Wednesday 16th November
Library at 8 and studio at 9. Coffee, collect my DVD (that was burning overnight) and then a quick sit down with the paper and Band of brothers "The Day of Days" episode. All the men in the vicinity including myself, Hammam and the three technicians stopped and stared as we watched the Normandy landings rein-acted for our entertainment. War is to men as flames are to moths.

Over the start of the year I had brought a number of different films in to play whilst working. “A Space Odyssey 2001” was one of the first films to be played and the Screaming Monolith was in some ways a starting point for my thought process for this years work. The Monolith in Kubrick’s film seems to represent “A new beginning” or “Vita Nouva”. A stage of development or catalyst for change. Instigated by an alien force. Arthur C Clarke’s novel gives us more detail of how the monolith is part of a vast alien computer of which the Human race is a product.

I got busy with the second baseball bat and by the end of the day had both somewhere near complete, as far as shape is concerned.
At lunch Hammam beat me at chess and then I went across the road to the metal casting workshop. Kevin hadn’t had chance to do anything again so I finished the sprus and mixed the casting liquid.
Kevin dropped one when moving it but it only took several minutes to make right and clear up the mess. At 3 I returned to the studio and completed the baseball bats. 4 o’clock rolled around and I made my way to work.












Got a phone call from my big sis, my granddad was very ill and she wanted to let me know as I would need to tell my parents when I picked them up from the airport tomorrow night.
I used to spend a lot of time with the old boy but then we started to wined each other up. We played golf twice a week, I was 17 and he was 75 yet it still became a little too competitive. He’s my granddad so I can’t say too much, but he’s always been a hard man, maybe just a product of his environment?

He once told me a story about how he was around a friend’s house when he was in his early twenties. There was a group of them playing cards, all were Durham miners. My grandfather dropped a card and bent over on his chair to retrieve it from under the table. In the candle lit gloom of the back room he saw what appeared to be a small football rolling around under the table, as he strained his eyes to see what this strange mass was he realised that it was in fact a large pile of cock roaches huddled together for warmth. Like I said, the product of his environment.

England plays tonight.