|
|
Sunday, October 28th, 2007
|
|
|
wow, it is such a long time since i have had either the time (until about a month ago) or the energy (from last month til now) to post in here. I've posted quite a lot in my other pdp journal, all my wifflings about design related stuff, though.
Finally uploaded both pictures from new phone photos. Quality is pretty good, great for when i don't have room for a camera or i've forgotten it. It replaces my now defunct samsung mp3 player -with a 2gig card in the expandable memory slot it works fine. Have got an adapter to use with standard 3.5 mil jack headphones so i'm fine and dandy.
Talking of new technology, i am updating from the lounge, curled up on the sofa and frying my eyes with the poor light simply because i can. New Macbook pro is lovely. I think It should have a name although i can't quite figure out whether it is a girl or boy. My feelings are towards Norbert, though. Any ideas? 2.16 pentium dual core, 2gig RAM, 120gb hardrive and extended warranty. Do i sound like those patronising PCWorld adverts yet? Have a lovely wireless mouse with right click and 360 scrolling, plus a whole host of other things that i probably won't use until I'm doing my summer work, or even am back in college in october.
First year finished!. I can't quite believe i'm here, sitting with my spangly new laptop, when a year ago my old one was slowly expiring and i didn't even know what i'd be doing in a month. Seems like a loooong time ago now. Generally i'm pretty damn happy. Although i think the inactivity since i stopped must be getting to me because i've been very snappy and irritable recently. And i am taking the happy pills, for all the good they're doing me at the moment.
Still, have been back at the gym, hoping to boost my metabolism and get some more energy. I'm reluctant to do any work, though because i've got nowhere to do it. My room is the worst state it have ever been in. And being my room, it has been in some states.
Nanna moved into her shack a couple of days ago, but it seems like despite the monumental amount of tack she has already placed precariously along windowsills (china duck with gingham ribbon adorning its neck, and a bar-code adordning its little china arse anyone?) all her stuff is still in our house, which means i can't pack up my stuff and clear my room out to decorate it until she has removed it all. *sigh*. I don't think i do well at being in transitional phases because i'm doing my tried and tested method of coping which mianl involves sleeping and getting snappy because i'm lethargic and frustrated. Gah. At least I'm not comfort eating! the wait loss continues, and without the whole starving myself and pretending everything was fine of 17 and 18dom.
So, yes. Finding out that macs are so *not* foolproof, even though they are lovely and owning one is a whole different ball game to using the ones in the hub at college combined with bad light has given me a headache tonight. On the plus side, i have worked out a few things that were frustrating me, so maybe i'll sleep sounder tonight, and be less snappy with poor old mum tomorrow. fingers crossed.
Shall make more of an effort to do things that don't include reading heat or trawling through eBay aimlessly. Plus i can't afford it anyway. Have spent a fortune on books recently, helped by my birthday money, and art supplies and things. In fact the only frivilous thing i have bought recently are some stripey pumps from topshop and the music to the ballet wild swans, which is where the music for the lloyds tsb animation ads was from. Ah, amazon. Perhaps i should see if i can disable entry via safari?
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, January 10th, 2007
|
| Time: | 8:53 pm. |
| Mood: |  accomplished. |
|
so i finally set up the PDP thing. It probably will turn out to be useful, as long as i remember to post in it. Still. I shall try.
In other randomness i found out today that one of my friends at the NWSAD, her Mother in law and where she used to work made my sister's wedding dress. Small world. Well it is round here, anyway. Mum and i will be appearing in the next *llangollen courier* (their slogan is, "local news for local people". I kid ye not...) I can't wait.
Bus driver annoyed me today. It's cold and a little windy, so even with a coat and hat and scarf (mmm, lovely grey beret) i was sheltering by the wall, and the bus came round the corner and i leapt forward and waved my arm and when i got on the driver gave me a bollocking for not standing right by the sign. wtf? Ass. Or as i accidentally juxtaposed today while brainstorming, *knob puddle* (classy, i know. it was an accident, honest).
