I have been working on confronting those little things that I’m just unsure about. Like confronting fears… and this project has definitely got me doing that. I’m still not going to deal with spiders, but I’m a little more confident about drawing, I still have lots of room to improve, but I am at least getting something done. The other part of the project deals with Mini Coopers, and my lack of knowledge about the car. I have learned a lot (with a lot more to learn), but in the past I have been scared to death to do even the most simple repair. While it isn’t much I did replace the turn indicators on Tink (the classic) yesterday and they worked. Baby steps, I’m not ready to replace a clutch or steering rack anything like that, but I’m a little more confident that I can do the simple things- of course I need to order parts and it might be helpful to have tools.
MINI United did help me on the parts front (at least I know where to go). When I first bought the classic the one thing that was annoying was that someone over the years had removed the headrests. I contacted a few parts suppliers in the US since then and basically received not much help. While a number of them do restorations of classic Minis most of them replied with a “Wha Huh?” response. I get to MINI United and the first person I speak to replies with “What’s your Trim Code?” This was my chance to do a “Wha Huh?” It seems that on a plate (that was removed around the same time as the headrests) is a code that tells you what the interior trim is so you can get a match. After some digging I have figured out that the trim in Tink is “Monaco” so now I just need to order the parts from England and install them. I have also discovered that some of the badging was removed so I’ve got a few little things to do. When it comes to mechanical stuff- Tink is running fine and once I plot out the trip (looking at about 200 miles a day) I’ll be off on the next adventure.
I do apologize to anyone trying to see my comics… it seems that I messed up and upgraded the software quickly, without checking to make sure everything was compatible and that I had backed up all my files. I’ve guess I’ve been on a Mac too long and trust that software just works, this time it isn’t and the tweaking I need to do is a little beyond my expertise- or at least I can’t find the files I need to tweak. I’m hoping that ComicPress comes out with an update soon since the one they came up with yesterday only kinda sorta worked. Again, sorry for the technical difficulties.
As I start working on next week’s strips I figured I should take a few minutes and go over the process. First, of course, comes an idea… sometimes this is just something I saw that I thought was amusing, sometimes it is a commentary on the day, sometimes it is an idea that I’ve had for a long time. This gets drawn out in pencil- I use Prismacolor Verithin non-photo blue. I have created a template to draw on that has been copied onto card stock. It consists of the rectangle and the type. I use a ruler to draw the lines needed for text using the top third of the rectangle keeping this a more traditional comic strip for now. After drawing out what I want I ink it all in. I am presently using a set of Copic pens with a varied with including a brush. I’m still working on my inking which I hope will improve as I continue. Once the comic is inked and the text and speech bubbles have been drawn I scan this into my laptop to finish it all. I start with a 600 dpi scan and clean up anything I need to (erase the lines so that the individual panels are defined) I tweak the brightness and contrast and then save the file for my archives. I then go back and resize the stripe to 850 pixels wide at 100 dpi and then save it for the web as a .gif file. From there I upload that file to the website using the Comic Press plug-in in Word Press and type a short message telling the story in a little more depth. I hope you are enjoying the journey and as I continue to grow as a cartoonist I am hoping that not only my artwork but also my storytelling will improve.
I may be back from England but I still have a bunch of observations during that portion of the trip along with other ideas that need to be published. I’ve even been asked to chat about the trip next week at our local MINI dealership (Dreyer & Reinbold MINI) and show some of the photos I took (that alone should make an interesting strip).
Well as Cecil got his 600th find yesterday I thought I had everything planned out to make the run… except for logging when I was half awake and needing to comeback a relog a few this morning! We started in Greenwich and I had a pad with my countdown on it so that the virtual cache at the Prime Meridian would be #600. This was the plan and it was a pretty good one. I know that I can be forgetful at times and can even be called “random” so I was trying to make sure that everything worked out. That was until I back to hotel and started to log the caches. I pulled up the map and just started logging from the caches on the map… not my carefully orchestrated list. I suddenly came up with an extra cache! so I tweaked my logging order so it worked out and tried to get some sleep. Well, Sue comes along this morning (being all concrete/sequential) and reminds me that we skipped one of the Greenwich gate caches that I had logged! SO I go back and fortunately only need to delete a couple entries. I am not changing the map for the tracking coin… I’m an old Boy Scout, but its trail is close enough. My plan worked perfectly- I just didn’t. Cecil did get his 600th at the Prime Meridian and I bought a baseball cap to celebrate. As Cecil would say “ook!”
