Busy busy bee

Ahhhhhhhh I have been dying to do a few entries this week (nothing particularly exciting, just a day in photos and what's in my bag type stuff) but I have been so super busy, essaying and doing loads of reading for uni. Then tonight is one of the few nights I get home at a normal hour and I am off to the Youth Offending Team (appropriate adult forum). Don't get me wrong I like doing lots of things all the time as I feel fulfilled and I know it is all for the greater good and so on but tonight I could do with just flobbing on the couch and watching P.S. I Love You and eating ice-cream!!! 


Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The fun of flexi

Hmmmmm so I always thought working flexi hours could only be a good thing as I can go in when I want (within reason) leave when I want, build up days off, take longer lunches etc etc. Except since December, I have been in negative time on my flexi sheet and can't seem to make it up. I even worked half a day leave on Friday last week!!! I just can't get into credit with it anymore and it sucks. It is like a psychological barrier where I can't get back in credit. Today for example I got up early to go in for an extra hour, looked at my watch which I hadn't put forward on Sunday and thought it was way too early to be getting ready. By the time I realised it was 8:30 which meant the first bus I could take was the 9:15 which only gets me to work at 9:45 which is the latest I am allowed to flex on!!! Even my good intentions pan out badly.

Curry and a consumer society

This evening I am in essay hell. I am writing about a consumer society (which I think all you girls out there in blog-land know a thing or two about!) and have to hand my essay in tomorrow. Boo. It is not quite how I want it to be but I am over the age now where it is acceptable / helpful / feasible / possible to pull an all-nighter so I shall have to get up early. Maybe a fresh eye will allow me to write good things. Plus after the demo this weekend I am fairly tired. 
Anyway after finishing work at 7pm then being dragged round Aldi by Dave (he loves it in there - it makes him feel like he is a European country buying groceries), I had to come hoe and get straight onto the essay, lucky for me Pip had started dinner by making some yummy naan breads from this book

Yummy curry was then consumed by all 3 of us and I still haven't handed my essay in but I am super full now!

Marching for the alternative

Yesterday was a bit of special Saturday as I was down in London taking part in the TUCs March for the Alternative, against the public sector spending cuts. We got a coach down with work and it was a really good day. 500,000 people were there and there was a great atmosphere with some hilarious banners (including "they even cut my sign", "F**K Clegg and camer-on [in the keep calm and carry on style] and a child holding one she had made herself saying "tax avoidance is naughty"). It was a really important day, especially for those working in the public sector as there are almost not enough people to do the volume of work as it is and they are going to lose more and more over the next few years if this coalition/tory government have their way. It was only a few weeks ago I was worried about my job as I haven't been there 12 months yet so don't have all the same employment rights as those who have been there longer. I am a bit worried that the march however wont have had the necessary impact and actually change the way the government thinks about privatising essential services like the NHS. Below is a hilarious youtube video of a song someone has made about Andrew Lansley (tosser)

I am worried about the state the country is in and I am angry about the banks. It was caused high up in the financial sector but those bosses will still get a bonus whilst those in positions that deserve it (nurses etc) will have to work more hours for less money to do everything they need to do. The recession/economy/government suck.

This is a photo of me being all protest-y, taken by Pippa.

Happy to have film

Below is a blog entry from my lomography blog, as I am not available to write today (marching for the alternative and all that) I thought this would get me in the mood. Plus it is a competition entry so wish me luck.

This is the story of a time when I was happy to have a spare roll of film or 2 on me, and ended up needing them when I didn't even have an analogue camera!

