I'm getting my head around actually doing some drawing and painting again, the projects and ideas are finally being given some thought space again. I've been translating and dealing with the paper work and general horrors of being freelance. But I am at home, and I've finally splashed out on my spare room studio/office, it's not really finished yet but it's getting there. It's starting to look pretty good.

I haven't been drawing or anything but I've been trawling through blogs getting myself all jealous and inadequate looking at how sorted everyone in blog land seems to be. Jealousy isn't an attractive quality but it does remind me that I need to be doing some creative stuff myself instead of just despising others for doing it. I've been uploading stuff on flickr and getting into facebook, so I haven't been completely absent. But anyway, just now I've been reading some of my old posts and it was nice to see where I was then and think about where I am now. I feel so much stronger now than I was even just a year ago. I feel like a big strong version of Judy, it's good. That's what happens when you look after yourself a bit.

I started speaking Catalan this summer, but really speaking it and now I can't stop. I've been here in Lleida for 5 years and I'd studied Catalan from the first year I was here and everyone I know speaks Catalan, but I just kept clinging to Spanish, scared to make to leap over to Catalan. And then suddenly in August I just didn't seem to care anymore and it just started to come out, all the words and expressions I'd been internalising and assimilating suddenly decided they were ready to create my Catalan self, not that my Catalan is perfect but it did seem to come out like a butterfly, fully formed. It feels more natural to speak Catalan instead of Spanish now. It's beautiful the way things flourish when you just leave them alone and let them develop of their own accord. I think translating from Catalan to English has helped an enormous amount though, it's improved my vocabulary no end.

Better get back to work, I'm translating things about wine and the grape harvest so it's not too bad today :)