The Great British Art of Complaining.

I read this today. Highly amusing.

Virgin Air Food Complaint Letter.

This one is deserving of a mention too and I can completely sympathise having had tanglings with ntl in the past.

I'm keeping them here for future reference because I think I'm going to need them as templates for communication with our wonderfully shite lettings agent. I thought we'd rid ourselves of one bad agent- slow, rude, unhelpful and miserable creatures who when asked to carry out tasks completely within the confines of their job role, reacted like we'd just asked them to climb Everest. However, we've since learnt that actually, they weren't so bad.

Our new letting agent has two of the rudest, slowest, incredibly dull, thick-as-two-short-planks, idiots working for them- it's hard to believe they manage to make it to work every day. We've so far been waiting two months for them to make a phonecall and arrange for our aerial to be fixed so we can actually use our tv properly. Something about them being able to actually make that call seems far too difficult for them to grasp, yet we're not able to arrange for it to be fixed ourselves because the agent apparantly has to use their own contractors. So, in my typical rottweiler manner I'm phoning them every day to check if they've sorted it out. :-) The person I spoke to yesterday gave me the delightful excuse of "well it hasn't been a problem before" as the reason for them being slow with it... hrmm, wierd. So if the boiler explodes I guess their won't be a rush on that either because it won't have been an issue before. I'm aware it's only a TV aerial. It's not an urgent matter- however, we've been extremely patient up to now having waited two months when we could have easily, quickly and simply arranged for this to be fixed within 2 weeks!

This will be the last time we use a letting agent. They're completely, utterly useless.

Too Cold to Create.

Currently Listening to: Bob Marley

... which doesn't feel right when it's freezing cold both inside and out. It's the kind of music which really doesn't suit cold, stark, grey days; a bit like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers who seem to hibernate over the colder months only to re-appear every summer without fail.

I am officially too cold to create stuff today.

It must be about 3 degrees out today and probably not much warmer in this bloody igloo of a house either. I'm meant to be working on a commission but my hand's are too cold to work with the clay. The light is now dimming to since it's nearly four o'clock so not only will I be freezing cold, but unable to see as well.

That said, the most productive thing I have done today is: Clean the bathroom- and I didn't even do that properly because I didn't mop the floor.

Ah well, it is a wednesday. Wednesdays are always a bit rubbish aren't they?

Change.

So, here I am. New town. Well, it's a city actually which doesn't feel right because it's smaller than the town we just moved from. Anyhoo, yeah new location, new flat, new year. And hopefully, a new job within the next month.

I can't quite believe how quickly time has flown over the last few months. We're settled, just about. I have a new studio room with a nice big spare desk that I can work on. I'm currently undertaking a project which is my first paid commission and I'm already nervous about presenting it to the customers since it's an emotive and personal subject I'm sculpting... but I'm relishing the challenge and love that I'll be able to send out my second invoice. wooot!

I have a new website for my artwork which will hopefully integrate some of my personal commissions. Any more and I'll have to strip the Illustration bit altogether. It's not live yet though, since I haven't had proper internet access to upload all my work.

I feel positive, despite the cold, the economic gloom and it being January/February which are by far the worst months ever. Aside from October, and September.

Speaking of cold; This new flat is bloody freezing. An old, converted house with brick, uninsulated walls and single glazed windows, it's colder than an igloo. The first few nights we were here, you could actually see your hair moving in the draughts! Needless to say, after one electric blanket, numerous draught excluder tape rolls and door sausages (draught excluders) as I call them, we're coping. Just, whenever it drops below 4 degrees in the UK, think of me shivering away in my black furry slippers and five jumpers.

Good news of the day: I completed more of my sculpture and feel it's going pretty well.
Bad news of the day: I forgot my age for about 5 minutes today. I couldn't think if I was 25 already or 25 this coming birthday... sadly it was the former.