Beating boredom, babies and chips

Royal Brompton Incarceration Tour (6 of 6)

What follows is a series of very random sketches.

‘Mummy, Daddy missing fix it’  - Having a son and Cystic Fibrosis is a challenge when you are fit and well. Skype offers a unique way to communicate with family while you are cooped up in hospital. Sam was a bit surprised to see Daddy on the Ipad when the normal viewing was Justin’s house followed by Charlie bear. And in the sketch below I was upstaged by Space Chimps and as I tried to say hello to Sam I knew my time with him on my Sony Xperia Ray would be cut short with the words ‘…Bye Daddy, Monkeys on.’ Thanks Sam.

As mentioned before the Royal Brompton Hospital has won awards for its food. Below is what was described as fish and chips – I’m a snob and I like Haddock. This was most definitely a white fish in batter production. But in the Royal Brompton Hospital all is not lost when you have Cystic Fibrosis and the additional call menu – order from the normal rations or top up with greasy spoon tucker…Doily Hell as one person commented on Facebook.

And now some nice Town houses that I saw on some walks I managed around the Chelsea and Hammersmith area!

Jurassic afternoon stroll

Royal Brompton Incarceration Sketch tour 2012 (5 of 5)

Having signed my life away to the Foulis ward register and promised not to return drunk and be back in time for tea I hit the streets of Old London Town in search of adventure and Dinosaurs at the natural history museum where I was promised history would come alive by there website…

I have to day that the experience did take me back in time…to school day trips. There were lots of school kids running about making fun of the animatronics. Trying to find innuendo in all the items of the cleverly placed gift shop at the end of the dinosaur exhibit.

So the next sketch is the Dinosaur in the main hall of the Natural history museum.

Walking back to the hospital it occurred to me that there are a lot of mopeds in London and I stopped to draw them – completely missing the opportunity to draw the Row of Boris Battery Bikes.

I worked up the original sketch into the following finished painting.

On of the things I tried to find in the urban London jungle was hidden beauty – I think I found it in the run down garages in a side street off of Cromwell Road. I was particularly struck by the bright green doors at the end of the alley way.

 

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Ode to a good cup of coffee served in a good cup of coffee cup

Royal Brompton incarceration sketch tour – A decent cup of coffee (3 of 5)

The ‘coffee/tea, please’ people come around the hospital about 4 times a day. Like a good pub after about 3 days in hospital they get to know your drinks order – coffee, white, 2 sugars in my case. Ironically for the Royal Brompton hospital that prides itself on award winning food – Maxwell house is the blend of choice for the NHS and not my particular cup of tea. I think this is because it comes in paper cups and cuts out a lot of the faffing around with tea spoons.

My favourite cup of coffee usually arrived just after breakfast at about 9:15. Three hours later than I am used to – I was an unusual patient as I was up, showered and dressed by 8. This took the attention of 1 doctor who took asked me on one occasion why I got up so early as the rest of his patients were asleep. I explained when you have a 18 month old baby there are two 6 o’clocks in every day… – Anyway my favourite cup of coffee arrived in an orange china cup complete with saucer.

Ironically I can’t draw ellipses and so this post about a decent cup of coffee relies on some dodgy drawings of NHS cutlery.

 

Initial Sketch completed in hospital.

Charcoal sketch to help create a finished painting.

 

Finished watercolour of the NHS orange cup of coffee.

 

Paper cup of Maxwell house designed to leave you wanting more…

Finally I have been experimenting with ipad sketching.

Out and about in Old London Town…

Royal Brompton Incarceration Sketch tour - 3 of 5

It is very boring in hospital especially when you are just waiting for IV drugs to be administered 3 times a day. To relive the monotony at the Royal Brompton Hospital you are encouraged to go out and about for a walk. You have to sign a disclaimer to say you will come back and failure to return will mean your bed will be reallocated after 24 hours. Apparently this is to help focus the young minds of teenagers who see the afternoon walk as an escape route to more exciting ways to enjoy London – and in the process miss their medication. I had to sign it. I am 39.

