'We travel by night, because the Sun burns the unicorn'

A hundred years ago, I took delivery of this friendly dog-guarded parcel...an instantly recognisable drawing style, for anyone familiar with the jaunty line of Ms Emma McCann.

Inside were the fabled Travelling sketchbook, still with a faint tan from its Greek birthplace and a little present in the Grand Tradition; a 3D drawing set; (thank you, Emma!) watch yourselves Pixar, here I come.

The innner sleeve contained - a little paper boat, a sheet of gorgeous Greek stamps, and some spare pages for experiments, which I wish I'd used properly; I have the dubious honour of being the first person to commit open-page surgery on the TSB.

Being first and foremost a painter, I started laying down washes on the Moleskine pages. Bad. Wrong. I don't know why they say it's for watercolour, as it has all the holding properties of a greaseproof pasty wrapper. So I carefully sliced the wrinkled mess out and did my piece again, this time on stretched watercolour paper, to be glued in carefuly. It's the first 'from my head' art I've done for half a year, being tied up with nice, safe, money-earning jobs. It's a bit strange...

'WE TRAVEL BY NIGHT, BECAUSE THE SUN BURNS THE UNICORN'

And no, I'm afraid I haven't got a clue what it's all about...