Thursday 31 March 2022

Amazon Book Sales - first quarter 2022


Here, courtesy of Peggy Sue Macrea on Facebook, is the very first example of one of my colouring book pages actually coloured by someone. They've done the first page of the Eurovision Book, let's hope they've moved on to the slightly more famous faces since.

It's appropriate that the Eurovision Book should have been so commemorated. Because, after three months of a very busy 2022, during which time I've been a bit busy with house moving and trying to write a crime novel, I've been able to monitor the sales of my books, mostly the Colouring ones, which trickle in on a daily basis, and one book has done better than the rest. No runaway successes here, but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp colouring pencil.


Amazon Book Sales Jan 1 - Mar 31 2022

Eurovision - 37 (+5 on Etsy)

1980s Pop - 33

Scottish Pop - 17

Book Of Esther - 16

80s Superstars - 14

Bowie - 10

1970s Pop (newer) - 9

Punk - 9

1990s Pop - 8

2020s Pop - 8

1960s Pop - 6 (+2 on Etsy)

1970s Pop (old) - 6

Rom Com - 6

Xmas Movies - 4

PODS - 2 (+1 on Etsy)

MNDT - 2

Pop Annual - 1

Queens - 1

Situation Murder - 1

FM  - 0 (1 on Etsy)




The Eurovision Colouring Book was the first to get reactions on all the social media, and in the last week has started to get noticed on Tik Tok. I'll try publicising my other books there and see what happens. Eurovision has definitely found a niche, which I know could be exploited better.


Scottish Pop did well from a little bit of publicity, including an article in the Sunday Post and an interview on BBC Radio Scotland. And Book Of Esther has done well online, on top of which the Jewish Museum in New York ordered 15 copies. Let's see how I can reach more people with that one.


The also-rans in this year's endeavours are my three 'proper' books, namely my Shakespeare adaptations. Though they did best at the comic festivals last year, they've sold hardly a copy this year. I must find a way of reaching people with them. Let's see what Tik Tok could do.



Buy the books:


The Comic Book Of Esther

Top 20 David Bowie

Top 20 Scottish Pop

Top 20 Rom Coms

Top 20 80s Pop Superstars

Top 20 Christmas Movies

Queens Of Pop


Pop Star Colouring Annual with 50 images from 70s to now

Wednesday 30 March 2022

Tik Tok experiments

@kevfcomicartist #coloringbook #colouringbooks #eurovision #eurovision2022 #eurovision2022🇮🇹 ♬ Waterloo - Swedish Version - ABBA

A while back I dabbled with Tik Tok, turning a couple of Socks videos into Tik Tok things. They got next to no views, naturally. But this week, having read about #BookTok and how some authors were managing to flog book through Tik Tok videos, I made a few little films of me flicking through my colouring books. I got a bit of traction.

The video you see above has been the most successful so far, getting 9100 views, 790 likes, and 44 comments. More interestingly, it shifted some books. I mean, only 4 copies so far, but that was after more than a week without a sale (of the Unofficial Eurovision Pop Star Colouring Book), and definitely coinciding with the Tik Tok vids.

That said, none of the other vids have had much traction or shifted many books. Results look like this:

1990s book (first vid uploaded) - 596 views

Punk & New Wave - 149

1970s - 128

1960s - 119

Bowie - 133

Scottish Pop - 149

80s Superstars - 166

Rom Com - 161

Bowie (animation) - 120

Replies to Tik Tok comments, with photos, get between 110 and 470 views (especially Maneskin)

UPDATE: Mar 31 (one day later) The above Eurovision video has 10.3K views, and two further ones have 967 and 1406 views. 

UPDATE: April 30 (one month later) Eurovision video remains my only near-viral vid, settling at 12.5K views. The other two Eurovisions settled at 1443 and 2004. A set of Comic Cuts videos only get 75 views each; Midsummer Nights Dream Team pieces to camera get 75-130 views; some Findlay Macbeth page-flips get 90 - 400 views; most things freeze at 150.


