I see Shrunken Heads

This past weekend we missioned off to Oxford to see Mr&Mrs Intellectual in thier new home/town. It has taken some time to get up there but we finally did and had quite a chill time. My highlight was the real shrunken heads at the museum where Mrs I works. It was a fasinating collection of stuff that was pretty much just collected by some guy and then a museum was made for the collection (The Pitt Rivers). There we also tons of pottery from all overs and some 5000 year old pots from Egypt (her speciality as it is pre dynastic - i.e. Pre writing and pharohs!)

I'm still loving that I've now seen the shrunken heads though. Basically the dead enemy is taken and head chopped off, the skull removed and then replaced with hot sand and boiled. So below are more pictures I took if your keen to have a gander. I was fasinated that only the skin shrinks and other things like all the hairs dont so they have really long hair, dense eyelashes and are a little furry from the remaining facial hair. There were also a few monkey heads that they had done the same thing with. If it creeps you out then maybe dont read further....

*excuse the bad lighting in the photos, the place is kept in very low light conditions to preserve the collection....

Oh yes and here is an actual Egyptian mummy with the sarcohgus (sp?) lid off!

 

Disconected

So am feeling pretty disconnected with things at the moment. Am definitely feeling very disconnected to my blog at the moment, it feels to overwhelming to try and put alot of the things into words sometimes. I suppose I would always only write once things had really built up and just need to come out.

Work is being a bit shit at the moment and well I just feel even more disconnected from actually wanting to do anything with my role there. Mostly because it has become a bit stagnant and that is out of my control. The one fairly good thing is that I have designed our intranet setup and it has been signed off and should be launched soon - well that is if i get time in my work day to actually perfect it. Not that I'm getting any time for it. But they are apparently kicking a little extra in my paycheck for it. But now they want me to design their full global corporate site and well that scares the shit out of me but could be a good opportunity to advance my skills and broaden myself. But i'm already burning out somewhat.

I've really been trying to turn around the things in my life i'm not happy about and I found a course that was specifically about self management of life with regards alot to living with long term conditions. It has been really hard to keep myself from getting too down about the pain I'm in and how weak I feel at the moment. I had a realization that I really DO NOT like to be perceived. It is very important to make sure that we do not concentrate our energy on how we think other people perceive and start to believe it. Also we must make sure that we control our own perception of ourselves.

Strangely enough the people in the course that i'm taking see me as a very together person that has amazing knowledge and things sorted. Well I must say that yes alot of the stuff on the course I've already looked at and researched etc but obviously I dont have it ALL together if I signed up and took this course. I have realised that I am alot better off then many people and I just amazingly lucky to have such a supportive partner, I know I didnt have one before and so hope that I can keep showing my appreciation for all the little things that mean the world to me. I hope to be much stronger in the future and to always provide just as much support the other way. Of course we dont have everything sorted but it is so good to have a great base and good communication to start with. So compared with the others my home is my sanctury and my protection. I do not have to rage battles (other then in my own head) inside the quiet that is home. This I'm so thankfully for.

But am still feeling disconnected. I feel disconnected with my body because of the pain and the medication that i'm putting into it. Thankfully I've stopped taking the one medication that was seriously disconnecting me from everything. I think this may all still be from that and it will get better the longer I'm off it. BUT am still settling into the other medication so am more sore at the moment. I think the lack of good sleep due to pain isnt helping either.

Am also disconnected from friends that are going through tough times at the moment. I've tried to be a bit influence in a situation/intervention with a friend that has worked thanks to the time and energy and emotion that my mom has put into it and plugging into some of the strong emotions i've been dealing with in regard to it all. She is finally for the first time in 11 years dealing with all the damage that has happened to her and that she has done to herself. It is amazing to hear the battle that she is going through and doing so well. I'm SO proud of her!!! But I still feel like a failure as a best friend for being so far away and so disconnected and so afraid of confrontation.

I'm also so unable to be there for another close friend who has just had to go through the death of her father which is just so scarily close to home and all that. I hope that she is surviving and that it gets easier for her. I wish sometimes that I wasnt so far away from my closest friends.

So other then all that I still have my wonderfully stable and understanding C ...who is my rock and I really dont know what I would do without. and so like my fellow blogger Benny I'm going to keep trying to focus on the positives....

