Holiday Sketching

Just before Christmas, Julia & I attended the DICKENS FAIR again. Our focus this time was eating and drinking, with hearty portions of ‘Bangers & Mash‘ and “Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding‘, washed down with Hot Buttered Rum at a nearby pub, where there was a jolly sing-song (in drama club cockney accents). Christmas Day itself was a quiet one, where the British style eats were made by Julia this time; inspired by the “Great British Baking Show“, we had a lovely Christmas Cake, and utterly yummy Mince Pies.

Holiday Sketching

The next few days were hampered by sporadic colds for the both of us, but thankfully these had passed by month’s end, when we stayed in the lovely INN AT THE PRESIDIO. New Year’s Eve is always a special day for us, as it’s Julia’s birthday. It’s always tricky to arrange a birthday for someone on a day when the whole world celebrates something else anyway, but I was determined to do something special for my sweetheart this year. The idea of a mini staycation took shape months before, and really solidified when I discovered a delightful inn occupying what used to be the living quarters for unmarried officers serving in The Presidio.

Best of all, it was not far from a restaurant we both like. With a small group of friends and family, we all celebrated Julia’s big day, eating a lovely dinner at the PRESIDIO SOCIAL CLUB, early enough to be back at our cosy inn well before the revelling hordes hit the streets. NYE had been blustery and quite cold, but New Years Day was sunny with no wind at all, allowing us to sketch before we met Julia’s parents for a late lunch. As the three of them later went for a long walk on Chrissy Fields, I went for a short walk to visit a Jedi Master and some more Holiday Sketching.

Although I was quite alone when I sat down to sketch the tiny wizard at the entrance to INDUSTRIAL LIGHT AND MAGIC, a tour bus soon pulled up and the courtyard was swarming with tourists, taking pictures of Yoda or peering in at the front doors of ILM looking at life sized statues of Boba Fett And Darth Vader (“Look over here, there’s more spacemen!” exclaimed one exitable grandma to her grandkids) so I had to finish these doodles later.

Our holiday was so full of activities, visits, illness, meals, birthdays, etc that I really needed the laziness of this weekend (spent entirely in my pyjamas!) to recover.

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