@kevfcomicartist The Comic Book of Esther out now in paperback and Kindle#purim #bibletok #torah #comictok #torahtiktok #bibletiktok #comicsA ♬ Tubthumping - Chumbawamba


An attempt to repeat this success with picture-sequence videos for Comic Book Of Esther hasn't had the same traction. Seven videos have only managed between 60 and 90 views apiece, with no likes or comments. Meanwhile a second Eurovision colouring video racked up 281 views, and a third has 110. 

It's an imprecise science, and one that I've only dabbled in, largely because it's been impossible to get on with any proper work (ie writing) since we moved into the new house. This week more than ever since this is the week they fit the central heating. I'm currently typing in a freezing lounge while gas fitters have the floorboards up in pretty well every room of the house, all while listening to the horror that is Smooth Radio (who knew how much bland music there is out there?)

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who, Shakespeare & The Bible (no, really), runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here. (Also works with the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre). 

Tuesday 29 March 2022

A month in a new place


It’s been a bit of a whirlwind month since we moved into the new house, and yet it feels like we’ve got nothing done.

As I type this, Plumbright are fitting the gas central heating. We’ve lived without heating since we moved in, relying on a couple of portable electric radiators, which are surprisingly effective, but undoubtedly expensive to run. The house itself has been without central heating for many years. It has, we have discovered, an old coal fired Parkway system, which must have once powered a back boiler and the heating, but hasn’t for a long time. It’s been even longer since the big black range in the kitchen has heated the place, though again it clearly once did. And the fireplaces in the various rooms, all of which look great, have been cut off from their chimneys for many years, and date back to when the house was built in the 1970s. Our hot water has been coming from an immersion heater in the bathroom, fed by a tank on the top floor. All this is coming out and we face the prospect of days without any hot water. Coinciding, of course, with a change from hot to cold weather outside.


We’ve been very lucky with the weather, getting out in the back garden a lot, and even entertaining for the first time. Audrey’s friends Lil & Alun, who’d brought down a bit of furniture en route to a wedding nearby, were the first guests to cross our threshold and enjoy tea in the garden. Then, on Saturday afternoon, we played host to Ally & Mike from nearby Newport, and Polly & Chris from Bristol. A fun afternoon, of tea, cakes, and a little Prosecco. We followed this on Monday evening by having Felicity & Tom over for a meal and a walk. We feel at ease in the house and, I think, a house warming can’t be far away.


Today (Weds) Wren have measured for a kitchen, and tomorrow we look at it all in the showrooms. To come next week will be Monmouthshire Roofing fixing the roof, after which we can get the ceilings made good, and finally get using all the top floor rooms. I’ve been a month without a studio, which is weird, perched, and makes it hard to get ones head around proper actual work. I’ve written nothing for over a month.


The biggest disappointment have been BT. In fact they’ve been shocking. In contrast to our plumbers, electricians, and other contractors, who’ve all been prompt and done a cracking job (we even got the front area cleaned by power hose, by virtue of an odd-job man called Jonathan who was working next door, and just had rag-&-bone men turn up to take away the old radiators), BT have kept us waiting over a month to get broadband fitted. 


BT’s first visit should have been March 7th, no one came. Next visit was March 18th. Someone came, found he needed a hoist, didn’t have a hoist, so went. We thought we had an ‘expedited’ visit on Tuesday 22nd. But we didn’t. And their system is so pitiful that they couldn’t give us another appointment till April 5th. I double clarified this: was it definitely going to happen on April 5th, I asked? Yes it was, they said. I checked again yesterday and, after half an hour on the phone (it’s always half an hour on the phone), they confirmed it will in fact be April 7th.


We moved in on March 3rd, and we won’t have broadband fitted until at least April 7th. And, given their piss-poor performance to date, I will believe that when I see it. And, of course, asking other suppliers is on a hiding to nothing, as Virgin don’t come to Chepstow, and anyone else would need the BT cable going into the building before they could help. Pathetic.


Anything else worthy of note? We’re not missing Clevedon, though I will confess there were more places to go for an interesting walk of an evening, strolling from the house. But that’s a small quibble, and to be honest, before the pandemic, we never went out for those evening walks on a regular basis anyway. We’ve just got addicted to them. We’ve discovered local places of interest including the ruins of Piercefield House and the ruins of Caerwent Roman city. In fact, with that and the castle, it’s a very ruins-heavy area. We love it.