Cecil celebrates his 600th find at Greenwich after a lovely morning wandering the park and the town to get the numbers right.
OK, I know I started somewhere with how I really like the way that England has stayed almost humble about a lot of different things. As I have been motoring along in the heart of England it is difficult to find a Starbucks, McDonalds, or any kind of fast food. Sue and I have commented that the only thing that seems to be franchised is the “Red Lion” since we have seen numerous pubs with that name in various towns as we travel. Yesterday proved to me that capitalism is not dead in England… Sue and I (after a quick stop in Hook Norton) went to Blenheim Palace. Well having visited world heritage sites before this was the first one that was in the process of setting up for the Blenheim Triathlon (sponsored by Mazda) and the first one that had animatronic displays. The house itself was lovely, and the artwork was spectacular (though I get the impression the 1st Duke liked to have his picture painted- a lot). I think I was let down by the admission price (around $28 per person) and that since the triathlon was being set up many places on the grounds were closed to visitors. I don’t think the drizzles (only the second time since we have been here) helped my viewpoint, but if you have seen my Flickr gallery you hopefully have noticed that I like to take photos. I couldn’t find a shot of the house without some company logo in frame! We did take a very nice tour which really helped me to appreciate everything that I saw, but then we decided to view the second portion of the tour which dealt with the history of people and the house through the ages with the help of technology. At first it was amusing… then it was sad. Finally I tried to figure out why anyone with such a lovely house would devote part of it to a knock off of an A ticket Disneyland attraction. The answer came at the end when the latest Duke appeared on a screen thanking us for visiting- I almost thought he was about to tell us about the books, DVDs and t-shirts available at the gift shop “and don’t forget to quench your hunger on some Blenheim Bangers and Mash- Just like Winston used to eat!”. So my idealized version of England has been brought crashing to reality, which isn’t too bad- as we head off to London then home.
The past two days have been relaxing, but interesting as I continue to find out more about normal life in England. On Sunday after visiting the local castle (Broughton Castle) Sue and I decided to go roving… Wandering along using the footpath system which runs throughout the country. A fantastic idea which really makes it easy to go for a walk since there is a trail fairly close to everywhere. We took the “Shutford Circular Walk” which (shockingly enough) had a series of caches placed along the route. About 4.5 miles later we had found 10 caches and were sitting at the local pub thinking about food. Unfortunately, we discovered that while pubs are open and serve beverages, no food is serves in pubs (or at least the small local ones) on Sundays. Slightly different than Indiana where you can’t buy alcohol on Sunday, but can buy as much food as you like! After that we headed back and Sue made a wonderful salad.
Today it was time to tick off another thing on the list… a visit to the Swindon Pressing Plant. This is where all MINI body panels are produced. Again (he says with a shocked tone) there was a cache nearby (called MINI). If it wasn’t for the cache I doubt we would have even known where to look. I dropped off my Mini Cooper Rally Car- the green team. in the cache and we headed off away from Swindon and back to the Cotswolds and quaintness. After a stop in Burford- lovely needlework/knitting shop… I assume it was lovely, Sue bought stuff. We headed off to another cache this one located near an old church that once was the place of worship for a medieval town that died out from the Black Plague. No one returned to the town, so this small church is still there and being used by the locals (no town, but some wonderful homes nearby. After walking around for a while we started to get tired and decided to head back to Swinford Gower. Tomorrow will be another adventure, but it was nice to get one more little thing off the list as date to return home gets closer and closer.
Yesterday was great! We headed over to Coventry to check out the Transport Museum. they had a Dr. Who Exhibition along with a wonderful history of British auto-making. I learned the in the orignal Italian Job the tunnel sequences were actually shot in Coventry… kind of cool. For the Dr. Who Exhibition I learned that while I really like the Doctor, I am a late comer (I recall watching it in the 70’s, but didn’t have a chance to follow it since the last season on BBC America. So while I was fascinated by the displays, I was lost as to their significance. Guess it’s time to start watching more on DVD!
