Water update...

We have water back!  Granted it is a mucky brown colour, but that should be sorted by morning =]

In response to Dad...

I know, who would have thought!  Cumbria with no water!!!  It's a burst water main on Victoria place so the water is there, they just can't get it to us yet.  Went on a small trip to Morrisons to buy bottled water so I could have tea, and even they had sold out, just flavored stuff left!  I did manage to find a vending machine with bottled water so managed to purchase enough water to make 1 cuppa at least.  Order is restored momentarily.

Water!

I got woken up this morning by estates running round halls shouting.  Apparently the whole of Cumbria has no water!  I want a cup of tea and a shower, but apparently this is too much to ask for at least the next two hours!

Poshest train ever!

I am on a National Express East Coast train with free wi-fi and at seat dining (not that i'll be using that)!  It's so fun, except the guy opposite me keeps looking at me as if I don't belong here, which is a bit harsh, but hey, I don't care.  I'm in first class!

Bye folks

Emma, Rob, Evan and Calum have left now, had a lovely weekend with them, it's been great to show them where I live, and they even got a sneaky peek at the new house!  Thanks for visiting, safe journey home. =]

Excitement...

I got a call from Em just over an hour go saying that her, Rob and the boys are on their way up to see me - I am so excited that they will get to see Carlisle.  I've been looking forward to this weekend for ages.  Safe trip guys, see you soon. =]

Library

Why do they seem to have a copy of every journal, book, magazine etc etc from the last hundred years, but not a copy of French Vogue from some point in 1939???  How rude!

Where's my snow?

Apparently my old school in lincolnshire is closed today because of the snow, but mine up here has all gone.  How disappointing.  Snowball fights are being arranged all over the place, I wanna go =[  Oh well, build some good snow men and women folks =]

Snow =]

So, these are a coouple of pictures of the snow in Carlisle - we got up to about 3 or 4 inches in places, it is SO pretty.  The first picture is looking out of our kitchen window and the second is Hayley, Greg and Lea when we were walking into town to go to Tullie House for a briefing and look around this afternoon.  I love the snow, it makes everything so much more peaceful =D 

Uni shut at 2, which didn't really make any difference to me because I wasn't in anyways, but still, exciting times!

SNOW!!!

We totally have a couple of inches of snow!  How exciting is that, off to play now but will post pictures later! =D

Great weekend =]

I had a lovely weekend with Mum and Dad, and it was great that the kids came on Saturday evening.  Nice to have a bit of time to chillax, thank you xxx

Home again home again =]

After the swift decision to come home I bought tickets last Saturday night, and came home today. It's nice to have a weekend to chillax at home, most enjoyable =D

Todays crit...

went well I think, Sam seemed really impressed with the quality of my prints and the book which I have made (which was more difficult to bind than anticipated).  It was interesting because as the brief was based around creating a narrative out of still images, everyone seemed to have gone for very personal themes, a lot of them to do with childhood.  Here's hoping for some better results than last time.

Change of Plan

Turns out... I found cheapish train tickets home for the weekend, so I'm off home for a couple of days to relax, Nat's gonna come visit another time

Natty!

Called up one of my best mates from school tonight for a chat, it ended up that she's coming to stay for a night next weekend - excited as!!!  Cannot wait =]

Sorry Suzie

I have just been reminded by my older sister of my new years resolutions, to find a house and keep my blog up to date.  Yes it is only the 23rd of January but i'd say 50% of new years resolutions kept isn't bad going.

In other words, my blog is not up to date, but we have a house for next year!!!

It is the most beautiful house ever (well, that I can afford and that is in Carlisle anyways) and i love it to pieces, far better than any student house i've ever seen, not that i'm biased or anything.  It has oak floors throughout the downstairs, and i have the biggest room =D.  I will go back when Mum and Dad are up next to show them round so hopefully will get some photos.

So, i'll try with the other resolution now, but I have a fairly large amount of work to do in the meantime.

Hope everyone else's resolutions are being kept and that you're all having a good 2009 so far!

Visitors!

Claire, Neil, William and Thomas stayed last night, great fun.  It was lovely to spend so much time with them, hope they come and visit again soon =D

2009

Happy New Year!!!  And Happy Birthday Dad!!!

