9 days.

I am counting down the days 'til I see Alice In Wonderland. I'm reeeally excited about this.

I have watched two different trailers twice in an attempt to make an effort to listen to the musical score after a conversation at work today... but each time I get soo sucked in by the visuals I can't even hear it! I guess a good film score adds to the emotion and feel of a film without you really noticing it... and if that's the case, then this is going to be one hell of a film.

Countdown.

Whyyyy does the week to payday go sooo slooooowly. Today was like five days all crammed into one... possibly something to do with the fact that I had 3 days of work to catch up on after taking some annual leave last week... but still. I get paid on Friday. And it's only Monday.

I'm going to see The Rocky Horror Show on Friday evening- but I don't think the usual Rocky Attire is very snow appropriate so I'll be pulling those skinny jeans on instead. And wearing snow shoes possibly. eek.

Material Goods.

Shit. I need to blog. In case anyone still reads... I have survived the snow.

I have no excuse. I'll be sitting on the train and see something wierd and think- blog it. But by the time I've got home, got changed and a mug of tea in my hand I've either forgotten said event or found something more boring-but-necessary to do. This sucks. I really need to get my phone synched to do this sort of stuff because there are things that happen on my commute that need to be blogged about. Things seen, heard, read... I mean we're talking really wierd stuff here.

I've spent alot of money since christmas. I have a lot of new clothes in my wardrobe which is good news. I have a couple of pairs of new shoes including some kick ass heels and some awesome patent platform ankle boots both of which will get an outing at Eddies in due course. Not at the same time though obviously. I have a replacement Mp3 player with some awesome ear phones that makes it sound like the music is coming from the very epicentre of my brain- this is very pleasing to me- I thank you Mr. Reznor for your delightful noise in my earphones. I also have a new wireless printer which does just about everything -scans, copies, prints photo's and can even do it's own graph paper. Not that I have much need for graph paper... but you never know- it could be vital one day.

Today I said goodbye to my brother who's gone back to live in Japan. Kinda wierd. So, now I need my friends to start having babies so I can play Auntie since I'm not going to get the opportunity with my brother's kids. Any takers?

Update for Mr Reznor

If you're reading this Trent... I have a few more covers recommendations to add:

• I Can't Dance by Genesis (You have to trust me on this one)
• Close To Me by The Cure
• All That She Wants by Ace of Base
• I Need You Tonight by INXS ( Go on, TELL me that wouldn't be amazing!)
• Lullaby by The Cure
• I Feel Loved by Depeche Mode
• Ashes to Ashes by Faith No More
• Discoteque by U2 (and they'd do a damn better version than Bono's little brain could ever comprehend or cope with)

On Candystripe legs...

(That's a quote from The Cure by the way).

It smells like Autumn. You can see more of the sky because there are no leaves left on the trees. It's fresh and crisp. I like it.

It's Bonfire night tomorrow. After that, it's officially christmas. Woop!

I have a total of 1 Christmas present bought so far. Not a flying start I admit, but it's a start. I know what christmas tree theme I'm having this year- Candystripe on my black tree. Tim Burton is going to bow to my fantastic candy stripe christmas tree. I have no decorations yet but I can already see how awesome it's going to be in my head. All will bask in it's glory. Well, I will anyway. I will be wrapping my presents to match of course as is the Slink quality standard.

In other, less stripey news, I have immersed myself in the familiar and comforting smell of Polymer clay fumes today. I've used some rare time off work to do what I love most... mess about with clay. I've missed just about everything about it... apart from how washing your hands every 20 minutes completely destroys your skin.

Ah well. It's good to be back. :-)

Uncomplete.

I haven't had the time to blog for months. I hate it, actually. Being busy is all well and good but it means months roll by and before you know it it's nearly christmas again.

I've been in my "was new" job for six months now and passed all my probationary wotsits so that's good news. Six months have absolutely flown by. I felt pretty out of sorts last week and I put it down to not being able to make stuff.