In other, better randomness i found out today that one of my friends at the NWSAD, her Mother in law and where she used to work made my sister's wedding dress. Small world. Well it is round here, anyway. Mum and i will be appearing in the next *llangollen courier* (their slogan is, "local news for local people". I kid ye not...) I can't wait.
Apparently Lucy can giggle now. How cute. She starts her swimming thing next week, which is also prety cute because she has a tiny tiny pink swimming costume. aww!
This week we've had one day briefs, which are really good for concentrating on one aspect, like ideas creation or type. They can be frustrating, though because i'm only starting out learning how i draw and stuff, i can't always draw what i need and it just doesn't come out like it is supposed to. Plus i have adam on my tail asking me which is my favourite. There isn't one! they're *all terrible!* gah.
Ugly Betty rocks. It's on tonight. I love that she doesn't get a crappy makeover at the end which involves some lippy and taking her glasses off and having a *but miss jones!* moment. I like that she drops things and trips over and i like her without the makeover. Except maybe for the braces, which look uncomfortable. Yey for Ugly Betty! What genius.
Am essay preparing tonight. I have also cooked tea and cleared up so i feel fairly virtuous. Hopefully i'll be calm (even with post bus-driver *argh*) which means i'll go sleepy byes tonight and won't lie awake until half an hour before i'm due to get up and then fall into a dead sleep.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, January 1st, 2007
|
| Time: | 12:56 am. |
| Mood: |  Ambivilent. |
|
Happy New Year one and all.
I'm usually fairly ambivilent about new year. Something disatrous always happens. Somebody (not always me) is upset or crying or depressed or in a bad mood and it always feels like some sort of omen. Plus it the weather often seems to choose from a selection of cold/rainy/windy when i'm traipsing from pub to pub or up a hill to home (why is home always up a hill i wonder?) i always want to be by the fire in my PJs not getting my feet soaked because i was foolish enough to wear my lovely silver ballet pumps.
So i tried it this year. Watched the corpse bride on dvd and then whiled away the time cleaning up the kitchen or curled up in front of the fire watching Criminal intent & family guy til turning the fireworks on telly right up so the dogs donb't go bonkers, running round the house barking with a distinctly chicken licken air about them.
So, not spectacularly great but not spectacularly awful and i won't have a hangover or a pile of somebody else's sick to clean up tomorrow. And no awful sense of anti-climax. Hopefully, anyway.
I've run out of things to read and i still don't feel like working. SO i'm going to try sleeping a bit more. If the urge to do work doesn't kick in soon i'm going to have to start without it. Ack.
I refuse to make resolutions because that would be buying into the Mass New Year stuff, which is handily why why i also refuse to go to the gym (even if i want to) until at least february. But i do kindof have some hopes.
That this year will be the year i finally get off my arse and learn to drive
That this year will also be the year that i manage to finish a whole year of university education and enjoy it and learn some new things about me and design and make some good stuff
That i will finally be better at keeping in touch with people who i do think about but never manage to write that letter or send that parcel.
We'll see...
|
|
Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Sunday, December 31st, 2006
|
|
|
Ah, Christmas gone for another year. Nice, though, Was fairly calm -even though we were still cleaning and decorating on Christmas day.
Fi and Paul were here with Lucy and Nanna wasn't here (very unseasonally glad about that) we were just 5 and a bit. We now have a record for how many people have colds at Christmas -all of us. Even poor lucy. (baby sneezes are pretty cute though. heh) -not a record we're going to try and beat next year though. I still have mine. Blah.
Didn't open presents until about half 9 in the evening. I got some very cool ones; including some tintin books, 2 tripods. A long full size one and a gorillapod which is ace.
LOts of christmas money means sale at monsoon goodness this week, and buying Penguin by Design with my Watestones vouchers. Ah, life is good.
Apart from those two damn essays i have to write. Not much work of the none cleaning kind has gone on this christmas. I've drawn but that's about it. I don't think i have enough material to work with from the london trip so i might go visit some galleries if i have time.