The garden’s smashing. How do you stop your cat posing on the grass? Today there’s three heaps of it, all appeared since yesterday. He can’t be doing it all himself, can he?




We’ve put new Billy bookcases with glass doors in the lounge, looking not unlike the ones we left behind at the old place, and I’ve erected three tall bookcases, two on the shelf at the top of the top stairs and one in the downstairs lounge. We returned the Virgin media Tivo box yesterday, so we have no more of those old shows to catch up on. We can watch downloaded shows on the iPad but not on the big screen. And we’ve bought a Freeview HD recorder. My god, this is the most boring blog I’ve ever written, but this is what life consists of right now. Just trying to make your house work, and get everything out of boxes. I’ve painted a fence and a wall, and by god we’re never out of Ikea, B&M, B&Q, Dunelm, Wilko and all those other godforsaken places you get this mundane dross from. I look forward to being able to get on with proper work soon.


Oh, and we went to a comedy show. Little Alice’s Comedy Night was advertised in a flyer in the window of the Beaufort Hotel, so we went to that on Friday night. There were two good 20 minute spots, and two not bad 10-minuters in the middle, along with Little Alice as MC herself. Jolly enjoyable, and more professional and well attended than anything I recall seeing in Clevedon. So, well done Chepstow. You may be quiet of an evening (for which we are grateful) but you can muster a 100 strong crowd for a locally produced comedy show, which can’t be bad.

 

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who, Shakespeare & The Bible (no, really), runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here. (Also works with the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre).

Sunday 20 March 2022

Situation Murder returns


I've re-published a book, and updated it. Situation Murder is a collection of scripts, dating back to 2003 and 04, from the spin-off show to The Sitcom Trials that we staged in Bristol and London a couple of times. It's been available as a Kindle book for over a decade, on my old account that I don't even have access to, so whether it ever sold a copy, I don't know. However I felt it might merit revisiting.

Because I'm still in thrall to the idea of writing crime novels and making my fortune (an idea which has not seen much progress in the last few weeks) I thought I'd tweak the book and see if it would get any traction in a different form. To begin with I just gave it a "crime novel" cover and saw if that would attract any attention. It did, a bit.


This cover, showing Hev on a country lane, was the version I uploaded on Feb 1st. It saw 7 ebook editions downloaded, earning me about 4 quid. There was also a small flurry of page reads, about 100 or so. This generated no money (you need thousands of page reads before it turns into anything). So I changed the cover into the cosier version you see at the top of the blog. I also made another, bigger, change, by writing new text prologues for all five chapters of the book.

Inventing a new character of a psychic detective, currently a character with no name, I've written short 500-700 word dramatic prefaces for each of the script-book sections. This might provide slightly more satisfying reading for the crime book consumer. Though I realise it doesn't fit the demands of the genre and, ultimately, is not going to be what they're looking for, it's an interesting experiment and has at least given the opportunity to squeeze some writing into the house-moving weeks. I will return to writing the proper crime novel soon, I promise.

Since I made the tweaks and changes, I've only had another 50 or so page reads, and sold a couple of copies, which suggests that initial flurry may been been my lot, and this book has had its moment, forever more to be downplayed by the algorithms. I really must study this game properly.

Please give Situation Murder a read - it's free to read on Kindle Unlimited, or 99p to download - and be kind with your reviews.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who, Shakespeare & The Bible (no, really), runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here. (Also works with the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre).

Saturday 19 March 2022

The new house - notes in passing


Hev and I have been very aware that we've told the world hardly anything about our house move. All last year I observed radio silence on my blog and on social media, because we didn't want to jinx it all.

Then of course, at my birthday party in October, we couldn't contain ourselves and not only told everyone about the new house that, by then, we thought we'd effectively bought and would be moving into before Christmas. We even showed everyone the video, for the video 'foosiast. This, of course, jinxed it. And, after another two months of half-information, mis-information, and frustration, our first buyer fell through. Two days before Christmas.

Our new buyer, Polly, who had been waiting in the wings, or on the estate agents' radar, whichever metaphor works better, came along the very next day and, in time for Christmas, we'd accepted another offer and were effectively sold again. Of course the whole house-moving game - which, need I remind you, we've not done since we moved to Clevedon in 1990, though we did get a bit of practice by selling Mum's house in 2019 - kept us in a state of constant alert and total tension right up to the eleventh hour.