So...I can't believe another year has gone by!  Had a good night of celebrating, and a great start to the New Year with the family.

My resolutions...too update my blog more frequently and find a house.

I hope this year is full of excitement, new experience and adventure for everyone!  All the best for the coming year =D

Catch-up

It's gonna be updated soon...I hope!

Darkroom

This morning I have been in the darkroom processing the film which I shot on Sunday.  The photographs seem to be mostly ok, it's all about experimentation at this point though, so it isn't vital that they are all good.  I now have four rolls developed, next job is to make contact sheets from them.

Last morning =[

This morning we went into Carlisle to have a mooch, then off to Wetherspoons for a traditional fry up =]  After this we came back to the flat and Mum and Dad went home.  

Thanks for such a lovely weekend - I really enjoyed it. xxx

Chillax

After goiong to Hadrians wall we decided to go back to the travelodge and just chill out for the rest of the day, so we watched TV, read, napped and the such until Matilda came on, which we watched - such a great film!  Then we watched half of Men In Black, and Top Gear - one of the best in year!  It was really nice just to spend time together not really doing anything.

Hadrians Wall

I'm not sure o the exact point but we headed out of Carlisle, towards Newcastle and stopped along the way so I could experiment with the Nikon FM2 I have out from uni.  This is for David's brief on "stillness and motion", focussing on the use of aperture and shutter speed.  It was really beautiful.  On the way back to the travelodge we stopped at a pub for lunch and had a roast dinner - so good =]

Shelia and Brian

This evening we went to visit Shelia and Brian and have tea with them - a lovely salmon and pasta meal with winter fruit strudel and custard for pudding. It was really nice to see them and Brian's photographic work.

Gretna Outlet Village

After visiting the anvil we decided to go to the outlet shopping centre there, as Suzie and Rick thought it was good when they came to visit.  It was really good – plus we had coffee (well, I had hot chocolate) at Thorntns, and late lunch at O’briens – amazing sweet red pepper soup with a fresh crusty roll.  Got some more christmas shopping done and found Sweater Shop Jumpers - SO excited.  A good day again.

Gretna Green

We decided that when up north, the place you have to go to is Gretna - it's so famous, but there really isn't much there.  They did an average of 15 weddings a day there in 2004 though!

Keswick

Today we went to Keswick for the day.  I found it to be such a lovely place when I when with Lea and Tom that I thought it would be fun to take Mum and Dad there.  We went to the same pub for a fish and chip lunch, and mooched around the shops in the afternoon.  A lovely day.            

Roses

Mum and Dad bought me Roses - they look so pretty - Thank you =]

Mum and Dad!

Mum and Dad are coming up to stay for the weekend, and I'm going to stay with them in the travelodge.  I have no lectures until Monday afternoon, so get to spend the whole weekend with them - SO EXCITED!!!

Interim Crit

This morning we hd an interim crit with Sam, for our brief on unusual viewpoint (photographs taken from below 30cm or above 160cm).  It went well for me, although I feel it wasn't really that useful, because three weeks into a five week assignment most of the class hadn't even started yet.

Art Prize

I had to call up my art teacher from QEGS this morning to see if Mum and Dad could collect my sketch books to bring up for me on Thursday.  He told me that I had won last years art prize, which is really exciting.  Unfortunately I won't be able to go to prize giving to collect it because I have a critique that day, but I am still really pleased =]

New Brief

This afternoon we got our second technical processes brief from Dave.  It is about stillness and focus, concentrating on the use of aperture and shutter speed to alter the depth of field and movement in photographs.  All of the photographs have to be done on black and white 35mm film which we have to process ourselves, and all prints must be made in the darkroom.  I am really looking forward to getting going with it, got to go and book a camera out tomorrow then =]

Christmas cup

As of November 5th Starbucks have had red cups, however tonight is the first time thati have actually got a takeaway since they arrived so I felt it wasn't too cheeky to ask for an extra cup to go on my notice board in my bedroom.  The red ones just make me so much happier =]

Christmas lights

Tonight Lea, Hayley and myself went into Carlisle to see the Christmas lights being turned on in "the Christmas City".  Well...funny story - we were in Starbucks when they actually turned the lights on, so we missed that.  But we saw them once they were turned on, and watched the really bad band that they had from Newcastle - it was quite fun.  But the lights are pretty and it was nice to feel like part of the city, it was good fun.