In April 2008, my fiance Dave (@fletchinski84) and me were in London visiting friends when we got all a bit caught up in the protests surrounding the G20. Dave had never been to such an event before and had his trusty Halina with him. Unfortunately, no sooner had he got the camera out of its case, had he realised that the batteries for the light meter were totally flat. Being fairly inexperienced at the time, he knew he couldn’t manage without it. To say he was devastated would be a massive understatement, he almost shed a tear. We decided to head out of the main meeting point and go and buy some batteries, we could even see a Snappy Snaps sign in the far distance. As we confidently strode over to the Police lines who were “controlling the crowds” we soon learnt we had been kettled in (a common practice nowadays where police keep large crowds of protestors in one area for long lengths of time to prevent trouble in other areas, very common at protests). Of course this meant no batteries.
As we were standing there, sad faces on, a man must have overheard us talking and said “what camera you got?”. A conversation started and it turned out he had batteries Dave could use. We offered him money but what he really needed was film! He also couldn’t get out and was wanting to use a medium format camera – twin reflex one I think. Although I was a Diana owner at this time, I had not even taken her out of her box and refused to switch from digital. I did however have 2 rolls of 120mm colour negative in my bag. The switch was a magnificent moment and a great day was had by all parties. Dave got some excellent photos which can be seen below, and, although I have never seen them I like to think Mr Battery Man did too. If you are reading this and you happen to be the aforementioned Mr Battery Man – get in touch! I would love to see your shots!

Getting to ten followers

When I started writing this blog, I did it for me and me only as I have always kept a diary and that is for no-one else to read. However, now that I have started properly (1 month in and I haven't quite yet - hoorah!) and am reading lots of lovely comments on other people's blogs, I kind of would like to have followers. I nearly done an excited wee when the 2 followers I do have joined ship. So I think that by my birthday I would love to get to 10 followers. It is not til May 8th so I have plenty of time to get out there, do a bit of reading/following/commenting of my own. 


I think it would be really nice to hear what people think of my little blog.

I got a 78 on my essay - thanks very much OU.

I had some brilliant news the other day - got my first essay back from my uni course and got a 78!! I never used to do that well before. I had been really worried about getting it back as it has been so long since I put pen to paper!!! And the word count was so low I found it pretty difficult to stick to it. 


I am glad to have i back now though as it has really spurred me on to try hard in my next essay which is due Monday. I feel like this is a subject I really really care about now and am going to give 110% effort into. 


Wooooohoooooo for good marks

Is it a popularity contest?

Because you know I like to keep you up to date with what's going on in my lomography blog. This entry is a bit of a response to some cheating going on in the competitions over there and some people, as a result have started to say that some competitions are purely a popularity thing. Clearly I do not agree.

I am getting a bit peed off with people who keep claiming that a lot of the rumbles (especially the blog related ones) are just popularity contests and below is my argument as to why this is not the case at all.

Lots of people on lomography have been saying (well whining actually!) that the competitions where popularity decides the winner, particularly with regards to a lot of the blog entry competitions are fixed as to who has more friends. In light of all this, and the situation regarding the cheating in the “analogue for a day rumble” having made me quite angry, I thought I would get my thoughts down in a nice coherent blog entry. I am quite partial to a good rant. . . .

The way I see it is that the “friends” I have on the lomo community are not people I have worked with, gone to uni with, met on nights out in my hometown (with the exception of my fiance – fletchinski84). They are people whose photos I enjoy looking at and who, in turn like looking at mine. I like reading their blogs and talking to them and sharing hints and tips. If one of my “friends” on here enters a competition, either with a photo or a blog entry, I might like it and therefore click the button, I might not and therefore I wont click the button because they are my friend. Equally if someone who I am not “friends” with posts a photo or writes a blog entry for a competition and I like it, I will click “like”.
For example, in the case of Zoezo, her blog entry which won the analogue photography competition was fab. She did not win it because she has a lot of friends. I liked that blog entry because it was good and there are others who liked the entry who are not Zoe’s friend because it is good. Equally Zoe has written other blog entries that I don’t like, and as a result I have not haphazardly clicked the like button because we are friends. I have a problem with people who write blog entries and win prizes because all of there friends (who have only signed up to lomo to like their entries) just like their competition entry piece, even if it is a load of s**t. If this was me, I wouldn’t feel like a winner at all (even if I did manage to get LSI to send me a free camera!)