 

So where to go in Old London Town? I walked the main Fulham Road high street and came across a MandS – Brilliant for Milkshakes, a fantastic book shop and the worlds first and I believe only Virgin only fitness club – Although I may have read the sign wrong…But my favourite outings was to Albert Bridge as the last time I was in London it was being renovated. It has been painted shockingly in lime/yellow green and light blue. Despite this is remains an amazing structure and one that I sketched in pen and ink.

The Guard house on the Bridge has this rather out dated message – ‘All troops must break step when marching over this bridge’ It seems odd now, that the pounding of booted feet, should cause so much structural uncertainty that a notice was required. Yet today thousands of Lorries, cars and pedestrians pass over the bridge without a hitch and without noticing the stark warning. Maybe steel is stronger these days?

It was while I was drawing the guard house that is occurred to me the Congestion Charge cameras had been moved. I park regularly in Kensington so I looked it up on the web to find out what new technology is being used to record the congestion charge stickers on windscreens – Only to find out the congestion zone has moved and I have been paying £10 for no reason for 8 months…Not impressed. Thank –you Boris.

 

Read more from the Royal Brompton Incarceration sketch tour…

Why is frosted glass so hard to find in London?

Royal Brompton Incarceration Sketch tour – (2 of 5)

Okay so the Royal Brompton hospital Cystic Fibrosis Unit, sounds like the Hilton hotel, right? TV, computer, En suite…But I forgot to mention that after every meal time for the first 48 hours there was a small prick to test for Diabetes – regardless of whether you have the complaint or not. If a prick is missed the 48 hours is reset. So you can be sure I was ringing the nurses for my prick after every mealtime.

The sketch above is the view from my narrow window in my room. I can see across to the Nurses Quarters and the stair well. At night I developed a game to guess which room a person lived in, by watching to see what lights come on as people climbed the stairs to their accommodation. A bit like in Sneakers. I noticed that people left items on their window ledges – most notable running shoes, bottles of drink and a big red plastic bag – I’m guessing full of rubbish and part of an extreme refuse collection. A sport that seemed to start at 4 in the morning with the clearing up of bottles from the public house at the end of the alley. One day it rained and all the possessions got wet.

This sketch is of my view from my en-suite see-through window and quite a surprise for me as I am used to frosted glass in a bathroom. I guess when you are 4 floors up dignity goes out the window.

 

More from the Royal Brompton Incarceration sketch tour…

Royal Brompton Incarceration Sketch Tour 2012 – My room (1 of 5)

So in March 2012, almost a year after my last hospital admission,  I found myself in the Royal Brompton National Heart and Lung hospital for IV drugs to finally get rid of an infection that caused me immense problems in 2011. To pass the time I used the opportunity to sharpen up my sketching skills and to try and find something nice about London.

The main entrance of the Royal Brompton Hospital South Block where the specialist Cystic Fibrosis (CF) unit resides in the old Private wing. All CF patients get their own room with en-suite, TV, computer (if you want one), fridge and for some reason an exercise bike. What I like about the buildings in London is the reflections of trees that appear in the windows.

Below is a pencil sketch of my bed. As with most hospital beds it can be put into any position. It also gets stuck in any position which I found out to my cost on the first night when the end of the bed became dipped all night long and I kept slipping to the foot of the bed. I don;t like to disturb the nurses for such trivial matters so I woke in the morning scrunched up and achy.

I don’t know what interior decorator was in on the day they painted my room, but lime/yellow/brown walls seemed to be in. The slit window was my only source of light and also breeze in a room that got upto 36 degrees at night. The vinyl chairs in hospital are almost comfortable and yes, snot green in colour. NIce. Aids the recovery.

 

Coming up on the Royal Brompton Incarceration Tour…Albert Bridge…Why I drew the blinds in the Toilet…Motorcycles and buildings.