In fact we were in a state of tension until the 13th or 14th hour. Having only got the confirmation that we were about to exchange contracts a few days before it happened, and needing to complete and move only days after that because we were about to crash into the deadline on which our mortgage offer would run out (it was due to expire on Sat March 5th, and the extension could have delayed us for weeks) we lined up to move in Thursday March 3rd. The frantic run up to this included me having to go into a bank in Birmingham, during an extended lunchtime from the school I was working at, to transfer over 60 grand on Weds 2nd, which we only discovered the day before is something you can't do online or over the phone. 

Then, at midday on Thurs 3rd, it was all done. Sort of. That is to say, our buyer had been given the keys. But we were still waiting to get the keys for our place.


I got into a bit of trouble for sharing the above photo on Facebook. This was Hev and Tadpole, with me just out of shot, sat in our empty ex-home, waiting for the phone call that would tell us we could pick up the keys for our new place. It's a technicality that happens, whereby someone has to tell someone else that funds have cleared, blah blah blah. It meant that, for two hours, we were technically homeless, squatting (literally) in our old place, until our new place was ready. Of course I shouldn't have shared this photo, which was immediately seen by Hev's mum & Annette, and dozens of others, none of whom we'd told we were moving yet!

Then we moved. And for two weeks now we've been slowly unpacking three floors worth of cardboard boxes and starting to settle into the new place. Which, by the way, we love. It's hard to imagine that we packed so much stuff into a two-bedroom flat, because we're finding it already filling up our new three-storey house. At time of writing we have a TV aerial connected in the lounge at last (that took 2 weeks) but we still don't have broadband. 

In a saga reminiscent of Flanders & Swann's The Gasman Cometh, twas on a Monday morning (7th March) that the BT man was meant to call. But, after a day of waiting in, no-one showed up to fit our system. So, greatly frustrated, I arranged another installation visit, and they couldn't make it until Friday the 18th. Friday the 18th came, and so did Rhodri the very nice installation guy. Who promptly spotted that the telegraph pole outside our house had changed since the one pictured on Google Streetview (it was replaced in June of last year) and thus would need a hoist to get up to it. He didn't have a hoist, and when he rang up to get one, there wasn't going to be one available that day. So, at time, of writing, I'm waiting to phone BT up again having been told yesterday, after half an hour on the phone, mostly on hold, that we'll get an "expedited appointment". Whatever that is. My betting is we still won't have broadband by the end of the coming week. 

And that's as interesting as that subject gets.


While we wait to get the roof fixed, to stop the water coming in, ahead of getting the ceilings fixed, and while we wait to get a new boiler and central heating, around which time we're also getting the top floor rewired, and getting a new kitchen measured up, we have at least made some progress in making Tadpole feel at home. Here you see him getting used to his new garden.

Because we feared him running home to Clevedon, which would have been quite an achievement from Chepstow, we had to keep him in for the first few days. That meant that a devoutly outdoors cat who, you'll remember, wasn't even our cat to begin with, and who adopted us, had to stay inside and poo in a litter tray. Amazingly he took to the litter tray instantly, without any instruction. How do they know? They just sniff and realise that's a toilet.

The harder part was weaning him off it and out into the garden. I guess he just enjoyed the convenience of an en suite. Whatever, we seem to have succeeded and he's now eating downstairs (rather than up by the lounge where we'd fed him for the first week) and pooing outside. Next problem is, how do we stop him pooing right in the middle of the lawn? Phee-yeuw!

Hev has been marvellous in her work on the house so far. Being a 250 year old house, whose previous owner died a year ago, and much of which had been unoccupied for a few years, there has been a lot of cleaning to do. Many bottles of mould & mildew remover and bleach later, and lots and lots of hoovering, Hev (and I to a lesser extent) has got the place feeling warm and liveable. We're able to use drawers and shelves that haven't been used in a long time, with all that entails. I don't have a studio yet, but am happily hot-desking in the lounge, though I've got no constructive work done in a fortnight, and that book will be on hold a bit longer. (That said, I have written five prologues for my Situation Murder book, about which more here).

