This was all written Tuesday.
Mmm… egg custard tart from the reduced price jackpot (4 in total, all for me since Miss Lisa Harrison thinks they’re minging!). Currently sat at “Lisa’s end” of the forge, even though she now uses “Dan’s end” since he’s no longer here (though I’m using his anvil as a foot rest). It’s all silent apart from the sounds of birds (buzzards), a stream, Lisa’s music from the big shed, and Lisa sanding wood. This is all written on paper, I’ll type it up later (obviously I’ve now typed it up!). The forge is strewn with various off cuts of wood and metal, and at one end there is a part (almost) finished traditionally made iron gate (no dodgy looking welds! No angle grinding!) with curls and all. This end (the jewellery making end), there are a couple of brambles which have squeezed in through a gap in the window. The rest of the egg custard tarts are looking at me (as are four little baby tiny anvils – they just want to be cuddled!). I have come here for the day to draw* and then later on I shall drive back “north” to Golant YHA to natter to Duncan (he got the job in the end instead of Carl).
The weather is mostly grey with the odd peeking patch of blue sky, when I woke up (in my van! In Lisa’s field!) it was lovely to open up the back doors and lie in bed with the fresh air and soggy mist coming in. Last night we sat in Lisa’s caravan & made beef stew into which went green beans, multiple fresh herbs, red and yellow chard – all from the Golant garden. Mmm… (not the beef of course, though there ARE some noisy cows close by…). Had a good natter, admittedly mostly myself talking about work as it’s playing big on my mind right now. Poor Lisa! Having to hear about all that. She has decided that I shouldn’t be working for the YHA, but instead on a farm.
I reckon Miss Harrison is correct – I love the thought of being something to do with the YHA, but is this just because it’s what I’m used to? It’s what I already know? Because the pay and accommodation is good? Money doesn’t necessarily equal happiness…
I like what hostels used to be, not these new fangled “hotel” hostels. I like hostels where you can only check in at 5pm earliest, and supper was 2 choices – veggie or non veggie. I like hostels where you have to be gone (even if you’re staying for another night or two) by 10am – having guests about all day is really getting to me, especially when those guests are expecting to check in at 11:30am before we’ve even had a chance to clean the rooms (I swear not even hotels allow guests to do this!). I like it when guests clean up after themselves, if you’re asked to remove your used linen from the beds before you leave and deposit it in the baskets at the bottom of the stairs, do so! It’s not so hard! Leave your rooms as you found them, check behind beds for your copious amounts of rubbish and dirty pants! And do NOT, if you’re camping, drive across and park your car on the lawn right next to your tent… your vehicle really will be ok 10-20 metres away in the proper car park. Ok so it’s a tad extreme to say that I’d like to go as far back into YHA history (beyond my years) and say that cars shouldn’t be anywhere near hostels, but I do agree with the old rule that guests are not allowed in the hostel between 10am & 5pm… I DO remember those days, and they make sense. Why stay milling about the house when you can go out and see places, do things? If you’ve arrived before 5pm and it starts to rain, then hide in the outdoors toilet. It’s a roof. Guests should stop being so slobbish and pay more respect to the hostel (and it’s staff!!)… being on holiday does not mean that you have to act like a delinquent monkey.
Yes, we are hosting people so there should be some good level of hygiene and cleanliness throughout the hostel, but the current health and safety laws really do take the piss a bit too much. We live in a time where we’re constantly terrified that the H&S man (or woman) may do a surprise visit and find, god forbid, a rogue chopped mushroom under the shiny stainless steel kitchen counter! Oh no!
Sorry about this rant, but it really has been bugging me. As I said, I want to be part of the YHA – the old YHA… this current one perhaps isn’t for me. But oh well, just 10 or so more weeks at Golant before I get to be a dirty hippy for a few months, then maybe next year I’ll get to work at Coverack for the summer (nicer location on the Lizard, overlooking the sea, smaller hostel too… no longer wish to work at Treyarnon Bay as they now have an “open all day” café which has resulted in way too much work and added stress which lead to two members of staff leaving recently. I’m not meant to know that yet though).
Wow, I’m writing a lot. I’m writing it in one of my old first year “colour and composition” sketchbooks, the work in it is AWFUL. And the gouache… so thick and lumpy. Blegh!
Earlier Lisa said that we should put our savings together and buy a patch of land to live on and have a small farm on. Who knows if she meant it or not, but wouldn’t that be nice…
The music she’s listening to is possibly Romanian gypsy music, delightful! It’s funny how tastes change… if the me of 5-7 years ago could see my current self they’d likely think I was a RIGHT WEIRDO. World/folk music would be replaced by rock / metal music (of course old habits die hard and I still enjoy listening to Planet Rock & a good old bit of Ozzy!). Why am I wearing scroggy brown boots with leather laces when I could be wearing black ones with red laces? My jumper is A) brown, and B) knitted by my mum (both of these things would have made me PROPER “SAD”), and my trousers are super saggy in the crotch and in at the ankle instead of flaring out and dragging along the in the dirt behind me for non-literal metres.
Teenagers are REALLY WEIRD.
This coming week I need to remember to pay more attention to the plants in the polytunnel as they need a jolly good water or else the cucumbers will go hard and woody and only suitable for consumption by chickens. I must get off my arse and work out what to get printed for the gallery in Plymouth (send them some samples of my work first, they also mentioned they may see about getting some of my patterns printed on material! How exciting).
On a less exciting note (in fact a dreadfully saddening note), I just dropped half of number 2 of 4 egg custard tart on the floor. VERY SAD TIMES. My normal opinion of “pick it up, dust it off, eat it” has been trumped by A) egg custard + a lot of dirt = un-dustable. B) Possible asbestos dust mixed in with the equation… bugger. Oh well, some small animal will be able to enjoy it from out of a hedge.
Zzzz… I am feeling sleep.
Ahh, the sun is coming out a little more! Just in time for a possibly early lunch (ALMOST 12 midday).
*I did draw a LITTLE bit… but after listening to The Archers on the radio I promptly fell asleep to the lullaby of Lisa bashing bits of metal to make a tripod and the afternoon story on Radio 4. Yes, I can sleep through blacksmithery…
All new pieces of work (theres a few...) can be found on my Facebook/Flickr/Society6. Today, uploading onto blogger does not seem to be my internets favourite thing to do.
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