Cute kitty!

I could resist jumping on the viral sharing bandwagon by sharing this bit of fluff....

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.

Things i learnt yesterday...

This blog post concept stolen/inspired by Being Brazen. Full credit given... thoughts my own though.

• It may be a good idea to iron my trousers more
• It is more painful for my joints/back sitting in my office chair all day then it is traveling down to kent and back (which was a mission)
• I may have more pride then is good for me sometimes
• Blue food dye used for M&M's may be the future cure for spinal injuries. And it may turn your skin blue just like the cute little rats they are testing it on. Click here for more info on that.

So cute!! Poor ratty...but he does look kinda happy - but that could be a whole PR thing.

iMac

It seems that I may just be getting myself a beautiful machine like the one above!! Yes I've been unable to resist the geek inside me.

To be honest it did kinda just fall in my lap - not like I went looking for it or anything.

C's ex boss who is a fellow mac lover has been trying to sell this beauty to C for a few months now. I've been hearing little comments about it along the way. But it hasnt really been discussed until....

The ex boss sent C a video he had shot and edited trying to convince him to get it. It then got sent to me (as most things do since we email ALOT during the day) And it was just hysterical. But it also just planted the seed in my head going "ohhhh I'd love that"

Then there was the price.... DEF not a deal you should pass up.

So after a few passing comment C got how much I want it ...and so it is a done deal now.

Before I didnt think there was a huge need for it. As I do have my gorgeous Macbook Pro. But now I just keep thinking of more and more reasons that I need it. It is just so exciting.

I can have a machine that will handle both OS X and windows and I'll be able to run CAD on it. Plus it has a nice big 20" screen so that help with CAD. So this means I could maybe start some negotiations at work to have the option to work from home some days. And it is powerful enough to handle Photoshop so I can actually sit down and learn it. So it will be a work and media PC and my gorgeous laptop can be dedicated personal stuff. And it can try keep the hard drive from filling up.

TOO EXCITING!!... and I may be getting it tomorrow after saying yes yesterday. YAY

Poo sandwich

So we have a 2 hour meeting coming up at work for which we have been set homework. The homework is to come up with a feedback sandwich for each person in the design team.



What is a feedback sandwich you ask?

A ‘feedback sandwich’ is an honest and open way of delivering feedback to individuals; on areas / things that you believe they may do well, things that they may find tricky in your opinion and things they could do differently and/or better.

There are no rights or wrongs, however your feedback sandwich should contain;

Context for the feedback – a situation, an instance or a scenario
1. It should highlight a minimum of three specific context-related things the person does well.
2. It should highlight one specific, factually and contextual appropriate thing that the individual could improve on.
3. This should be depersonalized and you should be ready to give other examples in the same context.
4 .It should finish with an overall observation, in context, confirming what the person does well.

I am seriously struggling with this. I've been trying to come up with these for 5 days now. i know that i've not written anything down so i'm not tried extremely hard. But everything that is floating around my head about people is very subjective and emotional and I dont seem to be able to think of exact situations. I've always been like this though. And this is all stressing me out cause I really dont want to hear what people have to say about me either. Most of them do not understand what I'm going through at the moment and honestly I dont think that they care. But i suppose this is what the meeting is all about.

ARG

Portland

Here are some photos of the weekend away in portland. I loved getting away and spending time by the sea! Was loving running around with my camera and discovering new functions. These are just a few of the 243 photos I took :)

*Kisses at sunset*

*sunset at Blacknor*

*Loving the sea*

*C decending the most picturesque climb i've see so far*

*Fallen Slabs*

*jurrasic fossil!!*

*playing with the colour settings*

*crag in black and white* *C and Me*

*me on the only climb I did...got stuck and came down. Only 1 other chick got to the finish so I dont feel too pathetic. I'm the higher one on the crag...about to do a very pathetic mantle which landed me in a position that looked like I was praying to the rock - lol*

Coke freeeeeeeeeeee

So yesterday was the official end to the 1 month I set myself to go without carbonated caffeine filled drinks...mostly coca cola! I was starting to feel like I was getting addicted to the stuff and really didnt want to go a day with out it. Plus C shared a weblink with me about a link between coca cola and joint/muscle pain. It turns out that that is def not the problem in my case but he got me paranoid. Also I have a thing where I like to test my will power out every now and then.