After Coventry we headed to ShakespeareLand, yes Stratford-Upon-Avon. Beautiful town, very, very touristy. We actually took a tour since, while I am familiar with the bard’s work, I am not a scholar. It was interesting. The thing I found really neat was that they had a “kids” version of the audio. I listened to a portion of that and it was really neat. geared to hold the attention of a 9 or 10 year old (no comments). When I compared notes with Sue it seemed the same information was dealt with, just in a different manner. Stopped by to get the MINI washed since poor Nigel was looking a little messy.
Well as today closes (weather was back to being wonderful) I thought I’d post something quickly about motoring in England. I recall the first time I ever drove the Dragon (US 129 on the border of TN&NC) wonderful road, makes my brain hurt to drive it. I know there are those who zip and zoom around the 318 turns, but I’m enough of a novice that it just tires me out to think about it. That’s kind of what driving in England is like. Not the turn every second, but you have to think. I’ve been driving long enough that I can do some things on auto-pilot. A long stretch of Interstate and you can let your mind wander (keeping alert for changes) In England the roads are the same, but everything is backwards (75% of all MINIs made are left hand drive) I can drive with the wheel on the right, but the other side of the road still makes me have to think. Sue has caught me making a right turn and going instinctively into the right lane! Not a good idea. I have improved a great deal since I first started out, but I still feel like I’m a new driver trying not to get into trouble. Combine this with not being familiar with the roads and my brain is set to explode!
Now we have a Nuvi (Hyacinth) with the European roads on it, and I have Sue who is a great navigator. Today we headed out to see an old friend of ours who is in England for part of the summer. He sent us directions via email. So we had Hyacinth, Sue, and Bill all telling me where to go… Hyacinth took one route, Sue had her idea, and Bill had Google Maps directions- the result was getting lost and taking almost three hours to reach our destination. After turning off the GPS things got a little better (OK we had to figure out where we were first), The way home was also interesting because we decided to just follow the Nuvi’s directions- Neat roads but I don’t think I could find my way back without help. Tomorrow is another day and more adventures- the fun part is getting lost- fortunately I did mark our cottage as a waypoint.
Well yesterday was a long day but really neat. We drove into a town just across the border into Wales. Hay-on-Wye has this magnificent book festival besides being known as “The Town of Books” since it has so many bookstores. After checking out the children’s section at the festival (and finding lots of cool books for my classroom) we wandered the town. It was raining (finally some english weather) but we were fine since we were given an umbrella at the festival. Besides books I did manage to pick up a replacement for my Tilley hat. The things are indestructible but that doesn’t help much when you misplace it. I’ve posted a bunch of pictures on Flickr, but all I can say is it was a wonderful day.
One observation I have made as I search for the culture that brought about the Mini is- There are just so many of them over here! If you don’t own a Mini (or didn’t at one time) you knew someone who did. It was the British “Model T” the car everyone had. While the numbers are increasing in the states, you can’t turn a corner without seeing at least one Mini or MINI. For the uninitiated you may notice that I type Mini or MINI which in type distinguishes the old Mini from the newer MINI. There are many diehard Mini Geeks out there who hate, loathe, etc. the new MINI (now 7+ years since the first one was built). But yesterday was for the book geek in me. I spent way too much, but ended up with what I hope will be some gems for my classroom.
As sit listening the the birds and the “gentle Breeze here in Sibford Gower (don’t you just love British names?) I thought I would post a quick note as to what my plans are since I really didn’t feel right flying all the way out here and not doing at least a couple comic strips about the MINI Factory and MINI United. Of course the silly thing is you can’t do a strip about something that hasn’t happened! Now that I’m settled down I have at least a few ideas before I start dealing with commentary about British life and yes, motoring. When doing the planning for this back in November I looked up various museums to see what they might have about the Mini and basically got back little or no information. Now that I’m here every brochure I pick up (for these same museums mind you) are all talking about the celebration of the Mini’s 50th birthday. Go figure. Well, Sue and I are stocked up and the weather is cooperating so expect more simple blogs in the days to come.
