Does anyone have a working video recorder and sufficient love for me to record the Lord Mayor of London's Parade on Saturday?  Pretty please?

has been epic!

that said I am up way to late considering that in six hours I'm going swimming with Peter!  Eeep?

I need to go to bed.  G'night!

P.S.  Did you know I start spouting rubbish when I'm tired?

For I have regained my golden girl status with the cunning application of six pieces of homework and the new found ability to achieve translucency!

Actually I did quite enjoy myself today.  There weren't many of us there which helped, all the really 'emotionally stifled' people appear to have been put off by the fact it was raining!  Which meant there were four of the class (as in those of us who actually listen to the teacher...) and five people who just kinda use the studio time to work on their own projects.  This meant the teacher stopped wibbling quite as much and actually did some teaching!  Which was nice.  I got an individual tutorial on colour washes which I didn't know how to do so that was cool.  First time I actually feel like I've learned something new.

Anyways, homework first.  I did a 'delicious' line drawing with wonderful shading very reminiscent of Ben Nicholsons work apparently.  Anyone know who he is?  I don't!  This brings the total of artists I have reminded her of upto three.  I also managed a 'wonderfully atmospheric' colour wash drawing.  Caroline, can you guess which one?  Yep - it's the one I did last night of the kitchen windowsill!  My acrylic was a lovely composition and my water colour was (yes you've guessed it!) translucent!

We were painting lilies today.  With a wonderful sepia ink.  Highly toxic but it looks so pretty!  I was busy with my first painting when the teacher asked me what seemed a very random question.  'Do you look for patterns?'.  Now this may sound mad but actually I do.  I always have done but it's so instinctive I don't think about it consciously.  The only other time it's been mentioned is at dancing because I pick up dances quickly because I can see the patterns much more easily than most new dancers apparently. 

So, having confirmed that, yes I do tend to look for patterns she started telling everyone else how exciting that was and how I'm a 'natural designer with a good eye for placement and instinctive pattern development' and how she could see me working with fabric and repetitions but not getting locked into them.  And if you understand that you're doing better than me!  I didn't comment on the fact that I used to do a lot of embroidery and just got on.  Apparently I didn't quite get the lesson objective (it was supposed to be more free flowing I think) but she didn't want me to stop because what I was doing was so lovely!

( For amnotcute and anyone else who'd like to see how bad I am at painting... )

I may have lost my painting class golden girl status!  Whatever shall I do?

Ahem.  So yes, today was painting class day.  Last week we looked at colour and tone and painted bowls of fruit.  I apparently achieved a beautiful piece, with wonderful cool mid tonal ranges and good horizontals and verticals, as well as a lovely line drawing.  This week  we had to repeat that for homework and then do more or less the same in class, only instead of opacity, in class we were going to do translucency.

So I did my homework like a good little student and went of to class in the pleasant expectation of learning something new.  I did.  It turns out I suck at translucency! 

Firstly I managed to miss the correct tonal range for my plate in my homework painting.  This didn't entirely surprise me as I wasn't sure about it but I had already tried to correct it and given up.  So, no class lecture on my wonderfulness today :(  Although my last weeks painting was used as a demonstration and my line drawing homework was praised excessively.  What fine lines!  Look at the resolutely vertical lines being used to give such shape!  Blah, blah, blah!

We then set to work on our line drawings (supposedly a quick sketch to help us plot shading before we paint as we aren't allowed to draw on our paintings).  My teacher stopped before my easel and said 'I do love your line drawings, they are wonderful!'.  Which is nice but not terribly helpful.  I mean, why are they wonderful?!?  What am I doing that is so amazing other than drawing round shapes instead of the blocks you want?!  According to her I get my verticals and horizontals in around my fruit so it doesn't matter that I am incapable of drawing an orange as a faceted shape. What the hell?!

Sadly, trying to paint with watered down acrylics to create the 'translucency' was my undoing.  I couldn't mix the paint right!  My first attempt (the table top) was too opaque, and my subsequent efforts looked dreadful.  I got a gentle telling off for saying so.  It's all research and anyway I have produced a painting with delicate lines (lines are obviously my forte) and a wonderful schema and composition (It's all about including someone else's easel in your sketch!).  I did so well she stopped me leaving to say well done.

And what did I produce today?  A horrible drippy painting with no shading and dreadful muted nasty colours.  Eugh.  I have started another one for homework but it isn't really translucent.  I think I like opacity better.  Bring on the oils!

In other news I have been madly busy this week! 

