94. Punched through the door

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.

93. Not stung by a bee

The third and final piece for Petra's homework things... and now on with looooads of writing:

Zzzz… my eyes are all sleepy like a dozy wasp. Wasps are very dozy at the moment, it is August and they have all done what they had to do and so are now spending time buzzing about and irritating / stinging people; annoyingly, yesterday I was a victim of a wasp sting. I was just driving through Bodmin, minding my own business; I had stopped briefly in the Morrison’s car park to tell my TomTom where to go, and had just driven out and approached a roundabout when suddenly OHHHH OWWW WTF OUCH BUGGERMENT POO GRRR! (Admittedly the words I said were far more harsh than any of those listed, however I felt I should at least attempt to censor what was said in reality). IT REALLY HURT, basically. What made it worse was that the sting was on the top of my boob (just below the top bit of my top) and the pain spread up to my throat & made me feel very sick, and then the wasp (I’m pretty sure it was a wasp as it felt crispy when I yanked it out of my bra) fell down UNDER my boob… so I had to swear & feel sick & dig out the wasp all whilst town driving, and that is tricky at the best of times in Bodmin in tourist season. So yes… that sting hurt all day, sometimes in waves of ouchy stingyness. At least the wasp / whatever it was was crushed to death when I yanked it out of my upper under crackers and flung it across the front of my van (I couldn’t find it later, perhaps the wind whooshed it out of the window).
My boob is still swollen (my right hand side one).

Eventually I arrived in Boscastle where I eventually found a parking space (people must have thought I was an idiot to attempt parking there on
a- In the summer holidays
b- On a rainy sunny rainy day, where the beach isn’t the right answer for tourists

c- I have Cornwall/Kernow stickers on both ends of my van, making me essentially a local so I REALLY should have known better). But anyway. Parking was finally found, and then we walked down a pretty side lane (off the beaten tourist track) to a small galley filled with the work of a woman called Helen Setterington. I’ve never heard of her before, but her work was pretty nice, all acrylic paintings of Cornish landscapes; she managed to get the turquoise transparency of the sea just right, and the yellow of the lichen (my favourite) and the blues of the sky… none of those silly wishy washy pieces which were so favoured round these parts some years back. I REMEMBER THEM. Stripe of one blue on top, stripe of a second blue on the bottom, maybe some variation in opacity with those colours – perhaps put in a bright ball of white for the sun, and maybe a couple of gull of boat silhouettes. Do you know the sort? Nice and simple, yes, but FAR over done.
But yes. Helen Setterington – not a wishy washy painter. I wonder if she was the woman I bought the 2 postcards off of, I’m guessing so. I had a brief natter with her about where she got her cards & postcards printed (www.monkeypuzzleart.co.uk). I liked the quality of the prints, although they are slightly contrasted compared to the original (I should have asked if she had created the contrast or if the printing company had).

After that we walked down a quay side path which had a notice saying “This is not a footpath, slippery when wet”. Again it was away from the beaten tourist track so that’s good. At the end we sat and ate the seemingly weekly lunch of crusty bread with salted butter & other filling (brie this time, from the reduced price jackpot… still not as good as the Petite Brie from Brittany!). It rained on us, but that was nice in a way. 3 young boys were leaping off the end of the quay area into the sea, and whenever they passed us they’d be all “Did you see my 360 yeeeeah?” and acting all ‘cool’. It was funny. Rain stopped and clambering on rocks was to be had, as when as a ridiculous amount of photos being taken of me (it’s flattering, really). The rock shapes round there are amazing, and the colours are pretty good too. Some rocks are really stained with iron rust and then dotted with patches of my afore mentioned favourite bright yellow lichen. The rock had formed in layers although not sedimentary but had then been crumpled and bent so that the straight lines became more like than of a drunken ant trying to walk in a straight line (really wiggly) and in places it was like two sides of a zip trying to fit together. I stole the camera at this point and clambered higher to get a couple of pieces of photographical evidence of this rock. I’m turning into my parents… I’m drooling over rock shapes. Next I’ll be packing my rucksack full of them and having airport security stop me (motherly sort!!!).

Come the end of lunch & other such ponderings we noticed that we’d taken way longer than we’d originally thought, so had to go top up the car park money before we then went to the Boscastle museum of Witchcraft. On entry and paying of £4 to a very witchy looking woman behind the desk (amid a cloud of incense) we wandered about attempting to read everything (it was impossible, so much of interest and so little ability to stop and concentrate and read things!!). Found a rather very slightly racist poster from ye olde times which pictured a witch and was advertising soap. The other picture was a face one half which was black, and the other looked like an albino black person!! The saying was “this soap works like magic, turning black to white!”. If they’d only have used less obvious facial features it would have seemed more like a “dirty people coming from the mines” poster rather than a “black people should be white!” poster. DEARY ME! Of course not all the museum was like that, that was just the “witches in advertising” section.

