Dbee Robinson Artist - The Fat Struggling Menopausal Artist

We recently went to one of our favourite restaurants, the award winning  ‘Sams at 33’  for a Sunday roast. These two roast dinners must have been the most expensive roasts we have ever had at a whopping cost of over £200. And a pretty cringeworthy moment during our Christmas dinner.  Let me explain.... Every month we like to go out for a roast dinner, and the best one we know in calm surroundings of the Denvilles club with lovely staff  is  ‘Sams at 33’ . Sam is the Chef and his Sister Danielle is the Head waitress and what a lovely team they make. Nothing is too much trouble and they are always welcoming. So there we were just a couple of weeks before Christmas enjoying our roast beef dinners when Chef popped over and said hi to us. I exclaimed how surprised I was to see he was working Christmas Day but not surprised to hear he was fully booked within days of offering a Christmas Day dinner.  “That’s a shame,” I stated, “We may have been interested” “I will fit you tw

Well thats 3 hours of my time I will never get back! With Christmas close at hand I thought I would put up some Christmas lights. After finding the box of dangling blue lights in amongst the multitude of Christmas tat we own, I spent a further 30 mins untangling them outside in the cold late afternoon.  Carefully I put the instructions and detachable plug back in the box for safe keeping while I started to hang them. Considering I have no hooks or places to put hooks, the job was done in just over an hour and the only war wounds came from the holly in the garden and trapping my fingers in the window when routing the electric cable into the house.  Light outside was fading fast, and with everything almost ready for the official lighting of The Shrubbery, all that was left to do was plug in the lights and enjoy. However I couldn't find the plug in the box, it has disappeared. The box had a hole in the bottom and with the ground covered in bark, and being the same colo

Today was a ' Voice activated lift ' kind of day today. I spent some of my morning yesterday emailing a company that had offered 'optional extras' for something that wasn't really an option. And in the afternoon it was speaking to a machine to book a boiler service and being passed from pillar to post to sort a faulty strimmer. Now if you have not seen ' Voice activated lift ' then please do click on the link, it is one of the funniest sketches I have ever seen. There are other funny sketches like Deathstar canteen which I often recite when picking up a wet tray in a cafe (..'..This tray is wet..'..) Ok you have to see it to understand the humour! And of course the ever laughable pizza company question... ' Do you deliver ?? The phone call to sort the strimmer was lengthy, 20 mins on hold to be told I had to redial a different number only to be told to redial another number was infuriating. Then to call that number and eventually told

Ok so not quite possessed but certainly acting crazy to anyone who happens to walk in on me in the bath room. This is because I get really bored cleaning my teeth. Sooooo I do exercises while my electric tooth brush does the tooth scrubbing.  Everything from The Grape vine walk, to side leg lifts, and if i'm cleaning a particularly sensitive part of my mouth, (mainly where my bone graft scar is,) I am particularly careful and  I concentrate a little more while cleaning, so simple buttock clenches suffice during this time.  My electric tooth brush has a 30 second timer for each section of my mouth so I use that as a timer to change my exercise.  Sometimes I get carried away and clean my teeth a little longer while I do another set of squats or pelvic tilts. So win win all around eh? Even my dentist is seeing the difference... In my teeth that is not my buttocks!! lol  But it must sound weird me marching up and down in our bathroom. Now that must make our bathro

Mr Pepper - Headmaster of Hayling School Paid my respects today to the best Head Master I knew. He never made me feel I was just going to school, he made me feel like I was part of the school, part of something special and he always made me laugh. He was firm and fair but more importantly, he put children first, raising funds and spirits with school plays and the infamous Halloween Fair where we sold all the things we made throughout the year whether Mum and Dad wanted them or not. (I loved my Salt and Pepper holder!) Today I saw, and also thanked Mr Robinson my Maths teacher for having faith i n me when numbers just jumped around on the page. Mr Stretch for his kindness and Miss Edney for inspiring my art. Mr Hepworth Taylor for helping me get my Human biology O'level so I could become a nurse, (however I later found out I pass out if I see  blood so that never happened) Miss Drew who luckily forgot (or kindly did not mention) I used to find any excuse not to do cro