The sewing of Amy's cloak is going well, only one mishap to date and I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow.  Truth be told, I'm screwed if I don't as I have no more time this week! 

Larp was interesting.  I'm not going to put anything else about it on here.  :) 

There is no illustration class tomorrow, I don't know why not but I'm quite glad as it gives me that little bit extra sewing time. 

Finally, on Thursday I am off on a mini adventure to Kent.  I'm going to check out my sister's flat, take her some stuff (mainly plates) and possibly visit Winnie-the-Pooh's house.  Then on Friday I'm swinging by my beloved home county to see my parents, collect the last of my stuff and our wedding presents and hopefully get my costume for the Lord Mayor of London's Show sorted.  Then back to Bath to prepare for the murder mystery we are hosting.  This will take me  all of Friday evening and Saturday day.  And it will be worth it.  I may flap but I really enjoy hosting parties and the prep that goes in before hand.  Sad isn't it?!

Every Sunday the phone would ring and it would be Pam.  She was a secretary who worked for my Dad before I was born and she used to ring once a week for a chat.  She also used to send us birthday and Christmas cards and was always interested in our lives.  Lizzy and I used to hate answering the phone because we could never hear her properly (she had a really old crackly phone) and we could never be bothered to listen to her rambling on.

We became more polite as we got older but as she grew more lonely she used to phone more and more til we stopped answering the phone or started lying and saying Dad was out just so he had a chance to eat dinner in peace!  It had gotten to the point where we were the only friends she had.  She was old and alone with no family.  I don't think I ever met her, just talked to her once a week from the time I was old enough to answer the phone until I left home.

The only reason I'm writing this is because Dad just emailed to say she's died and I feel guilty.  Like I should have done more?  I don't know.  It's weird.

Rest in Peace Pam. 

So...  Life continues to be busy :)

Recently I have started a painting class, an illustration class and on Sunday started a character for larp.  :)

Painting is fun if a little silly.  Everyone takes it and themselves so seriously!  It's full of arty-farty women who claim to be suffering from 'stifled creativity'.  They are all apparently stunted in their 'emotional artistic growth' and need to 'expand their horizons' in a 'safe and nurturing environment' whilst coming out of their 'comfort zones'.  I on the other hand quite fancied messing around with paint and maybe getting some tips on how to paint and draw better (or at least in a recognizable style) so I feel out of place and have the overwhelming urge to giggle a lot. 

However - according to my teacher I keep instinctively doing things that you can only do normally if you have an arts background and training.  She seems quite pleased with my work which is cool, but the things I have amazingly done?  Bought the relationship between the paper and drawing into glorious partnership (I accidentally smudged my drawing with my fist whilst leaning on it...), put on paper the fact that the table does not appear straight when dissected by other objects, even if we know it is (I would have drawn it straight only I can't draw a straight line to save my life particularly not when I have to leave gaps in it!) and I have shown an understanding of the fact that there is no background, only objects in front of one another (I draw quite quickly and I finished sketching the bottles so far ahead of everyone else that I got bored and added in the woman opposites easel, just because it was there!).  So what do you know?  I'm an artist! :P

Illustration started very promisingly with ink sketches, mind maps and view finding but seems to have gone down hill from there.  Unlike painting everyone else know what they want to do and they are amazingly good at it.  I however don't really know what I want to do and I'm floundering badly.  I did a series of prints which came out interestingly but I didn't like my pop-print multi coloured reproductions of them which is what I did last week.  I need to talk to the teacher and actually develop a project to work on then I won't be floundering as much.  I also need to actually stick things in my illustration sketchbook, the art one is looking good but the illustration one is a mess!

Larp = fun :)  I still say I can stop whenever I want though :)  Rose is interesting...  Not quite sure whats going on in her head atm.  I have been trying to write her journal this morning but I'm not sure currently how much is her and how much is me...  Either that or she isn't as wussy as I was thinking! 

The costume worked well though and I was very pleased at how dry I stayed!  The barbed wire was a bit of a pain but I guess I'll get better at spatial awareness the more I practice getting through there!  I will eventually need more layers as I was warm enough but if it gets colder I think I'll freeze!  Maybe an off the shoulder top wasn't a smart move?  Lots of people liked my bag which was nice as I'm particularly pleased with it myself (most successful project ever completed on the sewing machine without a pattern!) and Amy wants me to make her a cloak as does one of the newbies possibly.  :D  People like my sewing!

So, who needs a job to have plenty to do?! :)

I don't really have much to say, I'm just bored and I don't want to go to bed yet so please don't expect this to be an interesting post!

