Becareful what you wish for...

So after me writing about loving getting to be creative and deal with finishes etc...I'm now so over it. I've been up to my eyeballs in finishes all week and now i've had enough !

I had the task of helping Mr Nice get 4 different schemes together for a pitch yesterday. This was extremely difficult as I had to work with what was in the library as there was no time to order anything. The carpets where the hardest and when Mr Nice and Trendy came back from holiday they were amazed that I had to pull together 4 schemes with 4 carpets each ...that is 16 carpets to source and match and organise. *Panic*

So after that I had a job that has partly become all mine which I had to get visuals done and of course finishes and furniture sorted out...This mean more playing around with finishes. And now i've just had enough. I have to pick 3 more fabrics and i'll be done and I just cant face it !!! ARG

Since I've been work until 8ish every night this week today has just been impossible. I have no desire to actually work (or choose those last few fabrics) so have been faffing around for large chunks of the day! OOPS... but i just have no more motivation.

Well it is friday to I get to head off home now and look forward to a hopefully not too hectic weekend :)

Have a good one everyone out there!

ARG!!!!

I want to be back in Amsterdam enjoying the sun and the relaxing and the...lifestyle !!

Work has not been good to me today. I came back from holiday to both Trendy and Mr Nice/Hard (our team leader) being off on holiday in Snowdonia. This would be all well and good if i didnt just have Trendy's work to do but now I was roped into helping on MR NIce/Hard's urgent pitch work which involved me having to pull finishes together from no where with a very loose brief and no time to order more samples. ARG!! Its been insane. Now i'm just supposed to run with these without anyones approval to put them into the visuals for this huge client !! ARGG!! TOoo much responsibility!

So anyway finally got as much as I could get down ...was exhausting and my attention span was down at zero again! I just flippin hope he likes it all tmr as the pitch needs to be pulled together tmr and they fly off with it on Thursday first thing. I can jsut see myself helping tmr and it being another late night.

Now that that is done and it is now 18:00 I still have to get the work that Trendy needs finished done...so its a late one for me...So i shall get back to it!

Our vegetarian housemate's sense of Humour

Hair Dressers

Ok so I need to know am I the only female that doesn't actually like going to the hair dresser? So far my whole life I've felt like I truly am the only one that does not enjoy it and tends to dread having to go through the whole thing.

I did find one guy that I could handle and that was mostly I think cause he was just so unusual and had a very different none commercial salon in the trendy Kloof neck rd area. But that hair cut cost me a fortune and you had to get him on a good coke taking day (maybe why he was so entertaining) On good days I've never had my hair so perfectly cut and so painstakingly made perfectly straight at the bottoms. On the bad days I would land up with the wonkiest fringe!

But again I got carried away about him. But it is more then that. I hate the whole salon visit:
the consultation of what you want to do with your hair and what colour you want to dye it, the dying process, the hair washing process, the cutting process, the blow drying process and finally the "show back of hair with a mirror and exclaim that your happy" process.

As many times as I've tried to get a hair dresser to tell me what they think would suit me best is as many times as they have tactfully declined any inspired advice and have just landed up giving me what I asked for...which wasn't what I asked for! I want their opinion not the opinion that they think I want to hear cause that I how I've been doing my hair for years. I've even tried the I need a change and I normally get such a half cocked opinion that I cant even be bothered and just ask for a trim. Or I get advice like the previous time where when choosing a dark brown she told me that it was too dark for my skin tone...umm... I am naturally dark brown you stupid cow!

But I have to say the fault lies with me as well. I find hair dressers unapproachable. Maybe is has something to do with sitting in the chair as they loom over me. Maybe is has to do with the fact that how can you communicate face to face with someone through a mirror - i think it creates such a barrier! I also feel like they don't really listen or should I say comprehend what I'm saying. On Saturday you could have swore we spoke completely different languages. Mostly cause I had a proper command of English and didn't finish each sentence with "innit?"

Then there is the hair dying that involves dry hair being combed and pulled in every different direction while the cold dye is painted all over your scalp and mushed into the remainder of your hair. Also pulling on hair with rubber gloves isn't very pleasant on the scalp! After that you get left alone with crappy out of date magazines (all hello, heat and ok, gossip mags) and you get to sit for an hour watching the colour that you not sure about get darker and darker while wondering if they really are timing this and they are not leaving it too long to make all your hair fall out. Luckily on sat I bought my book along to save me from the sad magazines.

And now for the part that EVERYONE else but me enjoys...the hair washing! Everyone I know loves the whole head massaging, warm water, having your hair washed for you. I hate it - always have and think always will! I cant stand other people pulling at my hair, hurting my scalp ( I think I must have a very sensitive one!) They never seems to get the water to my liking...I like it extremely hot! anything luke warm actually just makes me cold (I do have a strange body temp) I cant stand the massage as the person grabs hair as she does it and digs the occasional finger nail into my head. Then there is the sitting there with your head back staring at the ceiling wondering where to put your eyes. And they are not the most comfortable chair either, plus I have no idea where to put my arm. Now comes the really embarrassing bit...where they always ask me to sit right back in the chair to get your neck into the basin. This is all well and good if I wasn't already sitting as far back as possible. I'm just short ok !!! I had to sit on top of towels until I was about 17 !!! embarrassment deluxe!

The rest of the experience is all more of the same thing...pulling and hurting and pushing head in all different directions until my neck hurts. Dragging the comb down the back of my neck until the skin is raw! And with the hair drying is it all the more of the same but with heat thrown in! They always seem to blow dry my hair so that the front bits are constantly falling in my face and it is so soft that I cant even tuck it behind me ear. And of course having to divulge your life for them as they ask you endless questions to start conversation. I don't really want to tell you all of this!

