Day of the wasp...

new waspie!
Posted by Hello

I got a new waspie today. I've been wanting it for absolute ages and considering I'm going to be getting paid for my work over easter I figured I'd have a splurge today. I love it. :)

As you have guessed... been into Nottingham today, originally on a hunt for some plastic balls for my london eye character. No luck as usual.

But who cares... I got my waspie and it's rock night.

Wooohoo!

Anyone walking past my open window last night would have been subject to hearing a string of profanities as I desperatly tried to finish off my 'gherkin' model for this mornings tutorial. I was so scared but I had no need; it went really well. Andy seemed pleased with my progress and liked what I was doing, he also said my photography was improving too, and gave me a few pointers as to what to do next. I was chuffed. He reassured me I should have enough work to display, but the that I'd have to thoroughly plan out my exhibition so as to get the best out of my work.

Also, yesterday after I got back from helping out a friend who was having a hard time, I came back to find two cards, some choccies and a nice big red heart balloon in my room. It was (obviously) from Niall to say thank you for making his birthday so nice. :) It cheered me up so much.

Another plus came when I realised that I haven't been paid for my easter holiday work yet, so I should be getting another 90 squids at the start of next month. Much needed too. Aside from that it's a sunny day and I no longer have to rush my project as Andy's given me an extension on my deadline so that I can concentrate on 'quality'...

:)

A Birthday

Well yesterday was, I think, a success. When Niall left for his 9.00 lecture, I got up to go and get some bits and bobs. When he got back I'd managed to put up a birthday banner and some balloons in the living room, then I laid out all his pressies with two big helium ballooons upstairs for him to open his pressies. After that we had a cuddle and a nap, before packing up a picnic to take to the park. It was actually really nice and sunny despite the weather forcast predicting rain, so that was a nice suprise. I had planned to have the picnic in my room if it rained but fortunatly we had the perfect picnic weather. I bought mini scotch eggs, pork pies, doritos, cucumber, cheese rolls then strawberries and cream for afters. It was really nice even if I do say so myself :) .

Back at home, we both needed to do a liiiitle bit of work, but in the evening I cooked us a meal. Now for anyone who doesn't know me... I'm a pretty useless cook. However, I wanted to make the effort so I set about making crunchy turkey steaks (turkey wrapped in a crunchy parsley and thyme stuffing) with green beans and mash. Not too extravagant but it was a big deal for me. I even bought a brand new masher especially. I'm good at mash, my mash is goooood. It went down well, though I had to cook the turkey a bit longer than I'd planned for, so I was a little bit paranoid about it not being cooked enough in the middle. Niall said it was nice though, and I actually liked it too so it was another success.

Later that evening, we (Niall, Me, Rob and Dave) went out for some celebratory drinks in a near by pub. Rfa joined us later and we had a nice evening of drinking and the odd laugh thrown in too. I even felt tipsey which was odd considering I didn't have that much to drink. I think it was because it was Jim Beam instead of my usual JD or Southern Comfort, both of which I seem to have become immune to and can no longer get drunk on. That's not a challenge, just in case any of you are hatching plans out there. When we got home, Niall had a pretty lame attempt at blowing out the candles on the spongebob squarepants birthday cake I'd bought him. It took him like three goes! Wierdo. We ate cake and watched some father ted before going to bed, where I had candles burning to create a nice atmosphere for the rest of the night. Again, it was a success. ;)

Good ol' stockings. ;)

bleeeurrrrghhhnarffff@**?!fnmmphhhh.

That's how I feel at the moment.

Things are going nowhere fast in my latest project. Materials can't be found, and substitutes are failing, money is low so I can't get exactly what I need. Thing's just aren't working and it's pissing me right off. That leads me to not even want to attempt any work because it just goes wrong, which means I don't do enough, which means I haven't GOT enough work for my tutorial on wednesday and that I'm not likely to get this project done in the two weeks I have to do it. My tutor's no help either, he thinks I have all the money on the world to spend on materials, and that I have a secret stash of everything somewhere that I can just pop along to and get the exact thing I need. Er, no. I am in fact a poor student with severe motivation problems. I need a good kick up the ass. Part of the problem lies in getting hold of an old, metal spoked, 15cm diameter wheel (of which there are NONE in the whole worlds it seems. Bike wheels are way too big)... for this juggler/ferris wheel caracter (long story) and last night I was even dreaming about the damn things...