Baby baby baby

Ooo Dave and me have had 2 lovely weekends with his sister and her lovely baby Dylan. I love babies. He is going to be 1 in a fortnight and is super cute. I didn't post a photo of him last week as his mum and dad were a bit funny about pics of him being online (which although I found bizarre, had to respect). Fortunately she has now revised this and I can share this gem with you all. I haven't done any exciting editing with this photo, and it was only a iphone shot, but I reckon he looks gorgeous as he is.

Sorry this is such a lame short entry but Dave is grumbling about getting up early so I think that is my cue to SHUT THE LAPTOP! See you all soon.

Introducing the boy

As I have been blogging a lot more lately I thought I would take a well deserved rest this morning and simply leave you with a photo of Dave, my lovely other half.

My weird and wonderful wishlist

So when I am blog-browsing (that is a phrase I think I just made up!) I see a lot of people doing little photo montage wishlists so I thought I would give it a go. However, I never really crave clothes and although I crave shoes big time, I haven't been proper town shopping for ages to see any I fancy. Instead I LOVE stationery, even the boring order I have to do at work makes me happy. So here is my little montage, all items from Paperchase.

I guess it is a bit odd that I am 26 years old almost and still get excited about stationery. When I started this degree I had a bit of a sesh in WH Smith like a school kid at the beginning of September (why do school kids even do that? I mean buy more stationery every new school year and what on earth happened to all the previous years?). I just love notebooks, I am an avid journal keeper and have been for 12 years. So I have 12 years of journals under my bed, and on a shelf I have 18 unused Paperchase fabric notebooks. Christ I just realised that is £180 worth. The cat one is very cute though. I am 99% confident Dave will leave me if I buy any more. Maybe instead I could just get the Filofax note paper as I actually use that!

Super Duper Saturday

Yesterday I had yet another super duper Saturday. I went to uni all day, which I almost backed out of as I had been running a bit late and was feeling ill still but Dave made me go in, and it was so good that he did. I had some girls to sit with and I actually wasn't late at all really. Plus 2 of the lectures type things were so important for my upcoming essay. Plus I like actually going in to uni as it always spurs me on to do more work, which I have been doing today. Not that the course has become mega interesting yet but then we are kind of still at the introductory stage and I think if I bear with it I will get there. I am a bit nervous about getting my first essay back on Tuesday as I am really unsure how it went and the word count was so low I struggled to say all I wanted to. 


Then Dave picked me up with Emilie and the lovely Dylan in the car, who is now nearly 1 year old and we definitely don't see him enough. He is super cute and a very well behaved baby. I would love to post a photo I took of him on here but Em is weird about photos of him being online so although I think it is a bit odd, I have to respect that as his Mummy.


Then I watched the movie Burlesque which as a kind of dance flick i really enjoyed. I didnt think the Burlesque dancing in it was very Burlesque-y though, and not like the shows I enjoy so much at the Wetspot in Leeds. I like the Wetspot as well because it is the only club night type thing I go to where we all dress up properly - Dave even wore a suit last time and I get to wear my lovely Monsoon dress etc.

My limerick - An ode to my camera family

I wrote this poem for a blog competition on the Lomo website a couple of weeks ago. Sadly I didn't win as the excellent zoezo wrote some touching words about her beloved Diana. Still I had a laugh writing it! 

My best friend is called Di,
She has quite a wonderful eye.
Great photos she takes,
And soft vignettes she makes,
But 120 film I must buy.

Little Diana Mini is smaller
But her photos can sometimes be taller.
On 35ml she feeds
So all cheapskates take heed
And pick up your phone and just call her.

My Holga’s a wonderful sight
But she has leaking problems with light.
As hard as I slave,
She will just not behave
And I’m struggling to get it all right!