Graduation Degree My step son has just got his masters PHD and his graduation ceremony is next week. Not sure what to wear, and I didn't want to wear what I wore at his degree. Just couldn't remember what so  I looked back at Facebook and there you have it. Black with lace trim.....well thats annoying as thats what I was going to wear this time. I'm certainly not going shopping (remember I hate shopping!) for something new so I may wear the first dress I brought for his Brothers wedding which was the wrong colour..... Am I still ahead of the game? Could I be that lucky!! .... Long story  Click here for   Part 1 ,  Part 2 ,    The wedding finale , and  Ahead of the game -  for some light hearted, head slapping entertainment. Guan Ying Now I'm off to check the dress still fits as I cant help but notice my washing machine is shrinking all my clothes!! But first I will continue with my latest commission 'Guan Ying' while I decide what cup cakes

At the Palace Theatre   Today I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, and the day certainly did not disappoint. After winning tickets in the  Friday Forty Lottery  we only had a couple of days to wait to see the show, 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'. I really didn't believe I would see the show until I had the tickets in my hand and was sitting in my seat. I caught the train up to Waterloo and sat in the Quiet Zone ...with a Hen Party..... That's two phases that truly shouldn't be together. They popped Prosecco and were all as bubbly as the drink they consumed, and I sat there quietly hoping the Bride to Be would be as happily married as I am. Even though I always wear my 'I am a free elf, Dobby has no master' socks when ever he is away on business. ha ha The person winning the tickets has to bring ID to pick them up and I used my Driving Licence which never really looked like me, but since my facial surgery I was sure they would not b

Steak and Kidney Just been to the Westbourne Cafe  as Friday night is Homemade Pie night. It opens at 6pm so early enough for Hubby and me who are early birds to grab some dinner. I believe you can take your own bottle too but we were happy with a soft drink. And if you wanted to take a wine or beer it would certainly make it a cheap night out!  Now they also have their usual menu but as pie is my Hubbys favourite word then pie it had to be. Some lovely choices of vegetarian, chicken and leek, lamb and mint, steak and kidney, steak and ale and fish. But on chatting to Jules the chef and owner, if they have it and you want it in a pie they will make it for you. Sausage and bean, mash topping, even mac and cheese , etc. they will make it if they can.  Lamb and Mint Hubby had steak and kidney with chips and beans. I chose Lamb and mint with mash and peas. The portions were huge and the pies were full of tender meat, very tasty and not a soggy bottom in sight. I must

For months I have been entering the Friday Forty to win tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child . This week was my lucky week... I won discounted tickets to see both parts of the play for two people. Total cost £80 and I'm told they are good viewing seats too!! How lucky was I, and of course the person I intend to take! After some googling it seems you can't take snacks in, I do hope they let me take my water in. I use a refillable bottle I purchased so I will be upset if they confiscate it as some reviewers and bloggers have said. Anyway, I'm too excited to care. I re read the book yesterday, yup I read the whole book in a day so no painting got done which is a little naughty I know but its really rare I sit and have some 'ME' time, no matter what people think I do all day at home. Guan Yin test piece 2 So I had better stop typing and get painting. Today i'm trailing how to do a Buda / Guan Yin painting for a friend. (My friend and I saw

Thought a picture of Scarlet Johanson's nose job would be nicer than me Face Ache! Well that's a name I was used to being called when I was younger, (one of many,) now I actually am a face ache. It's been 3 months since my surgery.  Surgeons call it Rhinoplasty and Septoplasty, but my Husband calls it body juggling, where they moved more bits of my body to sort out my face. So to date I have had, rib bone, pelvis bone, ear skin and cartilage and skin from a place i'd rather not mention, all put into my face to sort out the cleft palate. I have also had a prototype brace which 40 years ago was just fuse wire and clips which impaled itself on the inside of my mouth for over 2 years and cracked my back teeth, had a tooth removed in order to have a bone graft and ended up luckily with a bridge rather than dentures.  And to be honest I have no idea if Scarlet has had a nose job, the picture is meant to show celebrity before and after from a website POP Hitz . Now

