50. Thrifty!

Ahhh procrastination... how I must GET RID OF YOU. ESPECIALLY SINCE I WANT TO GET MY DISSERTATION FINISHED A WEEK EARLY. It might happen? Y'never know...

But, I am going to do this:

I found it on a Tumblr account (here is mine: Bex's birdsnest), and thought that although some of the subjects may not be terribly appropriate for such a public blog, I shall work round that.
I may not do one a day, but eventually, all 30 shall get done.
So here goes...

Write about "your current relationship, if single discuss how single life is".

I am definately currently single. My last "relationship" (a ship full of relations?) was with a lovely cro.......... blacksmith called, in full, Mr Daniel John O'Shea. He has a blog, y'know. Though he doesn't update it so often. But that ended (I ended it) roughly 4ish months ago, I think it was for the best. Since then, Dan has moved away from Falmouth & is now working as a blacksmith in Wales. The other night I got a noice telephone call from him, it seems that he's got his life all nice and sorted in some way or the other, or at least written down on a list (A LIST! It was a shock. Since he used to take the piss out of my love for list, him being not so terribly organised). Though one thing on his "to do this year" list which he missed out I thought about today. DAN. GET SOME NEW GLASSES.
Dan would do things like rip up chunks of rock (FROM the rock) if it was poking my bum in not such a great way when I was sitting on it (I kept that bit of rock. Still got it, with my collection). And would try send me Creme Eggs in the post, to a Youth Hostel I was walking to in the Peak District (it sadly did not arrive, but the thought definately counts). And to point at me when singing "where is my wife, my nagging nagging wife" when singing All For Me Grog (sea shanty), even though it embarrased me, I liked it. I liked many and many things.
Of course I miss all that sometimes, some times more than others... I wrote a list of a few things a few blog posts before this, those are some of the things I miss. But life goes on, and new things come and go, and it was great whilst it lasted (most of the time!!!).
So now I am single.
It's ok, it certainly gives me more time to myself, which is really quite necessary in this final year of uni. And we all need our own space once in a while. As I mentioned, there are DEFINATELY some things I miss... but I'm young, right? I have plenty of time to do as I like, for me. I can settle down & find "permanent solutions" later on.
Of course that doesn't mean that if something came along now, I would say no... take life as it comes, unless theres something which really REALLY requires chasing, or unless it smells like a long dead rotting fish... in which case, leave it alone.
And it's not as if I've had utterly NO attention within the last few months, people come and go, but nothing I'd call a "relationship".
Single single single.

On a totally different note, I got my van today! He's called Hector (after Hector from Monarch of the Glen... originally I wanted to call whatever vehicle I got Molly (also from MotG) but then I thankfully know a Molly, and so calling it that would be a tad creepy. So then I decided on Duncan (again, MotG. They're all such nice names!!). But then I met a Duncan, too. So... Hector).
He's a white Fiat Schudo, 3 seats, diesel, and he would really rather like some more fuel to drink. I'll kit him out nice & proper when I get the time, after dissertation.
I do hope I don't find too much wrong with him.

I can hear Vera singing in her room downstairs. And Silje's audiobook from her room. And the slight murmer of whatever Foggy is watching in their room.

Bugger. I think I left my drying clothes outside, and now it's frosty it seems. Whoops.

Thats all for now! A longer update laterrronnnn.

49. Drink some wine.

Oh HELLO again!
Yes! Another! Since around a week ago a few little things have happened, however I was mainly updating to "throw up" the recipe for the kedgeree stuff I made for supper today (which I thought was appropriate, as later this evening I have been watching Downton Abbey, and kedgeree was on the menu for breakfast at one point...!).