My LC-A’s compact and small
But my first roll didn’t come out at all.
A sad face I had,
As I walked out the Lab,
But when she works I’ll be having a ball.

My newest one’s called Zenit-E
But SLRs are all new to me.
Line-up? Focus? I can’t!
Just give up? No I shalln’t.
But for help I may visit Zoe!

Lots to look forward to

I was just having a potter about downstairs and realised that we have 3 sets of tickets pinned to the kitchen noticeboard (this is something I got into at uni, I like to be able to see physical evidence of things I am going to do as it gives me some things to look forward to, as a result I used to buy tickets for everything in advance, even crappy club nights which do not require a ticket, I am better now but it still feels nice to see) and another set of tickets at a friend's house for fun things that I am going to do in the next 5 weeks or so.

First on 19 March I am going to see the live filming of 'Frankenstein's Wedding' at Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds, which is going to be so good as Lacey Turner is The Bride. These tickets are at Ross's house as I forgot to apply for any but fortunately he got a spare pair - probably having forseen that I would forget! Then on the noticeboard I have The King Blues, which I got Dave for Xmas, Middleman who are a local band but very very good (you can check them out here) and then a guy named Keith James is doing a 'Songs of Leonard Cohen' evening at a wine bar in Otley. I can't find anything anywhere about this guy but I am a huuuuuge LC fan - you can even see a photo of me and him above the tickets from where I met him in a car park in November 2008!
So this is all very exciting stuff and I love my notice board being full of fun things to see and do!

Been poorly sick

Since London, I have been feeling very under the weather indeed. I think I caught it from my Mum as she was ill before we even set off. Then obviously the ridiculously long coach replacement rail service did not help (thanks Chiltern Railways!). I went to work yesterday even though I felt poo and stayed til 7pm. Today I took the morning as flexi and went in late so that I would have time for the tablets to kick in. I had a very productive morning in bed doing uni work. . . and more importantly redesigning my blog using a beautiful little site I found here. I was thrilled to be honest because by nature I am not an artist, I am not a designer and even though I have often toyed with the idea of teaching myself javascript etc properly, I still do not even know what HTML stands for! They make it all so easy and fun to play around with and it is all free - I am a lifelong fan already. 


Also when I got to work today I had a lovely parcel waiting for me which contained 

They are all things I bought online at the Boots 3 for 2 beauty deal-y that is going on as I needed a few staple items. I also decided to photograph them using the new Instagram app on my iphone as I have had it a while and not really got into yet. Plus it was free and some ways better than Hipstamatic as you can change the look after the photo has been taken. However I am a terrible product photographer so I shall explain, going clockwise left to right. Rimmel 60 second nail polish in Red Carpet and Ethereal and a eye definer in Emerald Sparkle. 17 bronzing shimmer dust and eyeshadows in Regal and Superstar. 2 Models Own eyeshadow brushes and lipgloss in Glass. No. 7 make-up bag, concealer stick in Fair and concealer brush. I need a could more items and saw this on another blog today so I think come payday I shall give them a look. 


Well this was another deep and meaningful entry. And I still haven't told you all about my bloody brogues!

Two lovely weekends

Oh I have been such a bad blogger and let a whole week go by without saying anything and without showing you all my lovely brogues. I will update with a photo of those tomorrow and a humorous anecdote from their first day out on my feet.


I had a rather lovely weekend the last 2 actually. End of February I went out in Leamington Spa for my friend's birthday and it was a really really good night, even though I was sober throughout. I still have to send her gift though. I got her a lovely lomo camera which can be seen here. Shhhhh don't tell her as I haven't posted it yet! 


Last weekend I went to London with my Mum and her 2 sisters as I had got her a ticket to see Blood Brothers for her xmas present. We also went on the London Eye which can be seen below.

It kind of looks really grey here but as we were making our ascent, the sun shone really bright and beautifully for us. We had a great day and I took the 3 of them on the tube which they were very excited about - I am secretly training them up for New York in September!