There's the Jake and Dinos chapman thing at Tate liverpool, although i'd really like to go down to london and go to the Tate Modern again. Plus there's that David Hockney amazingness at the National Portrait Gallery which is only open for another few days. Plus the European Photographers exhibition at the Barbican. *sigh*.
I wonder if you can review an installation. I have a fair few notes and photos of the Carsten Holler one at the Tate. Would it count? Mind you i could always use the slides as my objects to review for the 2nd essay. Ho hum.
Plus i keep meaning to set up a PDP blog but the energy just ins't there. Maybe i'll do it when i get back and start doing research for the heros & heroines brief. Work is good. Yes. It just happens that sleep & food are slightly better....
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, December 14th, 2006
|
|
|
Whoa, no updates in the looongest time. Still, Christmas Holidays (nearly) which means i get to waste time doing things like this instead of coming home pooped, eating slouching around for a bit or doing work and then sleeping.
Apparently i should be online a little more but when i get home all i want to do is talk to my family or cook and more often than not i'm doing work so the internet takes a back seat really. I could do it in the library i suppose but i can't concentrate. I shall have to work something out i think. I'm supposed to have another blog up and running for these government things called PDPs. I'll get round to it, even though i think it sucks and it's better on paper. gah.
Lots of new photos on flickr. They're all from November when i was in London with the college took a lot of photos for one of the projects we had while we were down there. Stayed in swiss cottage, right by the tube in Palmers lodge which is a very cool but also extremely cheap hostel. ONly in zone 2 which is great for getting around. Highlights were not the weather although the evenings were clear and the skies were rather lovely) but watching people at the Tate Modern (and no, i was not brave enough to go on those slides. Plus i had a skirt on, which was frankly asking for trouble) the Alan Fletcher retrospective at the Design Museum (fabulous) wandering around The City and taking random photos in a rare moment to myself. Having dinner by myself and chilling out after an interesting and productive evening on oxford street. Nearly killed myself fitting everything (the Tate, the v&a, the design museum, the british library, the science museum, 400 photos, christmas shopping...)into the 48 hours we had and slept for 17 hours straight when i got back.
Have also come to the conclusion that i'm clearly a country bumkin now because when i'm in london everybody seems very angry and busy and *rah*. Or maybe i was just tired.
Anyhow. Several projects later and i have nearly a month off. Not too much rest though yet -have lots of work to keep my mind ticking over (er...thanks for that) and still got christmas presents to get. Baby sitting the neicelet (now 10lb 1! How cute!) this saturday.
Yesterday took Nanna shopping in Chester (what on earth posessed me, i will never know) which just served to confirm i can't do anything right and then went out last night for the snowball (which reminds me, tesco do these gorgeous snowballs -coconut covering chocolate covering soft squishy marshamallows *drool*) -the christmas do at the union.
Think i may have rather mornically underestimated that this was a big deal for me and ended up being a total misanthrope -sipping my JD while looking at all the people who seem to scream *look at me! I'm so HILARIOUSLY ORIGINAL AND WACKY!* and just wanting to say *my god, you're such a dickweed*.
So i went home before midnight and ate babybels from the fridge and was cross with myself. bah humbug.
Going to maybe have a nice warming bath and sit in front of the telly. Carols at Valle Crucis with Jess on friday. Which is tomorrow i think, although i could be wrong. Maybe i'll even take some photos and get round to posting them.
P.s. This is the best news story i've read in ages. It made me smile.
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Sunday, October 29th, 2006
|
|
|
Weirdly warm autumn when damn clouds aren't wetting us copiously from above. I have been doing lots of wholesome autumnal garden-type activites -climbing trees to pick apples (our own! no scrumping here) and cutting up wood with dad, plus taking apart and putting togther scaffolding (more fun that it sounds -you get to play with tools and it's like a giant meccano set)
of course there's the learning thing, which i've pretty much been eating sleeping and breathing. Come in at half 6, cook dinner/eat. Get stuff ready 9ish and go to bed. Sometimes in the day i forget to eat lunch which is frankly unheard of, except maybe when i'm shopping...
i can breathe a bit more easily now it's reading week although i have a lot of (mostly self-imposed) work to do at some point but for now i'm off to see neicelet in leeds. aww.
