I haven’t had a drink in over ten years.  I found that drinking alcohol would make me feel dizzy, bump into things and become generally more charming.  So I stopped and didn’t start again.

To test my resolve, I did this still life of a drink on a seat. I found it very hard to capture the right colour of amber.  My first crack at it looked like I was winding down with a refreshing glass of Tang.  When I finished, I poured the subject back into the bottle and felt an overwhelming rush of smugness.  Later Katrina told me the shadows in the picture were confusing, so I put them back in the bottle too.

I wasn’t happy with this picture, so I did it again.  Here it is … again.

I overheard someone in an elevator explaining how her dad bemoaned his new reading glasses.  The great solace of his old age had been his roses, and the glasses had revealed to him that they were riddled with aphids.  Sometimes slightly dodgy eyesight can be a gift from nature, and one we should not too readily shun.

To test this proposition, I painted a streetscape without the aid of my glasses.  I did it quickly in about half an hour, before my memory started filling in the known details.  The result is below.  I mean no disrespect to my optometrist, but I do think corrective lenses should come with a warning: ‘beware – when you put these on, you may see things you cannot unsee.’

It surprises me how many parents at school sport mornings would rather play Temple Run, Kwazy Cupcakes, Temple Run 2, Candy Crush or Temple Run 3 than watch their child striving to master ping pong.  I turn my phone off when Amelia is playing, and I expect her to return the favour when she visits me in the home in years to come.  Which is why I noticed the miracle of refraction through her water bottle.  It made the shadow of the bottle brighter AND darker than the actual bottle, AND the bottle bent the concrete pillar at the end of the bench.  If only someone could turn this into a game.