing all thought of George out of my hair, I suddenly got an
idea. I dried myself off, got
dressed and went into the office to find a drawing block. Downstairs at the dining table I
sharpened my pencils and got to work and within a couple of good working hours
I had a design which was not too bad, it worked and was symbolic and to my mind
beautiful. Upstairs to the
computer, I loaded it on and tweaked it and popped it into the coin
template. "Bob's your uncle!"
I said. That will do.
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| Me as an internationally acclaimed coin designer, showing off my last successful coin design at the Marine Institute in Oranmore, Co Galway. Photo credit: Michael Alexander LBMRC. Thank you Michael! |
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