Alex Pearl is not in the Antarctic

I got in a mood and failed to go to Space – that's only partly true, I realised I'd been spending too much money going to London and as I'm off to Amsterdam this week I thought I'd better give it a miss. Speaking of cash I've started to think about winding up my Arts Council grant, which is already rather overdue. I've done most of the things I set out to do (with revisions and diversions) but the one thing I haven't done is be mentored. I did tentatively arrange to meet up with Jordan Baseman but upheavals at home interrupted and I feel too embarrassed to get back in touch now. It occurs to me I could put an ad up on the opportunities page: 'mentor wanted must have the key to artistic success'. To get my evaluation started I've been looking through my cv and at my work in general to try and work out if I've moved on, plateaued, or got worse over the last two years. Its not that clear, and I'm not totally convinced its that important. The only measurable change is that there are a couple more solo shows and a higher proportion of the things I'm involved in have come about by invitation. I could say I have been sought out, but to be honest I've become such an internet whore that I think these people probably trip over me and become entangled.

This navel gazing could become redundant soon as tomorrow I am taking 50 students on the ferry, storms are forecast.

Instead of making my usual pilgrimage to London I decided to head north this weekend to see a show by Lucy Harrison at Norwich Outpost. So for a third of the fare for the same distance I washed up in Norwich, literally it was tipping it down. Admittedly as far as getting your money's worth goes there are fewer galleries in Norwich (as far as I know its just Outpost now) but the shows there are invariably good. I was even moved to write a review as I really liked the books on show. Its a bit rambly and oblique but I've never wanted to write properly. Anyway I need the practice as, inexplicably, Josie Faure Walker at Space emailed me asking me to come along to ‘Schematic: New Media Art from Canada’ to write about it. I will probably fail miserably to think of anything to say, or hate it, or get in a mood and not turn up. We shall see.

In the studio I managed to make a sort of landscape viewer for the show of starscapes, landscapes and interiors I'm having with Andrew Vass in March. Its only in Sproughton which has to qualify as the middle of nowhere but I'm using it as an opportunity to put together a new body of spectacular work (I think that's the word). Some of the work is up on another bloody blog, www.shedchat.blogspot.com