Things that came to my attention:
-Mass witch burning in Germany? (I think). So many witches were burnt that liquid human fat ran the streets. The fat got so hot that it eventually caught fire and the whole town set alight… ha haaa, suckers! Teaches you to be twats to those who are possibly slightly different.

-A lump of knobbly flint stone which was shaped like a penis and aptly names “cock rock”. It was given to the museum by a witch who no longer had a need for it as no one in her town believed in it’s powers any more (I can’t remember which town this was). The use of this stone was for a woman trying to conceive to put it under her pillow, it would help within 9 months (there was also a “vagina stone” although it’s use fails to be remembered).

-A human head which had been dipped in tar immediately after it’s execution but then rescued by someone… due to the tar covering there were still lots of details such as the closure of the eyelids. It had a sign up next to it with the words “Please do not laugh at this head. It once smiled and laughed, just like you or I. Please spare a minute to good thought for this head”. I can’t quite remember the meaning of all this, but none the less… interesting!

I shan’t tell of any more of this museum as I don’t wish to spoil it for anyone who visits it in the future (you should, £4 really isn’t that much for what the museum is!). I now have big urges to:
a- Draw some witches, stereotypical variety or no.
b- Buy a book of witchcraft history / facts, so I can read more about it.
c- Get some little charms and such. Even if they don’t manage to have the desired affect of what they’re meant to do (ward off evil, etc etc), they sure do look pretty and appeal to my aesthetical likes.

One the way back to the car we bought ice creams. Yum yum yum! They were (and still are) organically made from Helsett Farm (local to there), I chose the honey and lavender flavour as I’d never eaten lavender before and I love honey; glad I chose this! It was super tasty.

I shall indeed visit Boscastle again, perhaps next time not in main tourist weeks. Maybe I’ll stay at the YHA there, it’s a lovely little one – not sure if I’ve stayed there before?
Driving back home I made a quick detour to Advent Church as despite not being religious, I do like to see churches and this one seemed in the middle of no where (churches are generally old buildings and so nicely carved, but unlike most old buildings which are now owned by National Trust or English Heritage etc, they’re free to get in to! Although I was thinking of getting a National Trust membership).

So that was my “Saturday”. Today is more lazy, and I feel tired. I am sitting once again at the desk area with the windows open. Sunny intervals, a small breeze (much different to the fast winds which have been with us these past few days) and I can hear a plane going overhead – to me, that sound sounds like summer. Of course I can also here all the birds (as per usual). The air is not stuffy as it has been as we had a thunderstorm the other day (at the same time as I was standing in the middle of the chicken coop, feeding them watermelon).

In a week or 2 my old classmate (from illustration) Carl Norris is coming to work here. Have I already mentioned that? I don’t think so…? Hmm. But yes, he is. That’ll be good, a second chap in the staff house to balance out the 2 girls to 1 guy thing, plus he’s COOL. And has a spare surfboard… cackle. Ohh I miss the sea! I need to be forced to go jump in it again! I’ll go help him move his stuff out of Falmouth, and see Miss Harrison too. I hope the entire town isn’t still full of scary zombies! (Brad Pitt is filming his new zombie film on a big boat in the Falmouth Harbour area?!).

Apart from this weekend, not much has happened this week. The normal traumas of not being able to do cash up correctly, a few (but not too many) pissy customers, and the boredom of cleaning.

I’ve just had said to me “I wish I could write” (jealousy of me writing roughly 1800 words in 30-45 minutes). It reminded me of what I used to do “back in the day”, which was to write bad fan fics (the original ones were written with my good old friends Tanzee and Jennie, of whom I really do not see enough of…) these stories would consist of ourselves being something a bit better than we already were (possibly like the us of the future, who had money to buy expensive gothy corsets and own a house etc). We’d have flings with people such as Marilyn Manson, Ville Valo, and Billie Jo Armstrong as well as do multiple lots of drugs and drink at the same time as each other (of course back then we’d only really be drinking Alco-pops, stolen little bits of parents booze, and eventually in my case straight vodka). Tanzee would be the one who would get it on with Marilyn “Mazza” Manson, before end up getting pregnant much to the dislike of her fellow “housemates”, before getting very upset and having an overdose on something (not fatal) and falling down a flight of stairs (also not fatal). Jennie would be leaping on Billie Jo Armstrong and making a bit of a public spectacle of it, and I would be having my kink on in a darkened room with Ville Valo (and sometimes Dani Filth (CoF)). I wish I still had a copy of these awfully great stories – Tanzee, if you read this, do you?!

As well as these works of literary shit, I had a bad habit of regularly updating a ever deepening pile of angsty blog. Updates generally consisted of girls and guys who I had decided I really rather loved, but alas – the love was generally unrequited, and the blog entries eventually got me in a fair chunk of trouble someone… whoops! Agh well. TEENAGE YEARS, EH?? Chuckle (I’m currently listening to The Offspring – Conspiracy of One, for nostalgia reasons… I do actually still like them though).

