Barcelona photo's

skateboarding, Gaudi, the gang, planes and being retro

OK OK so it's been absolutely ages since I have blogged - simply no time and less access to a computer I'm afraid - so going back this year has been quite a busy one. First of all i went out of the old year and into the new in a bang - I went on a Plane - Oh yes, for those who know i am terrified of flying. I went to Barcelona with some friends of a skateboarding/New Years trip. It was really good - we rented out a studio apartment in the older part of town near the beach. We skated everyday (MACBA, Fondo, Station) and took the metro everywhere. Did alittle sight-seeing (Gaudi house etc...) and ate Tapas. The actual New years was spent mainly in this Irish bar - bumping into people who had the same names as us. The rest of the week also included quite a few stops at the local bakery and chillin in the sun (even then it was 18 degrees).
On the way back however our flight was cancelled due to slippery runway at Bristol so we got a whole extra day in Barcelona which ended up being spent at the best Vegan Deli Bar. In the end we had to fly to Luton, then take a bus to Bristol where my mother picked me up - I think I got home at something like 4:00am.

On the road again pics

All the girls at the jam

My hotel room - day's inn Leicester and the bright lights of Leicester - yeehaa doodaa

Leicester skate jam and being sick's not cool

Well got back from Liverpool quite late - and tired but once again I am on the move - to Leicester. At 9:40 from Cardiff. For a Girl Skate night at The Boardroom Skatepark. So first off to Birmingham new street - had to wait an hour there so had abit of a walk around and a coffee and that - then off to Leicester. I think the trip took under 4hrs - which is quite short really - anyway I lover being on the road. I don't think I have ever been to Leicester - not sure if it will be the first on my list to go back - not that there is anything wrong with the place - but just didn't seem to have to much going on. On and while I am on the subject of cities and that - I don't see what everyone's problem is with Birmingham - I quite like the place - big diverse city with lots of things happening. So anyway got my directions out - found The days Inn hotel - got the keys, checked in - then on my way to the skatepark -which was conveniently just around the corner. the owner was friendly and had a good pre-jam skate. Nice mini ramp - small park but good layout. I got to the park at about 3pm but the other girls only started arriving at about 6pm. I think there was about 15 of us?? We had a good street and bowl sesh. I was pretty stocked with my skate - landed some flips, 50-50 on the box and a huge ollie over a traffic barrier - high side up. Got to see everyone and have a chat - Emma and Jenna are coming to Barcelona with me in the New Year - yeehaa European skate trip. Ohh and louise landed a kickflip up 4 stairs and was doing some crazy stuff on there vert wall and Sam did some solid boardslides and a pretty high rail and Emma some cool frontside 5-0's in the bowl. Was a good night - but I was pretty knackered by the end of it. Got a lift back to The Hotel - where I lay in bed and watched some telly. In the morning has some breakfast and a skate through the town before catching my train back to Cardiff. Once I reached Cardiff at about 1:30 - did most of my Xmas shopping - might aswell while u there. Then got back home - ahh rest. On Tuesday I went to the dentist - who fixed the crack in my tooth( with a temp filling) - very quickly may I add and did the last of my xmas shopping. Unfortunately my throat was giving me some hassle. That night my brother and I went to watch Eragon - not particularly good - very weak story line and some cheesy acting. But I was feeling pretty sick by that stage. The next morning after some blood coming up - i decided I better go to the doctor - who informed me that I had scratched the back of my throat and it had become infected - hence a thought infection - boohoo. Since then I have been in a bed - as it's seems to have double up into getting a cold/hay fever as well - not my - as they sun has also been out down these parts - meaning dry skateparks. Arghhhhhhh....but I am slowy but surly starting to feel abit better - yeehaa.

Escaping Treforest for a night in Liverpool

So now I'm back in wales - and guess what it's raining!!!! Well that's not a surprise. Basically from Monday 11 to Thursday 14 I chilled at home looking out the window at the rain - trying to skate at every day moment. I even missioned to Ystrad outdoor skatepark knowing it probably would be wet - and it was, but then when i got back to Treforest train station the car park was dry and had a cool little sesh. I went to Cardiff and had abit of retail therapy - bought 3 7inch singles - yeehaa - they where -1.The Fields -if you fail we all fail

