Day in the Life #4

Woke up at 11 today. Wow, lie in. Managed that after callously booting Nia out this morning, or, more accurately, closing the door in her face as she tried to follow me in from the bathroom. Well, she woke me up at 6 yesterday, desperate times call for desperate measures. She obviously hasn’t held it against me since she is sat purring on my lap now.

Felt very lazy this morning. Spent ages reading random stuff on the internet and chatting to some guy who I think was confused by my change of MSN name. He gave me links to the livejournals of his friends who have travelled in South America though, so perhaps random MSN people are actually blessings in disguise. Got an email from my cousin in the States saying that my aunt has cancer. Kind of sad. Especially for my dad since his family has been going through a bit of a rough time, he’s lost a brother and a nephew already in the last few months.

Breakfast/lunch – last nights stir-fry with the addition of sesame seeds and extra soy sauce.

Looked askance at the grey sky outside and texted Dave to see if he really wanted to play tennis today. He did, so I made an immense effort, dragged myself off my bed, put some clothes on and met him at the court. It seems that we need crap balls for us to be able to play good tennis. He had brought some proper ones today (since we had wrecked all four of the cheapo ones he brought before), and they were bouncing all over the place. That, coupled with the rather slippery courts (yes, I did end up on my arse, just once though), and the wind, meant that our tennis playing skills were notable only for their absence today.

Back home, still feeling lazy. Read the paper and procrastinated. Ate dinner – baked potato and cheese and beans. Realised if I was going to make it to my friends even vaguely on time I’d better get a move on. Ran a bath. Got in. Didn’t move. Noticed time was still passing even though I wasn’t moving. Washed. Max called. Chatted to her. Noticed that clock was running away with itself. Stopped talking to Max. Tried to hurry up. Dressed, out, bus stop, town, just missed bus, damn. Wait at bus stop, text Dee to check where to get off. Wait some more. Finally bus, on, Dee’s house. Lots and lots of people. Introduced to her Canadian boyfriend. She seems happy and thus I am unable to be cynical. It’s very sweet. She met him whilst on holiday in Cuba and I guess it was love at first sight or something similar. Especially since I think they were only both in Cuba at the same time for three days, but he has come all the way to England to visit and seemed to survive the meeting of all her friends and family all at once and is planning to move to England in May or June. Oh to be able to fall that easily rather than being cynical and jaded and all the rest of it.

Despite only really knowing Dee and her parents at the party and just recognising her cousins, I had a really nice time. I’m hardly ever surrounded by Jamaicans, so that was kind of good for the soul. As was seeing how people from different backgrounds can build a lasting bond. Standing around, drinking sorrel, chatting with her cousin, listening to the jokes, seeing Dee looking all happy and in love, fun times. Maybe this proves that Libra/Virgo relationships really can work out. Or maybe its all in the Cosmo lovescopes... I like how Nottingham is small enough that there is still a sense of community. You see people around and recognise them and realise that all these people you see, you’re connected to somehow, friends of friends, family, family of friends, friends of family, whatever. It’s nice. I wish I was better connected. I never feel like I’m totally a Nottingham person, I guess since I’ve not been here very much these last few years, and I didn’t go to the right schools or live in the right areas to properly build the networks. But even though I’m not 100% part of the connections, I think I will miss them when I go to London and suddenly everyone is anonymous.

Didn’t manage to talk to Saul, despite it being our three month anniversary today. Sob. Still, by my reckoning there are several other dates that could be used as possible anniversaries instead, so just will have to chat to him on one of those.

Nia’s hopped off, and I think I am ready for bed.

Day in the Life #3

Early morning today, alarm at 7 and out of bed at 7:30. Breakfast – muesli, bath and out by 8:30. Across the park to the bus stop. Stand at the bus stop for 20 minutes – the bus I intended to get doesn’t turn up. Annoyingly three of the same one pass in the other direction while I am waiting. Even more annoyingly, as a bunch of grannies get on in Bramcote we are overtaken by the same bus behind and I turn up to my class late. Again.

The class today was kind of disappointing. Being a day time class, the student makeup understandably differed from the class on Tuesday. As Saul said, funny how the young students are using the old-school cameras whilst the old folks are all playing around with the new technology. Or maybe it’s just that us young guns can use the new stuff and the old stuff seems really retro, funky and cool, whilst the older ones are like ‘Film? But that’s so dated!’ The other students today were mainly either middle-age middle-class mum types, nattering about Pilates, who could just about manage to turn their cameras on and point and click but little beyond that, or, middle-class middle-age know-it-all smug men with fancy digital slrs that they could just about operate on auto (I’m feeling a bit of a generation gap, and maybe a hint of jealousy – that Canon EOS was just so wasted on her). The class was thus going to consist of learning how to take a picture, how to upload it onto a computer, how to organise photos into files and how to resize them or alter the contrast. For the next 9 weeks, or 27 hours. Definitely not as cool as learning how to use a darkroom and process my own film. Given that I seem to spend half my life on the computer I feel quite comfortable doing all of the above. The rest I can probably figure out with some judicious reading of my camera manual. Thus I enquired about how to unenroll and it seems that my class tally may soon fall to just two a week.

Home, lunch, chips and beans. Mum had found my slr this morning and this afternoon my dad fished me out a bunch of his old lenses and photography books. I ordered the part that was missing from his camera. I’m almost spoilt for choice now, and with three analogue cameras, six lenses and a digital to play around with, my room is beginning to resemble a camera shop.