My wonderful bf
Our random trip to another city just for the night to see a band (its a surprise ...so more laters)
Going back to Cape town for a holiday in like 3 and a bit weeks!!
Going to Namibia to best guy mates wedding on the beach !! WHOO HOO
Hanging out with the friends in Namibia and some climbing in Namibia
THE HEAT!! So hopefully not as painful joints!!
Bonus coming in next pay check
Didnt have to go grocery shopping this week because we just had our weekly shop delivered to our door tonight. yay! less hassle for me.
And it is nearly friday and then therefore nearly the weekend!! Double yay.

And that is it for now... going to try keep the happy positive thoughts going. 

Monopoly Pub Crawl

SO this past weekend I did THE london monopoly pub crawl! I really didnt think that I would be doing it ever and if attempting it I didnt think that I would make it to the end drinking alcohol at every pub... BUT I didnt factor in my competitive and deterimed streak...

WE did it...

And it may have something to do with the possesion of my body by the evil task mistress. See C's graph below for his analysis. I am hoping to do a more comprehensive post...but that will have to wait until I have some time to deal with the photos and putting together all 26 pubs of the day!!

Pottery Catch Up

So I've realised after a conversation with my mom that I havent posted my latest pottery (well latest as in most of the year's worth) So here it is...

My Frillies

Kitchen stuff

My favorite...more of this theme on its way soon :)

It is rough terracotta with glossy white motifs. very tactile.

The Pixies

I've had such a busy week last week... it is now Monday and I still need a weekend! Half asleep on my feet here and doing tedious detail drawings :(

OH WELL

So i just thought I would share one of the awesome moments of last week... Wednesday night we went off to see The Pixies live!! What an amazing experience. It was also made 100 times more awesome having the Ginger Ninja with us. It was their 20th anniversary of the album Doolittle and so the Ginger Ninja worked out that the first time that he saw The Pixes live I was only 3 years old!!! lol

Most of the time I was up front bouncing around with the Ginger Ninja but for the last few songs headed back to C and my work mate and his friends and this is the little video I shot there :)

Fuses and Plugs

You seriously learn something new everyday!!

On monday it was the fact that plugs here in the UK have fuses. Well to be honest I had taken note that there were fuses in the plugs but I hadnt really considered the practical application of it.

Come Monday morning as C put the washing in the washing machine and turned it on it managed to throw a wobbly and trip the electricity. Now in SA this had happened to me with numerous appliances and was always simply a case of flicking the switch on the electrical board and hoping that the appliance would trip it again when you use it. So C went out and flipped the switch to get the electricity back on and then tried the washing machine....

NOTHING...

it is now dead.

So we call up the landlord as this is something that we really do need to sort out asap!

After a conversation where it was decided that i'll just pull out the plug and put it back in and see what happens and then call him. Of course I thought that this wouldnt work and so after lugging the machine out of its hole and nearly breaking off the inlet pipe. We then get another call from the landlord to say had we checked the fuse... I mean really like I would have thought about the little thing hidden in the plug that we dont have in SA.

So we pull out the fuse and now have to find a 13 Amp fuse at 9pm somewhere in the house. But what else need such a powerful fuse? Looking as a few plugs we only come up with 3Amp fuses. Then I get the sudden idea... MY HAIRDRYER!

And what do you know... the hairdryer is the only other powerful enough appliances in the house! And stealling the fuse out of there and into the washing machine plug it was all fixed!!

But now I didnt have a working hairdryer!! I dont know what is worse?!?!

Ending side track:
On sunday night I watch 2 VERY different TV shows where the main characters names were the same as mine... then it turns out the in both shows the chick with the same name as me gets raped!! BOTH SHOWS. I think that is seriously weird.

Busy Busy Busy & blog ideas

Have been super busy of late and havent really been in the mood to blog for awhile now. Purely cause I've have no desire to really to stare at a computer screen after the long hours I've been putting in at work.

One of the things that i've been trying to do which has taken all my blogging energy is creating a blog for my company for internal use. It is all about our environmental policy and getting an environmental accreditation and all things eco. SO have been trying to creat something really great. They were going to outsource it to a webdesigner but I was like we should keep it in house especially since we need to update it regularly and we would if it is outsourced.

So was wondering if any of you regular bloggers out there have any pointers, or what things do you love about the blogs you read or run yourself. OR what are your favourite blogs at the moment??