2. White Rose movement - Love is a Number

3. The sounds - Tony the beat.

But otherwise not to interesting. But on Friday morning my Mother and I embarked on a journey - up through mid wales to Liverpool. We left at about 9:00am and made good time - stopping at Newtown for some lunch and once again getting lost in the weird road system that is Chester - but eventually made it to rainy Liverpool. We found The Britannia hotel - a huge, beautiful hotel situated in the heart of Liverpool. I was so tired as I had had hardly any sleep the night before due to an attack of hayfever. So anyway the reason why we where here was to meet my brother - spend some time with him and drive him back down to Cardiff with us. He came up to meet us at the hotel in his stripy jumper and scarf. We walked down to the docks - as my mother was adamant and seeing The Beetles story. I don't have too much of a problem with the beetles - except to seeing them as a prefabricated Boy Band of the 60's and since I'm not a fan of boy bands and don't jump up and down at the thought of The Beetles - although Norwegian Wood is a great song!But I went it - it was fairly interesting - could of been better, but quite informative - highlight being they had the actual round glasses of John Lennon - worth £1million pounds - on display and some amazing photographs by a guy called Spud. I bought a yellow submarine pin badge to go with my pin-badge collection. After that we got to do something I was interested in - The Liverpool Tate Gallery. But first some Elderflower tonic and a scone to fuel the stomach. The Tate's bottom floor was filled with pretentious installations of modern art being art for the sake of it. The other floors contained some interesting art, sculptures and graphics design. When then decided to walked up through the town looking for The Everymans Pub - or something to that accord - once we got there though it was all Christmas party's and we wanted somewhere pretty quite to enjoy a nice meal - this had taken us across the city and I was at this point soaking to the bone - as it was pourning down. My brother didn't seem to have many suggestions and we walked aimlessly arriving back at the hotel. But just down from there we spotted a Bella Italia - ahh finally in from the cold into a nice warm restaurant - AND FOOD!!! They where very busy so we had some olives and garlic bread to keep away the hunger. I have a fabulous half roasted chicken with a spicy Moroccan style basting and some really nice salad - for those who don't know after years of being a vegetarian and then vegan - have now decided to stop being so picky and fussy. My brother had some crazy weird ht chocolate, cream, coffee liquor thing for dessert and shared an apple crumble with me - I was stuffed!!! But slept well that night. The next morning we took a yellow duck tour of the city - on one of those old WW2 landing crafts - that can go on land and sea - it took us around the city pointy out all the sights and then went onto the Mersey. I really like the Liverpool accent - i don't know why some people don't. The city looks really nice and the people seem very friendly and cultured. After that we made our way to Matthers Street - made famous for The Cavern - where the beetles use to play and The Grapes - their local pub. We found a cosy little cafe where they had soya milk - yeehaa coffee time. Then back to my brothers flat to help him pack and then we where off. But down to rainy wales - hmm I can't wait. Anyway I hope to go up to Liverpool for a longer time as it seems like a really fun city.

Ohh and the photo's are Me and my bro out eating and me in my brothers kitchen

London as always

My photo's in Cafe Gallery - yeehaa.

Some crazy woman with a microphone doing some performance art.

The underground of course and those long escalators.

and how I got here - my boat up on the wall.

Little sleep but London calls again

So anyway the day before was really long - getting from Cornwall to Cardiff, but that's all good cos going to London yeehaa - to pick up my prints from the Cafe gallery.
Got the early train because I fancied a skate before - so got off Paddington straight on tube to Waterloo - so disappointed to see that they have made shell Centre unskateable - argh!! No worries - off to southbank. There where loads of people spay painting and doing murals down there - but all allowed - even the pigs, sorry police checked em out thought they where good. One of the guys was from Pretoria. anywaz had a good skate, ollied over a traffic cone - damm my new board in fine - a popwar - and it has some pop!! so after that sat by the Thames had a nibble to eat, checked out the book market. Then met Mat - who was also picking up his work. We walked down the Thames towards the Tate - but stopped off at this new gallery nr the OXO tower - saw some photography - cannot remember the guy whose it was. Then this huge run down building of like 5 floors was holding an exhibition called articulate - a mix of film, photography, performance art, insulation's and traditional work. Some of the stuff was really cool - they had this weird talking toilet and some short films and interactive art. Like this walk where people posted paper about where they have come from - I put one up. Also these people outside with big microphones just saying random but interesting things. I liked it!! But after a while we decided to go see our own work. So off to Southwark station then to Canada walk - down through the park - loads of cars/vans - they where shooting a movie. anyway got to the gallery it's cool to see ur work up!! Picked it up went for coffee and a biscuit. The decided to go check out the Tate. Loads of stuff to see there - bumped into a friend from Falmouth - weird - small world. Looked at some Picasso's, Dali's, Warhol's etc....my favourite room is the Minimalism - art and insulation's. After about 2hrs of that I was pretty much galleried out. So off to the pub!! the Wellington - I had a nice roasted veg wrap and a pint, think Matt had some chicken salad thing. A good day - love London.

Misson: Get to Wales from Cornwall for as little as possible

So Saturday the 9th Matt, John and I decided to make a mission to get to Bristol (where I would catch the train to Cardiff) by car, the only problem was that Matt's car was dead, and when I say dead I mean it was not going anywhere. But luckily he had RAC - so after we packed the car - making it look like we where really trying to get home, I made coffee and sat in the warm of the house - as it happened to be a fairly chilly morning.