So one month along and what is the result?

Not much difference actually. The only thing is that i'm not being ruled by cravings for it. Otherwise I feel pretty much the same. Well not for the first week though. But that was a bad health week and when I have those coca cola def give me a bit of pep and more energy to deal with it. So the first week was hell. Involved me being exhausted and hitting real energy lows in the day.

I also have to point out that I didnt drink much coke. Only about a can a day during the week and not every weekend. So i cant see how it would have much of a difference either way. I'm still having gut issues but that has always been ongoing and isnt made worse by the coke.

My end verdict....

I dont really want to cut it out of my life completely. I do know that I should be sticking to drink more water and less sugar etc. So that is my goal now. Drink more water and save the coca cola for that "special" occasions like at the end of a gruelling climbing day. or with a meal at a resturant or at the bar when i dont want to drink alcohol. Am going to stay away from drinking it in the week during lunch and at the office. (that may only be hard when my boss trys to bribe me with chocolate and coke)

Am off to the isle of Portland for the weekend tmr to try do some climbing!! cant wait. But you never know what the British weather is going to throw at me or what my boby is going to say about this. But i'm still so excited!

The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out of your glass.

I felt like having a random title today.

So this is week 6 of joint pains... luckily the pain has gone down from an 8/10 to a 2/10 which is a huge improvement to my life. I've been on steriods for the last 14 days and am off to see the doctor to discuss things tomorrow. Am really hoping that this is now just going to get better and better. I think that it really helped that on thursday morning last week I put my foot down at work and said that I really cant use my hands too much which means NO cad work. Now i'm just trying to take the whole mouse work easy. I think the hands have been the most frustrating. Just how everything hurts ones hands - every position that you put them in hurts. And the fact that all the things you like to do involve your hands.

We are heading off to portland this weekend for a meetup climbing group trip. 18 climbers are going all in all. And I still have no idea if i'm going to be able to climb at all - let alone do some of the more hectic walk ins. I've been a bit stressed by this but sorted that out by joining Streetcar car club and therefore we will have a car of our own. So I can head off to chill somewhere in the sun if I cant walk in etc. Otherwise I'll mostly just be chilling at the bottom of the cliffs watching everyone enviously and running round taking pics... oh yeah and maybe i'll get to do some reading as that has been impossible due to not being able to hold books. But most importantly i'm really looking forward to being in the sun by the sea!

Lastly for this post today I just have to share the fact that I've converted C's ex into my fan... While getting her home very drunk on Sat night she had this to say:

ex: " i have no idea what you must have thought of me when you met me. I know, that i'm a bitch. I was a bitch. I just really really wanted to hate you .... but you are just too nice! I cant hate you."

LOL - all I can do is laugh. At least things are all cool now. And her wedding wont be uncomfortable now.

Still in pain

So it is 12 days later and here i'm sitting still in pain - a bit less but pain none the less. This is honestly getting to be too much. I dont really have any good answers even tho i'm seeing specialists that cost fortune (thanks to private health insurance i'm not paying for) and I getting medication to try to SEE if it could be joint pain related to infection in my intestines. My brain is getting very befuddled by this all and my moods are pretty befuddled as well. I dont think i'm going to be able to right much as this is really hurting my hands. It seems that they have become the worse part. But i think that is alot to do with going back to work and useing them again. All the mouse work etc. My boss was really sweet and went and bought me heated hand guards for arthritis pain and my other collegue gave me his track ball mouse. but it is still really hard and a day at work now sees me struggling home and curling up to sleep because the pain in my hands is just unbearable. Then there are the people at work that see me working and dont think that i must be in pain cause well i'm there and working so what could be wrong *note the annoyance to that line of thinking. I'm so sorry that i'm good at putting a brave face on things. I reckon that I do not wish to appear weak.