William Arnold: “You’re not writing about me with cucumbers on my face are you?” “I am now” “Nooo…” (He’s lying down with cucumber on his barely there eye bags, and one on his forehead which I decided to take a chunk out of (the cucumber, not the forehead). He’s now just made mooing noises like the loud cows outside.

Anyhoo, for now, I shall stop writing this. I may do some gardening, or I may not. We shall see! Hum hum!

The third and final piece for Petra's homework things...

92. Nibble my shoe

Ahhh!
A blog!
Aaaahh!
What has even happened this past week?!
The joyous Dutch couple left, but not before we sat down and had a good natter and Joseph was super duper amazed by Google Earth - I let him know it was free and downloadable, and he was excited. We looked up their house in Holland & their second house in France. He then went to bed & I continued to talk to Petra (finally found out her name!). She comissioned me (in the "free" sort of way) to create a homework based picture for her - I'll create 3. Here's the first two:
Maybe she will send me something in return, maybe not. She said we were most welcome to stay with her (and Joseph? And her 16 year old daughter?).
Before she left we made sure to do lots more gardening together, during which I found a small toad (a year or 2 old), and picked plenty of blackberries (LOADS here! And really early! I hope the blackberry GLUT (new word I learnt!) continues, and there isn't soon to be a DEARTH (other new word!).
I shall make some more blackberry & cinnamon job (almost out from last year! Oh no!) and they won't even be picked in a graveyard, so no accidental cannibalism will occur this time.
Another lovely guest was a girl/woman/lady called Charlotte, she works in a screen printing company in Sweden, and was impressed by my upside down map drawing & writing skills. I have since drawn up a proper map on how to walk from here to Fowey, because so many folks ask.
Charlotte gave us chocolates when she left. It's such a shame the current guests aren't as nice! Although we have had an amusing & friendly German family arrive today, one of his first words was "scheisse"; this goes down well in my book.

On my "Saturday" (Monday) Rachel & I ventured into St Austell to go see the new Harry Potter film (finally!). Getting a little misplaced on the way there, and having to pull up on double yellows so that Rachel could CHUNDER, we finally arrived and did a snippet of shopping before the film (I found a 100% pure wool jumper for £4 in a charity shop - navy blue with bigger than a tennis ball white daisy flowers on it with yellow middles. It's really itchy, and some people would say it's really ugly (it is a bit) but I do rather like it! Though I hope the itchiness dies down. It shall be VERY cozy in the winter when I'm being a dirty hippy - of course I also have my Icelandic knitted jumper which my mum made me, but that isn't so tight knit. I also got me some shampoo/conditioner/shower gel from the St Austell branch of the Natural Store (love that shop), and have decided I want to buy some carob to make some weird & wacky food. Can't wait to opt out! Roll on not eating YHA food all the time!

Tuesday was a relatively lazy day, had a lie in and then adventured off to St Anthonys head (nr Falmouth / St Mawes etc). Had a stylish lunch of poppy seed fresh bread with salted butter & ox tongue / cream cheese & smoked salmon (reduced price jackpot!!!), with orange juice with juicy bits. Climbed a pole, got a tad worried about a cow and her three calves in the middle of the footpath (just incase she got moody about people being too close to her babies), and enjoyed the sunshine. The sun shone, but there was a bit of a breeze... so in the end didn't jump in the sea. I NEED to jump in the sea more. I miss it.

I'm afraid I don't have much else to report on, apart from The Artworks Agency in London telling me that they don't want me (keep trying somewhere else, I suppose!), and a gallery in Plymouth saying that they DO want me! (I didn't even ask! Thats good).
I found that chickens love blackberries, and that I definately can't cook scallops as well as they do in restaurants (not a big surprise).
I decided I want to buy a hammock to string up between the 5 big evergreens in our gardens, it is so nice and cool under those trees in the hot hot heat (today is grey & chilly).

Here is a sketch I did, for Mooncup (yes... if you know what it is already, hurrah! If you don't... it's worth finding out - more so if you're female ;) !!!).
This piece by Chelsea Brown caught my eye, even though she has such a serious face!I watched "Young Victoria" and fell in love with Rupert Friend in it, especially his outfits... he wore them SO WELL!

This looks tasty tasty, for easy good snackage when pudding is the thought!

Should I buy this camera? And the sexy brown leather case for it?

91. Catch a small plum

(a doodle I fancied doing, the word is rather satisfying. Looks a tad like dragons eggs).

Bonjour!

