OLYMPIC UPDATE

Ok, so you spotted that was Eddie, not the tin-tray girl. Here's my version of the Golden Slider - what a star!

OLYMPIC GOLDEN GIRL

Splendid Gold Medal win for Amy on the Skelly this morning - stayed up to cheer her on. Won by half a second! How did they do that before electronic timing, then? I'll try and get a cartoon of her into the listings before too long - that'll double my cartoons of British Winter Olympic Heroes. This (left) is the other one!!! http://www.normanhood.co.uk/cartoonstore/other_sports/LEOTHER.htm

TIGER SALES TO PICK UP...?

Tiger Woods has apologised! Not just for his extra-marital misdemeanours, but for knocking a hole in my eBay sales. Trends may come and go, but my Tiger cartoons always paid for a pint or two down at the Red Lion every week. Come the disgrace, nobody wants Tiger. Now he's said sorry, lets get the golfing pictures moving again folks.....http://www.normanhood.co.uk/cartoonstore/golf/LEGOLF.htm

PORTSMOUTH IN DEEP DOO-DOO

Just listening to discussion on Radio 5live about the troubles of Portsmouth Football Club - what a diabolical mess they've got into. Be a tragedy if such a big club went under, but it sure looks dodgy. Like all Villa supporters I had my moans during the Deadly Doug Ellis days, but in hindsight what a brilliant job he did - not only running the club as a business, rather than a hobby, which gave us a sound financial base...and then holding on until an equally competent buyer could be found in the splendid Randy Lerner. What Liverpool and Manchester United would give to be run by that American!!

WUDJA BELIEVE IT?

After moaning non-stop for the first forty days of 2010, it's suddenly sparked into life. Orders! I love 'em! Keep them coming!Ebay still dead, though. Loads of prints on last weekend, and hardly a sausage. Oh well.

Trying to get the new players into the appropriate squads after the late transfer flurry. Should have West Ham done this weekend hopefully http://www.normanhood.co.uk/cartoonstore/football/westham/WESTHAM.htm Made a slight ricketts with Hammers player Diamanti - see pikky. The 'e' on the end has now been changed, thanks to all you sharp-eyed Hammers fans!

Quite a few new players coming through, but then - no more football! For a while anyway. NASCAR, Baseball, Rugby and Music - all need a little attention this Spring!

SNOOKER LOOPY?

Well, at last the phones started ringing - more calls today than the rest of 2010 put together! Perhaps should have paid the bill a bit earlier? Nice to have orders for presentation cartoon portraits coming in again after the January slowdown....strangely quiet in the UK, though. The next three on my drawing board are orders for Chicago, Dubai and Finland - thank goodness for the interweb!

Snooker seems to be the popular sport for print sales today. Even sold a few on eBay, so I'd better sneak a few more players onto the listings. Anyone stumbling across this note who has any requests for sportsmen (not just snooker) to be cartooned, please sing out - I'll try to oblige!

THE FOOTBALL TRANSFER WINDOW BLUES

I love January. Feet up after Christmas, no need to eat turkey till Easter at least, FA Cup on the telly and no English cricket results to worry about till May. Bliss! There's only one fly in't ointment - the ruddy transfer window is open. Now, much of my work is footy related, and prints of players and teams form a considerable part of my beer money. For examples of these, check out www.cartoonstore.co.uk which is my little shop of horrors.

I'd be happy if transfers were spaced out gently through the month - I could keep on top of things and have everybody done and dusted by February 2nd, like old Maxi Rodriguez (the new Liverpool player, pictured here). But no - everybody waits till the last minute, then goes mad on the last day (February 1st this year). So here it is, Feb 3rd, and I'm still frantically trying to find out who went where, then plan which cartoons to get out first. I'm not a Chelsea fan (it will become obvious if these posts continue that my heart is Claret and Blue) but at least they didn't sign anybody - so guess who the first available 2010 squad is going to be!!! Hopefully, I'll get everybody done by about the middle of May when - guess what - the Summer transfer window opens. Maybe I should stick to football legends?

BEWILDERED BUT BLOGGING!

OK, I admit it - I'm a dinosaur. My computer skills are zilch, my knowledge of the interwebbythingy is sketchy, but the kids say I've gotta have a blog....so here goes. Not my kids you understand. Never could do with ankle-biters. But Sarah, who undoes the knots I tie on the computer, and Cheryl whose brood regularly provide me with step-greatgranddaughters and who are comparatively modern - they tell me 'blog and the world will be your chip shop'. And besides, they say 'everybodies doing it!' So who's going to read mine, I mutter defiantly. Just put lots of pictures on it, they said, and you can't go wrong. Yeah, right.

So here goes. I'm going to try and find how to stick my cartoons in here, maybe tell you a bit about them to pad it out a bit, and maybe even sell you some. I'm not proud and I have a large stomach to support. Wish me luck!