So, what have I been upto recently?  Well, we got kittens!  They are very sweet, although growing so quickly they don't really deserve to be called bundles of fluff anymore!  Athena is getting very sleek and enjoys stalking (anything, feet, tails, shadows, the chairs...) whereas Aphrodite is still fluffy and loves to be cuddled.  Probably a good thing as a certain someone spends a lot of time chasing and cuddling the poor kittens when she's around!

On Saturday I worked my first two shifts at the Bath KidsLitFest.  It was good fun and I am really looking forward to next weekends shifts.  I started my day doing crowd control for the Gruffalos tenth birthday party at the Forum.  Seven hundred children were due to turn up and guess how many people where working queue control outside the forum? That's right! One!  Namely, me.  The children were lovely and all wanted to talk to me (Had I seen the Gruffalo?  Wasn't my t-shirt cool?  Did I like the Stickmen?) but some of the parents were so snotty!  I hate people who expect special treatment for no particular reason.  I also got to meet some of the newest batch of Norland Nannies (set 33!  Enough to make anyone feel old...) and the new Principal.  Not sure what to make of her, but the girls were impressed to hear I was set 25.

As I was outside it was my job to let people connected to the show in and I was massively embarrased to not have recognised Axel Schiffel (for those of you who don't know he is a childrens illustrator and about the most famous one around atm).  Luckily for me he's a nice guy and wasn't bothered!  Julia Donaldson who wrote the books was disappointing though, she was very much a prima donna.  Her sister was friendly but she refused to speak to anyone other than the director - us volunteers were apparently to lowly to be worth noticing!  In fairness though she did a fantastic show (being able to watch all these events for free is a huge job perk if you ask me!) and the children seemed to love her when she did book signing afterwards.  I also got to meet the Gruffalo and have my photo taken with him, my cool stepmum status should now be in the bag!

In the afternoon I was working on the door at the Mission Theatre.  It's a lovely place and the cafe does fabulous cake!  It was a much more peaceful time in there are the largest audience I saw (I did three events there) was 30 people and there were only four volunteers as opposed to the Forums twenty-odd!  I met another author/illustrator there - a very nice man called Tomas Docherty.  His books looked nice and the children seemed to enjoy his event so that was good!  Wierdest part of the afternoon was that I sold a ticket to someone for the boats, books and monsters event.  Not to a parent or child but to a man in his mid twenties (at a guess) on his own...  To an event aimed at 3-7 year olds...  None of us really knew what to make of that!

Saturday night I went to Peter and Carolines and did some more work on the garden.  More needs doing but it's not looking to shoddy if I say so myself! ;) 

On Sunday I went larping and as usual made a prat of myself but had fun in the process.  I'm hoping one day I'll actually get the hang of it!  In the evening we went to I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue - the live tour.  It was fabulous, so funny!  Not all new material (about two thrids perhaps, was new) but seeing the delivery made it even better than the radio show and we laughed so much!  Jeremy Hardy was particularly funny and Jack Dee was amazing.  I was also thrilled to see Graeme Garden and Barry Cryer do a Hamish and Dougal sketch.  I love Hamish and Dougal so much! 

This week I am starting two courses, one in painting and one in children's illustrating.  I am excited but nervous about it.  I hate starting new things!  Esther is coming to stay for a couple of days and wants to go shopping (who is this imposter and where's the real Esther?!) and of course we will be hitting the dance floor.  At scottish country dancing naturally :).  Bristol RSCDS won't know what's hit it!  Well, it might actually seeing as I go every week but still, two of us is double trouble right?!

Well I seem to have managed a fair amount of writing for someone with not a lot to say so I am going to sign off and look for a good book to read :)

I can't think of anything particularly rude that I've asked anyone. :)  I've been rude but not when asking questions as I recall anyway. 

The rudest thing I've ever been asked is 'you're actually quite intelligent for a blonde aren't you?' 

I didn't reply at the time because I was speechless!

Right now?  The fact that my Aunt is in hospital.  Again. 

It's not bad enough that she had to have emergency heart treatment last year, now she has gone deaf in one ear and needs that to be operated on.  However,  she can't be operated on immediately as she has to be kept under observation and weaned off the medication that is keeping her heart healthy before they can operate.  And there is a 50% chance that the operation won't work. 

There is nothing I can do, but I am worried. 

Has not gone well!

I was woken up to Colin shouting 'the ceiling is leaking!'  So now we have no water as to stop the leak we've had to turn the water off and he didn't have time to find out exactly where it was coming from before he had to leave for work.  The kittens are not impressed as the leak was pouring out of the ceiling right next to the litter tray.  They appear to think that I did this to them on purpose and are glaring balefully at me every time I walk through the lounge! 

