AwkwardInk

I'm trying to make a concerted effort to get away from the computer in down time and do some real drawing. Here are some recent pics. I'm going to try and work them up into finals sometime in the near future.

The anticipation leading up to the easter long weekend of 2006 has been realised in true british fashion. After umming and arghing about the possible ways in which to spend this four days off, it was decided that a no stress approach was to be taken. Instead of having to deal with hire cars and the like, we decided to rely on the trains to take us out of the city so we could do a bit of a country walk and see some of the currounding country side.
We foolishly disregarded the possability that the weather might be appalling, and set off on Saturday morning to the town of Hastings in East Sussex. Val had organised the Bed and Breakfast accomodation the day before, and I think she was a little taken in by the hotel's name. So when we descended upon the Grand Hotel, she was a little surprised by the disparity between her imagination and the reality.



The hotel was more quaint than fancy, but the friendliness of its owner Paul, overcame our reservations about it. Paul was full of advice and was full of advice about possible routes for us to take for our country walk. He made a glib comment about setting out sooner rather than later so that we missed out on the rain, that he predicted would begin in the next two hours. We didn't take him too seriously, but packed our umbrellas and rain gear just in case.
We were driven by a very chatty cab driver to the Queen's Head pub at Ickersham. It was a 17th century pub which lived up to all of our expectations of what a real pub should be like. There was a burning fire, and a vast array of bric a brac decorating the many walls and even the pub ceiling. It appeared as if we had stumbled upon a bit of a local gem, as we wandered around with no luck finding a free table to lunch at. It seemed as if every table was booked out for a Saturday easter lunch.




We loitered at the bar eyeing the passing plates of food going by hungrily. Our stomachs growled as we impatiently waited for a group of fellow pub goers to vacate a table for us. Val and I annoyed Shawn by acting like japanese tourists by whipping out our cameras and taking photos, until eventually we were led to a table and were able to order a delicious pub meal. As we ate, we watched as the rain drops began to fall. We laughed about the great english weather, but with our bellies full, we agreed that walking is wat we had come to do, and a little bit of rain wasn't going to keep us from our purpose.



We set out in the rain laughing at our poor fortune and after a bit of a false start we orientated ourselves and set out upon the green fields of East Sussex. Val unluckily stepped in some squishy mud which seeped into the holes of her sneakers. With wet feet, and the possability of impending trench foot, she trooped onwards, but the increasing rain and gusting winds soon took the novelty factor out of the task of country side walking for all of us.
The landscape was quite beautiful, even seen through the rain, and the plentiful lambs in the feilds were entertaining. But we couldn't help but wonder where all the other committed country side walkers were. We saw three other people out walking, and were even lucky enough to get some helpful directions from one of them. But after a particularly long stretch of unsheltered walking, we decided to abandon ship and made for the nearest town. Shivering with cold, we waited for the bus, and were disheartened to learn that the bus fares were £3.50 each, and we had but £10 between the three of us. Just 50 pence short of being able to get back to the warmth of the Grand Hotel.




Not completely without resources, we tracked down a cab and dropped off at a cash point to get enough money to see us home. Since we had all packed lightly in anticipation of a short over night trip, we were forced to wait for our clothes to dry out, hung out over radiators before heading out for dinner. This allowed me the time to take a lovely afternoon nap, in the warmth of my bed, whilst the rain continued to beat down outside.
With our taste for country landscapes satiated, we caught the train back to London this morning. It was great to get away from the city for even a night, and it was good to remember that there is much to see that is close by and easily accessible.
In the easter spirit of things, we consumed a fair amount of chocolate goods last night and this morning and I was back in London in time to get another afternoon nap in as well. I'm ready for another week ahead.