Another week at YHA Golant has passed, and it’s actually been a rather good one on the whole – apart from a few customers who decided to attempt to make my morning hell one of the days (“Is there any more bread? Toast?” “I’m afraid not, it’s all gone now!” “But that’s just not good enough! What are my children to eat?!” or “But we’re going on a long journey today! What are we to eat?!”
Here let me point out that for breakfasts (between 7:30am & 9:00am) we serve tea, coffee (including milk & sugar), croissants and bread rolls (both white & brown often), 3 different types of cereal, cheese portions (when they’re in), sliced meats, an array of fruit, fruit juice stuff, 2 different types of butter / spread to put on bread stuffs – as well as different jams, and then a full English breakfast which is bacon, sausage (sometimes veggie sausage too, if we have any), mushrooms, scrambled egg, cooked tomatoes, hash browns (sometimes fried potatoes), and baked beans. That’s a fair load of food, yes? We will always put out enough for everyone, and often have to restock on things like the eggs, beans, and sausages… if you’re really worried that you won’t be able to get enough bread to shove in your mouth, then try coming down earlier than right at the last minute (nearing 9am). I’m sure your children will be able to eat everything else – like any other normal child they may just want a simple bowl of cereal, and don’t tell me that the service isn’t good enough because I know I NEVER said to you that the female dorm only had 10 beds rather than 20! I very well know (due to cleaning the said dorm on most days) that it does not have only 10 beds so why would I say such a thing… pah! Apologies for the rant, however some folks really should learn that us working people are not aliens, we do have hearts, and we do not appreciate being treated like shit just because you yourself are in a grump. If we have no more bread, we have no more bread. We are not magic, we can not just create some from scratch in a matter of seconds – if we DO have some left, it’ll still be frozen and so yes! It will take a little bit of time to defrost and be cooked!
THANKFULLY there are also a wonderful Dutch couple staying, the chap is apparently a musician and enjoys winking, and the lady enjoys grinning at me and holding my arm / patting pretty much my bum. They’re relatively old (well… 50’s?), she calls him her friend, he calls her his girlfriend. They’re camping at the end of the garden. On that morning of demanding bread munchers, the Dutch couple were the only people who were really genuinely nice to me – due to this I made it my mission to often be the one to serve their meals to them, ask them how their day was, exchange good natterings, and make them a small picture painting briefly mentioning “thank you for being such wonderful guests, especially on a day when everyone else seemed to fail to be so”. Correct, I may be a suck up, but if you’re going to be such pleasant people then you may as well be rewarded for being so – maybe more people will start being nicer.

Nice happy thoughts!!!

Currently in the countryside about the hostel the baby cows are all growing up, and so the field below my window is full of really weird cow noises (more like dinosaur noises if we’re to be honest), there’s swallows darting about all over the place – the other evening I almost knocked one off of it’s perch in the hostel courtyard whilst wielding the mop to empty a bucket of kitchen floor water! It was so very close! Apparently their legs are really weak and so once they’re “down” they’ll stay down for quite a while until they really want to fly (information gathered from Mr Arnold).
I also had a run in with a bat that same day, broad daylight! I went into the cleaning supplies etc room and their was a bat just flapping about! It landed in a few places, and I was quiet enough to be able to get 2 hastily drawn pencil sketches of it. THEY’RE SOOOO CYOOOOT! Fluffsome fluffers. A few other folks came and watched it with me for a while, including the Dutch couple and my manager Paul.

The fields of oats and barley and wheat etc are in the process of being munched up by tractors, and hay bales rolled and so the hills are a fantastic array of patchwork colours in multiple different textures and patterns. Black blackberrys are slowly but surely arriving (especially outside my kitchen window), and I’ve been pointed to a crop of chestnuts right next to where I park my van. I’ve been continuing to steal the eggs from the chickens, and occasionally forgetting to wear proper foot coverage and so ending up having chickens pecking my feet.

The weather? Well… Cornwall! Today it is mostly bright grey cloud with the occasional patch of blue sky; it is relatively still (only the odd breeze here and there) and really rather stuffy – sweaty! It’s been a bit like this for days now, I’m hoping that soon (perhaps on my next weekend?) the actual summer decides to appear! But this will do for now, at least it is not cold like it was last week.

Yesterday on my “Saturday” I went to the Luxulyan valley which is a beautiful area a short drive from here. It was once really rather industrial – you can see the remains of a huge water wheel, an aqueduct (it still works on the whole – you can walk across it! I never really quite worked out how they work before… once I was shown that I could see water under my feet beneath the stones I suddenly felt a little as if I was walking on the sugar crust of a crème brulee, and that it could crack at any minute and myself and the tonnes of rock would go smashing through to the valley floor). The weather was indeed pleasant yesturday, the sun shone for the simple picnic of a “French stick”, salted butter, parma ham, and orange juice (with juicy bits), and splashing about water in the stream was really rather nice. I clambered from rock to rock in the stream (riverish stream), and ended up on a good round one which was coated in a carpet of fluffy moss.

