This logo materialized from a doodling session on a boring afternoon in an Office along the Purley way, Croydon, where I worked with Nicole Chauvin when we lived at Birdhurst Rise together. We used to walk there and back everyday, nearly two miles each way.

The act of this sketch’s creation was very restful and therapeutic and exceedingly necessary, for it cured me of the stress and depression I would otherwise have experienced; sitting there seething with restlessness and frustration, knowing I would rather be doing other things in other places. Conversely, Nicole appeared to be utterly absorbed in her work: cool, calm, collected – completely at ease and in her element. Whether or not that was just a front, I don’t know

The act of sketching also saved me from developing acid indigestion, probably followed by uncomfortable flatulence as a result of wrestling with some gutty clerical task. In fact, talking of flatulence, I recall very clearly the afternoon lunchtime that Nicole and I visited the Propeller pub on the Purley Way, near the corner of Denning Avenue and Stafford Road at the junction known as the Fiveways], which was absolutely jam-packed with seriously committed drinkers and where I was hit by the searing blast of heat, the burbling noise of meaningless chatter and almost completely overpowered by the malodorous sea of flatulence inundating my olfactory system. The Propeller was demolished in 2008 and set to be replaced by a leisure centre. May there be no more odious gas leaks there.

On a pleasanter note, I often recall the lunchtime Nicole and I visited the café in Denning Avenue, just around the corner from the Propeller, where I sat and listened to the Detroit Emerald’s ebullient rendition of ‘Feel the Need in Me’, over and over again on the jukebox. I absolutely loved the number, although it seemed to leave Nicole somewhat underwhelmed.

The legendary creature represented here is known as a cockatrice, hence the title. Otherwise known as a Basilisk [mythical reptile or real-life, present-day green-crested “the male” lizard of Central America] or; as a Wyvern. In heraldry the Wyvern is depicted as a winged two-legged dragon with a cock’s head [cockerel’s head, that is]. The sketch is rendered in colour biro.

Dave Draper June 2014