A fellow artist is downsizing, and she and I have a mutual friend. Well, in order to help out both of us, he turned up here at the Batcave the other day with - two dozen very large (60cm by 80cm) canvases; a large box of watercolours, unopened; three boxes of W & N Designers' Gouache, almost untouched; a box of soft pastels, unopened; a box of Inscribe hard pastels, opened but still very usable; a tin of Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth professional graphite pencils; a set of System 3 acrylics, untouched. Two brush cases, filled with Jakar hog brushes.... and a tin of watercolour pencils. Dazed, would describe my reaction..... I've had to part with a few of the very large canvases, because I don't think I'm likely to live long enough to use them all - and more to the point I haven't got the space. So another friend of a friend also got lucky. But the rest - well: it's like a cave of unexpected treasures into which I've been plunged.... This is what you get, you see, when you have good friends! I may say that I've discovered a few things, too. The Jakar brushes will be good with the acrylics - they're not the best quality (horse, mouth, and looking into) but are fine with acrylic: and I've got a lot of brushes anyway. The paint - well, I haven't used gouache for a long time, but am really looking forward to using that; and I have used the System 3 acrylics, though not much before - and how good they are: I've always enjoyed using Daler Rowney products: you can trust them, and that's important. Cryla was my favoured brand, but System 3 is much more fluid, and I've found it a pleasure to use - excellent, clear colour. (I remember Alwyn Crawshaw ending one of his videos with that wink and jerk of the head, saying "you can trust Cryla!": well yes, you certainly can, and now I know it goes for their other acrylic brand as well.) So - lucky boy. I have my crosses to bear (cataract basically removing my right eye from the field of conflict for the time being, wireless keyboard - don't use a wireless keyboard; or if you do, ensure you don't need a password to log in to your system: because if it fills your dialogue box with gobblydegook, you just won't be able to get at your files - this has just cost me £55, which I could have spent on wine, cigars, and/or paint....) but I record my thanks to the artist Judith Traxler, who has downsized to my great benefit, and Roger Skidmore (ironically, my optician until he retired) who arranged it all. You see - look after your friends, and when you need it, they'll look after you. And I didn't even mention the frame for one of my smaller paintings; and the chocolate cake and box of Jaffa cakes from Roger's friend Caroline: do these people know me, or do they know me.....?