Saturday evening with Lea

We decided to go and get Chinese from Stanwix with Hayley as a change for dinner.  We popped to the Spar while we were waiting and came home with our take-away and yazoo.  Good night guys =]

Pub

Lea, Hayley, Greg and I decided to go to the pub tonight.  It is just around the corner at the back of uni, and is a proper old man drinking pub.  It was a right laugh, then we visited the Spar shop and came home.  It was so funny when we got home - we were sat in the kitchen and Greg and Hayley were knitting, while Lea and I were colouring in.  Fun times!

Fire alarm

The fire alarm went off at about 11:30 which scared the life out of us, so we went outside and waited in the freezing cold, about 25 minutes later a fire engine turned up with blue flashing lights and everything!  About 10 minutes after that we were told that we could go back inside.  I don't know why it went off, but now I can get back to colouring!

Darkroom

This morning we had a darkroom induction at Caldewgate.  We were shown how to use the enlargers and the dry to dry printer which replaces the wet chemistry.  It's good because it's fast, but it's just not the same as using the wet chemistry, it doesn't smell the same or have quite the same effect.

Christmas Shopping

This morning I went Christmas shopping with Hayley - and I've finished!  Well...almost, I only have three presents left to buy.  It only took me about two hours to do all my Christmas shopping - how organized is that?

Second Critique

I have just returned from my first critique with Dave, our technical processes lecturer. It was for the pinhole camera brief. I was really pleased with the quality of my final images, they were well focussed and well exposed.  The crit went really well, Dave seemed really impressed as did the head of photography.  Unfortunately we don't hand the work in until we have completed the next brief, so I won't get the grade back until after christmas.

Lazy day

As I got all of my work finished yesterday it's been a pretty lazy day today - done a bit of cleaning and tidying, and went to Morrisons with Alex, but it's been really nice to not be under so much pressure or a day =]

Work, work and oh, yeah, a bit more work.

I have been working so hard all day but have finally got my second brief finished for the crit Monday afternoon.  I'm trying to be organized and not leave anything to be done the day before it's due in...so far so good!

New Cooker

We got a new cooker this afternoon as the oven door on the old one was warped so it took far too long for anything to cook.  The new one is amazing - so much faster.  =]

Sue you will be missed

Today we lost our first fish...Sue.  She will be sadly missed.

Newcastle

I spent the day in a very drizzly Newcastle today on a Photography trip to the Baltic, Side and Biscuit Factory Art Galleries.  At the Baltic we saw a Steve McQueen installation which I really didn't get, and a Wang Quingsong image which I really didn't like.  At the Side Gallery we saw a WeeGee exhibition which was a lot more interesting to me.  Then on to the Biscuit Factory which is an amazing exhibition space showing some of the work from last years Photography graduates at the moment - very interesting.  Then we went into Newcastle for an hour or so and wondered the min street - it seems like it would be a really nice place if the weather wasn't so miserable.  Definitely more exploring to be done here.

Relief

I managed to stay awake until about three, then woke up at six with the tv saying "Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States, and also the first black president".  Good times =]

GObama!

Wow it's exciting!  I actually do not want to move!  I have the internet and TV both going with different info.  Come on America...Obama all the way!

Obama FTW

It's crazy how much coverage the US elections are getting over here but I'm finding it really interesting.  I hope Obama gets it, he seems to have his head screwed on, all those who can vote, please do, and those who can't it's the thought that counts.  Here's hoping...

Darkroom at Brampton

We have just had a small darkroom set up on campus, so this afternoon I went with my pinhole camera and did some developing which was most enjoyable, but also very frustrating!  Below is a photograph of my drying line with the photographs hanging from it in my room.

Critique feedback

I just got the results from my first assignment... I got 67% which is three marks off a 1st!    Sam didn't really have anything bad to say about my work either, and she was impressed at my organization and attention to detail in my research and planning.  I am so pleased, especially considering it is the first one.  Well, it has certainly set me a standard to live up to, lets hope that the next one goes as well...