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Bex's Kedgeree with extra bits and bobs
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Ingredients: (serves 2, or some for supper and some cold for lunch the next day!)
-Brown rice (enough for 2 people)
-2 medium / large eggs
-1 stick of celery
-3 cherry tomatoes
-half a brown (white / greeny) onion, though more would do no harm
-2 large cloves garlic
-Good handful of vaguely crushed up (in your hand will do) cashew nuts.
-fresh ground black pepper
-medium curry powder
-butter
-half a pack of smoked mackerel (the sort you get "suction packed" in Tescos will do. Enough to re-create roughly about 1 whole mackerel)
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1. Rinse the brown rice, and cook. This should take roughly 15-25 minutes from boiled.
2. Whilst waiting for the rice to cook, melt some butter in a frying pan and fry up the rough chopped onion and garlic.
3. Get the eggs into the pan, and create a lightly done scrambled egg with the onion & garlic.
4. Chop the cherry tomatoes in half and put them into the frying pan with the rest, chopped side down, add chopped celery to this mixture - the chunkier the better, I say.
5. Throw in the crushed cashews, a decent amount of black pepper, and enough curry powder to give all the contents a fair dose.
6. Roughly chop up the mackerel (still see-able pieces, but small enough to spread about the entire pan). Add to the pan.
7. Drain the rice and stir well into the mixture, add more black pepper, curry powder, and butter to moisten & mix.
8. Serve! Save! Do what you wish.
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Although this is most likely no where NEAR the "original" recipe, it is my take on it, and so I shall continue to call it kedgeree. Yum yum! Heres a photo, it's a little blurred perhaps due to the poor light:
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Apart from munching THAT, what have I been up to.
Well, the Norweg's got back, I got some new glasses, have also had 2 attempts of getting contact lenses - 3rd attempt on Friday. The problem is that my eyes have GREAT reflexes, and don't want things poked in them. I am DETERMINED, I really do hope I don't have to give up. I would like the choice of NOT wearing glasses (and not being half blind for doing so).

At the weekend I made a MOUSE! Here he is:
He was meant to be for someone, but I'm rather taken to him, and so am half inclined to make another (similar) one. This is not the most character showing photo, but the one which shows off most bits about him.On Monday we started back at uni - Spring term! Soon we'll be half way through the final year... and VERY SOON it's dissertation deadline! Thats still sitting there in my mind... yuck.
Monday was a good day, I got a few little gouache paintings of 6's done, will do more tomorrow, we found that Prof. Alan Male is off to definately be the PROFASAURUS and so Nigel will be taking over as 3rd year man! Nigel is laaavly - as is Alan too, of course.
Tuesday I went with Lisa to the Forge where I did some drawings (see below for a couple of them, the rest can be found on my Flickr) which I'll give her for her burfday. She can have some real actual originals instead of my old scans!! After that we trailed about a few car / van selling places in search of my "perfect" (ish) van. Found one in the end, I'm off to look at it again on Friday and hopefully it SHALL be mine - if it's good enough. It seems like it might be. YAY! How... scarily good!!!
Today (Wednesday) was a bit of an "off" day, but we all have those every so often...

And so for now, I shall continue my addiciton to Downton Abbey, and leave you with a few inspiring / shiny images from other people.
This inspired me to make my own version of the cover for Anne of Green Gables... I could not find who it was by.A very very simple image, but it's cute, and works! From "ohhellodear" on Etsy.So true. Mary Kate McDevitt.
Have had this floating about for a little while, it's a tad out of season now... Felicitas Kuhn.
And finally, a niiice little print by Becca Thorne.

Good night!

48. Lose some weight!!

WELL.

I am writing another blog entry! Perhaps not even a month after the last one! What is going on...
Currently I'm sitting at the kitchen table in Fal, waiting for batch 1 of 2 batches of scones to cook.
I was rubbing together the margerine and wholemeal flour whilst dancing about the kitchen to Blazin' Fiddles, Squidget & Rarr are back tomorrow, see! Err-lie in tharr morrrr-nin'.
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Bex's scones recipe(s) today:
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Ingredients:
250g wholemeal flour
2 eggs (or 1 egg, and 1 eggs worth stolen of Rarr's odd egg powder stuff, due to lack of eggs)
45g margerine
Fresh ground black pepper and salt (salt optional...)
1 medium sized carrot (gratered)
Thyme
Dijon mustard
Ground coriander
2 chillis (2-3cm long, red)
Chilli powder (I used hot)
Garlic
Cashew nuts
Balsamic vinegar
Milk (semi-skimmed for me)
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-Preheat oven 220degrees cel.
-Grease baking sheet (I'm using a rather dented tart tin).
-Measure out the flour and margerine, rub them together to form "breadcrumbs" (whilst jigging about the kitchen in your PJ's & BTCV hoody)
-Add ample black pepper & a little salt, split the mix into 2 bowls.
-To one of the bowls, add gratered carrot, a decent amount of thyme, a large dollop of Dijon mustard, and a teaspoon or so's worth of ground coriander. Mix all together (it'll be like lumpy crumbs).
-To the other bowl, add 2 cut up chillis INCLUDING THE SEEDS (mine were dried), some hot chilli powder, and 3 chunky chopped cloves of garlic, a handful of rough cut cashew nuts, and a shhloip (techinal term!) of balsamic vinegar.
-Add milk to one of the bowls, not too much - just enough to make the mixture into dough. This varies between people, I quite like my scones really rather squishy and so add more milk than most folks.
-Mush this all together, with minimal contact (shouldn't work scones too much) and roll into little balls (mine are roughly 4-5cm across) and put on the greased baking tray, but in the oven for 10-15 minutes until they feel more solid. Many recipes say "until golden brown" but the wholemeal flour does not allow for this, so I just hoped for the best and got them out after 15 (10 if your mix is drier, I'd say). The bottoms were darkened from the tray, so a good time to get them out.
-Repeat the adding milk bit for the 2nd bowl, give them the same treatment as the first batch.
-Eat fresh from the oven (but not so hot as to burn yourself) with slightly salted butter. Nom!
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Have just eaten one of the carroty ones, as one decided to break a bit when I was removing it from the baking tray. I give them a thumbs up (I'll let you know about the chilli ones when they're done... oh, yep, they're GOOD. Balsamic vinegar doesn't seem to have done anything bad to them (though it DID make the "raw" mix taste a little funny), infact it seems to give them a slight edge. But if you don't have balsamic, I'm pretty sure thats fine...
In future I'd prefer to add more cheese (I added maybe a large half handful of gratered stuff to each bowl, as thats all I had).

