A pound better off

Comments

Could have been worse Michael, your colleagues could have been there to laughter at your misfortune, hope you put your pound to good use!

Posted by Stephen Slater on Sat 17 Dec 11:18:11

Definitely a man thing. Us of the fairer sex would have just walked on by. But then we wouldn't have had a great memory for To paint a great pic.

Posted by Sylvia Evans on Sat 17 Dec 11:55:47

Forgot to add "Nice Bum"

Posted by Sylvia Evans on Sat 17 Dec 11:56:44

Thanks Stephen and Sylvia. Sylvia, if you could just see me in real life, I'm absolutely gorgeous.

Posted by Michael Mcmanus on Sat 17 Dec 12:05:06

Buy a lottery ticket with it!!

Posted by Paul Hardy on Sat 17 Dec 14:04:35

Yes I agree with Sylvia.....it's a man thing. Us women would have thought about what germs and nasty things lurked there. Great painting though it's made me smile 😀

Posted by Ellen Mooney on Sat 17 Dec 14:05:55

Will do Paul. Thanks Ellen. Women are so hygienic in comparison to men. But give them a pile of one pound coins and they scoop them up and run off to the shops lol.

Posted by Michael Mcmanus on Sat 17 Dec 14:45:36

Ahah, should have put your bag down first Michael! Good drawing :)

Posted by Carole Swingler on Sat 17 Dec 14:54:16

Thanks Carole.

Posted by Michael Mcmanus on Sat 17 Dec 15:01:12

Great drawing and story Michael. I'm a woman and I would have picked it up!

Posted by Margaret Beynon on Sat 17 Dec 15:37:03

Thanks Margaret. You're my sort of woman.

Posted by Michael Mcmanus on Sat 17 Dec 15:40:37

Ha ha! Oh dear Michael, what's a little embarrassment to a pound in the pocket! Your story reminds me of the poem by TW Connor, The Scotch Express from Ireland.

Posted by Fiona Phipps on Sat 17 Dec 15:46:57

Thanks Fiona. Hadn't read that before. Good fun. I believe my grandma's ancestors were Scots, although from County Monaghan later. So that would account for it.

Posted by Michael Mcmanus on Sat 17 Dec 16:18:35

I thought there must be some of the finer stuff mixed into your heritage Mick...lol

Posted by Fiona Phipps on Sat 17 Dec 16:34:22

Yes, what a mix we are.

Posted by Michael Mcmanus on Sat 17 Dec 17:05:19

Thank you for that story Michael. Made me laugh. Excellent painting.

Posted by Gudrun Ståhl Sharpley on Sat 17 Dec 17:53:07

I would have picked it up too but gracefully ( I hope). One cannot leave a pound coin just like that! Great painting Michael.

Posted by Satu Vartiainen on Sat 17 Dec 19:03:48

Thank you Gudrun and Satu.

Posted by Michael Mcmanus on Sat 17 Dec 22:37:41

Great painting with a great story Michael.

Posted by Val Kenyon on Mon 19 Dec 11:09:43

Hang on Studio Wall

17/12/2016

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Watercolour. I arrived at Kings Cross station to attend a course with the Met. Police. The station was packed to the gunnels with commuters during the morning rush hour. My old red haversack weighed a ton. It was full of kit for the week and a boat load of books I'd published and was about to deliver to the Agency for The Legal Deposit Libraries, just along the road in Kings Cross. It felt as if I had a bag of lead on my back. Just ahead of me on the platform I saw a pound coin on the deck. Thinking quickly I thought I would keep walking, bend down and pick it up all in one smooth move. I bent forward, reached down for the coin but I lost my balance due to the weight of the haversack and the forward momentum. I sprawled forward, flat on my face, picked up the coin, stood up and walked on and out of the station. What an embarrassment. But I was a pound better off.

About the Artist

Michael Mcmanus

I was born in 1946. In the 1960s and part of the 70s I was an airman in the Royal Navy, Fleet Air Arm. I joined Durham Constabulary in 1971. In 1999 I retired from policing and began teaching sociology and criminology at Durham University with emphasis on policing and researching crime. I am drawn…

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