Since it's nearly a year since I last posted a Journal here, I thought I'd wave at you all.

Although I have been posting photos here the artwork just wasn't...coming. I had two pictures in the works and they just weren't progressing, to the point that I didn't want to look at them any more.
Then I signed up to the Atlantis Big Bang over on LJ and was lucky enough to be given a story by one of my favourite Fan authors, Icarus-who has previously inspired me to draw the Sunset Sheppard (Story-Tanlines and Dogtags) and Skater Boy (Out of Bounds).
And I got John and DRAGONS! So I've finally got my art-mojo back!
and I were lucky enough to go to Japan for two weeks in March (hence all the photos! )and I have written reports over on LJ (must post them here but they have loads of photos embedded, not sure how to do that...)and we had a Blast over there. We went on a "Manga Tour" which included loads of places like the Tokyo Tower, Shibuya, Akihibara, Nakano Broadway, Toei Animation Studios and the Ghibli museum. We also went to Mt Fuji, Miyajima, Kyoto and Hiroshima while we were there, so we did the cultural thing too.
The worst bit was coming back. Almost twelve hours in a much-too-small-seat and I couldn't sleep at all!
RL is proving difficult; Colonel K was "given"(at gunpoint) early retirement and is now being a househusband on a small pension while I am working part time on the checkouts at Asda to help keep us afloat. Jobs for 50-something IT specialists are not easy to come by, these days. Poor Serena is *still* looking for a proper (scientific) job, nearly 18 months after graduating. Most of her year-mates from Oxford are either unemployed or working in service industries too so she's not alone. But what a waste of all that talent and enthusiasm.
It's particularly galling because our Government is banging on and ON about how well paid graduates are and how they're going to tax them/make them pay more. Oh *$%£*!
And I worry about who is just starting his second year at Uni. We've told him that it's a valuable life experience, yadda yadda, but he must be wondering how he will fare when he finishes too.