It is currently (or was then) 8:15pm and it is raining, as is usual for Falmouth (it is no longer raining). Actually saying that, the weather has been pretty nice – if cold – recently. Very Autumn / Winterish.
Side note: I just squashed a little fly and then it dropped into the fan bit of my Macbook. Whoops…
I think the dictate programme wants me to stop mumbling and slurring my words, however this seems to be a bit of a problem as I pick up accents a bit too weirdly sometimes… which isn’t good since within the past day I’ve spoken to a Cornish girl, 2 Norwegian’s, and an Irish.
Blimey, I haven’t written a blog entry since 20th October! A decent amount of stuff has happened since then, Duncan has left and gone back to Sheffield. Him staying here was very noice, though it’s good to just have us 4 girls left in here now, especially since it’s uni work times.
We (the Fal Fish) sadly didn’t play either the oyster OR ale fests here in Falmouth, I might have mentioned that already though? I did still go along to both though (more so the ale fest) and drank my fair share of cider / perry / ale / stout.
R.I.P. The Falmouth Fish Sea Shanty Collective, may you one day come back from beyond the grave…
I’ve still been singing SOME shanties though, every 1st & 3rd Friday of the month, fellow Fal shanty band “The Shout” let us come sing with them at The ‘Front. It’s ok… best if a bit drunk… its just a shame that they sing all their songs far too slow, except for Fiddlers Green which they sing far too fast. Any remaining fishies (it’s only been us girls going along so far) should hurry up and learn some more songs to sing at them, pronto! We can do better than dirges!
What else has happened… I went to the forge with Lisa, had a laaavly little day off (well, I had a day off… yeah… Lisa had one too…). Woke up and it was good and sunny, so she drove me off in her van, and we sat by her jewellery making bench with hot water bottles on our laps (it’s certainly chilly there) and I drew her whilst she worked – making me my necklace. The drawing was for her website and such, see here for Lisa’s work & my drawings!: http://www.smythickforge.co.uk/
For lunch we drove off to Porthleven, which is near Helston at the top of the Lizard, and went to a bakery there called the Horse & Jockey. They’re well known for having an AMAZING pasty called “flakey steak”. So of course, I had to try it.
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MY GOD IT WAS GOOD. Possibly the best pasty I’ve ever had? And it was HUGE! Pretty much twice the size of a normal pasty, but just as expensive. The “nobs” on the ends were spot on, the pastry was flakey (which was fine until I got covered in too many crumbs), and the innards were scrummy. Sadly the juices attacked the pastry (flakey not being so strong as normal pasty pastry) and caused the side to split, which meant it got tricky to chomp on, and the meat was perfect… but I would have said there wasn’t quite enough of the meat.
After the pasty lunch we strolled along the beach & crawled about, picking up the beautifully coloured little pebbles that are there, Lisa uses them in her work. Stealing the Queens property! Oh my.
After THAT we went to a fabulous little arty crafty shop, and I bought some mossy green wool which I then that evening learnt (again) to crochet with, in the pub (The ‘Front, again…). My sister Elk joined us as she had sailed in from Plymouth that day with her fellow shipmates from her uni course there – Marine studies & Ocean Yachting. ‘Twas good to see the fluffball.
Did I mention in the last entry that Lisa & I (blimey, it’s all about Lisa!!!) entered a competition at the Ebenezer Gallery in Polperro in east Cornwall? Well, we did. And Lisa nabbed both first prizes, and I got the third prize for 2D work. Sadly not the 2nd prize… perhaps I’m a little bitter about that, but that could just be because I wasn’t a great fan of the piece which DID win second prize (an upside down oil painting of a cats head – see the newspaper clipping below).
But yes, so I got 3rd prize which means I’ll get exhibition space in their summer show. I hope I have time to make some more images for it! I could make a good little chunk of money…
I also got a written mention in a couple of newspapers from that end of the county, and a mention AND PHOTO in this weeks copy of the West Briton! I’m the grumpy looking sod on the far right, Lisa is next to me, then the under 19’s winner, then the 2nd prize winner. See here:
Silje & I also entered another competition recently, this one for the clothes & such company “Sea Salt”. The aim was to make a design for one of their jute bags (which everyone down here carries, apart from us lot it seems). Winner is to be announced tomorrow, and will get £100 to spend in store, and also a copy of the bag with their design on it… plus the satisfaction of seeing people CARRY their design. I do hope to win, but of course I shan’t be too hopeful.My design (I'm not so fond of the text layout).