It's Sunday night and the end of yet another weekend. After a few too many nights out last week, it was good to get a bit of a sleep in this morning.
I did my last day at DMI productions as a full time staff member last friday. We went out on Thursday night to Waggamammas for my farewell, and the guys were their usual generous selves in treating everyone to dinner and surprising me with a farewell card and the promise of some theatre tickets.
Tomorrow I start my new job back at Ascent Media, but this time I'll be working as a designer in the city. I'm hoping that the reality of working in the city will be as good as I've imagined. I guess this is the job that I came to London for. Although to be honest, I have gotten alot out of working for dmi.
I know I will have to deal with peak hours on the tube and various other negatives, but after working in the suburbs for a while, I'm looking forward to getting to know my way around London alot better. Nice places to go for lunch, shopping to be done in lunch breaks, and places to go for drinks after work. I've missed having these things in easy reach. I'm looking forward to the change.
I caught up with the two Toms and Alex on Friday night, after many months of not seeing them. It was so nice to fall back into our familiar banter, teasing and humerous conversation. I miss them alot, and I am really glad that I worked as an ingester, just to be able to get to know them. I was told off for using my aussie terminology again, just like old times.
Today I met up with Phatty to see Deep Sea 3D at the Imax theater. Shawn and Val came along, and since none of us had ever seen an imax film before, we were all looking forward to it quite a bit. We were handed our sexy 3D glasses and were warned that the 3D imax experience could get intense and that if it got too much, we were to close our eyes for a bit, and if we needed to leave, there were staff members that would help us do so. We laughed a little at this, but I have to admit, some of the effects were very hectic. The attacking squid were particularly disturbing, although the dramatic music probably made them seem alot more evil than they really were. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get rid of the images of the squid darting towards me out of my head before I attempt to get to sleep!

The lobster dinner turned out to be awesome. Rod came with some lobster friends who were sacrificed for the greater good of filling our bellies.
Shawn and Val did the impossible and sourced out of season figs, so that they could prepare baked figs with goats cheese and Proscutio. I had mine without the pork product but it was a taste sensation, just as Shawn had promised it would be.
They also made an amazing salad of roasted sweet potatoe, grilled pine nuts, avocado and goats cheese. The balsamic dressing was a winner. It went quite well with the started of pan fried scallops that even came dished out with some fancy schmancy food decoration. They were delicious, but were followed by the main of lobster and mash.
My dessert of alightly overcooked chocolate cake, with strawberries and vegan ice cream followed. Everyone seemed to like it, but I know that if it hadn't been cooked for quite so long that it would have tasted even better. But you win some and you lose some I guess.



Overall it was a great night. The seven of us ate our way through a tonne of food and had a surprising amount to talk about. Everyone went home just after 1am, but I was left wide awake after drinking a little bit too much sprite, which left me with a substantial sugar buzz.
Today I met up with Marko, Maya, Bridget and Darren 'Stink' Clarke in Putney. It had seemed like a good idea to go down there and do some shopping and catch the oxford/cambridge rowing event. But the April showers made it quite an uncomfortable outdoor event. And since Stink had seen a bit of sun this morning and thought that shorts and flip flops was the perfect outfit for today, we headed indoors to make sure his blue hands didn't fall off due to hypothermia. He really is quite special. Noone would suspect that he had experienced any UK weather at all!
Nontheless, it was a great weekend. Oxford won the rowing apparently, but we learned the valuable lesson, that rowing is not the perfect spectactor sport. Especially in combination with driving rain and gale force winds!

So everywhere I look I can see the effects of spring. Even though it is still quite prone to being chilly and grey, the daffodils are blooming and the trees are budding and beginning to blossom. Its quite beautiful. At least it gives me hope that warmer weather will be here shortly.




Tonight, Shawn has organised his friend Rod to cook Lobster for us. I'm not terribly keen about the whole slaying of the crustaceans thing, which is quite essential to the eating of seafood I imagine. But since Rod is a professional chef, it would be silly of me to refuse.
I am in charge of dessert and I have cooked a dense chocolate cake. It looks a little over cooked, but I hope it will still be ok. I went up to the high street to get some final groceries and there was this little french market that had just seemed to spring up. Although since I havn't been in the country for the past two weeks, it oculd have been here for weeks for all I know. I had a bit of a walk around and I got suckered into buying some goodies for dinner tonight. Some french bread and a variety of soft cheeses and olives. And most importantly a box of strawberries. They look delicious! I just hope that I can control myself and not make myself too sick from over eating.