Also my neighbour has just knocked on my door to tell me I left my keys on the outside.  How embarrassing!  This also meant she saw into the house which due to the leak is a tip (all the chairs have been moved!).

Oddly though, I feel pretty good today! :)

Edit:  The kittens have got revenge by pooing on the bean bag.  Now I'm feeling a bit less good :(

Cheer up, it may never happen! 

I had this said to me repeatedly in the weeks after my Grandad died and it really got on my nerves.  If you think someone looks upset and it bothers you, ask if they are upset don't spout meaningless and even more upsetting drivel!

Does anyone know what it means to 'baste' something in a sewing pattern?  Please help because I'm useless at technical terms!

So, we're home again.  My legs ache like you would not believe and the balls of my feet are sore but other than that I have escaped injury and enjoyed the dancing!

I started off in the Upper Intermediate class but got invited to move up as apparently I shouldn't have been in there in the first place.  This is all very well and good but how was I supposed to know that in January?  I've had seven months to keep practicing and thanks to my teacher in Bath there has been a rapid improvement.  Silly RSCDS :(  So I spent the second half of the week in the Advanced class and that was fun!  I have learnt lots of new formations and made good friends!  I volunteered as a member of the class for the people being examined on becoming teachers and did lots of social dancing. 

I must work harder on my footwork though - particularly my pas de basque, pointy toes are required and judging by the photo evidence I'm not managing that in social dancing at least :(

Colin was the star of the show!  Everyone had an eye on the 'nice young boy in the beginners class'.  And everyone wanted to know if he'd keep it up (He says he will, watch out Bristol!).  Apparently lots of people were watching me as well but I'm very glad I didn't know that til we were coming home!  He looks very good in a kilt in case you are wondering ;)  and I did get photographic evidence of this!

Oh, it was sooo nice to dance in a class full of people all trying to be correct!  Phrasing!  Covering!  Accurate feet and posture.  And in the advanced class none of the dreadful shushing sound caused by lazy dancers dragging their feet along the floor.

I got to dance my favourite dance (The Piper and the Penguin) as well which was nice as it seems to be unheard of round here.  I miss dancing it as it was such a regular dance round Essex!

In other news - the kittens appear to be lost in paperwork, doesn't look like they'll be with us today like we were hoping :( 

Sorry everyone but due to Caroline's swine flu and a complete lack of organistation on my part I'm thinking it's best if the dinner doesn't happen on Saturday.  Some other time maybe!

In other news I have lost all archery ability and completely failed to hit the target this evening.  Colin has been sent the wrong size kilt so I need to spend a third day stuck indoors waiting for a delivery and I forgot to give my sister all the stuff she was supposed to be taking home with her. Crap crap crappity crap.  Oh and my indoor basil plant has managed to get a caterpillar infestation. :(

I am very tired but very smiley right now!  I have just spent the day in Cardiff on the trail of all things Torchwood!

We started the day at the Doctor Who exhibition and saw so many cool things!  Cybermen, Daleks and the Tardis!  Martin now owns a remote controlled Dalek to chase his cat with and I got a new Doctor Who book :)  The exhibition is beautifully laid out and we really enjoyed messing around on the green screen and watching the Daleks try to exterminate us.  We were equally amused by the legions of small children who ran screaming from the room at that point...  It was wonderful to see so many of the costumes as well - my fairly obvious favourite being Captain Jack's coat.

After the exhibition we went on location walk about!  First stop the Roald Dahl Plass and the onto the Water tower and 'the stone'  and yes we posed for photos every step of the way!  The harbour was beautiful and really nicely maintained, no litter to speak of and masses of flowers everywhere you turned!  We walked along the harbour to the 'Tourist Information' but we didn't stop for photos here as loads of people have put tributes to Ianto up and we were too busy laughing to take photos!

We then went for lunch at Ramons (a cafe where Gwen goes for lunch in an early episode) and enjoyed a delicious fry-up each.  Sadly after that everywhere gettable to was exhausted so we wandered into the centre and had a lovely afternoon shopping.  I have come home with Torchwood books, magazines and all sorts!