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Saturday, September 30th, 2006
|
| Time: | 12:03 am. |
| Mood: |  mellow (lots of wine...). | | Music: | Jack the dog snoring softly. |
|
Crikey, busy week!. Had friday off, though because of lecturer's mumps (ouchy). It's all very positive. very different to sheffield -much easier to learn stuff and fun too because you get to use lots of pritt stick and felt pens and soft graphite sticks and basically whatever you want. eep!
steven's birthday celebrations tomorrow, which i am looking forward to. Seeing Lucy on Sunday which is also exciting.
Then it starts all over again! We're drawing this week, which is nerve-wracking because frankly if there's a thing i'm particularly crap at, with regards to graphic design and whatnot, it's drawing. Still.
It's hard work but not as hard as i thought, getting up and staying awake and alert, which I am glad about. Time will tell how i do.
I've got to sort out loans and tuition fees at some point next week and talk to IT services about why my card won't let me swipe into the art building. Busy but pretty ok. yey!
First chance i've had to trawl through all the photos from Blackpool and re-size them -two pages on flickr are the result of that. Its nice looking back and remembering the fun bits and the calm chilled out bits. Photos have come out well -i'm never totally sure til i see them on screen but i'm actually quite pleased. More yey!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Sunday, September 24th, 2006
|
|
|
argh! the day i go to NEWI has arrived. eeek. Katy is also starting out on her wrexham based adventure tomorrow, which means i'm not totally alone, which is nice...
Anyway. In between feeling sick and petrified i am really looking forward to it all, which means it's probably going to be a good thing. that is how i'm convincing myself anyway.
I'm skipping watching Midsomer Murders tonight and recording it instead so i can get to bed early for my 6.30 rise. Ick. My bus leaves at 7.54 tomorrow which is not normally a time i see voluntarily never mind dressed, hair dried and bright eyed and bushy tailed. oh well!
Blackpool was fab. More on that later, probably. Right now, i'm retiring to bed with a magazine and my alarm set for an ungodly hour. what joy!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Monday, September 18th, 2006
|
| Time: | 3:18 am. |
| Mood: |  sleepy. |
|
So, blackpool tomorrow!
I'm all packed. well, mostly. We had toad in the hole tonight. While delicious i always end up wondering where the name came from which puts me off somewhat. good comfort food though
Ceilidh type thing last night -celebrating 15 years of a business of friends of my parents and raising money for the air ambulance. How much do i love hog roast? yumyumyum. spent most of it outdoors and got a chill because i never feel the cold until the morning after when my kidneys decide to repay me for not wearing a cardi. ah, well. all better now.
just need to survive til the end of tuesday and then i'm ok...
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Saturday, September 16th, 2006
|
|
|
we've been having some beautiful sunsets recently. the light in the evenings is just gorgeous -warm and soft, giving out the same orangey glow as sodium street lamps only infinitely more lovely.
I started packing tonight. I am always worried that i'm going to spill something down myself or step in something really hideous and not have enough clothes, which means i overpack and end up feeling like a stupid girl. which i am, of course, but sometimes it's nice not to feel it as well...
Last week, dad bought me the new Morrissey album, which has the collest CD art -all retro vinyl and petrol blues, and i'm currently ripping it to put on my MP3 player. Haven't listened to it yet because i have no speakers for my pc. I'll probably listen to it on the way to blackpool or something. I won't be sitting in the front because i am not navigating which means lots of car sickness. I'm never actually vomitous which generally means people don't belive me, but on the plus side it means i don't end up accidentally being sick on my shoes.
