Monday 20 December 2010

47. I am not in Devon.

I stole this thing from Rarr because I know I should be
a) packing for Tenerife
b) doing a few drawings
c) prodding my dissertation
d) maybe having a shower?
But I'll do this, instead. As my family home puts me into lazy mode (Mr O'Shea earlier laughed a bit, "more so than usual?" I AM NOT THAT LAZY, O'SHEA! Only when I know I can get away with it... when you'd carry my bags and such...!!
Pah.
But here goes.

Ten things I have done that you probably haven't.
1.
Taken a dump down one of the cracks in the natural limestone paving up by Malham Tarn, Yorkshire.
2. Taken part in the tug of war in some proper highland games in Perthshire, Scotland. Sadly, we lost.
3.
Slept in a cardboard box in a carpark over night.
4.
Drunk whiskey from a hipflask in the back of a moving van, with a Scottish man, an Italian man, a French man (he was driving), an Australian man, and an English girlie.
5.
Been close up eye witness to a chap getting into Glastonbury fest via hangglider / something similar, sadly he was made to leave the premises very shortly after.
6.
Slept in the back of a 4 tunner whilst there were flares going off and people running around all over the place outside.
7.
Pretty much skipped along Striding Edge, Lake District. Things don't seem so dangerous when you are small and young. Mum walked in front to avoid seeing me fall off down the cliff like edges, if I did.
8.
Skinned and gutted etc a rabbit. It was great fun, made a superb puppet for a short while.
9.
Had a barn owl sit on my shoulder. A photo was taken, of course.
10.
Sung in the youngest Sea Shanty band in Britain. Now I know a FEW of you others have done that too... but only, say, 9 of you? Not the rest of the world!

That'll do for now. Nothing too dubious / revealing!!

Saturday 18 December 2010

Fourty six, do some tricks.

Why hello!
I guess I'm writing a blog entry... it seems like a decent thing to do, since here I have NO DESK and that means I'm finding it exceeeedingly difficult to do any work, personal or otherwise... harrumpf.

What I can see: Snow. A fair amount of it, out of my bedroom window in Reigate. It snowed 2 inches in one hour at one point... Elk is coming home from Plymouth on the train today, when (if) she arrives, we're picking her up from Reigate station with a SLEIGH not a car! Eee. A car is being pushed up the road. My grannys loooong red chimney pot looks lovely against the hint of green peeking out from under the snow on the evergreen trees in my cul-de-sac. Andrew from next door nearly falling on the corner of the snow. Ah ha ha.

What I can hear: Mum in the kitchen with the radio. She's making the custard for the trifle - we're having a family meal tomorrow (my cousin Liz won't be here though, she's still on her farm being a farmer up north :( ). MMMMMM I do rather like a little (BIG) bit of mums trifle... it's not of that shop bought plastic with jelly. JELLY! Who ever puts jelly in TRIFLE!!

What I can taste: Ratafia biscuits (those little round macaroony crunchy things which taste a bit of almond) and sponge fingers. That was my breakfast, some of the leftover ones from the trifle. Mmm... should probably eat something more, though. And yes, breakfast at 11:30, I got up a tad late as I had a rather draining day yesturday.
UPDATE: I can now taste toasted bread (which I made - wholemeal with gratered carrot, herbs, garlic, black pepper, and horseradish sauce?!) with butter and pate (wild boar with cranberry & chestnut). AND ALSO... best things in the world, ever, almost... an egg custard tart with nutmeg on top. Mmm.

What I can feel: In general, WARMTH. Double glazing & radiators most definately on... this is the life I get in Reigate, compared to the drafty single glazing & sometimes radiators in Falmouth. Corrr...
UPDATE: Cold!! In the feet department, anyway. The snow got too tempting, so I went out in the back and ran about the snow with bare feet (decided I didn't want to ruin it with shoe treads, but if bird and cats could go barefoot, then so could I!!!). They're slowly defrosting.

RIGHT... so... whats been going on...

As I mentioned, I am currently sitting at my family home in Reigate, in my bedroom, on the double bed which is in here. It is more like a nest. It is verging on festive, but here it has NEVER been terribly Christmassy... or Eastery... or Halloweeny... infact, my family seem to avoid festivities (which is sad, in a way, but lighter on the pocket). I still remember the extreme festiveness of Norway at Silje's last Christmas! Wow...
I got here on the evening of the 14th (after a mostly uneventful train journey, only hitch being the train moving at snails pace somewhere on the Reading-Reigate bit of line due to some twit wandering about on the tracks).

Before leaving Falmouth we had the lovely and ever gorgeous Miss Molly down to stay for a few nights, it was good to have her back in Fal for a while. Lisa joined us and we had a meal in the Chainlocker, brief wander into the 'Front for shanties (Hanging Johnnie's farewell gig) though did not stay long for that as the place was RAMMED FULL with oldies. Went for a walk to Maenporth and back, which was as coastal pathy as usual. Didn't feel like December, was walking in trousers, boots, vest top, and cotton jumper! Took Molly to see the forge, and then eventually onto Mousehole where Lisa got her work into a rather noice little gallery and Molly & I wandered the harbour beach picking up bits of smashed pottery as it got dark. We three had a bit of a singsong before heading home.