I dont know how i'm going to get through this week if things dont change.

And now that i'm pretty "disabled" by pain all i can think about is the things i want to be doing, like climbing and using my bike as transport, stuff that i want to do with friends, holidays etc. Even my usual net surfing and home computing had come to a halt.

I have a climbing weekend coming up in 2 weeks and really REALLY dont want to be like this come then.

Also it is amazing what you take for granted. and what it is like when doing even the simpilist things are difficult.

And finally i just have to say it is horrid not even being able to hold your partners hand properly cause it hurts.

well i have to stop now and this may not have been the best idea to type as more pain is setting in. but i honestly need to get some of this stuff out my head.

Pain...

Ok enough already with this pain...i'm up to here with having to deal with it all day long. This is exhausting and I want my life back!

But will have to wait until next wednesday for the verdict after having an ultrasound of my hands (how weird is that !??!)

well this is all my hands can handle for now...

p.s. i really do have the most amazing partner in my bf!

A few pics from the hundreds that I took in Paris!

back from my little jaunt in Paris

I still cant get over that I could just pop over to paris for a 4 day weekend... this is just what I did. I tagged along with Mish and her man - well I welcomed them to London before ushering us all onto the Eurostar over to Paris.

It was a mad 4 days and I'm absolutely wreaked at the moment. My joints where sore last week but only slightly and I wasnt worrying about them. But now after a strenous on the body time in Paris they are even worse. I've now had a full week of sore joints. I'm just tired of being in pain. It isnt the nice I've been excersizing and now ache somewhat (for excersize read climbing) It is this dull ache in my joints that has sharp stabbing pain every now and then. I'm walking around so carefully as to not hurt them too much and making sure that i dont twist them out of place too much.

I've def hit a low energy point and also keep passing out - which is so not good ! i need a holiday to get over my holiday! it also didnt help that I was working late every day to prepare for the time off.

I'll have to write a paris specific blog post and capture some of the memories here and try post some of my pictures... I have hundreds, was starting to get mor creative with my GORGEOUS camera. I really cant thank C enough for picking such an awesome camera (and the Ginger Ninja for confirming his choice!)

I've also had a weird inner head space at the moment. I've been making a few realisations at the moment which is always interesting to me. Maybe they are things that everyone already knows about me and maybe not. But i've realised that I am actually pretty much a loner in my head. I think this may be from being an only child. To everyone I am a very friendly and open etc person but sometime I really do just like to retreat into my mind. I've never really needed anyone to be there with me. I'm very happy to be all alone by myself with my thoughts. I've come to realise that I dont need to be alone to be able to do this. I can be surrounded by people but still feel very much by myself which is wierd. Maybe this is how C and I survived living in 1 room for so long.

I did realise that since i've been away without him twice in the last little while that I really dont like it. And its not for the usuual reasons I dont think. I mean i'm perfectly capable and fine to travel without him and alone etc. I have no fear of going places by myself etc. But I realised that he is in my head space and that I need him there for that. And this is a first that I realise that someone else is in my headspace so much. He really can read me like no other! and that is scary in so many ways.

I've also had no ties to a place being a home. Like a certain house or city or country. It is always the people around that make the home for me. If I have the reight people around then I feel content and that is safe and home like. Home right now is very much the space that C and I share where ever that is. It is great to now have a physical space to represent that though.

Ohhhh speaking of which, our couch is arriving on saturday. I just cant wait. I really hate sitting on this hard futon (i think i have mentioned this before.) The things that I really wanted to splash out on were a matress and a couch. The 2 places i need to have a happy house. I'm not really good at personal decisions (ok i'm terrible) so this was quite the decision to make. But i think that i've def made the right choice. We went for a made to order couch to our sizes wanted with a chaise lounge that can swop from one side to the other (always good to have fexibility) It also has a solid sofa bed mechanisim that has a sprung matress. And I got to pick the fabric ....Aubergine microsuede. So will post a pic as soon as we have it :) Cant wait !

That is enough for tonight... am off to crawl into bed with my gorgeous bf !

