Avoid contact with eyes

Stories, drawings and updates from the sketchbook

Hi everyone. This week’s post is a collection of things from the sketchbook. Some drawings, a brief story and some updates from a couple of my recent posts, including a juicy Mr Grosh update.

I’ll likely be taking a break next week or the week after while I’m recovering from jet lag and general settling in stuff. Looking forward to getting back into things after that though. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this week’s post!

Rick was an incredibly stern man. 
The underside of his furrowed brow hadn’t seen sunlight in years. Possibly ever. 
He liked a stiff drink and a stiff chair.
Did hard, punishing work. 
And due to his rigid and uncompromising nature, lived out his final days as a support beam in a warehouse. 

Some things:

I wanted to share some updates on a few things that have happened recently since a couple of my recent posts have gone out.

One relates to Mr Grosh, the stern-looking but kind man that looks a little bit like every actor that had a grey crew cut and played a high up military role in movies from the 90s. I still haven’t worked out who it is btw. If you haven’t read it, you can read the original story here.

After I sent the post out, I thought that was that. KB and I went back to the restaurant one last time the other day expecting our usual exchange. While we were waiting for our food at one of the tables, Mr Grosh walked past me and gave me an affectionate and hearty pat on the shoulder. Like you might do with a close friend or family member. Was it nice? Yes but I don’t want to make a big deal about it or anything. It was just two men breaking the touch barrier. Also, it was more like a series of pats. Three if I had to guess. Anyway, whatever. It’s not a big deal.

We decided to leave a nice tip when we paid for our food and as we did, we tried to explain that we were flying home. We pointed at the restaurant door, as if the exit to the restaurant was also the same direction as the airport, and said ‘Australia’ and ‘we’re flying home’. This seemed to register some interest as Mr Grosh lit up and explained to us, by showing us photos on his phone, that he had a daughter in Australia. Perth, in fact. Where we are from.

It’s fair to say we were completely taken aback in realising we had a connection with Mr Grosh. Here was this man we had unofficially deemed to be our friend, and next thing we know we are taking a selfie with Mr Grosh (in the photo we are smiling like giddy children and Mr Grosh remains stoic as ever), exchanging numbers and making plans to see him because HE IS VISITING PERTH SOON.

It was a beautiful thing, and we both slept very well that night. Not just because our stomachs were full of homemade sausage and some chicken roll things, but also from our life affirming exchange with Mr Grosh.

Stay tuned for more Mr Grosh updates. Here’s hoping.

The other small update which I thought was worth sharing relates to my post where I talked about the heroic and legendary car from Yugoslavia called The Yugo. You can check that post out here.

A few weeks back we walked past eight or so Yugos in the parking lot of a nearby hotel which turned out to be part of a little rally crew. A group of people from all over Europe that were driving their Yugos through all the countries that were part of former Yugoslavia.

We chatted to them secretly hoping for an invite and a spare seat but I’m sure they could smell our desperation. Next time perhaps.