Before Molly's visit (I'm working backwards in time, here!) the Norweg's and I had a scrummy yummy x-mas meal, a mad mixture between English and Norwegian foodz (so... redwine & onion gravy, with roast potatoes carrots and parsnips, mini homemade Yorkshire puds, sage & onion stuffing, sprouts, red cabbage stuff, swede mash, and special Norweg sausage for Squidget & I, and veggie sausages for Rarr. MMM! Twas good the first time round, and then we got it for leftover lunch the day after! Yummy.
On the mention of food, round this time I made a carrot, parsnip, & honey cake (loaf) with cream cheese icing with crushed walnuts on top. CORR! It was good (got better with age), though took an age to cook...

One fine Friday there was a folky lot who I know playing / jamming in one corner of the 'Front. It ended up being 5 fiddles (including Squidget - trying along, Claire, Ben from Peoples String Foundation, and Hannah, then 1 viola - Lisa of course, the other Lisa on her clarinet / flute, and later on Dave appeared with his bazouki and tea chest bass, and then Luke (also Peoples String) with his guitar (sadly not the double bass). Good stuff, I got a surround drawing done, of which a copy has now gone to 'Front Matt. He seemed rather chuffed with it when he saw it.

Every year, the 3rd year illustrators put together a book to publish in the REAL WORLD! You can even get it on Amazon. Our one will be the 6th one, and usually every year we get it all paid for, but funding for it this year was cut and so we've been making money to make it. We've already got about half of the money (about £2,500) which we made solely from an auction of some of our work. The auction also included original pieces by Quentin Blake, Mark & Micheal Foreman, Alan Male, and some other of our tutors too.
My piece went for £35 (what was that you said, Alan, about not letting works go for less than £100?) to a chap called Professor Jeremy Diggle! What an excellent name.

A bit before that I handed in my 1st draft dissertation (not THAT much done, but enough. I should probably get on with that soon... maybe I'll look at that after I've written this, but I feel all dozy in this nest).
Before THAT I did a day of BTCV. We thought it was a celebration thing at their Tuckingmill HQ, so we woke up all early & went through the thunder, hail, slush, and rain to the minibus at the other end of town. It took us 2 hours to get from Falmouth to through Truro as there was a bit of snow, it was actually quite impressive for Cornwall I thought. Somewhere in those 2 hours we found out that we were ACTUALLY travelling 3ish hours to Exeter! Heh heh. It took us a bit over 4 hours in the end, we got there and there wasn't a HINT of snow (though still super cold), just enough time to make a quick head out of some clay and eat some tasty lunch before a short awards ceremony for the best helpers etc for the year of BTCV, before our minibus decided to get going early incase we had trouble with snow on the way back. Good to get out & away from Fal for a short while, though.

At some point round this time, Silje & I also went off to the Forge (where Lisa had been stuck for 24+ hours as her van had got iced onto the floor due to the snow!). We did some drawing, made supper on the forge fire, and played on Lisa's very metal quickly made sleigh. Fun times.

But yes, that is all I have done since last time. Well, all the bits which stick out the most.
Anything coming up soon?
Well tomorrow (officially today, now), we're having a family meal round here - my family, my granny, my aunt & uncle (dads side) and one of my cousins. BEEF. Yes.
Monday I'm seeing Imy & Racheyboi in the daytime & evening (also in eve is Emilargh & her blokeyo).
Tuesday I'm off to Tenerife for a week.
31st I'm back to Cornwall, NYE party at Zennor with Lisa & Dave! Excitement! Eeee.

But for now, that is it.
I shall wait and see if Skinners Brewery reply to the e-mail I sent them, with these 4 images I did as a "fake" uni project for them.

And now a couple of photos (Mousehole, and me pulling Elk home from the station)



And now some random images (art / non art).
A photo of a friends. I just think it looks lovely, still not 100% sure why. Composition? Mood?
A photo of Austria by "Bawkbawkbawk". Colours! Contrast! Shapes!!
A piece by Kerry Hyndman. Only just found her. I think she's GREAT.
One of a series of 4 pieces by La Boca.
Alice Stevenson. Loving the layering. And the sun.
Earrings by CatbirdNYC on Etsy.

And NOW, a baby red squirrel and an owl in a hat. OH YES. Here you go.
zzzz.... sleepy time.

Monday 6 December 2010

Hum hum.

Things to miss:
Being as light as a small bag of feathers.
Dancing round the kitchen.
Lining up small objects.
Singing lots of songs.
Hearing some songs.
Yoghurt swapping.
Feeling more safe.
Being cooked for.
Playing marbles.
Being a cat.
Leafs.
etc.
...