Anyway. yes. I saw Dr. P today. Verdict? I can do it, althought it'll be hard. And she'll be there for reassurance and it's so different from sheffield and whatnot with the fact that i'm at home and all the support i have around. Also, she thinks i have a pretty healthy attitude towards it all except for the constant conviction that i'm not good enough. So yeah, i'm doing it. But not shouting about it because that would actually make it real.
|
|
Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Friday, September 15th, 2006
|
| Time: | 11:59 am. |
| Mood: | busy. |
|
ok, so i found the black shoes (under the sofa) and some rechargeables (where oh, where are you high capacities?) which is good enough for me.
Am not worrying too much at the current moment because i'm doing some manual work outside finding lumps of spare slate and filling up the inside of a two layer wall. apparently it's the old fashioned way.
anyway, it's a welcome distraction.
It's also *sunny*. I hate to jinx it, but it is a lovely day for working outside. Warm, even hot, sun and a light breeze with blue sky. mmmm.
Later i'm going into town to see Dr. P, when i've cleaned all the mud off my face. Hopefully will get my head round a few salient points. Or failing that, stop worrying quite so much...
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
| Time: | 1:39 am. |
| Mood: |  anxious. |
|
i haven't taken lots of photographs for ages, i think i'm starting to get withdrawal symptoms. still, there's always blackpool. at the moment, although i'm really looking forward to it and have pakced every self catering thing we could need (among the items; first aid kit, cup a soup, noodles, bisuits, green lemon tea, bathmat, teatowels, sponges, handsoap, washing up liquid, chicken stock, pesto, pepper, ketchup and bbq sauce, tupperware boxes, disposable picnic stuff, wet wipes, corkscrew, loo roll, and blah blah blah...) all i can really think about is tuesday and how i'm actually so scared i could vomit all over myself whenever i think about it.
ick.
also i can't find any rechargeable batteries or my favourite and also extremely cute flat black shoes. or my go-with-any outfit-thereby-negating-faffing-when-going-out silver ballet pumps. well i can find one, which is pretty much the same as neither, only more annoying. sometimes i get the urge to keep the things i always wear (pants, socks, jeans, pumps some t-shirts and a cardi) and throw the rest out. and all the other crap i have. gah.
[edit: 2:32am]
ok, so i found my silver shoes but i'm still missing the black ones, all my rechargeable batteries and i nearly permanently attached myself to my brush because of a small error with some superglue *sigh.
still, i found my travel french version monopoly. woo!
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
|
| Time: | 6:39 pm. |
| Mood: |  worried. |
|
Ahhh. isn't she cute? exactly a month old in this photo :-)
Went up to fi's on saturday, didn't get many chances for photos since she was either screaming her head off or being fed or winded. Apparently it gets better in a few weeks. Poor fi.
Went into NWSAD to talk to the guy who did my asessment about the degree versus the finishing of the foundation degree. Ended up talking more about doing the degree although i'm not sure how it happened. Also not sure quite how i managed to agree to do the degree. Apparently it starts monday and not the 28th. Erk.
I said i was away that week and asked if he thought I should cancel it and he said that frankly i had already done the brief that they would be doing so it wasn't hugely important and i should just go and enjoy myself. Then he asked if i'd be out of the country and i said no, i'm in good old Blackpool. Which as it turns out is kind of useful.
Rather oddly, it turns out that everybody in the design first year goes to blackpool on the first tuesday so i'm going to meet up with them all.
Annabel reckons it's fate. I reckon it's fate railroading me. Do you ever feel like people think you're running when you've actually just got your coat stuck in a car door?
Still not entirely sure i'm ready for the whole thing, but its getting a little easier on the mind, so that must mean something, right? Even when every five minutes i keep thinking *oh dear god! what have i done??
|
|
Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, September 7th, 2006
|
| Time: | 4:08 am. |
| Mood: | melancholy. | | Music: | Eels - I need some sleep. |
|
Jeez, it's been a long time.
I was pretty busy. and when i wasn't busy i was just too busy being lazy...I'm not all of this is even in the right order.