I don't feel complete. Working full time at a job with good earning potential and good long term prospects is the sensible thing to do. Hell I've got a pension for gawds sakes which I suppose is a good thing... but it means alot of my days are sucked into a meaningless blur of commuting and the hum of computers, shuffling papers and earning money to pay my bills. Necessary I guess but it's not allowing me room to be do what I do best. It's not allowing me to stretch my creative self and make stuff which is the only time I feel truly complete. Whole.

I have a project in mind which could take a few months. Once I get the materials I'll make a start on it not only because I want to but because I need to for the sake of my creative brain. My biggest fear right here in the moment is losing my creativity; losing my ability to make things would be like cutting both my arms off. If I'm not able to find time to make things then I might as well.

I miss blogland. I will make more of an effort.

Good Deed for the Day...

Helping a pregnant lady tie up her shoe lace on the train!

Smells.

I have a new job. I'm officially a commuter now- working in the city and travelling in by train every day.

This morning was quite an assault on the senses; or more specifically the nose.

First of all, the usual train smell is enough to be contending with- that musty, warm, burnt-fuel smell that sets you up for a full days work.

Next, a slightly-more-than-middle aged man gets on the train and sits behind me. Accompanying him is a wafty smell that comes and goes. I wasted a good few minutes trying to work out if it was parsnips, a cheap cologne- or what I prefer to call Man-Perfume- or possibly an expensive cologne that unfortunately smells of parsnips.

Off the train, and at New Street station is where the real onslaught begins. Straight away the smells of big, dirty trains, and probably plenty of big, dirty commuters too. Through the kiosks, passed the odd waft of various perfumes from passers by and up the escalators to the main shopping precinct, and now the nose goes into hyperdrive. First up is the warm smell of Subway. All subways smell the same, and it's never all that pleasant; not necessarily a bad smell but it certainly does NOT smell fresh. Next door is the fruit juice stand. Smells from here are far more interesting- varied, tangy, sweet and bitter all mixed into one strange smell, but you don't get chance to revel in it because right next door to that is the pretzel shop. This actually smells rather nice- it's a smell that reminds me of breakfast in New York and it makes me feel happily hungry. Out on the street, and it's full of fumes and traffic smells, dirt and unescapable nicotine clouds.

Even reaching my office building and I'm greeted by the smell of newly cleaned floors, photo copyer ink and heat, new paper, the odd coffee and bacon sandwhich, then finally, after it all... the comfort of slowly burning computer dust.

Thank you Mr Darwin.

It's been Darwin week on the BBC recently... and geez was THAT needed. In recent weeks I've noticed crazy christian beliefs sneeking into normal tv programs and it's pissed me off enormously. Now, I don't mind there being christian tv programs, I have no objection to Songs of Praise being on TV and advertised clearly so that I can avoid it like the plague, but I don't necessarily like it being not-so-subtly implanted into storylines and plots in regular tv programs like Eastenders and Holby city. The latter has obviously taken on some Church-going script writers in recent months and it became increasingly more comical and blatant by the week. Similarly, I can cope with Christian characters in TV land. What I object to are these "subtle" undertones of Faith and higher-self messages in plot lines. It's not big, it's not clever, it's down right irritating and not what I pay £135 a year for.

However, last week, the Beeb redeemed itself with a week of programs about the genius of Darwin (a fellow Midlander of course) and a man who we should ALL be grateful for bringing sense and reason to the world through science and fact. Ah sweet sweet fact and evidence.

I cannot even imagine how different the world would be if Darwin hadn't devoted his life to these studies... though I would have hoped that if he hadn't, someone else would have. How brave of him though, to actually come forward with his studies and present them to a world where free-thinking was considered dangerous and evil. Amazing man.

Snow Haiku

I went for a walk
Snow cushioned each step I took
still crunchy and soft.

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.

Shock Horror.

It's been a while hasn't it?

Things have changed alot. Some good- others pretty crap, but what matters is I'm hopefully going to be back blogging.

Far too much to go into detail about right now because a few weeks ago I discovered something so shocking I have only just brought myself to blog about it.

This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6pJMOPJlMI shocked me to my core. They even said the rude bits! Unacceptable. Wrong. Sacrilige. Travesty.