Oh yeah and here is hoping that the joints are somewhat better tmr!

Every Weekend should be a 3 day affair

There really are moments and day where I say to myself I love living in London. There are actually more days I say that to myself then you would think. I've never really understood how people could be miserable here ... well actually I do "understand" it but I just dont get it when there is just so much going on here and so much that you can get involved in. If there is one city in this world that can cater to everyone I think this is it.

Bank holiday weekends are normally wonderful times to be in the city of London. They always see them as an opportunity to just enjoy life. yeah I think that is what you could call it. On Saturday which was gorgeously warm we headed down to the Southbank to meet up at the Tate Modern with Miss M and friend of hers who as usual was weirdly connected to both C and I.

Once there we encountered the weirdest scenes outside the Tate, It was like they had beamed in some hippie festival. miss M even said that my photos made it look like we were far out in the countryside and not in the middle of London. There were loads of stall and interactive art things going on for kids. Playing with clay, making gingerbread men, making themselves dress up clothes, it was endless. There was a stage on the grass with random musical acts. Recycled stuff make into art work...there was just so much to see. This was all under the banner The House of Fairytales.

After roaming around there we headed in the Tate Modern turbine hall to see the exhibition which they had recreated from the original exhibition in 1971 called bodyspacemotionthings by robert morris. This was pretty cool in the sense that we got to run around like children interacting with the installation. It was things like balancing platforms, tightrops, climbing "chimneys" (C nearly got us kicked out when he did this as he mantel up and over the top of it...they were not impressed.) It was fun but I must say that health and safety always had to come into play which can be sad. Always being stopped when it is your choice to do something that could be deemed somewhat dangerous. The one bit where you were supposed to be able to hold onto a rope and stand on a ball and walk it around in a circle was of course not allowed. How sad.

After that we headed off to borough Market for some food - still one of my fav places in London. And after a long day got onto a bus and headed home slowly just like my body was feeling. I just love that the sun came out and it was warm and everyone took advantage of it. That is one of the best things about London - we dont take good weather for granted. That was also evident on Sunday when after some climbing indoors we headed down to the park and lay in the sun on the grass with everyone else. People get out and enjoy the weather. Grab some food and drinks and head to the park. everyone and anyone. even the neighbourhood goths get out for the sun.

I went summer dress mad on Friday and bought 5 dresses. This is so not like me as I hardly buy 1 dress let alone 5! but I just had this desire to have pretty summer dresses and really enjoy what the summer has to offer this year - hopefully it will be better then last.

This is where i'm going to leave this but will add some photos to enjoy :)

Downtime...

I need some!

Seems like i'm either rushing around or planning to rush around these days, and it isnt stopping. If i'm not physically busy then i'm also mentally busy - i really need some downtime where i can just shut off my brain. It is also getting hard to shut it off at night and i land up going to bed way too late and feeling crap in the morning. Need to find a better routine here. Not much is going to change for at least the next month tho. Plus things got a little interesting at work and i'm try to concentrate on that and make the most of the opportunities and not get stuck in the boring hole that is full time cad monkey stuff.

I'm def battling to keep at bay that overwhelmed feeling like everything is just piling up and i'm not getting through what i want to. I keep telling myself that it is just my perception and that it is all manageable and as usual i'll make my way through things and come out fine on the other side.

I read a post on Po's blog a little while ago and it was all about blogging and why ...well it really struck home for me and am feeling the smae way about it all. this has become a vanity blog as C calls it and i was writing alot of the time for the readers that i've gathered... I really wonder sometimes what they get out of reading this blog if they dont actually know me in real life. I know that C finds it interesting as things may come up that i've not shared with him. But mostly he must find it weird to read stuff from this perspective esp about things that he did with me. I've been asked a few time why do i blog - mostly by people that do interact in the blog world. But I still cant really answer them. I have no idea why I blog other then the fact like right now I'm sitting here in my lounge pouring out the random activity in my brain and just letting my fingers type away. I know that i'll feel calmer after this.