We waited 45min for the RAC people to come - they said the same thing - the car was dead and not going anywhere. So they called a tow company - which we waited for, for over an hour. They came and hoisted the car onto the back of the tow truck and in we went. The tow driver was an ex-seaman, a rather round short man from somewhere in Yorkshire. He took a particular dislike to john who was from Newcastle. He said the most degrading/culturally racist things to John - simply because he was a northy Newcastlen - luckily he was not towing us all the way to Bristol - but just to outside of Truro - otherwise I think John might of thumped him- and too right - this guy was just plain rude. Anyway when we got to the Tow Garage they gave us alittle Fiat Tipo to drive back in. Yeehaa, now at about 3pm we where really on our way - after being up from 8:30am. The only probs was that there really was absolutely no petrol in the car and the stupid tow truck man sent us on a wild goose chase to find a petrol station - but thankfully a local sent us in the right direction and we just made it. After stocking up we set off - ON THE ROAD!!!

We later stopped off for a coffee break in Exeter - which is becoming the 2nd home of all missions out of Cornwall by car. The to Bristol - yeehaa - turn on the radio and have some music going - that was until a bolt of electricity lit up the whole car and the radio blew - and we didn't have it on the loud - luckily my tripod seemed to take in the bolt and none of us got a shock.

We also discovered we had abit of a faulty petrol gauge and speedometer - leading Matt to getting a speeding fine - and the ironic thing is Matt drives like an old man - he is possibly the best most conserved driver of our age I have ever met. So anyway we dropped John off at his mates house in Bristol - got directions to Parkway - I got dropped off, just in time for a train to Cardiff. Yeah 50min later in Cardiff, then a short 20min wait, then off to Treforest 20min away - A LONG DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!But rewarded with some good home cooking. Ohh and did I mention London tomorrow.

all the and not much more

Well it's been maddness over the past 2 weeks because of loads of deadlines - for my interior/digital and exposure projects.
The weather has been quite good for most of the time except when we had storms and a side of my wall blew over - that was quite interesting. Otherwise - been doing work and watching some films - watched Maria Antoniett at the little arty cinema and watched some other stuff - ohh Requiem for a dream. Went to a couple of pubs - nothing seems to stand out though. But I'm sure lots of people will be going out this Friday because it's the last day of the term.
Went for a surf in St Ives two days ago - it was so beautiful. We had to jump with our boards off these rocks straight into the deep sea - it was so great.
Except on the way back the tyre burst but luckly we had Pete in the car with us who put a new one on in about 10minutes.
Ohh me and my mate Oli made a little time lapse film - will post it up soon.
Been mixing some of my records on his decks and making food and that.
It's been quite boring really. But not in a quite way - have had loads of work and research to do.
Had a kick-ass workshop in the darkroom today learning how to do 16 by 12 inch Fibre base prints with split grade printing - really cool.
We have just been given our xmas project - sounds like fun - 6 self portraits.
Ohh we had a quiz on the history of photography and my group won - yeehaa to MS Bucks Fizz and biscuits.

everything and nothing

Well I did write a long blog the other day which all got wiped off when I tried to spell check - so annoying!! Anyway i cannot be bothered going into as much detail about the past days as I did with that one so anyway it's been a while. Last week Friday was just a mega mega house party at this 12bed house looking right over the sea - they hired out these mega huge orange speakers that reached the floor and had DJ's coming out of the cracks in the holes to play some drum and bass. Anyway was supa packed - really thought someone was going to make the front page of the local paper by being squashed to death. Anyway ended up in having to help Mery who had squashed her leg all the way home. The next day at bout 11:00 Matt asked if I wanted to go for a drive to get some air - thought that would be good - went to some place called Manwan with a crazy out of the way church and loads of fields etc.....leading down to the sea. Had to slide down this huge muddy bank then you get to this reall steep part where they have ropes so you can climb down this rocky part to the ocean - it was really beautiful - so I just lay in the sun on the rocks as a weird chinese style boat and 2 canoes floated past. The difficult part was trying to get back up with a huge cliff facing downwards and all you have on are slippy shoes and mossy rocks to cling onto - so the shoes had to come off, as my feet offered better grip. Anyway Sunday was a chill, ohh no wait I had to sit at the train station and wait 2hrs for a train -but it's fine cos it's cornwall and they run on there own time - anyway went to truro for a coffee and look around - then to the beach Cafe for a curry and listen to some open mic tunes. Then off to a busy week of work - darkroom, tutorials, work and watching movies - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance has to be the best western I have seen and I just love the movie almost famous.
So today went for a surf - was ok. Went into the Uni Libary and just got back from Jacobs Ladder after listening to some jazz.
Hmmmmmm...............................................what am I looking for - I'm not sure, but I'm lost?????
Where do I come from - I'm not sure anymore - been watching films about the aparteid.......we where terrible.......people are terriable. Whilst I was at school getting an education people where fighting for there rights in the townships - photographers where dying out in the hidden wars of South Africa - this was happening up till I was 14/15yrs old - how did I not know. Why did I feel like it wasn't relevant to me.......I don't know if I'm South African because I don't know if I can deal with the guilt that comes with that - when you think of the truth of it all, but I dont want to be british either - they just sat and watched.
It's suched a messed up place - but so beautiful