second day the gym

yay! the last time i od'd on protein shake and creatine, so didn't sleep well. used the sauna so skin broke out and not quite recovered yet...

for every up there is a down. came home late and ate my food that i bought from the 'reduced to clear' section at tescos. really good stuff that's reduced cos it's reached it's display by date. cheap and great.

probably won't sleep well tonight.

need to get my visa stuff sorted, loads of paperwork to get together for my application in january not to mention loads of cash to hand over in the process...

flip it's 11:15pm...eek.

All I want for Xmas...

...is a NEW LIVER.

This past Friday was out company xmas party. Was fun. Got to see sides of people that you would never see during the constraints of a normal working environment. It was a bit all over the place though. It was hald at Whittlebury Hall, which is supposedly very posh. Diana used to stay there years ago. It wasn't free though, we had to pay for the room ourselves, though the rest of it was free.

Bcos there was a couple of other functions going on, and many function and lounge areas, as well as a couple of bars, people wandered and there was not much sense of togetherness.

I eventually ended up with the Roxio Toast UK team. Was fun cos I had a go at them for all the bugs and stuff what toast still can't do, but cheap free hacks off the internet can do.

Drove back home to Northampton the next day with a massive hangover...

visa museums and organic beer

this sunday i went to london for 24 hours and a bit. just got back this evening 8pm ish.

f1rst stop was to get to motspur park, south of london to see my friends tadhg and nat. they just got from prague (lucky bastards). they had a piss up these past 3 days that they were away cos stuff is just so cheap there. the architecture brilliant, and they described it as a most romantic city. the people, though, are rude and ugly. scored 2 t-shirts, a mug and a teddy bear which was won on a raffle on easyjet airlines. ;)

watched a re-run of x-faxtor. leona! leona! leona!

Today made an early start. got up at 6am to take the early train into london central.

1) stopped to have coffee at cafe nero with tadhg before he started work.

2) museum of london. damn these british people are so full of themselves, and brag about themselves and their so-called illustrious past. walked around uninterested, though took some nice pics, mainly in the 'refugees' section.

3) went to see a south african law firm who have a department specializing in work permits. getting documentation together, and will submit application in january. a really standard, buit long and drawn out procedure.

4) visited harrods. went to see where the digital signage that i'm creating (that still has the potential not to happen) might appear. harrods sells animal fur illegally, and there were protestors outside. i told the lady that i would go in and not buy out of principle. besides the stuff is overrated and overpriced...

5) met akhil for the last time before he moves to paris in a couple of weeks. met at this funky, albeit very dark underground bar where i had just two organic beers whcih got me very drunk.

6) perused the sex shops in soho for a particular item that i can possibly mention...ahem...moving on...

7) ate a falafel salad meal in soho before catching the train back to northampton. watched a bit of 'failure to launch' on the train, before falling off to sleep listening to this superbly soothing classical CD on the pod...

8) came home to see ollie put up a christmas tree, for which the lights don't work

almost 9pm. gonna retire early (in theory). nite.

strange sky formation

this is the view from my apartment. we've been having strange weather, moderate and frequent rainfall, icy cold wind and a tornado last week. Oliver (landlord) took a pic from our apartment that was featured on BBC news...

This pic was taken by me last night. had a strange linear cloud formation that stretched miles and miles... that tower you see is northamptons claim to fame - it's a lift tower which was used to test, well, lifts years ago. it still exists as a landmark. currently decorated with a small crimbo tree...

First day of gym

Yay! Half and hour of cardio, a full body workout, a quick dip in the pool, then a visit to the sauna. 9pm, and i still need to eat. don't quite a mens health cover body (yet). hmmm...

Rabbit out the hat

yeah! About literally 50 design variations later, client is happy and all is well...

on to the next challenge...

so much better after that can of fosters

you can create motion graphics for check out desks at heathrow airport, create work stands inside harrods, but it's odd how a simple layout that involves a picture and a flat colour can f**k with your confidence. this was one of those days.

as creative people, do we need days off where our cretivity is not flowing like we would like. motzart did not have a crazy hetic deadlines coming out of his ears, michaelangelo took years to create the sistine chapel, pop artists take months to create an album, and we are expected to in the space of a few hours, conceptualize, copy write, and execute an idea with 5 different options. technology does not make our lives easier, it makes our clients expectations higher. i wish i was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair.

think i'm gonna be an alcoholic, or turn to hard narcotics. just had a can of fosters, and it's not quite saying hello, though making the evening so go much faster...

making many typos as a write this, in between occasional spoonfuls of my organic chunky veggie soup, that makes up three portions of my recommended fruit and veg for the day, and bites of my granary bread with too much of unsalted butter.

gonna get to bed fairly early so i can be alert and creative for cracking the creative juices...gonna curl up under my double duvets while the icy wind blows outside. it was about 12 degrees this morning and pelting with rain. i look at pics of the durban coastline and wonder why i'm in this little hellhole called northampton. that's why escapes to london almost every weekend make this journey bearable. a binge-drink once a week never killed anyone.

damn i need to clean the bathroom...

ipod is calling me. just got the latest 5th generation video ipod, and loaded all my tv shows, music videos and movies onto it. currently making my way through the first season of lost. makes all the commuting i do go so much faster, can watch about 3 episodes of lost on one commute.

but tv shows demand so much commitment. i need to watch through many hours of lost and from peeps who are onto the third season, some questions have been answered, but many still remain. do have the patience? a movie is so much more non-commital. over in less than two hours with no commitments. reminds me of some of my best relationships. did i just write that? must be the fosters talking.

ollie my landlord is working from lunch till 11pm, so it may be a week until i see him again. kinda like having my own place...

got loads of pics to upload to my flickr site. paid a years membership only upload every now and then, though i have unlimited storage space, albeit a 2gig monthly upload limit. if only my broadband was fast enough. got the free option with one of the phone rental companies, so during peak hours it's super slow, like pouring a banana smoothie down a polar bear's back in the middle of winter.

tomorrow is a new day. wish me luck...