The Eisteddfod. A riot as usual. worked a lot harder than last year despite being in later and doing a lot less marketing (read wandering around and asking relectant people questions). Knackered at the end.
Mum and Dad's anniversary. great success, lots of people. Mum cried and as usual was totally gullible right up to the end. Gaped like a fish when she saw everyone while dad stood behind muttering dark words about having known there was something up, while really enjoying it all immensely. Was rushed at the end (when is something i have a large involvment in ever not so?) and it wasn't a rollicking party with a disco where people get drunk and embarass themselves by dancing and pulling a muscle but rather more one where people talked to a rather nice soundtrack of old rock'n'roll and jazz.
That was provided by me of course, hooked the laptop up to the PA. Turned out to be the last things i'd ever do with the laptop. It had been behaving oddly in the weeks leading up to the party but by the time i collected it at the end it was starting to go up in smoke. Literally. Which is a shame. The hard drive is still intact, though so i've been able to salvage all my data. Miss having a laptop, though. Also had to rebuild the pc with dad 2 days before my assessment (my computers have a magnificent sense of timing) because it died for some reason while i had something to finish and loads of stuff to print out. Which i did at dad's work and then left there. the night before. Muffinous is not the word. Argh. Thank goodness for late night opening at Currys and HP printers. Have been looking longingly at Toshiba laptops with the new dual core processors. mmm. Dad is convinced i should have a desktop instead because of the limitations a laptop brings in terms of RAM size and so -on. And somebody else i know is just as adamant i should get a Mac. But i still like the idea of those laptops...
France. i do love France. Normandy isn't as great as Britanny i have decided. Even though they do a spectacular pear cider, which is just yummy. Even managed to cope with sleeping in the same room as Nanna for a week and the time i had to listen when she accidentally her sucked her teeth out in her sleep and started to choke on them. Luckily they shot back into place after a bit. Oh, and lovely hosts except for the slight (read: exceptional) obsession with tidyness. Not one of my strong points, sadly.
My new neice! She is so beautiful. As you can clearly see. Her name is Lucy and she was born on Saturday the 20th of August. After 3 (count them!) days of labour. Ick. Eventually she was born by cesarean because she just wouldn't come out. Turned out she'd shifted so she was being jammed against bone. Niiice. Still, her bruises have healed and she's putting on weight an an enormous weight because she's extremely hungry. A comfirmed member of the family already, then.
Nanna moved house to ours about 6 days after we came back from France. Of course she had been in denial about it all and packed just one (gah!) box out of the multitude of crud she has collated over the years. Most of it is now in my other Grandma's garage and all the furniture was either given away or hefted into a Van and moved here by dad and I. After that, we cleaned the house from top to bottom, which is always a really enjoyable job at the hottest part of the year. It took 3 days. And now, about 80% of our dining room is covered in boxes and bags except for a path through the middle, and our tv is blaring out the weakest link, bargainhunt and eggheads. Dad and i nearly gave ourselves hernias getting Nanna's bed up our narrow victorian stairs. Having said all that, I'm sure it'll all settle down in a bit and Nanna will be less stressed and irritable. I do so love it when everything i do is wrong. (two tea bags for 2 cups of tea? TOTALLY wasteful of course). The garden house (aka the Granny Shack) is coming along ok, though. She'll definitely be in by Christmas.
on the subject of months, i cannot believe we are in SEPTEMBER!. argh. Blackpool soon (v good) and Annabel is a teacher (scarily grownup, but good i hope)
Then i had my assessment last week. Passed with food for thought and now have to decide what i want to do. Continue with the foundation course i'm on (but in wrexham) or go straight to the full degree in Interactive Multimedia Design. Lots more work -i am utterly scared of doing exactly the same thing as in Sheffield. £1,200 and i make it a few months. I can see it now, whenever i shut my eyes. But i don't want to remain cosied up & safe forever. It'll never get me anywhere if i don't take risks. *sigh*. I seem to have shut down a bit since last week and slept a lot. My days have turned backwards again. crappity.