Hair Dye

There are def many posts on this blog that I dont write mostly cause they would be about C...and well since he reads this is must be very weird for him as well! But in a way I just want to record a moment in our lives that just makes me smile.

Last night while normal couples are doing whatever they get up to on a sunday night I got C to help dye my hair! I've just started to dye my hair at home again and the first time came out ok but wasnt the best job since the roots were much lighter then the very dark tips. So I reckon hey why not get C to help....

Oh dear!

There was black hair dye everywhere!! Mostly all over my skin and some over his arms where I kept stabbing him with the bottle of hairdye... accidentally !! He used a comb and made it all into a huge birds nest on the top of my head and then once he had squished in all the hair dye wouldnt let me leave the bathroom while we had to wait the 30 minutes for it to develop. So what did he do ...fetched his book and read to me :)

I must say that that seemed to be the shortest time i've had to wait for those 30 minutes to pass. And then while rinsing it he did manage to drop the shower head outside the bath... oh well the floor did need a clean so two birds with one stone i say.

I just have to say that he did a really good job!!! And no he doesnt know what he has let himself into.

p.s. we now own 100 pairs of latex gloves...well 97 now! Just think of all the jokes he was coming out with over those :)

Obsessing

So I've realised that I obsess over things in my life... not in the normal way that your thinking of. I dont obsess over emotions or experiences or ummm... me. But I tend towards very, how to put it, maybe obscure?

Well my lastest obssession is... TATTOO's !

I've always been interested in them and always lent toward the idea that I would get around to having one done - well after I get over the fear part. But it has reached epic proportions at the moment. Maybe it is also because i'm looking for creativity in my life and it is something that can def inspire creativity.

This was kick started by me randomly coming across a website for the tv show LA INK. I started watching the show and was totally inspired by the creative process of the design of the tattoo and why people where having them done. And then I got more and more obsessed with the talent of the main person in the show, Kat Von D. Then I realised that she is only a month older then me and has acheived so much and is living the lifesytle that she wants and loves. This was both depressing and inspiring. Check out her website here

I now can say that even though I'm still SO scared of getting a tattoo that I would trust her completely to do one... I would pretty much even be happy to give her an idea of what I like and then let her do her thing. She is SERIOUSLY talented. She is world reknown for her portraits tattoos and they are seriously photo perfect.

The only problem...her tattoo shop is in LA!! (about 10 blocks from the last place i stayed when I was in LA, And the annoying thing... I remember the outside of the shop!! ARG)

I've spent hours looking at all the stuff online about her etc, and then last sat night took it one step further when while in a bookshop C produced the coffee table book about her and tattoos etc and I bought it!!

At the moment I've been really drawn to her filligree, lettering and angels...

Time for change

I have a feeling that a few changes are in the process of happening. Well when I say process I mean it is all in my head at the moment.

On Saturday I was actually the one dragging C out of bed and wanting to get going early in the day. Normally it is me staying in bed dozing as long as possible on the weekends lasting into the early afternoon. Not this day though as it was the Art in Clay exhibition/Fair! This is the biggest event in the UK in the ceramics world and I was not going to miss it for the third year. (can you beleive how quickly the time i've been in the country has flown)

It was just amazing... I loved it! I really needed it as well. Firstly it made me realise that I am a maker and an artist inside and that I do have the talent! The difference between the people exhibiting and me where that they were doing ceramics full time and they all had 10 years of that behind them OR they were students that were studying ceramics full time. It really was a good realisation that I could with time really make something of my passion in ceramics. I mean it has always been in me but i've not really been in a position in the past to really persue it.

I was just so inspired by alot of the things that were exhibited. And I bought a book that appealed to me for inspiration and later at home realised it was even better as it was a book that relates directly to the ceramics degree here in London. It is written by the proffesor! It has been great for inspiration and how to chanel it etc.

So I need to make time and prioritise creativity in my life!

One of the first things that I think i'll have to do is to redesign this blog and it may have to take a different direction for now. I've also found as much as I love that my blog is there to share things with family, friends and the bf, I do find that I hold things back because of that - and I dont think that is a bad thing. It just stops me from writing on here at all sometimes. So I feel that there may be a new chapter in the life of this blog over the horizon.

I seem to have noticed that it isnt only me that is waning with the blog entries... i've noticed that most of my regular blog reads are also battling for inspiration.