'Ere's a pictcharrr:

Yes, so... what else has happened since the 18th.

On the 19th we had a family meal at my house in Reigate - roast beef dinner with my mums PROPER trifle for pudding. Etc. So me, Elk, parents, granny, aunt & uncle, and Helen. Cousin Liz could not make it as she was still at work on her farm up in Lincolnshire (is that the place?) so that was sad :(

On the 20th I saw Imy and Racheyboi and Emilargh and her blokey; Imy & Racheyboi came to mine & we nattered, and then went off to the Blue Anchor (in the snow). Good couple (3) drinks, finally told them that I can DRIVE and am looking for a van, they were shocked enough I guess... Imy & I dragged each other home to mine on my old school wooden sledge. The snow was perfect for it.

On the 21st my family went to Tenerife. We expected the worst at Gatwick, but actually the plane was barely delayed! Dad got pulled aside as per usual. I still blame the beard.

We were in Tenerife for a week, it was lovely to have some sun and get my tan back again. I did a sketch of where I was every day (here's a couple, the rest can be found at my Flickr)

We went to Tenerife over x-mas 2 years ago, too. Then it almost felt like Christmas, but this year I feel like I have not had Christmas at all (except for when I sniffed the Christmas tree in the church at Zennor on New Years day...). A bit sad, really. I may not believe in God & all that, but I still like to have the special day.

My Christmas present:

(mum knitted them for me out of some funky wool! Niiiice!! I do love proper socks).

But yes, back from Tenerife on the 28th (early hours of the 29th, actually, after some horrible turbulence on the plane back which made me feel a bit like I was going to die... BUT I'M STILL ALIVE!!!).

On the 29th, Mr Dan O'Shea appeared in Reigate for the afternoon / evening / night etc. It was lovely to see him again, even though he's lobbed all his hair off. We went to the pub in the eve with Elk, and then I slightly drunkenly made some scones for...

The 30th! Up early and Racheyboi collects me in the GDB with Imy, and we drive off to Hastings! Swerve someones fallen off bumper in the middle of the motorway, and get to Nina for lunchtime.

Once in Hastings we set up a tasty feast - I brought along 2 sorts of scones (very similar to the ones shown up at the top), which we ate with Philli cheese and butter (not at the same time). Nina cooked some chicken goujons (haven't eaten them in YEARS) which I found out were yummmy with Philli, black pepper & salt on top. She also cooked some veggie onion bahjees so fussy likkle Imy could eat (heh heh). For pudding, I had made a Battenburg extravaganza (just a normal Battenburg cake, but the pink was CRAZY BRIGHT PINKY RED), and Racheyboii had made some super scrummy chocolate gingerbread (I now have the recipe). Chester the dog was a bit naughty and ate almost a whole later of the gingerbread behind our backs.

Racheyboii also made us some goodies - dark chocolate Bailey's truffles, honeycomb, and peanut butter fudge (my fave bit). OHHHH! Nina made us some necklaces with the letter of our name on it (B for meee).

We played Boggle (to Imy's dispair) and had some super good nattering, and in the eve we went to the pub for some grub.

All in all, it was such a fabulous day, I always love seeing "The Lad's". Shame I don't see them more often, but thats what I get for moving from Surrey to Cornwall, and probably staying here. Got back home to Reigate at about midnight, then had to pack all my stuff up for Falmouth again.

