Another eclectic week. Friday evening we went to a birthday party with friends, and met a couple of new friends. Then Sunday we had a Christopherson family gathering here in The Pearl. Always good to get everyone together.
A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Urban Sketchers Portland event at Directors Park where a news crew from KGW were there to interview and film. The segment of that aired on Monday the 11th. It is also on YouTube, I thought you might like to see how wonderful Portland is, and I even get a one line snippet.
Here is the link if you would like to watch it.
Tuesday I took the car to Ron Tonkin Honda to have a couple of injectors replaced, thankfully we had a warranty to cover most of it, and they gave me a loaner. On Wednesday I drove back out to “122nd way” – that is for you Portland old timers, comment if you know what it is about. I picked up our Honda Fit and drove home, it sure does drive smoother. So the car repairs were behind us, that is until the phone rang Thursday at about 11.00am…
The lady identified herself quickly as being from Tonkin, then just as quickly, without as much as a how are you, told me that we had smoked in and dented the loaner. Neither of which were true, we have never smoked, though the car did smell smoky when I got in it. After interrupting her I asked for a manager, two phone calls later I got to talk to one, and thanks to a bit of sales and negotiating skills, an hour later the manger let it go. Not a fun thing.
The French have a reputation for poor customer service, but our experience did not support that; as long as you follow the French cultural curtesies the French are great. We have had more poor customer service events in the year we have been back, than in the whole time we were in France.
Art this week has been some experimenting and trying out new brush-pens, not much in the way of finished works. I show these pages of random scratchings to encourage sketchers that not everything works so don’t get frustrated.
The Ellington Pen that I reviewed on Tuesday is breaking in quite nicely. I did a couple of sketches with it. I have used it a lot for writing and it has a nice feel. Some pens that are less expensive have a cheap feel about them, but not the Ellington, I think it has established a place in my rotation of pens. I will try the Platinum ink again soon and see how it works. (Reminder, they sent me a free pen but I am trying to be objective, and if you follow the link on the page I do in fact get a remuneration, and you get a discount.)
We spent time this week planning trips, something that is always fun. We of course, ate and went for walks, Tricia swam a couple of times. AND I got a new hat, fitting for the moment here in “burning Portland.”
How was your week? I trust you are finding a bit of joy in each day, seeing friends, eating good food, and as always that you are capturing those moments in a sketch pad or with a photo. Thank you for following this blog, it means a lot.
theTravelsketcher 
It’s a shame you had such bad customer service for your car…here in the US, we’re known for having good (if somewhat inauthentic) customer service. However, I prefer the French’s customer service: they may not be friendly or smiley, but at least they’re polite and tell you straight as it is. Hopefully, you didn’t let that horrible service ruin your week!
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Nope, week is good. Yet it is so interesting that we have always had good service and friendly people in France, so I agree with you.
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An eventful week and I like the new hat
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Thanks. The hat makes me smile.
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Well, that’s just great Terry. You just notched 15 seconds of your 15 minutes of fame here in the future.
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Thanks so much. It was fun,.
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Spotted you in that clip! A great story though to get sketching out there. Love your ink sketches. Trying to spot little things to make us smile each day too.
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It is the little thing that get me through it all.
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🤍
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The TV clip really did show the essence of Urban Sketching. Good to see your cameo too Terry.
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Thanks, they did a pretty long interview, but at least ai got a few words and they showed the sketch I did of the cameraman.
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I found the YouTube very interesting. I always have a sketchbook with me, but don’t always find time to sketch. There is an urban sketchers group on the Gold Coast where I live. I keep promising myself that I will go along. But not made it yet
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I hope you get to do it one day. Have you ever tried doing a 5 minute sketch? I do them a lot when I am traveling with other people and cant take the time for something more involved, just a few lines to capture the moment.
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I’ll try that
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The news story about Urban Sketchers was so fun to watch. It was great to see you out there creating and encouraging others to do the same.
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It was fun, I am really not much of a joiner, but it is good to get together
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