I did start my blog originally to blurb stuff out there and it was all very abstract stuff that even the people that knew me and read it did quite get what i was on about. I liked that and it would be nice to get back to something like that. i do know that i'm not explaining comment i make on here to other people anymore. Maybe that will help to not hold me back from letting stuff out there. Because I do really need a release sometimes. I know i cant always expect C to listen to ALL my shit... :)

I also had a very random request from a reader of my blog to write a post about Mallorca. I was very amused, shocked, interested by this. It was just so random and flattering in a way. i wasnt planning on writing anything about the last trip since it was very bitter sweet with me just heading out there to check on my brother and see how he is handling life etc. It was wonderful to see him and also very sad. I didnt have much Mallorca stuff to blog since as goes my brothers life we only saw the bar between his flat and the beach and the actual beach.

NOTE to reader with this request: I have travelled there quite a few times before. I would check the travel tag on my blog, also check the archives Dec 07, april 08 and i think sept 07.
here is a quick list of my fav things there:

• the cathedral (i love these in any city but this one is quite beautiful and a bit "gothic" as well)

• Illetas beach (this is where my bro lives and is one of the most beautiful little beaches) from the centre of Palma take the no 3 bus i think. it runs along the peseo de born past the cathedral.

• the old town of palma is great to walk around. In the old town area to the west of Peseo de born (near the circle) there are loads of great local clubs and bars and yachty hang outs. I forget all the names right now - i'll try remember and post later.

• The main run of "tourist" clubs are along the waterfront. On of the more local flavour clubs is made in brazil (here is the map position) All the club are there abouts. The big chains are there as well like Puro beach etc. But be careful as things can get raudy and the Spainish culture has no problems with pushing and shuving and getting into your personal space - DO NOT get offended by it. I've also seen some worse fights in those clubs then i have here in London and that is saying something.

• I would also suggest a visit to the Castle as it is a lovely piece of work. One of the only truely round castles of the time. It also has the most amazing 360 degree views of Palma.

• My other suggestion is to hire a car for a trip around the island. It is a very small island and it is possible to drive from one side to the other across the middle in 30 mins! We took our time driving up the coast and around the country side. Some of my fav towns are Deia, Valldemossa, Port de pollensa (from this town the drive out to the lighthouse on the very tip of the peninsula is awesome scenery)

Note about the driving - it can be very scary. I loved it but my bf calls me Colin after the rally driver. They stopped marking to the hairpin bends cause there are just so many of them. Treat every corner like it is going to keep turning and it will be fine. The roads in the country side are seriously tiny so watch out for on coming cars. Plus they drive on the right side of the road - so that is the opposite to normal for me and that takes some getting used to. But after all that it was the best way to explore the island and i had great fun driving around. Esp when I got stuck behind some REALLY nervous tourist drivers who where only driving at 5 kms an hour (am not exagerating! what should have been 10 minutes drive turned into and hour! )

• The other bit that I love about Mallorca is the climbing but i dont know if that is your thing.??

That is all I have energy to write for tonight

Hope you have a great trip there! I think i'll be off to Paris around that time...cant wait!

Ok now i'm exhausted and happily off to a warm bed (and need to get blood into my numb ass from the futon that i hate! but we will soon have a gorgeous couch...more on that laters too)

My In Tray

Its been a crazy week...filled with birthdays, ex's, Ikea,climbing, too much PS3 Civilisations gaming, too little sleep, and WAY too much work! At least the work part was only 4 days. Dont think I could have handled another day of this all. I was pretty much the ENTIRE design dept today! Not fun. Oh yeah and a presentation to the company this morning. ARG. I really do not look my best so early in the morning and when I havent woken up. NOt even the journey to work woke me up this morning.

Anyways...I get to go do some climbing outdoors tmr ...YAY. Even if it is horrid sandstone as i've been told. The bad part...The getting up early. I'm so going to meet random strangers to go climbing down south and i'm going to be like Shaun from Shaun of the dead...I'M NOT GOOD AT MORNINGS!

Well its time to get out of this work place (2 hours after i'm meant to leave and am the last one here) and go entertain the Ginger Ninja! YAY.