Ok, you've been updated, dear diary, though I feel there's a lot more to say about the year running up to the move, and also why we're not that sad about leaving the old flat. Oh there are tales to tell there.

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who, Shakespeare & The Bible (no, really), runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here. (Also works with the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre).

Friday 11 March 2022

The Blue Boogdude - more comics by kids


No sooner had we finished unpacking a tiny fraction of the boxes lining the three floors of the new place than I was off on my travels again, this time to North Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Dudley. Just in time for the war in Ukraine, now in its second week, to send petrol prices soaring. Currently £1.60 a litre, if you're interested. (It was at the height of the lockdown, just 18 months ago, that I bought my cheapest tank of petrol this century, coming in at 99p a litre. How things change, eh?)

Burton Leonard Primary near Harrogate was a surprisingly easy 4 hour drive. At which point I realise I am obsessing about the most mundane details, I have no idea why. The school was of course smashing, and the kids came up with some inspiring titles, the results of which I'm quite pleased with.


These comics were the work of a cluster of years 3, 4, 5, and 6 from three schools so small they had to all join forces to be able to fill two classes. Winmarleigh Primary organised it, Melling Primary hosted it, and Tatham Primary was also there. 


For my third school of the week I zoomed up to Blowers Green Primary in Dudley, the school that has the distinction of being the class that broke my duck after the first lockdown, way back in November 2020 (you remember? When petrol was 99p?), squeezing a live visit in just days before lockdowns resumed once more. This time it was delightful to have everything back to normal, with a group of year 6s in the morning, and a splendid group of Gifted and Talenteds in the afternoon. This took place in the school's Art Gallery, which is a portakabin that's been rather brilliantly decorated with reproductions of Old Masters, to give the kids the gallery experience that, given the area, most parents might otherwise not normally give them. 

To top the weekend off, on Saturday I zoomed down to Bordon in Hampshire, which has been totally rebuilt since I was last there in 2014, the year before the barracks went, to be replaced by a massive new housing estate. The Phoenix Art Centre survives in the middle of it. Two lovely groups made two smashing comics.


The celebrities these eight groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were The Queen (twice), Rick Astley, Bella Porch (a Tik Tok dancer, I'm told), Freddie Mercury, John Cena, David Attenborough, and Jack Whitehall. 

Thursday 10 March 2022

Friendly Neighbourhood Ibrahim - comics by kids at Somerville

It was a busy week, the last days of February and the first days of March. Not only was it World Book Week, a week on the calendar which I could book solid ten times over with Comic Art Masterclasses, but it was also the week Hev & I moved house.

So, while I was luxuriating over in Small Heath in Birmingham, teaching the pupils of Somerville Primary School for three days, Hev was packing boxes and, on Wednesday, overseeing the mega-packing of boxes by the blokes from Hobdens - who had their work cut out with all of our stuff, they had never seen so many books before. I got it easy. The only extra task I had was, during a slightly extended Wednesday lunchtime, I had to go into a branch of HSBC in person to make a payment of over £60k to our solicitor. Who knew you couldn't make such big payments online? We found out the day before, made the payment on packing day, and moved the next day. As I say, I had the easy job, being out of the house teaching kids comics.

I was teaching years 3 and 4, and they came up with some splendid titles for the group comics. Master Demon is probably my favourite of the covers I drew as a result.

Little Cute Kitty was a good example of a comic where the kids' suggestion enables me to do a nifty demonstration drawing on the front cover, talking them through the process as we go. 

Friendly Neighbourhood Ibrahim was one of those ones that, with an older group, you might suspect of being a cyber-bullying title. But here it was very much a celebration of one of the class, and an idea we'd all busked together earlier in the session. Year 3 and 4 are always so ineffably pleasant to each other, one wonders why it all goes to pot by year 8 and they turn into monsters.

The celebrities these six groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Ariana Grande, Michael Jackson (twice), Billie Eilish, Tom Holland, and one that I didn't make a note of, sadly.