Still, i think i'm going to the coast at some point to take some photos and chill out by myself. Plus i get to see friends on Friday which should be fun. Haven't seen people for aaaages and have been a bit incommunicado what with pc malfunctioning and whatnot so i really want to catch up. Then i'm seeing Fi and Lucy on on saturday which is huugely exciting since i've not seen her since the day after she was born. Life isn't bad. In fact it's great. I'm just a little tired...
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
| Time: | 2:13 am. |
| Mood: |  stressed. |
|
i had this photo printed out at jessops and it has a curious nasty yellow tone to it. poop. i must try some other places for getting prints done. Just one of the things i did this week. it's all sortof blurred into one long *fluhhhhhh* week.
For one, the last couple of weeks has been so hectic. College work has been taking up a lot of time, not just homework but going into wrexham to get things i need or whatever. Admittedly it's been fun; i've finally been learning CSS which is just great, and the photomontage work i did looks pretty cool when it's all put together in the end.
Then there's the stress about organising things for the next couple of weeks (note to self, e-mail annabel about eisteddfod) Fiona is so very organised it makes me tired just thinking about it. Still i've finally got the chance to do what i needed so, thank goodness for that. Although now i've got some more stuff on that front to deal with now i've done that. Gah.
Was feeling stressed about money, so I sold some stuff on ebay, but it did make even more work for myself. I've also been wanting to keep in touch with people; my birthday was the last time i saw lots of people, and i keep remembering at the wrong time to e-mail or something i wanted to tell them. Gah
Busiest thing of all, has to be the sorting out of the spare room.
Since Nanna has sold her house, it means no more spare room acting as a repositry for my crud. Which means tidying and sorting and being extremely ruthless and filling black plastic bags with all manner of things. And then regretting it, fishing something out of the bin bag, and then thinking about how stupid keeping it would be and putting it back. I'm such a muffin. Terrible at throwing things away. But
i have been very good this time. I want a clean slate in my old room, not cluttered with old things that hold dubious memories (so long, brownie sash! i hated the brownies anyway) and things that don't even make sense to keep(see ya, school shirt signed by people i'm still friends with anyway and the downright idiotic (goodbye chewed fat controller from long gone train set). Karma cleansing (or something) but still quite stressy.
Tonight we went to a barbeque of some lovely eccentric friends of mum and dad (to be honest, they don't really have the other non-eccentric kind...) which was nice, although i had noooo idea who some of the people were since they were all curling friends which means i haven't seen them since i was *knee high*.
dad got very drunk. mahoosivly drunk and beligerent. pah. I was tired and wanted to go home and he wanted to stay and keep drinking. honestly. shouldn't it be the other way round? Mum was happy because there were two cute babies there for her to coo over. Still, only 8 weeks now, til i become and auntie (eep!) and everything that i'm currently stressing about (except maybe money and learning to drive) will be over.
8 weeks!
|
|
Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Thursday, June 15th, 2006
|
|
|
Today was one of those days that make you believe that god must exist in some form. Not because of the beauty of nature (we'll come to that in a second) but because it simply isn't possible that such numbers of occurances that conspire to make your day as crappy as possible could be random; no. Somebody definitely has to be laughing at you from up on high somewhere.
Some things that made it *not my day*
i cut my thumb opening a corned beef tin and then cut my tongue twice on, wait for it, my minty fresh dental floss.
i got spoken to like a moron (a definite pet hate) by several people today; most notably the lady in the chemist, plus a farmer and his wife in a field.
i went out with dad specifially to take pictures of the horeshoe falls; thought it might be calming and soothing after the crappyness of the day but nooooo. Said bloody farmer lady made a big fuss about us going down anywhere near there because they had (literally) just birthed one of her cows. I think what annoyed me most was that they were so politely beligerent. I mean they say how they normally have her home for calving. and how she's late calving so they had to go out and do it tonight (clearly very organised) and then she started rambling about the right to roam which doesn't even apply Plus the dogs were on their leads and we were walking away from the cows. Gah. It's not that i don't respect farmers protecting their animals, I just don't enjoy being treated like a moron when they're disorganised, faintly incoherent, patronising and frankly hostile under the pretence of being reasonable.