31st - off to Falmouth! After 6 miraculously speedy hours on trains, I got into Penzance when Lisa picked me up from the station. I then went a bit mad with happiness, and we went to Tescos where I accidently touched a dead fish. We bought in good stocks of smokey bacon, potato cakes, and ginger wine, then set off to Zenor (the scenic way). Once in Zennor we had some tasty food in the pub (Tinners) which was pricey so we had 1 two course meal between the 2 of us.

Starters was some sort of Cornish? fish (can't remember the name) with salad, good brown olives, those things which look a bit like peas but are REALLY SALTY, and fresh green pesto. Main course was a perfectly bloody in the middle, well done on the outside steak (best I've eaten in a VERY long time) with some horseradish mash, green beans, and a sort of stew with celery, carrot, and some more perfectly melt in the mouth bits of beef.

The party was good, though I felt very young and although I knew SOME people I felt I didn't know them well enough to talk to them properly, and then if I tried then I didn't know what to talk about, so I just sort of floated & vaguely danced. I think I'm getting worse with parties as I get older. Big groups of people, not for me. Eeeek. Also, I was tired from 6 hours train journey (and not enough sleep the night before) so when Lisa & I finally crawled into her bed in her van at 4am, I slept SO WELL. Comfy AS. Of course we had a past midnight snack of fried bacon & potato cakes, with some other people in the back of the van too...

In the morning we had more potato cakes & bacon (& orange juice with juicy bits. Almost the perfect breakfast!) and went for a walk with Lisa, some other chap who plays in a band called "PondLife" (Ska/folk, they played at the party), Dave Hart, Dave Wisdom, Jennie, Jo and her girlfriend (Irish, but name fails me. BUT THEY'RE SO LOVELY!). Being me, I didn't speak much on the walk (though did manage to do it in 2 long / floor length skirts!!) but instead watched the turquoise of the sea, the rusty orange and dusty purple of the heather and such on the cliffs, the yellow of the lichen, the grey of the sky... and I drooled in my head. Ohhh yes. HELLO CORNWALL. I have missed you. I just wanted to sit down and draw, but we were still walking. When I've got my van, I'll go back there and draw. We found a dead shrew.

Once back from the walk we thought we might go find some food in the pub, but it was too late! OH! NO! Thankfully, we were all van dwellers (ok, I was only in Lisa's van, but I WILL be one!) and so everyone took what food they could find out of their vans & gathered round Lisa's. We made a sort of gypsy camp, I made a vegetable & couscous mush with seeds & nuts & dried fruit in it, and Jo & girl made fried egg sandwiches with relish, Lisa plyed every tea drinker with tea, and Crazy Dave / Dave Hart supplied some funny Lidl biscuits. And we ate the leftovers of my Battenburg cake. Everything went down well.

After all that we said our goodbyes and went off to our respectivish places. Lisa & I took the scenic way to Falmouth, where we watched The Notebook (she'd never seen it before, but then she was surprised as I haven't seen Rattatoui or whatever it's called, despite loving food). I managed to create a noodles & leftover veg creation, which was actually RATHER yummy.

In the morning we yet again ate potato cakes & smokey bacon, and then she left.

Since then, I have been marauding around my house trying to warm it up, and finishing Silje's x-mas prezzie:

I'm yet to make anyone elses... (it is not meant to look like it says "SO". I'm sure it won't when she's making them. I hope they aren't too big... I may have accidently sized them round MY hands... which are huge).

But yes, that is all for now!

I shall now do SOMETHING for the rest of the evening, and tomorrow morning (early!) Silje and Vera are BACK!!!! ^^

Exciting.

I shall leave you with this discussion I had with a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses earlier... if you know me on Facebook then you may have already read it.

Two Jehovah's Witnesses (both female) just knocked on the door. After asking if they had knocked loud enough (they read the note to the postman) they tried to get me to believe in God, and gave me bits of paper to read.

Them: "Do you believe in God?"

Me: "No. I never have, haven't been brought up to do so."

Them: "Oh, thats interesting... it is happeneing to more and more people. Why do you choose not to?"

Me: "I have no proof that such a thing exists, and that this way if anything goes wrong in my life then I can only really blame myself. So many people put so much blame on 'God' - their baby was born with 3 legs, war, too much rain, not enough rain, their cake got burnt... they just feel the need to blame things on someone else, it's never their own fault".

Them: "Ahh... yes... I guess you are correct... but what about the Bible? That is true, surely?"

Me: "No. Well, yes in part. Yes there may have been people with the same names and statuses as it says in the bible, but we should take it with a pinch of salt. The Bible is just a rather extensive Folk tale."

Them: "So none of it is true? What about all the old finds? And what about Jesus being hung on the cross, all of that?"