See, I was getting on this wierd ferris wheel type ride, except it wasn't JUST a ferris wheel. Somehow in your typical physically-impossible-inexplicable-dream-scenario-styley , this ferris wheel ride went upside down in the middle and to actually board one of the carriages you had to stand on this wierd rope swing attatchment. So, while standing on this rope thing, the wheel started to move, with me and the rope thing still attatched to the outside of the carriage. I was clinging on as best I could, but I just knew that once I reached the middle where it went upside down, I'd just plummet to my death, so I knew I had to let go. I was already quite high up at this point, but I let go and fell to the ground, suprisingly not sustaining any injuries (woohoo). Wierdly though, I met Niall and my family who'd seen me fall, and they sat me down. They looked shaken and Niall went over to one of the ride managers for what I hoped was to complain about the lack of safety with the wheel, but instead he just sat down and the manager gave him some tea and a hug for looking so worried!

It made me laugh when I woke up, until I realised that bloody wheels were now invading my dreams. Then I thought it was just wierd.

Think it's just the Sunday night blues... but I'm dreading this week. I might actually get told off in my tutorial. Like, properly I mean. But it won't be a shouty telling off, it'll be one of those serious ones, with the eyes and the "this could mean a failure if you don't get your act together" type of expression. Then the same afternoon we have this lecture about graduating and setting up our businesses that goes on til after six. Urghhh.. head hurts just thinking about it. Tomorrow, however should be nice. I have to make Niall have a really nice day because it's his birthday and I want him to feel special.

Fingers crossed.

Sneaky

This is a sneaky post as I really should be getting on with some work. Last night was fab at the first 'Subversion' of the term. I even had a nice natter with Dave which I hardly seem to do much anymore. I will have to make more of an effort in future though, because I miss it and it made the night so much happier. They played some cool stuff and I danced like a maniac for many of them so by the end of the night I was absolutely shattered. This was a good thing as I haven't been sleeping properly since I've been back at Uni. I can't even work out why; I've been eating fine, haven't been worrying about anyting in particular... I just seem to wake up every hour then take another forty minutes to get back to sleep. Last night though, I slept like a baby. That's a rubbish saying, as most babies don't sleep well at all though the night.

So today I woke up early in plenty of time for an appointment that I later discover is actually NEXT week. Bummer. SO, like the fresh faced hard working student I am, I climbed back into bed to catch up on more kip. Niall brought me a nice mug of tea to wake me up later on though so I could do some work.

I guess I should then...

Blogless

Yeah it's fixed. I was blogless for three whole days, but it's fixed. And through no help from blogger's help services either. Fortunatly Dave's computer wizardry reclaimed the missing html code from my blog, though we've no idea how it vanished in the first place. Then I had to re-jig my template to get it back to perfection because bits of it where doing strange things. I think we're all back to normal though. So, now I need to whizz round all my links and catch up.

In other news... I have a spot on my nose. I hardly ever get spots. I'm quite distressed about this one as it's getting bigger by the day and, as my nose is pretty hard to miss anyways, it's kinda in a bad place for noticability.

I'm sure I had something interesting to say.

whoosh.

Another week vanished.

I haven't done enough work. Scratch that, I haven't done any work this week.

Yep that's bad news. I'm back in Uni-land now and it took me all afternoon to unpack. I have waaay too much stuff, even for an art student.

This week's been really strange. I've been a bit all over the place, which isn't all that unusual these days. I have a feeling it's going to get much worse in the next few weeks as I actually have to get my ass in gear some how and work like a trooper to finish up my degree. All I did this week is take photographs of my last model and buy some materials for my next project/competition entry.