In the evening, I caught the bus to Fowey where I ate with Mr Arnold at Sams restaurant (there is also one in Polkerris). After a 50 minute wait of drinking apple Rattler (whoops! Goes straight to my blood!!), I chomped upon 4 yummy yummy scallops with garlic butter drizzle and added lemon, salad, a chunk of French stick with plenty of butter, and then for mains I had the ¼ pound beef burger with blue cheese bacon and salad, as well as skinny fries and a good selection of dips. As much as I enjoy burgers, I always forget that I shouldn’t order them when there are other tastier options as they always make me turn into a GIANT BALL OF BLOATED GAS!!! Catching a late bus home, walked down from Castledore to the YHA in minimal light (about 10:15pm). Stars were out in part, and on the hill in the distance a person was lamping for rabbits.

Today I am just getting a few little things done, I hope to saw up the mattress for my van (I’ve been meaning to do it for AGES now).

So that’s that! Next Monday, Rachel & I are having a GIRLS DAY and shall go to St Austell to finally watch the new Harry Potter mooooovie. Otherwise, from what I can tell, the next week is just another week of scrubbing toilets, cooking food, and invading the chickens. Almost ¼ of the time through my stay at Golant YHA, though!

Ahhh… oh! Sunshine!!

Some sketches of some pieces I hope to make, based on "eco" stuff. There may be more, I just thought I'd show the sketches for now...

90. Swallow a bee

Hello again...

I've currently CROSSED MY FINGERS A LOT (although I originally wrote "crossed my gingers"), as I'm being considered for The Artworks Illustration agency's "Startworks" programme. I really hope they'll take me on, REALLY REALLY! If they don't? Well... I guess I'll just have to carry on life, keep drawing whenever I can (it doesn't seem like often at the moment :( ) and hope for something else to come along.
Working with the YHA is alright, the pay is good, the people are lovely (mostly), the accomodation is pretty dandy (well... mostly!!), and the location is superb (apart from lack of sea within a short dawdle from my room); but it is starting to drag - even after only 3ish weeks. I'm fully aware that I can't be too fussy with what I do - after all I am insisting on remaining living in Cornwall, and I have only just graduated - I don't have much money (shh!) and I'm not exactly a high up illustrator (sadly). But even so, I'm pretty sure I don't want to be hoovering and scrubbing toilets and cleaning pots for the rest of my life! It'd be GREAT to get an agent and the like, really really great, and I'm still fully aware that even when I do that I won't be able to earn a full living from it... but enough so that I don't have to clean up un-flushed poop?! PLEEEASE!
It doesn't help that I'm currently looking through photos of the Easter of events in Brittany, in hot sunshine, wonderful singing music dancing etc, lazing about (when not being yelled at to get up and dance...!!!). Alas! It's not even SUNNY at the moment! Last night I almost fully shut my window, put an extra blanket on the bed, and a hot water bottle on my feet! What it is all coming to...
In short, I'm better than scrubbing toilets. Sorry, but I am.
End of rant.

I had another nice "weekend", went on a visit to Falmouth (it was SUPER DUPER weird driving there in the evening, I drove past my house (old house) and got a little emotional feeling). One day of lazing & walking the highstreet, and then a day of driving out to Church Cove to re-visit the church which is half buried by a sand dune. In the church I met a mouse, it was NOT being quiet!! Also walked a little bit of cliff there and admired the rock formations, before going down onto one of the beaches to jump over ever widening (due to rising tide) rivers, get my knees wet, and run away from fake creatures (it ended up in a shoe).
Events also included meeting an escaped cow on the road, and being SUPER HAPPY that the Helston Sainsburys fuel area does FREE AIR!! Most fuel stops now make you pay. FOR AIR! This makes me love Helston Sainsburys even more than I already did.

Today at the hostel it has only been Rachel & I working all day, we somehow managed to get everything done, and I even cooked hake & such to perfection! It amused me when a woman (hake woman) was praising my service & whatnot to another guest, before noticing that I was sitting right near her & she got all embarrased - ahhh, ego widening. Delicious!!

Once again, it does not want to let me add images, so for now, go to my Flickr account for any updates of the artwork variety!

