Have you been out today?

Hah! I have finally successfully fitted my new dynamo to my bike. It took a nearly two month long war of attrition to do so but it's on and it seems to work. Hurrah! For the record let it be known that normally I would not take quite so long to complete what ought to be a simple task but due to the absence of a solitary tiny grub screw (and the absence of any decent instructions that might have suggested that said grub screw should have existed and, indeed, formed a vital part of the electrics of the whole set-up) it took me a long while to realise what was wrong. Further obfuscation was provided by the various bits and pieces that were included but which serve no useful purpose whatsoever. However, having finally worked out (through various bits of Googling) that the problem was all to do with my back light not having a negative earth (don't ask me what this means) I was able to rig up a grub screw-free solution using a spare bit of wire in a suitably Heath Robinson style. Sadly no coat hangers were involved.

The make of this particular model of dynamo is "Basta" and I have my own theories as to why this should be.

In other news I have (pending a suitable sigh of approval from the client) finished a tiny commission to draw a televangelist-style character as a figurehead for a regular column in a magazine about new technologies in the church. Again, this should have been a simple (and swiftly despatched) task but due to said client foolishly failing to specify a deadline (due to a genuine lack of urgency) the work behaved as my O level physics teacher long ago informed me that gases do - it expanded to fill the space available to it. Still, it turned out okay I think. Assuming the client, the estimable Brian, has no objections then I may post up the end result later.

I've had a couple of larger commissions come through for Horrible Histories in the past week: a poster about the Wars of the Roses and a comic strip on the same theme. Good to have a couple of meatier jobs after a run of spot illustrations (not least financially). The comic strips can drive me a bit mad when I do them but they're a bit more challenging too and probably better for me. Like a proper meal after living on snacks for a while.