Me: "As I said - pinch of salt. Old finds, archaelogical digs - archeologists seem to be split into two groups. Those who dig with Bible in one hand and shovel in the other, digging from what it says in the Bible 'Oh look! We've found this! This MUST be what it says in the Bible!' and then there are the other side, who dig, and then maybe find something which could quite possibly be related to a happening in the Bible... but then again, it could just be another old building. Many places which have been found and are supposedly to do with the Bible are later found to have been built AFTER the Bible says they were meant to exist. This is not to say that the Bible is always wrong, it gives some good lessons, and is a very good chunky historical source... but we should by no means believe every single word in it. I mean... turning water into wine? The feeding of the thousands?"

Them: "But those were miracles! Miracles happen every day! How was the earth made? Who made it?"

Me: "There was a reaction between some particles / atoms / chemicals and there was a huge bang. Yes ok, it's still a bit of a mystery, but theres MANY mysteries in life still!"

Them: "What about babies? They're miracles"

Me: "Babies are not miracles. They are a bundle of cells, made from two people having sex. A reaction."

Them: "But lots of different TYPES of cells... it's a miracle how we can see, smell, taste..."

Me: "Babies are as much of a miracle as a cucumber going mouldy in the fridge. There, another reaction between things... bacteria. Mould. If babies are a miracle, then spaghetti bolognaise is a miracle."

Them: "You are very interesting... whats your name? Rex?" (they read the BTCV sticker on my hoody)

Me: "Bex."

Them: "Short for Bethany or something?"

Me: "No, Rebecca. Which in Hebrew means 'Knotted cord'. There was someone in the Bible called Rebecca (Rebekah)".

Them: "Oh is it really? Thats interesting... so are you at university down here?"

Me: "Yep. Third year of illustration."

Them: "Ahhh so you like art..."

From there onwards (didn't go on for much longer) we spoke about art, being from Surrey, and they tried to persuade me that the beauty of nature was in art. I did not disagree with that, I said that yes - many things in modern day are inspired by nature, even cars! The rather epic creation (yet to be finished) of Gaudi's is almost entirely inspired by nature! Yes ok, it's a religious building... but that does NOT mean it is God's work. So yes... they have left me with a pamphlet to read called "Was Life Created?". I'm wondering whether to read it, or leave it with the other Jehovah's Witness piece "What does God thing of Alcohol" (he doesn't want to think about it right now, after all that tequila last night). I might read it, as they said they'd like to swing past again and talk to me again. I need my ammunition.For anyone who may be offended by any of this, me deciding to TOTALLY not believe in God is my choice... believe in what you will.Ohhh those poor Jehovah's.Thank you, National Geographic, for helping me gather information for two of the subjects in this discussion... you were a good read on the plane to Tenerife (where the volcanic erruption 225 years ago did not happen as an act of God, it was simply the earths crust having a funny five minutes, and deciding to go bang and spew lovely lucious looking lava all over).

OVER AND OUT.

P.S. If you have access to BBC iPlayer, then watch this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wylpf/Toast/
It is a film called Toast, taken from the book Toast. I read the book years ago, and although they'd missed loads out in the film, it's still good.

P.P.S. I should not be trusted with a lino cutter.

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!!

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.

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.
...

44! Hoorah!

Hello, this is Bex (who else, really…). I’m currently using a programme called Mac Speech Dictate, which I got with all my other stuff for finding out I was marvelously dyslexic. Thank you, Surrey County Council. The programme makes me feel a bit like a mad person because I’m sitting in my room with the door shut and no music on, wearing a headset and talking to myself – it’s a little creepy in my books… basically you speak into the microphone and the programme hopefully types up whatever you said. Unfortunately it is not terribly accurate, as at the start of this I said “Hello, this is Bex” however it got recorded down (the second time) and “Hello Mrs X”. Great. I have given up using what I said, as it doesn’t make great sense and has bugger all punctuation as for THAT you have to literally say “exclamation mark” or “full stop”. But it’s quite good for just having a “brain dump” and then working from that, trying to understand what the computer said you were saying in the first place…

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 20^th 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 1^st & 3^rd 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 2^nd 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 3^rd 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 2^nd 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 23^rd 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…

(on the mention of wearing Silje's black velvet dress, here is another velvet dress... I found it on Bluebird Vintage, isn't it so very lovely, in a mustardy way!

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 2^nd 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.

Above: I found this on Verabel's Etsy shop. Colours! Patterns! Yum!

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.
Drooooooool.... and you see that pile of icy looking nuts? The icy stuff is actually TOFFEE. See-through toffee!!!