89. I drank red wine

Ahhhhh this is the life… sort of…
Today is essentially Monday morning for me, despite it actually being Wednesday morning. Funny YHA shifts. But I have freedom until 2pm (then I work until 11pm) so I shall fill these next 3 hours with being lazy if possible. I think thats allowed - Lisa is being lazy, but that makes sense as she's rather ill (water poisoned)… it's a bit of a shame really! She came up to see me and finds she is very kaput! But these things happen, and we still managed to get in a delightfully lazy afternoon yesterday (my "Sunday") as I drove to a local couple of beaches called Polridmouth where we lay on the sand and snoozed and watched ducks and the passers by, I ate boiled eggs (taken from the chickens in the YHA garden) and other such cold picnic items, skimmed a few stones, paddled my toes in the sea… the down points of the day would be Lisa being ill (sadface), myself somehow managing to lose the copper feather which Dan made me which I always wear round my neck (I noticed it was falling off, so I restrung it & all - perhaps I managed to weaken the metal of the link too much?! It's all very sad! I loved that feather! P'raps he'll make me a new one…? Won't be the same, but still! Why can't I have lost the dodgy leaf that I made (and burnt…..) instead. Hmpf! The final annoyance occurred when driving up the hill out of Polkerris - it's a small relatively steep climb, and on the way up I met a couple of cars coming down. From what I could see of their contents (grinning old couples in little cars) they were tourists. Now, I don't REALLY have a problem with tourists, I am one myself sometimes, aren't we all? However these were the sort who had no ability to reverse up a small winding Cornish lane to a passing place. I know there was one, as the car behind the first one usefully went back into it for me, but the first car just grinned at me, and so I had to reverse down this hill… there's some sort of rule (written or not) that the vehicle going UP the hill had right of way? Maybe? Who knows.
ANYWAY, to cut my rambling and ranting sort of short, I ended up reversing the back left corner of Hector (my van) into a rock filled wall, this resulting in a horrible crunch and me swearing a lot. Having done this, and letting the twatty and still grinning tourist past, managing to almost stall etc, I drove off home to Golant where on inspection of the back left corner I found I hadn't done so much damage as I had imagined - the glass (plastic) from the lights is gone, and there is a noticeable dent, but otherwise it's ALL OK. Phew. I'll still have to take Hector to a garage though… p'raps I'll get a couple of other little things fixed up too. Hmm.
Reversing down a hill = not so hard. Reversing down a hill in a van with blind spots = harder. BUT THESE THINGS HAPPEN, right?! Yes. I should not let it taint my day too much.

My "Saturday" was lovely also. I woke up and the weather was warm, and did a little painting. I've been craving painting. I still need a desk. Maybe I'll see if theres one on Freecycle in this area. After this, Rachel & I climb into Hector with a young (almost 19) year old chap who was going the same way as us and had been staying at Golant YHA that night. Handy! Off we drive to Boswinger YHA! Parking up in the YHA car park, and promising that we'd remove the van before 5pm when the rest of the hostel guests were arriving we wandered off down the hill in the sun, myself and Rachel taking the short cut through a field or two of young male cows (bullocks!), I was proving to her that cows won't ALWAYS chase her, and then spending a little time on the beach at the bottom. Summer indeed was there. Having cravings for ice-cream & public conveniences and the like, the three of us stomped off along the coast path (more meetings with cows, they still didn't chase us) just under two miles to Caerhays / Porthluney beach; this is where Vera got her foot stung by a weever fish two years back.
The coast path there was delightful, there was that hot summery clifftop smell in the air (no gorse wafts though), we looked down the cliff to the sea which was see-through and turquoise, and kept an eye out for slow worms (saw none). On arrival at the beach we acquired ice-creams and went to sit on the sand where we ate our picnic lunches and snoozed in the sun again (myself being my normal childish self deciding to attempt to undermine the sand Rachel was sitting on). Keeping a wary eye on the time, as if we didn't get back to Boswinger YHA to remove Hector from the car park before 5pm then Victoria may have decapitated us, we lazed and nattered before getting up the guts to jump in the sea. The tide was not very low and so it was relatively shallow for a fair while, but upon remembering about weever fish I dunked myself in pretty quick. The sea was delightfully calm apart from the occasional up-down corrugation of a wave, and there were warm patches to linger in (I'm telling myself that these were due to the small spring/river which runs down the beach from the lake above it rather than excessive amounts of human piss). It was one of the best relaxing sea swims I've had in a while… I'll have to go there again soon. Upon getting out and attempting to dry off (myself being the only person to have bought my swimwear) we acquired another ice-cream & stomped off in the opposite direction along the coast path, getting to the YHA with a little time to spare, with pinker browner skin, and larger grins on our faces. We said our goodbyes to the chap who's name still fails me, and drove back to Golant via Tescos to pick up essentials (red wine… ingredients for the ultimate spag bog). Arriving back at Golant we found Lisa had beaten us there, had to break into our house as someone had locked the front door again, and after making the spag bog we sat out on the grass at the back on a rug, eating drinking and talking, eventually wrapping ourselves in blankets until the mosquito attacks got too hard to avoid.

What else has happened?
Mr Arnold came up from Falmouth to visit me for a couple of nights - although company here at Golant YHA is fine enough, it really is nice to see a few other faces. Unfortunately it was not my weekend when he came up, so I was still required to work but in my spare time we did more lazing (it's essential! Especially when you still haven't adjusted from the life of being a full time art student into that of someone who runs about for 8.5 hours a day, 5 days a week, cooking, cleaning, and generally looking after guests!). In one split we walked down to the hostels 14 aches of woodland and then trespassed (tsk tsk!) across the china clay works railway to get to the boathouse area where the hostel boat is kept. That place was also once used by one of the Royal Charles' who used to take his females down there for canoodling and affairs. It is a fine place to go, we watched water traffic (kayaks and small boats) go by, I got stalked by his camera, and found I could make a nice colour metallic paint by crushing up some of the rocks down there.
Thankfully Mr Arnold is a local to this area, and so was able to amuse himself when I could not.