I did however, go to Peterborough for the day with Niall. Things have been tense lately as both of us are unsure as to what's going to happen to us next year. Niall has a job in Peterborough, some 86 miles away from Brum, and since I'll be working part time I won't be able to afford rent. It seems I'll be moving home for a while until I get my bearings and clear my overdraft, hell maybe in a few months I'll be in credit, who knows... The point is that we won't be living together and after two, almost three, years of living in each others pockets, it's going to be tough. Niall can't afford to commute that far, so living at home with me seems inplausable. There was a plan to move to Nottingham, but it seems unlikely to be affordable with Niall having hardly any income left over after loan repayments, taxes, travel costs, bills and rent etc. The only affordable and sensible option it seems is for Niall to live in Peterborough, near his job, where he can save money and enjoy his hard earned income. But where will that leave us?There's alot of uncertainty and though loads of couples live apart for years at a time, we've been so used to being around each other. So, I went to Peterborough to see if I could live there. It wasn't good. The place itself was pretty, bar the usual chav population, but it has little to no rock scene, no decent major clubs but a spattering of music venues, and no art supplies shops for me to do my illustration work. Obviously the latter was a bit of an issue as I wouldn't want my career to be comprimised, and neither would Niall. It's so crap. But we'll have to see what happens, I just hate that we can't both be somewhere we want to be, doing what we want, and just be happy. I guess, everyone gets a bit of that at times though.

Other than that, this week, I got my good old SLR out for yet another competition in a local paper. It was to simply take a photo of Brum and match it to a title from the Yellow Pages directory. It got me really into photography again. I want to do a course after Uni when I can afford to, get me beyond the basics that I've been taught, and hopefully back into the dark room again. I miss doing my own developing. I have grouped together some of my best photographs though and started a photoblog. It's called The Hollow and has a small selection of some of my best photos. I need to add some of my Barcelona photo's to it but they're currently stuffed in storage in my parents garage.

Oooh, I also took Niall to the IMAX cinema in Brum as part of his birthday present. I'd never been to an IMAX before but it was cool, apart from the wearing of strange glasses that were way too big for my face and made me look like a bug. The film was about Nascar, and it was nicely done despite it's cheesy moments. I enjoyed it, the 3D IMAX experience was cool and I think Niall loved it too which was good. It even had loads of engineering bits in it, so he was happy. I didn't get motion sickness either. I fancy going to see another one, though it's a bit pricey. They were advertising a film about bugs which looked pretty good 3D wise. I should be back to posting more regularly as I'm back at my own pooter. And, as promised (did I promise? not sure now...) below is a picture of the chocolate fondue artwork I mentioned last post. Yes, I know I know, I'm a genius.

Post Chocolate Fondue Art

Post Fondue Chocolate Sauce Tree
Posted by Hello

Chocolate Fondu

Today, I had one of the best desserts ever which, as you have probably guessed from the title, is a chocolate fondu. I haven't had one for ages so it was a welcome suprise. No matter how full I was from the pretty massive meal I'd eaten just before, I still managed to neck a fair whack of sliced mango, strawberries, grapes marshmallows and bits of sponge cake all soaked in beautiful rich, gooey, hot chocolate. Not to mention the wicked spikes you get to impale the innocent fruit on before dunking. I decided it was a pretty good dessert all round.; You get to take out a bit of anger or underlying resentment by spearing an innocent fleshy fruit, then dunk it in warm sticky chocolate and enjoy the contrasting textures but harmonious flavours. Fab. Then after stuffing my face, being the messy, rather childlike, art student I am, I made a pretty damn fine piece of art out of some chocolate drops on a plate. Using my spikey fondu thing as a tool (don't know if they have a name).. I made a tree.

Tension release, pleasure and art. All in one dessert.

Long Time

Man, It's been a long time since my last post. This has been due to a mix of laziness, busyness and not really having anything interesting to say or talk about. To be honest, I still don't.