Two Beautiful, Too Beautiful to stay around forever  I do try and keep my blog light hearted, funny and at times, a little informative. But this week has been a bit gut wrenching. Thank goodness for Art to heal my Heart.   Two Beautiful, Too Beautiful to stay around forever is a Watercolour and ink on rice paper. I had just heard a good friend had unexpectedly died of a heart attack that day, it was Tuesday morning, and I was unconsolable. I couldn't concentrate or even focus on talking let alone doing anything, yet I had booked some Mother and Daughter time and as this is a rare occurrence due to our busy lives I did not want to cancel. So an hour after hearing the news I was off having a manicure with my Daughter. Now she would have been absolutely fine if I had cancelled, but I couldn't even bring myself to tell her. The words just wouldn't come out my mouth, I think I was in shock, so I didn't. It was a weird feeling but in fact was a good distraction.

Black and White Cat with Bamboo I was once asked why my paintings were so expensive? It was for a Chinese painting titled 'Black and white cat with bamboo.' Its a large 46cm x 64cm framed watercolour and ink painting on rice paper that had taken many hours to paint in layers as well as traditional style backing with more rice paper and then framed. Now if I paid myself the minimum wage for the 25+ hours I had spent painting it would be far to expensive and no one would buy it, so I thought £65 was a good price. When I explained it was an original painting that wasn't mass produced but created with love and attention to detail in the traditional Chinese way they began to understand.  I then explained it didn't include all the years learning Chinese art techniques or the many hours and experiments that went wrong preparing and trialing this artwork, it was just for the materials, frame and approximate time spent on this artwork alone. They were then astound

Tom's Commissioning at Sandhurst Yes I still hate shopping, but recently I was ahead of the game! Woo! Hoo! Our Son Tom recently got married and after my Husbands comment on what I planned to wear on his special day I went into a total head spin.  Click here to view Wedding Shopping Traumas and Triumphs.   Anyway back to this story....  In summary I ended up buying 3 dresses for the wedding. After googling and chatting with friends the etiquette and appropriate dress for Sandhurst Commissioning ceremony, Sovereigns parade and formal celebratory lunch, it is similar to wedding attire. And guess what.... One of the dresses (a floaty purple and navy dress with a mandarin collar) I had purchased for his wedding fitted the bill perfectly! It was below the knee, shoulders covered, sleeves to the elbow and definitely no splits. Oh Frabjous day Caloo Calay she chortled in her joy!  Yes, I felt like I had slain my Shopping Jabberwocky!  The extras I needed were f

My Nanna and me The Big Day Today is the big reveal and I'm nervous and yet excited too.  Nothing cosmetic here, just a bit of surgery to help me breathe, however with it comes at a price. Without full major surgery on my nose and all the risks that could happen, the price is a probable odd shaped unsymmetrical nose. Well I've had an odd shaped nose all my life and I got quite used to it. It made people remember me easily which could be a good thing. OK it could be a bad thing too but I'm grasping at positives here! My Cleft Palate now fully repaired after a serious infection recently and my breathing now hopefully sorted that should be it for me. One can only hope! I had a little today chuckle as I used to tell a joke about a man with the indestructible face. It was a pretty rubbish drawn out joke with a stupid punch line but it's actually how I feel and every now and again I say the punch line in my head which makes me laugh, which inevitably hurts m

The Shrubbery Sunrise. I know we all have bad days, but recently I had a particularly 'Blue' day. Even though the sunrise was truly beautiful that morning, and I feel blessed to see such a lovely view from my garden, the memories of this day just made me feel sad as February the 5th was the day my Farther was informed he had Terminal Cancer. Two weeks later he was gone and the hole in my heart has never really healed. So I painted what was in my heart that day, and with the aid of this beautiful sunrise, my Oil on Canvas 'Sunset on a Blue Day' was created.  Sunset on a Blue Day. Later in the week my cousin, who is a Minister, informed us of a special evening coming to the Cowplain Evangelical Church where he recently gave a presentation. The Watoto Children's Choir  was visiting and was an event not to be missed. The children's choir have sung across six continents over the past few years raising awareness for their vision and much needed funds