I've seen Cardiff!  I've seen Torchwood Places!  YAYAYAYAYAYAY! :D

I could write about all sorts of thing right now but I'm actually quite worried about one of the hamsters.  He been drinking an awful lot the past couple of days and when I went to stroke him I saw that all the fur from the underside of his neck and front legs has gone.  He's a very old hamster but I have no idea whether this is normal for old possibly dying hamsters or not.  Despite all my jokes about wanting the hamsters out of the way so we can have a cat I'm really quite fond of them and I want to help him.  However I don't know if a) you can take a hamster to the vets - I mean can you or do they just laugh at you for wasting time?  and b)  Is this actually serious or am I just being over-protective of a hamster?!  What can I do for the little fella?  Anyone got any suggestions?

I just saw a Mummy and a baby deer on my drive home from Shellys house.  The baby was the size of a rabbit and so adorable as it stood blinking at me! 

In other news we just scared some random man by driving past him screaming 'Marv!' We then looped round the one way system and did it again!  We had the windows shut so I don't think he could hear us but he looked very creeped out!

I wish every weekend could be as gloriously sunny as this one has!  I have spent the whole of today either outside or in the garden center.  I have painted the garden gate, replanted the strawberry tub with three different varieties of strawberries, Planted two heathers, a chive and two cyclamen bulbs and planted a hanging basket.  Colin has marked out the garden path and planted lily bulbs as well as putting the basket on the wall for me!

The garden is finally starting to take shape and I'm really pleased with it!  We planned which plants we will be putting in our beds when they are ready and it should look fabulous come July time! Sadly we won't be having the chamomile lawn path we were hoping for due to the extortionate cost (£500!  Normal turf would cost £25 to cover the same area).  We'd use seeds but the idea of trying to grow 500 chamomile plants which will take a year and apparently be very difficult doesn't appeal either so we need to come up with a new pathway solution.  We will get there at some point and there will come a day when we don't have to put wellies on to hang the washing out... :S

In other news I solved a domestic dispute between Caroline and Peter by leaping on a random item of clothing hanging on their bannister and shouting 'that's my top!  How the hell have you got my top?!'  This relieved Peter no end as Caroline was slightly miffed by the fact he didn't have a good answer for appearing to have a girls t-shirt that didn't belong to either of his sisters!  We then worked out that it has traveled three house moves with him as the last time I can remember wearing the dratted thing was to a games night I went to with Peter back when he was still in student accomodation!

I have got one final week of work left before it is full time wedding prep and moving to Bath.  I am sooo glad about this!  I'm not sure I can take anymore of my job!  Stress is endless and everyone is on edge expecting an ofsted any day now...  Here's hoping they hold off one more week til I leave!

Is it dreadful that the only thing I can think to write about is my new pack of metallic markers?  I have been so busy recently doing endless amounts of wedding stuff and I'm so tired.  I love Colin and I can't wait to marry him but I also can't wait to be free of endless hours of ringing suppliers (you'd think they'd want to get in touch considering the amount of money I'm trying to give them!), having all my free time interrupted by Mum demanding to pin random bits of pattern to my clothes and Dad calling weekly 'production' meetings to check whats been done.  There's so much left to do!  Am I ever going to be ready in time?  More importantly when am I going to start sleeping properly again?  I'm tired and I'm stressed and I'm in serious need of a holiday (or failing that a decent nights sleep) before I explode. :(  So I have regressed to childhood and spent the last hour drawing pretty and random doodles with a set of 5 metallic markers and when I get bored I'm going to go complete another couple of levels on my Final Fantasy DS game in a desperate attempt to escape reality :(

I am off to dance school in the summer!  Hurrah!  Hopefully anyway.  The application form is next to me and my next job is to send it off first class and hope I get in!  I'm going to St Andrews anyway as the flat is booked now but Summer School would be the icing on the cake!  I'm bouncing around and I have been ever since yesterday lunch time when Esther rang to say about the flat.  Summer school!  Woohoo!

Dancing as a whole is going very well actually,  we practised a foot change on Monday that I had never done before and not only did I get the hang of it straight away but when we danced the dance containing it the teacher was watching as it was my turn to dance and I managed it perfectly!  I got a round of applause!  :D  Barbara  (teacher)  also said that I 'was coming along very nicely' and reminded me to hold my arms higher.  I must remember about my arms and I must remember to point my toes but I still find it hard to believe that in just over a year I have got to the point where refining my footwork and posture is necessary!  I always imagined that I was too unco-ordinated to learn any kind of dancing never mind move comparatively quickly through the ranks!  I have applied for upper intermediate classes at summer school, Esther thinks I could go higher but for comfort I'm sticking slightly lower!  A higher class is advanced and I really don't think I'm good enough for that!

I'm going to stop bouncing around now and go to work!  Woo!