I hope Mr Reznor ate them for breakfast shortly after this horror.

Speaking of Reznor, I've been meaning to keep notes of all the songs that I think NIN would do a freak'n awesome cover of, so that I can eventually send it to him and claim royalties when the cover album is released and makes millions worldwide. From now on I shall be making an Slinks-recommended-future-NIN-covers list right here.

So far I have:

• I Need You Tonight by INXS ( Go on, TELL me that wouldn't be amazing!)
• Lullaby by The Cure
• I Feel Loved by Depeche Mode
• Ashes to Ashes by Faith No More

More to be added. :-)

slinking off on ajet plane...

I was informed of my birthday present the other night. I had a hunch it was a trip to London for a few days but I got it ever so slightly wrong. I am in fact heading off to New York for three days which is on the right side of awesome. :-)

Yowzer.

Sooo... by personal request ;) here is some of the work I've been occupying my time with over the last few months:

I'm preparing for a mail out of postcards and some cool little mini bookmarks that I had printed at the start of the year, though I have a feeling I'm going to be distracted by my birthday suprise next week which involves being taken on a mini break away to a mystery location. It's all very exciting but I fear there'll be a lack of alcohol to my birthday celebrations this year for two reasons:

1). I've been informed that I have to get up at 6am the day after my birthday to travel to the mystery location.

2). My tummy is absolutely buggered. I don't know why. I don't know what the hell is up with it but it's just wrong, and it has been for about two months. The doctor had a good poke at it today but she didn't seem concerned at all by my symptoms. She's told me to stick to a bland diet, no fizzy drinks, fruit juices or tea/coffee and to go back in 2 weeks. That's if I haven't died of a perforated ulcer of course.

Mountains and Mole Hills.

My mood is all over the place at the moment. One day I can feel quite contented and buzzing with creativity, the next I'm having a not-so-mid-life-crisis. I think it's money really. I was relying on winning the euromillions last week, and against all odds we did! However, seven pounds won't stretch very far between the seven fold syndicate we had. Instead we bought scratch cards in a desperate attempt at bagging us some cash... but we only made a grand total of £2. Ah well.

Anywhoo, "AllyCats" was finished last week along with another one day project for my portfolio called "Me and My Dinosaur". I have lots more ideas to be getting on with right now which will be a welcome distraction from the dreaded job hunt which isn't helping my moods much. Another positive is that it's only about 6 weeks til my birthday and I need some more clay so the timing will be perfect. Although I might have to miss out on a new coat or some other far more interesting but less career focussed pressies.

Oh, I'm also trying to catch up with people at the minute so forgive me if I love you heaps but haven't got round to saying hello, how you doin? yet... I do care. Time just seems to ... pass by. Unless it's getting caught up in the mole hills.

Laters. x

Stuff...

I hope a great Christmas and New Year was had by all. I apologise for the lack of updates. It tends to happen when all you have going on is fish dying and buying baubles.

Speaking of which I have news.

Tallulah died. Both our veteren fish Edgar Alan Poe and Tallulah were being attacked by Dumbledore who had to be seperated and was renamed Voldemort. We tried to reintroduce them all at various stages but after a savage attack on Poe, The Evil one was banished to a bare tank until further arrangements could be made. We gave him away to a local school where he could be kept on his own in the hope he doesn't start trying to attack the children. Not our problem anymore anyway.

So yeah I think the stress from that made Tallulah ill and despite rescueing them from a bout of White Spot, she sadly died a few weeks ago. At the same time we'd inherited a great big 54 litre tank from my sister... but were left with only one goldfish! Talk about irony. So, the plan is to keep Poe in a smaller tank on his own where he seems quite happy now he's settled, and have the new tank ready and set up to get some fancy goldfish at the weekend. Can't wait. We've never had a big tank before and we've never had any fancies either so it's going to be a step up for us.