So, what have I been up to? Well, a while ago I went to Chester Zoo which was cool. I love zoo's; I always have done since I was small. I just wish they weren't so damn expensive. I went with my mum, dad, my sister and niall and altogether it cost about £70 to get in. I understand they cost a hell of alot to run but for a place where familys will go I thought £70 was a bit extortionate. Anyways aside from that I finished my last project but haven't got round to photographing it yet partly due to bad weather. Mum got me this ace light tent for photographing my models in and I've yet to use it, so when the weathers nicer I'm hoping to use it to photograph my model. I'm also entering another illustration competition, this time for TFL (Transport for London). It's based on New Architecture so Niall and I took a trip down to London to get some inspiration and take some photo's. Despite having to be up and out the house by 7.20 it was such a great day. I'm one of those freaks who have to organise everything so I had a list of train times for back up, had planned out all the tube routes for where we needed to be and pre-booked our tickets on the London Eye. Yeah reading that back I really am a freak. We got used to the tube real quick despite getting a bit lost at the start, and as it wasn't busy it made getting around alot easier. The times I've been to London before have been really busy and a bit of a pain in the ass when it comes to getting to various places but this time it was cool. I really enjoyed it. We were pretty much in Westminster for the morning. As we'd managed to get an earlier train, we had loads of time to spare before boarding our London Eye flight, so we had a look round the Saatchi gallery. Everything was pretty mediocre in there except one installation which blew me away. It was a room filled up to waste height with a large black mold filled with oil. The oil reflected the walls and corners of the traditional oak panelled room, and there was a walkway into the centre where you could stand and admire the effect. It was amazing, the reflection was perfect, so crisp and perfectly still. It was beautiful, even if it did smell like a garage. After the gallery, we had a snack in this cool little cafe called the manga cafe where you could sit and watch japanese cartoons while you ate. I had a nice, what I would call PROPER hot chocolate, actually made of milk and not just water with crappy powder in it that sinks to the bottom. I also had a perfect slice of chocolate cake that was the exact correctness of moistness that a cake should be. Apparently it was made with mayonaise which I thought was a bit wierd, but then I'm no cook. The London eye was pretty cool. Seeing as I don't like heights I was pretty proud of myself. I even walked about and everything to get all the pictures I wanted. You could get such ace photographs up there with the right weather and lenses and stuff.... and if you aren't scared of plummeting to your death from great heights... that would give you the freedom to go right up to the edge and kneel down and stuff. I haven't got my pictures back yet, hopefully some will be decent enough.

After that though, and back on solid ground, we walked to the opposite side of the river to board our boat for our river cruise. We got a special offer two for one deal so it only cost us £8.60 to get return tickets from westminster pier to greenwich pier. I got to see all the buildings I needed to see, and they had a cool crew in board that pointed out all the good stuff. Though cold, we were lucky weather wise too, it rained slightly and it even tried to snow but all in all it was pleasant enough. I really got to enjoy London as it wasn't too busy and I actually got to see it. Usually you're being rushed around galleries, or getting caught in massive crowds of tourists and struggling sticking to some sort of schedule, but this time I got to see London for the place it is and not just for the people rushing around it. It's got a diverse mix of architecture and on the right day could look really impressive. I like discovering new things like that, something you've missed previously. I noticed that in brum too when I showed Niall around for the first time as it got me actually looking at the buildings and landmarks. I'd never actually noticed alot of them, never seen the detail in them, which is quite sad.

I haven't had much sleep the last week or so. I was having to get up early working for 8, leaving at 6, coming home and sleeping, then waking up at night, only to have to get up early again. But, work's finished now til summer. Kid's are so noisy. And grubby. Generally it wasn't too bad this time though, I only got paint in my hair once and spent alot of time in the infants. The infants are noisier than the juniors but they're also scared of you when you shout at them or look angry at them, so they're easier to control. I can't decide if I actually like kids or not. I should probably decide before next summer since I've asked for lots of hours so I can get some money together after graduating. Uuuuargggghhhh the dreaded 'G' word.... not to mention it again until nearer the time. There'll only be about five weeks worth of project work when I get back after easter next week. *£%@~#*! I am in desperate need of a rock night of sorts. I haven't donned my stompy new rock's and a short skirt since my birthday. I have got a loverly new dark/blood red lipstick though. I should be able to post more when I'm back at Uni and re-united with my own pooter. xx