So we went to the abbey but it was closed because it's only free during winter; come summer it's suddenly not free and therefore closed after 5. So i thought i'd climb a gate, but it turned out they'd greased it with vegetable fat. dear god!
and lastly, after i'd managed to get in there and wiped off most of the frankly revolting grease to take a few innocent pictures, a bird pooed on my brand new camera. I just was standing there minding my own business, talking to dad and it just flew over head and pooped. gah.
See what i mean?
Still. I did see a calf being born today (we were there when they pulled it out and when you get past the bloody and slime and awful noise the cow makes, it really is most amazing) And the sun was lovely and soft and summer evening-y. Sometimes the beautiful random things are the only things that keep you sane from the random crappyness that gets thrown at you. That and coming home and having pepperoni pizza and salad in front of the telly with your dog curled up on your lap.
As i say, just about keeping me sane enough...
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
ah, what a truly fabulous evening. And obviously i know i'm partially drunk typing that but i'm pretty sure that if i was sober i'd say the same thing...
I am obviously a terrible gullible person because i had no idea that everybody had colluded to spring a surprise on me, and annabel was a very good foil in getting me into the restaurant where everybody was waiting. (i was a bit late but truly and rather unusuallu, it was through no fault of my own; at the time i was supposed to be getting ready i was instead spooning spilt soil out of the boot of the car. such a glamorous life) there was indeed much merriment and also in varying quantities; wine, steak (mmm, rare steak) and cake. surprise birthday cake. with candles! not forgetting that presents and cards too, eee!
ah, i was so touched. it was lovely. and then we went a-drinking. corn mill, and wine bar and then the sun, although most people had departed by then, where i chatted to random people and had laphroig which is always a lovely end to a drinking evening. i also have a flower in my bedside glass of water; i discovered while i was undoing my hair which means at some point i must have tucked in in there. It smells rather lovely; springy and fresh.
I walked home by myself; mellow and happy. I took today's photo on the bridge by the Sun, while i was leaning on the wall looking up at the stars and smiling for no particular reason. I rather like it early in the morning (especially when whisky mellowed) when it is all fragrant and fresh and full of potential and yesterday's goodwill.
Indeed, a most fabulous evening...
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
|
| Time: | 4:03 am. |
| Mood: | hopeful. |
|
Mymy! Dad and i went shopping on saturday (hate saturday shopping normally) ostensibly to look at cameras but it seemed we were actually buying one! wooP! (now i just have to set up that pesky standing order to pay for my half) Met jan (M) from my course in habitat who was very appreciative of my brand new baby.
I am now the (very) proud owner of a Panasonic DMC FZ7 camera. Black and sleek and fabulous.
6mp with manual controls (aperture and shutter priority and manual focus for a start) even though it's not a DSLR proper. Best of all, though, is the 12x zoom on the Leica lense. Beautiful Leica lense....
Annoyingly, since saturday i haven't actually been out (i lead *such* a fascinating life) so i've only had chance to take some picures in the garden. Tiny pictures don't really do it justice, unfortunately. I've even read the manual cover to cover (skipping the obvious bits like how to switch it on, and also the stuff that i'd already already figured out).
Oh! the possibilities.
Still a bit scared at the whole no-Dr. P-for-the-forseable-future thing, although i've mainly coped pretty well. I mean i've still been cleaning up and cooking and whatnot. Although, I say mainly because I haven't really been looking forward to my birthday and even having the camera feels a bit weird, as if i should give it back because i don't deserve it really. or something like that, anyway. Still, i am looking forward to it a bit more, now. And going out and seeing everybody on saturday, too. So maybe things are slowly getting a bit better, more settled...
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
_nocturama's journal
okay. probably....
