I Glow With Pride

Parenthood can make me sweat, involving - without being metaphorical in the slightest - pushing, uplifting, hauling, accompanying, wiping, skipping, smoothing, sifting, sorting ... but right now, I’m simply glowing.

If I said that my sons’ choices to pursue post-school education in the creative fields of fashion and music never caused me a minute’s perspiration, I’d be disingenuous. Fashion in particular is a highly competitive applied art, requiring a complex range of skills, knowledge and aptitudes. These include life drawing, pattern cutting, design, embroidery, tailoring, draping, photography, and graphic design, as well as the study of the history of fashion, philosophy of art and research methodology . And then there are the skills and labours of developing and planning whole collections, liaising with models to wear and present them.

I’m glowing because my son Gabriel has won an award which recognises in a tangible way how much he has achieved in his learning of the skills of fashion design. Five years ago, he had an emerging interest in clothes and how they're made, but he'd never used a sewing machine. So we attended an evening class at Shrewsbury College where his teacher, Johanna, took his interest entirely seriously. Since that initial affirmation, he’s branched out, cut loose, taken risks, pursued an unconventional and challenging path.

In February, Gabriel applied for this, advertised in the Shrewsbury press by the Shrewsbury Arts Society:

ARTS BURSARY 2019

Celebrating the Golden Jubilee of The Arts Society

After a highly competitive process, the judges described his application and interview performance as outstanding. He displayed a depth of knowledge and passion which convinced them to give him the financial award aimed at supporting a young artist from the Shrewsbury area embarking on a career in the arts.

This is an accolade and it's a practical one too. Studying fashion is expensive in terms of materials required: over four years of a foundation degree and BA, he has used / will use hundred of metres of fabric, tens of thousands of metres of thread, needles, buttons, zips, buckles, Velcro, interfacing, paper, ink, not to mention chicken wire, safety boots, paints, dyes and glues. The award will be a great help towards these costs.

So I’m glowing - proud as can be of my son who is forging his own way, delighted that fellow artists have recognised his talent and commitment.

I Buy A New Washer: I Calculate My Figures

I Buy A New Washer: I Calculate My Figures: There's something going on around my middle that I'm trying to work out. One of the workings out I am doing is swimming. A recent tr...

I Calculate My Figures

There's something going on around my middle that I'm trying to work out. One of the workings out I am doing is swimming. A recent trial membership offer at the Quarry Swimming Baths meant that I swam five times in ten days and this worked out at £1 per swim.

Four of those swims happened on workdays before work. It has come as something of a surprise to me that I am able to swim 660 metres, half of them towards my desk, half of them in the opposite direction, and still arrive at work on time, albeit with damp hair.

Based on that experience, I have signed up to a year's swimming membership. So far, the swims I have swum under membership terms have worked out at £95 each. If I swim 188 more times in the coming year, I will get the cost back down to £1 per swim.

Whilst I'm swimming, I try to remember the number of the length I'm on. This helps me to arrive at work on time. If I say to myself  "TWELVE" (never out loud) as I start length 12, it's somewhat confusing, as I've actually completed 11 lengths. There's something about this that feels like cheating, but equally, I can't get my head around the idea of length zero. If I think about all this too hard, I lose count.

So far, according to the tightness of my jeans, my motivating central concerns are not yet worked out. I carry forward other benefits into my days, however. A fuller sense, after one of those early baptisms, that my life is mine, and everything in it. And the whiff of chlorine emanating from my skin.