In other, less fishy news, I'm piss bored of my part time job right now and am having to have some serious thinking sessions about wether or not I stick it out to give my illustrations another years chance, I get another part time job and thus stick with the illustration still, OR re-train for another career, OR number two I just look for a fulltime position elsewhere. The last two make me feel shit because I want to illustrate and I spent three years developing my skills at uni and getting myself into debt for nothing. The first one leaves me feeling completely utterly miserable and the one in the middle leaves me feeling like I'm not doing enough still. I'm a bit lost to be honest... but we'll see. In the meantime however, I'm working on a new illustration at the moment and it's a biggy. It's called "Allycats" and although I haven't got very far with it yet I'm soo glad to be getting back into making stuff.

I have a birthday suprise being planned and its already leaked out that it's some form of mini-holiday but I'm not sure where or what it entails yet but it's all very exciting. I need a break away... even if it's not far away.

Japanese lessons are going okay... it's getting much harder but I'm now able to say 56730033 in Japanese. It might take me a while to work it out and even longer to say it but I can do it!!!

By the way if you're wondering it's: Go sen roppyaku nana-ju san man san-ju san. :-) I think.

Fishy Business

The newbies are sick. Our remaining oldie is sick. It's not good news on the old goldfish front.

We named the newbies Little Tallulah (which I believe is Choctaw for Leaping Water or something like that; she's goldish brown) and Dumbledore (who is grey with black speckles). They all (including Edgar Alan Poe) have White Spot, which we're trying our hardest to treat but so far there's no sign of improvement. We've had to seperate Dumbledore because he seemed to be trying to eat the fins of both Poe; who is about three times his size I might add, and Little Tallulah who seemed to be suffering from a lot of stress. Since Dumbledore's been seperated Little T has been doing much better but all three of them still need to shake off White Spot before we're all in the clear. Man, who said keeping goldfish was easy!!! By a strange twist of fate though, if they hadn't got sickm, requiring an emergency visit to the local garden centre for fish medicine supplies I wouldn't have bagged myself my bargain of the year. They only went and had a half price sale of all their christmas stock! So, never to miss out on a bargain I bought half our christmas baubles for next years red/white theme for half price!

Saturday, we met up with Rfa, Ktp, John and Dave and a whole host of Rfa's friends for his birthday tour of the Wychwood brewery/curry night. Despite having to leave early at 8, it was a great weekend; made me feel all studenty again sitting outside in the dark with a log burner, eating curry. The tour wasn't too bad either despite it being cold and smelly. I even tried some of the beer and it didn't taste like poison or wee so that was a first! We got a free glass each, a nice little half pinter with a hobgoblin on it. :-)

So, incase it's escaped your notice it's christmas day tomorrow. The pressies under the tree have seemed to multiply after numerous parcels last week, my nails are painted a bright purpley-petrol colour, I bought a wicked cool She-Ra T-shirt for tomorrow, the flat was vacuumed and tidied to a musical soundtrack of Bill Withers and System of a Down for tomorrows un-wrapping-presents-freny and my friend Becko is coming tonight to help me highlight my hair and drink Baileys and so I'm feeling the twinkly christmas spirit. Awesome.

To anyone reading, have an awesome christmas!

*waves*

My kidneys returned to normal functioning a few weeks ago I'm glad to say; just in time to completely re-arrange the lounge to accomodate the christmas tree which I put up last thursday. I love it. We've stuck with black, white and silver again this year... but next year it's going to be red and white. I'll have to set up a bauble fund though I think to cope with the complete new range of decorations we'll need.

Check out my wrapping baby... the bows aren't bad eh? The pressies look a bit sparse this year which totally does NOT reflect just how much I've bloody well spent but still. To be fair alot of them had to be posted to Ireland and Japan. I should also introduce you to radiator monkey too by the way in the background of the last photo ... :-) He's cool.

We do have some sad news unfortunately. Wenda, our goldfish died last week. She hadn't been well for a while and despite our attempts to stem what seemed to be some sort of internal bacterial infection, she died. It was pretty sad actually because we've had her for years and I'm pretty sure Edgar Alan Poe went through a few days worth of fish-grief. Seriously he seemed really blue and lonely, so obviously we had to go right out and get him a new friend. I couldn't resist getting two new little ones to add to the tank. So, we now have two new fishies who are currently nameless. They're both really small still and look teeny compared to big old Poe but they all seem to be getting on nicely so far.

