Leaving on a jetplane...

Random sketches while getting visas, vaccinations, hairdo's, shopping, etc.

My poor blog feels so neglected, it's run by a scatterbrain who can hardly walk and chew gum at the same time and who has had to plan, shop, clean, sew, prepare, pack, co-ordinate, think... oh all way beyond her capabilities. But with time, and help from my nearest and dearest, I am almost, almost ready to depart on Sunday for this long awaited trip. First a much needed and welcome break in the bush with beloved family, and then... a week later... the chance to meet and talk and sketch and teach and learn and interact with an enormous gathering of excited and exciting sketchers from all over the world - at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Lisbon - I can't believe it's here at last after six months of anticipation. I don't have an iPad or laptop or Blackberry to report back as I go, but I'll be doing more sketching than ever before in my life... and will post as many as I can as soon as I can  - we are spending a few more days in Portugal, looking around, and then visiting our daughter in France, so will be back in early August. Until then, adeus, tchau, até logo...

Just before I go... some sketches from last Saturday's Joburg Sketchers outing to the Bryanston Organic Market - first at one of the outdoor cafés, then the musicians at another. I bought some embroidery (which I scanned and added to my sketch) from Happy at her stall 'Out of Alex' - Alexandra being a large township nearby. I went back to the market a few days later, for some other things, and asked if I could sketch her, which she 'happily' agreed to. She insisted I put her stall number 22 in the sketch so that if any of you make your way to the Bryanston market, you be sure to go and say hello.

Sunday afternoon

(I started this post a week or more ago and didn't get to send it - so dashing it off now before writing my final Pre-Symposium Post... eeeehhhh!!)

This was sketched some days ago at Emmarentia Dam. This tranquil looking scene was actually one of some drama, as a police van kept belting through, chasing the men on the ice cream carts, who aren't supposed to trade in the park (and are suspected of trading in less innocuous substances). Parents had to grab their children and stand back as the wild west show began, until calm returned - as did the icecream men, like pigeons to a public square - then the whole ritual repeated itself. Bizarre and dangerous, but curiously entertaining for a Sunday afternoon.