Buy the books:


The Comic Book Of Esther

Top 20 David Bowie

Top 20 Scottish Pop

Top 20 Rom Coms

Top 20 80s Pop Superstars

Top 20 Christmas Movies

Queens Of Pop


Pop Star Colouring Annual with 50 images from 70s to now




Wednesday 9 March 2022

Book Of Esther self-published


After five years of waiting for Bible Society to publish them, I've finally been given the blessing to self-publish my Bible adaptations. I've begun with The Comic Book Of Esther, which is available in black and white as a paperback, or in full colour on Kindle.

Book Of Esther was my first big commission from Bible Society, and I wrote and drew it way back in 2016 (I remember taking the artwork with me to that year's Edinburgh, thinking I'd get some drawn there. Of course I didn't). This was followed by Ruth, Rahab, Jael Wife Of Heber and, last of the bunch, Joseph at the end of 2018.

Amazon won't allow you to make a full colour paperback with less than 72 pages, and Esther clocks in at less than 30, so black and white it is for the moment. However I'm working on a Tales Of The Bible edition which will collect all my stories in one full colour book. Stay tuned.

So far not only has Book Of Esther sold a dozen or so copies on Amazon, I've also had an order for 15 copies from the Jewish Museum Library in New York. I know! I was able to order author copes and have those sent direct to the bookshop, then invoice them and make a small profit without having to wrestle with international postage. Good point, I should really plug this more widely, shouldn't I?





Friday 4 March 2022

Moving House - the videos

We have a new phrase in our house, which we've been using for the last six months or more: 

"For the (insert word here) 'foosiast"

It comes from this lovely video, by Archers estate agents, promoting what has become our new house. He praise the local countryside as suitable for "the outdoor 'foosiast". We have found his pronounciation of enthusiast so endearing we now use it in regular conversation.

Another video, that will be of interest to the house-moving 'foosiast, is this one, which was used to flog the flat we just left.


The New House - at last!


Phew. That was a fraught few days. Nay, weeks. Well, thinking about it, most of the last year. And it's a process that really started three years ago. Whatever, yesterday we moved house.

When we finally sold Mum & Dad's house at the end of 2019, which took the best part of a year in itself, Hev and I became able to move into a bigger place. We'd made a couple of stabs at moving over the years, but for various reasons, ranging from the lack of funds to, many years ago, negative equity, we'd never managed to do it. Partly this was because we loved the place we were living.

But after 32 years living in a flat, we're now the proud owners of a house. As a few of our friends are thinking of downsizing (a good mate even spoke recently of moving into a bungalow because they know it won't be long before they can't do stairs) we've upsized. And take on a fixer-upper. As we keep reminding each other, it's madness!

So, here we are, in a three storey house, built in 1770, with water coming in through the roof. At present it has no central heating, and we still even have to get gas reconnected and broadband fitted before we even start on the complicated stuff. Oh, and we have a garden. It's even got two stone sheds and a greenhouse!

There'll be a bit of work to do before anyone's invited to a housewarming, but I'm sure that'll happen sometime. First we have to get a lot of stuff out of boxes. And I mean a lot!

The removal men, from Hobdens in Clevedon, were understandably taken aback when they saw the scale of the task, packing up everything in our flat on Wednesday. They didn't manage to do it all on the day. As befits a place that has at least half a dozen Tardisses in it, our old flat was bigger on the inside than it looked. I don't think they'd ever seen so many books.

When they got to the new place even they were impressed with the size. They were less impressed when they were told that everything from my studio, and lots of those very heavy books, had to go to the top floor.

Their greatest feat of removal work - and this deserves a round of applause - was getting our bed into the bedroom. There was no way the divan was going to go up our narrow staircase (did we mention this place is 250 years old? And not one of those Georgian mansions, it's kind of a very tall cottage, if that helps you picture the narrow staircases with a bend in). So we'd resigned ourselves to buying a new bed, and sleeping tonight on the sofa bed in the downstairs lounge (did I mention we have two lounges?), when suddenly they announced they'd got the bed in - through the window!

I'm looking at that window now, as I sit in the bed in question. There is no way the latter is small enough to go through the former! Maybe something in all those Tardisses they packed rubbed off.

We've had to sacrifice living by the seaside, so we no longer have Clevedon's Isambard Kingdom Brunel pier at the foot of our road. But, looking out the new window, I can see 12th century Chepstow Castle. That'll do.

Kev F

4/3/2022