RIP Wenda.

Kidneys.

They exploded.

Well.. not really. But for the last week it's felt like it. I've had a kidney infection and even though I finished my antibiotics on monday... it still feels like I'm being punched over and over again in my sides and back. Urgh it's horrid. My doctor didn't retest me to see if the infection was still present, even though I was still complaining of pain... he said it may take a few days for any swelling to go down which is probably what the pain is. Hrmmm... that or he just wanted to get home and couldn't be arsed. I can't decide which yet. All I know is that it hurts.

And because I'm some sort of sadist I just took a look at my bank balance. All my christmas shopping is DONE but my god does it show.

Pain and debt. Just peachy. Could be worse though... I could have had a huge furball like this woman.

BAD. Mood.

I have had a stinking headache all afternoon at work.

I'm cold.

I'm hungry.

I'm on my period.

My wisdom tooth has suddenly decide to twist into the side of my mouth and cause me pain.

Today is NOT a good day for Asda to STILL be out of their cheese topped rolls.

Bauble Edit

To correct the last post...

I have actually purchased four loose baubles, four fancy decorations, one pack 27 of mini baubles, and a pack of 6 baubles. So er... that actually makes 41.

Holy crap. And I was even in denial about it.

I have a problem.

dance chameleon dance!

We went to the reptile store recently to get Gizmo some more crickets, and there he was; the cutest little chameleon I've ever seen. He did this awesome funny little wobble dance which was just hilarious and if they weren't so difficult to look after I would have been tempted to get one. Alas, it's not to be. They have a lot of requirements and besides we don't have the space at home for one. However, I'm adding a dancing chameleon to my list, beneath tortoise of course, for possible future pets when we're rich enough to get a proper house with a garden. :-)

Other news? Well the japanese lessons are going okay. We're half way through learning the Hiragana table and I seem to be strangely good at learning the symbols. I keep suprising myself how quickly I can remember them, but I think it has something to do with my amazing picto-brain and the handy pictures we have to help us learn each symbol. The word side of things has been a little bit more complicated, as has learning numbers, but all in all I'm just glad to be still enjoying learning a language since I've never enjoyed learning one before.

I've started my christmas shopping too. It's always bittersweet because I love getting presents... well no, actually I love GIVING the presents. I love the wrapping them to look all nice and I love giving them out... the shopping bit beforehand is stressful, tiring and frickin expensive. I spent a fortune the other day and I only got one main present, some christmas cards and two smaller presents which barely count. I'm just avoiding looking at my bank account altogether for a few months I think. If I can't see it... it's not there. Looming. Screaming at me to NOT BUY THE POSH WRAPPING PAPER!!!! Nooooooooooooooooooooo! It all HAS to match my christmas tree. I've so far only bought like five baubles this year. That's good for me. I refrained from spending loads on a pack of three wicked black baubles with skulls on them which only showed up when you shone light through them. So, for that amazing show of strength I'm planning on going to selfridges to get some posh white ones. :-D Yeah yeah.. I'm weak when it comes to christmas trees. But, I have to perfect the art of my black and white christmas tree before I move on to next years Tim Burton-esque green tree with red and white candystripe decorations!

Must get out more.

Ladybird.

I saw a Ladybird today. It's October but there's still Ladybirds about. Wierd.

Anyway. The Creative review ad seems to be working... but in the wrong sort of a way. I've had two offers for more advertising prospects, costing an arm and a leg of course. One would be extremely advantagous but I simply cannot get the money required in the space of time I have, especially this near to Christmas. I feel like I'm passing up a really good oppurtunity here, but I simply don't have the money to do it and a bank loan doesn't seem to be a sensible option either. So, I have two more months in Creative Review and I think thats going to have to do for the time being. If I can just get rid of the sales calls and get some actual commissions from it I'll be far happier about my decision to pass up on this latest offer. :-(

Sucks.