The weekend before last it was Rarr’s 23rd burfday, so Max came down from all the way up north (well, Midlands), and we had a good ol’ party with the theme of toybox. I went as a panda, as I wanted an excuse to wear Silje’s black velvet little dress, and we made more of the tasty chocolate beetroot cake and turned it into a yellow iced Pacman, with a tiny blue ghost & everything. The party went well and it ended up in Shades, though I left early as I wasn’t “feeling it” and decided to pick up someones smashed phone (now returned to them) and a Police cone on the way home. The Police cone, may I add, was NOT because I was utterly sloshed, but was because I decided that every student house should stereotypically have one – plus we’d watched the Police event a couple of nights before, a chap in the bus stop who couldn’t stand up or pull his trousers up! Oh dear…
A couple of things I’ve done this past few days…
On Friday the house went to see the new Harry Potter film. We all dressed up (Squidget, Rarr, and Faygel as Ravenclaws – as sorted, and me… as a Slytherin. It’s just what most tests said! Sorry if I’m an evil slimy back stabber… though I DO like the colour green).
The film was really good, and I cannae wait to see the 2nd part of the story in June. I managed to squeak/squeal rather loudly at a snakey scene (don’t get me wrong, I do like snakes! But it was SCARY!), and Rarr said she’d never watch horror films with me. OH! And the snatcher called Scabior! Corr… he was certainly alright! I looked him up on Gooooogle however, and he’s not quite so fancy in real life. One found it raaaather amusing that the film was basically am advert for “Come visit England! We have beautiful scenery!”. One shot (or whatever the technical term for it is) was going up a large cliff, and I was thinking “ohh… I recognise that…” and then it got to the top and sure enough – it was Malham Tarn in Yorkshire! Been there multiple times, fantastic rock formations. My mother tells me that I have once taken a poop down one of the big cracks (WHEN I WAS YOUNG!!). Lovely. I’m sure it did wonders for the plants trying to live there. Anyway, I shan’t say anything more about the film, as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who actually reads this who hasn’t yet seen it.
On Sunday, Silje & I trotted off to the other end of town, to the Irish bar “Fins” to go see Luke & Ben from Peoples String Foundation play an acoustic show. We got there early whilst they were still setting up, got ourselves a pint, and sat in a cozy wooden corner with the cider and our crochet. I was making socks.
The music was wonderful, they both sung and played guitar, and Luke played his double bass (that thing does WONDERS for making girls, and probably others, too, drool), and Ben on his fiddle. Great concentration faces. They played some of their own tuuunes from their album “Making Waves” and did some covers & some jamming. An all round good night. Some folks danced, but we just jiggled away like a couple of old ladies.
I’ve still been thinking about what to do after uni, which is approaching scarily fast, especially now since I’ve started writing my dissertation. DISSERTATION!!! Yup… I’ve called it (for the time being) “Quixotic Mapping: Pondering and Wondering”. Who knows how it’ll turn out, I am not too terribly worried as I know it isn’t TOO huge a part of my final mark (I don’t want to get majorly het up about it), but so long as I get a decent enough mark then I’m good.
Currently my plans for after uni are to hopefully go to work at Golant YHA (east Cornwall, south coast) for a few months. It’s a good place, and they were the only ones who replied positively to the e-mail that I sent out to over 30 YHA’s. Some still have not replied. I’m to have an interview there in February, and if all goes well (they seem happy!) then I’ll also work for a few weeks in the Easter holidays, getting me some monies to keep me going.
Much to my mothers digust, my back-up plan (if I don’t find any satisfactory paid work) is to go up to Scotland, further north than Edinburgh, to go work on the WWOOFing farm “Culdees”. I’ve no doubt mentioned it before, so I shan’t talk too much about it, but it’s basically working and getting paid with food & accommodation – the middle man “money” getting cut out of the equation, which suits me. I’d no doubt get some snow, too, it’d be soooooo cold… mothers eh? Mine should really be more open minded – she thinks that if I work in a place “like that” then no “real job” will want to hire me. I don’t think she notices that WWOOFing places are worldwide, and by no means a place for “slack sponging hippies” (perhaps not her exact words, but it seems that way) to go. It is good for people to do voluntary work, better than going on the dole or something anyway.
But yes. After whatever I do for the winter months I’m currently hoping to go do something called “Adventure International” in Bude, north Cornwall. Lots out outdoor activities, getting me off of my arse. I think I MAY have mentioned it before.
But before all that, I’m off to Brittany over Easter weeked to go to Aberfest, Breton / shanty singing & such! Hooray! It’ll be good.
But now I have got to the end of my weirdly worded pile of mumblings, I’m not sure about the dictation programme.
Time to add pictures and such…
Uni work! I've found a bit of a new style... again... this is a design for a biscuit tin for M&S (not in REAL life, sadly). No text on it here.
This print from Tugboat... all with traditional layered woodblock print... wow...
I don't OFTEN squeal at images, however these little "peanutbuttah's" made me grin like a loon. Nutty and crunchy on the outside, soft, squidgy and furry on the inside! (thankfully they're not a fruit or nut, as that would probably mean they were mouldy). TINY KITTEN TEETH.
Found the above in the West Briton, what a lovely house... I've been trying to make my parents buy it (as if... haha) as
a) One of my dads possibly ONLY hobbies / loves, is Cornish mining / mine houses.
b) They both love Cornwall.
c) It's awesome.