Then of course I feel obliged to say that I love it while they are swiveling the small mirror to show you the back so fast you cant even see what they did. And all cause your done , your outta her,,, scram ...oh no but no until the whole bill paying experience where you are charged for the dye, wash, treatment, cut and the blow dry (even tho you said you didn't want the blow dry !!) Now there is the whole dilemma of do you tip the hair washer?!?! Now for me I hated every minute of it and I've just paid a whack of money to the salon and I still have to pay their employees more... I just don't get it.

So tell me please - how do people love going to the hair dresser?

Ceramic Light

So i've been promising myself for ages that I was going to share some of my pottery work. Well here is my first piece after my 10 odd year gap from ceramics. Was still getting back into the feeling of working with the clay again so my subsequent pieces are turning out much better so far. They are works in progress and I'll post them once completed.



So here is my ceramic light...

Being Creative

So am getting to be creative in my job again - YAY! When working with Miss Unhinged is was extremely difficult to get her to not design with her usual minimalist palette and set finishes. So for me there was very little creativity with finishes etc. All I had to do was dip into her stash of samples and use the same finishes for job after job. She is still doing this and I'm so happy to be away from that. Iranian Princess (friend and work college at the same level as me, there are only the 2 of us there) has had to work with her on a pitch and she has the same problems with Miss Unhinged as I did. Maybe not as many with personality clashings.

Anyway I'm getting off track. I've been work with Trendy non-stop designer and have mostly been working on her current jobs which means mostly doing CAD work which can get very boring indeed. But we've had a few pitches coming in lately and I've gotten away from the CAD a bit which is wonderful. Am def feeling more creative because of it. Trendy sent me off with a brief of the client and the budget and got me to do all the finishes for it with no controlling actions. So I had nothing holding me back. Am very happy with what I've put together and she is very happy and we'll just have to see what the client thinks this afternoon.

We have also been working on a pitch for a big football clubs offices in London. Trendy gave me the task of prettying up the plans in CAD but I reckon that people have gotten better results using Photoshop and I had a few basics so decided to take some initiative. After spending the morning seriously stretching my brain muscles trying to get it done in Photoshop Mouse (CAD technician next to me and friend) said to me why dont I use the new Autodesk programme that she has been testing for us. It is called Impression. So I started on that and wow what a difference. I'm sure Photoshop is useful for the more complicated effects but this programme did the basics much faster and easier. Plus since it is Autodesk it work so well with our CAD drawings. It is almost as simple and drag and drop finishes onto a plan and TA DA, you have a beautiful presentation quality plan.

I really enjoyed stretching my brain and learning new software - even if Photoshop is them most frustrating programme to learn. And I obviously did so well at teaching it to myself that now the studio manager wants me to teach it and help Iranian Princess with it today. So i'm just sitting around waiting to do that.

Climbing on the Long weekend in the Peak

We had an awesome long weekend in the Peak district for my first time doing traditional climbing (Trad for short) And I can say that I absolutly loved the gritstone rock up there! The climbing was really good and very exhilarating even if I was only seconding C (so basically top roping while cleaning the gear as I go)

So not to bore you with too many words about it all...here are some of the pics (sorry for all the pictures of rock if your not interested.)

*Stanage - the first crag we climbed at*
*Very popular classic climb called Flying buttress*

*View from the top of Stanage*

*Moors at the top of Stanage*

*Flying Buttress side on - the large bit of rock jutting out*
* Christmas Crack - one of the top 50 climbs of the Eastern Peak area*

*Sunset at Stanage*

*Supposedly easy climb in the other crag we climbed (i've forgotten the name) It would probably have been much easier if it wasnt raining during the climb. Oh well was still fun!*


*This was a climb up the crack to the higher roof, traverse under it and around the side to the top ! What an amazing climb - was so amazed that I did it with style even though I was freaking out!*





*And finally a completely different picture - 3500 year old remains of a standing stone ceremonial circle and burial tomb*

Knots in my Tummy

OMG - but has Miss Unhinged made me into one seriously paranoid person! I've been working with my new senior designer, Funky non-stop designer, for a month now. So when she asked me to come have a coffee with her the nerves hit me hard. Now the history here is that after only working with me for 2 weeks Miss Unhinged took me to coffee and proceeded to rip me a new arsehole. Well not that bad but it did feel like it. She ripped into everything that was wrong with how I work and how I am etc. I am still pissed off about it today and of course that really was the beginning of the end of our working relationship and I've now gotten away from her shit.

So back to the point, I freaked out. I was convinced that a similar thing was going to happen! We have been slightly quiet at work of late so have felt that I'm doing the bare minimum at work and doing loads of my own stuff etc. I had myself convinced of the negative things that were going to come out of her mouth. And this negativity isnt really the usual me!

So come Friday we head out for coffee and all I can say is how stupid could i have been ! We are not talking about Miss unhinged here...this is Funky non-stop designer that I'm dealing with now and she is absolutely lovely !!! The first thing out of her mouth was that I was a breath of freash air to her! and that she loves my enthusiasm. I mean WOW I'm so not enthusiastic at the moment as I've mostly been dealing with the huge big brand project that we have on at the moment.

So all the stressing was for nothing - she is so happy with me and everything is going swimmingly ! ARG - PARANOIA

WEirdness for a Thursday afternoon

I've just come across the strangest concept/thing/exhibition, whatever you want to call it. I cant really say that I believe it as it seems impossible! There is a tunnel that is due to be complete this month that runs from London to New york...it was apparently built by some guys great grandfather and there is going to be an invention that you will be able to see through the tunnel from London to New York.

Links re this...

News site

The exhibition websites: Artichoke , The Telectroscope

Finally a website with loads of links and more information gathered: The Telectroscope?

So the site in London is by london bridge station at a place called More London