I've been hearing about people getting offers from New Designers, it's all very exciting. Sadly I have not really had anything (but this does not surprise me, as I do not reckon my work was up to a good enough standard, and I did not go along the the London ND show or anything anyway). I did however pick up an e-mail yesterday from a company called Mudpie; the name rings a bell, but not much of one.


"Hello,

My name is Louise Fenner and I am contacting you from a company called Mudpie. Based in Hampshire we are an international fashion trend forecasting company who produce 7 leading trend books covering the Male, Female, Children's, Sports and Print and Pattern markets. For more information about Mudpie please click on the following link: http://www.mudpie.co.uk/aboutus-company_overview.html

The reason for my email is that whilst at New Designers last week my colleague picked up your business card as they were very impressed with your portfolio. We are currently looking to recruit both garment and graphic designers and I wanted to invite you to send through some printable samples of your work along with your CV."


Thats all very nice, isn't it? It was ended with details to the company and such like… but I didn't feel the need to copy them on to here.
Nice indeed… however upon closer inspection I noticed a few things which bugged me a little.
-Did they really like my work as "trendy" stuff? Really? Although I'm sure everyone is vaguely affected by what is "hip and cool", but me? Hmm! Amused me slightly.
-Obviously a mass saved e-mail, as I fully know that the only thing I had on show at New Designers was my large foam board covered with my work. There was no portfolio, there were no business cards. I'm aware that mass sent e-mails are quick and speedy, but people really should notice the little details. It looks un-caring, and really rather unprofessional (in my eyes).
-The jobs were all in Romsey, that is far too far away from Cornwall for my liking (though closer than Reigate is).
I still appreciate the thought, however, and so have sent them an e-mail explaining that I would like to remain in Cornwall (I DO already have a job here…) however if they have any commission work they would like to run past me, I'm happily willing to give it a look.
I'm still not sure if I fit in with trend stuff, though!
I have also sent another e-mail through to The Artworks Inc agency, asking again whether they would like to see me (again) since it is now after ND.
Lets hope something comes of it… and once I've adjusted to the amount of energy I have to put in to "real life work", I can get on with some more drawing.
For now, go look on my Flickr I've recently created which are a little experimental for me, I tried a few new things, some have worked out better than others.
(No images posted on here today, as they refuse to behave!!).

88. Eat a date.

Helleuuu!
I have just sneezed (once - that means I'm ill. Apparently twice means that it's just something tickly, but any other number is being ill appart from those freaky deaky folk who sneeze and sneeze and sneeze and sneeze and sneeeeeze for ages, even when not ill).
I am infact, ill. With a cold. From Silje to Vera to me. A fair load of snot and a runny nose despite the fact that my nose is mostly blocked, and my eyes are watering - especially the right one, and my head feels funny, and my throat is a bit sore. All in all, it's annoying as I'm meant to be clearing up and out of my home of 2 years in Falmouth, as well as being cheery with everyone else as I'm going to leave their lovely company for that of Golant YHA... instead I have been flopping on my bed, attacking the garden, and throwing hard bread at Silje because I got pissy (thankfully she seemed to forgive me and brought me some honey and a knife and a mug of peppermint infusion... I hope it wasn't poisoned :) ).
At least when I get to Golant I will make sure to totally and utterly SORT OUT all my stuff, and get rid of a lot of it. I have far too much crap... I can not carry this all round in a van in the winter months. Toooo much...

So what has happened since my update on 6th June? Well, Mr Dan O'Shea arrived, and then disappeared rather quickly (to The Royal Cornwall Show). Us three girls went there on the Saturday also, after stopping off at Golant YHA for Friday night to keep Rachel company with some wine.
Although Royal Cornwall is pricey to get in to (£15!!) it's so very worth it (though I shall try get in free next year with the blacksmiths...!). We set off on a mission across from the main entrance to the blacksmiths tent, on the way meeting my Golant manager Paul (who was off to see the tiny little horses), met lots of huuuge bulls, pretty cows, oinking sleepy lazy pigs, and sheep - some of which looked like rabbits (I saw a sheeps erect knob - this amused me greatly). The blacksmiths were vocally abusing each other as per usual, and hungover. As per usual again, it seems!! I acquired myself a nice lightweight wax jacket, we bought Dan a hat (leather folk singer style sort o' thing, which we later embellished with pheasant feathers).
After Royal Cornwall we went in convoy with TRISTAN KESSELL! to Keveral farm (near Looe in Cornwall). I went there last year too for their annual all night folk event, this year however was much wetter. Although I had my van, we took a tent and all three of us slept in it. This would have been fine, as it was very warm and comfy, however it seems that someone had removed all the tent pegs from it and so it was only really held down with some makeshift pegs which Dan cleverly made. Again, this would have been fine if the wind hadn't been madly howling and at times the rain hadn't been lashing a little... but I was awoken at various times in the night with the slight worry that the top sheet would blow off (Dan helpfully came about a few times in the night silently thwacking the "pegs" into the ground more with his elbow). The morning came, and we soggily packed up and drove back to Falmouth in the fog (we got a little lost).

As well as being all folky and farmery, I've taken Mr Norris briefly looking for a van before we went to Lisa's secret beach and leapt in the sea (he swap like a crazy beast about the place, where as I had a sudden feeling of impending doom from the seabed and after a while decided to sit on a rock like a mermaid clad in tight black and blue neoprene).
I have also been on a few little adventures with Mr Arnold to various places, the most recent being to Perranporth where we walked along the cliff in the direction of St Agnes and ate a tasty picnic of simple baguette with butter and pate and double creme Oreos (mmmm!!!) and orange juice. Good stuff, says I. I may have been a tad grumpy at the start, but at the end all was fine and we looked at shags on Shag rock, and snooped about caves made from mines, and such like. We ALSO went to The Wheelhouse in Falmouth, had to book it in advance as it's a very small restaurant place. The interior is great - theres fun old hats on hooks on the walls that you can try on, and the only things on the menu are: lobster, crab, spider crab, prawns, scallops, and mussels. We had scallops in lemony butter sauce for starter (after stickmeat, they were the best thing I have EVER tasted, I had to eat some with my eyes shut). For mains we got the last big spider crab with special sauce, and mussels in white wine cream sauce as well as some skinny cut chips. The mussels were not the best ones I have ever tasted, perhaps because I ate them AFTER the scallops which were amazing. The crab was crazy to eat, having never eaten one before, and we were STUFFED after that feast!! Not cheap, but great food.

For a few nights my parents and grandmother were also down for my final show, they seemed to like it (admittedly my dad and grandmother didn't seem as impressed as my mum - perhaps thats a Bourne trait - not showing impressedness!!). I went driving with them round the north coast for a day (driving as le grandmere doth not walke so well nowadays), and also went to Greenbanks Hotel (other end of Falmouth to me) for supper. My supper was YUMMY!

UPDATE!!! It is now the 5th of July and I am at Golant! It is essentially my Sunday (2nd day off in my "weekend") and I now have the interwebs, so I'm sitting in reception grinning at Rachel working whilst eating a bar of Galaxy and drinking a hot chocolate... I don't often eat this badly, however I decided this occasional slobbiness called for it.
It was so terrible to leave Falmouth... the tidying up was left far too late in the end, and I have far too much stuff. In the end I got insanely tired and very emotional (I was the first to cry... oh dear...) and had to get Dan (who was still staying with us) to drive with me to Golant as otherwise I may have crashed. A LOT. Oh dear...
I miss my Norwegian's terribly, I didn't get enough time to sob all over them, and to dribble snot all over the place... they had better come to graduation in September, AND to Lowender Peran festie in October, and then I'll go to Norway in December for Christmas! I can't wait. I hope it happens.
In a way it feels good to be away from Falmouth, especially away from some things... you can only put up with stuff for a certain amount of time!!

Yesturday I walked in to Fowey with Rachel, my legs got bitten by flies on the way there. We they sat and watched life go by on the wall, before she went off to meet her new chap (ooer!) and I went and hunted down a printing company - I'm gonna see if I can get cards and postcards printed up which I'll then sell at YHA's & little shops in Fowey. Yes yes yes.

Ahhh... I'm not sure what else to write for now, I reckon I'll try update more often and such.
I'm thinking of moving my website onto something like Wordpress - I know it's not crazy profesional or anything, but it's so tricky to update my own website at the moment - mostly due to the fact I don't own Dreamweaver. We'll see. I hope no one from New Designers look at my website, it's blimmin' awful!

But for now, go read this blog (Mr Lukas Drinkwater) as it never fails to make me happy. Also, on the mention of the chap, here is a link or something to a new music video for 3 Daft Mokeys (the band he is currently in). He's the bassist chappo with the top hat, top notch!
http://youtu.be/RXS4DmjKskg video

And now, some imagery...
From the BawkBawk blog, I love all the colours and patterns in it...
My old classmate Eddie (Carl-Edvin Aslaksen) took this... not sure how, but however it was make I like it. Yes indeed.
I don't know who took it, who to give credit to... but it's a photo from space of the night lights in Europe. I like how patchy the light is down in Cornwall, and that you can see where capital / main cities are, and really built up places. In general I like it as it's geographically GOOD.
Sally Ross, I do like the textures, it reminds me a little of my own stuff.

I made a duck for Lisa's dad's birthday! In less than 10 minutes! (Ok, maybe 10...). I like the speedy style, but don't reckon I'll stick with it for ever!

These wandering guys are AMAZING.

Rude comic! Curvy! Thank you Vera!

This old - new photo thing appealed.

Ponced up Russian rich kids!

Ciao for now!