After lunch researched my South America trip some more. New plan (actually this was my original plan, I’m not sure why it changed) is to do Spanish in Buenos Aires. From there it seems it may be relatively easy to overland it to Ushuaia and see some sights along the way. Now I just have to decide how to get from Ushuaia to Santiago. I definitely want to do the tour from Santiago, that has all the cool bits like the Inca Trail and the salt lakes in, but I’m not so sure about the bit from Ushuaia to Santiago. More thought required I think. Found a website with many travel hints and tips, and possibly a way to make the Spanish lessons much cheaper since it seems there are lots and lots of schools that I had not heard of and not just the glossy brochure ones that I had been looking at so far.

Kick boxing. Ab work. Ouch.

Home. Dinner – stir fry. More SA research. Write this. Chat to Saul. Next – rice pudding, reading and bed.

Day in the Life #2

Alarm at 8:30. Extra half hour in bed as usual. Get up computer and daily clicks. Breakfast. Toast and smoothie again. Over breakfast I think about what kind of volunteer type stuff I’d like to do and what sorts of skills I can offer – I have a meeting with my ‘TimePartner’ at the Volunteer Shop at 12. Look at the clock, realise that I had better get moving if I am going to make it to the meeting on time.

Wash, dress, borrow Dad’s bike, get there 12:05. Rather disappointed by the meeting. I had hoped that my Partner might spend a bit of time telling me what the Volunteer Shop does and how it can facilitate volunteering, and spend a while trying to identify what I can offer and then maybe use her expertise to suggest some things that it would be possible to do. Having never volunteered in Nottingham I don’t really know what one can do and thus only have very broad ideas of what I would like to do. Unfortunately all the lady does is take basic details like my name and address before running slowly through a database looking at some possible opportunities. Given that the database is searchable online, I could have done everything that she did during the session faster and more efficiently by my self. She makes little effort to identify either my skills or motivations and doesn’t even ask basic questions like whether I have graduated, and shows little interest in whether I have done anything at university that may be relevant to volunteering in Nottingham. It seems like a waste of a very good opportunity – with a whole hour to play around with the TimePartners should be able to achieve a lot more with potential volunteers than she did with me.

Leave feeling slightly narked. Walk back over to Icon. Another semi-waste of time. The right person again doesn’t seem to be there and those that are are pretty clueless about my hair anyway. Lug my very heavy bag over to the library to get rid of some books. Take out a photography one. Want to look at lots of different photographers work to start getting ideas about drama, composition, subjects and so forth. I have to shoot a whole roll of film the week after next and will need to create a portfolio in my class. As I’m walking around town I try to adopt a photographer’s eye, thinking about what might make a good picture. My current projects are all designed to make me take more notice of things. Mentally composing photographs should encourage me to notice greater visual detail. Writing more should encourage me to reflect on events or ideas. Furthermore, art should help define life in a way. If I want to write reviews I have to find places to review and get out and do things worth writing about.

Carrying my heavy bag is giving me a headache (it also has an SLR of my dad’s that I’m trying to find a spare part for in). I ride back home. Crave tea and biscuits so stop at the shop to acquire the biscuits.

Home. Drink tea and eat biscuits. Read the paper. Back upstairs. Write an email to the Volunteer Shop offering constructive criticism. Search through the database we had used during the meeting and find more interesting stuff to possibly do than I had in the session with her. Make dinner. Curry is becoming my weekly speciality. In the last few weeks I’ve made egg curry, matter paneer and now this week a good old basic vegetable curry. Eat. It’s good. Mum and dad seem to find it really spicy, maybe I have a higher tolerance.

Upstairs again. Spend ages on the phone. Saul calls, tells me about his football watching plans. Start writing an email to Michael. Before I finish he rings. Catch up with him. Find out what he has been doing since returning from Nepal and what his plans for the next few months are. Ring Dave. Some more catch up. Plan to meet for tennis on Friday and try to flog him tickets to the fashion show. Start writing my day in the lifes.

Day in the Life #1

Have decided to do a few day in the life type things. You know, for posterity and all that.

Alarm went off at 8:30. Did my usual contemplating of getting up and adjusting to the thought of another day. Thus managed to listen to about half of the Rock and Roses CD that Saul sent me (either music or the radio wakes me up) before emerging from the duvet. Made the short hop from bed to computer, switched on and hit my usual daily clicks: scan of BBC news, Gmail, lj for friends updates, nappturality, DearAbby.

Mogiesed on downstairs for breakfast. Smoothie and peanut butter on toast. Smoothie packed with lots of good things like many fruits, magic honey and flaxseed oil, hopefully stop me from getting the cold that's trying to take hold. Read the paper.

Back upstairs and sort out stuff for meeting with the bank manager. Try to add up how much I think South America will cost. Borrow dad's bike and head out. The bank manager is surprisingly nice to me - I think the fancy embossed offer letter may have helped. She explains the features of my graduate account and runs through options for loans and so forth. Leave the bank, adding up various figures in my head, and pondering London living costs. Head along to Icon to have them look at my hair in preparation for the fashion show next week, only to be told the manager isn't around and can I come back some other time.

Home again. Make some food, burger in a pitta with fried onions. Realise I don't know how to get to my photography class in the evening and try calling for directions only for the phone to ring and ring or me to get the busy tone. Try and figure out where I would need to get off using multimap and the bus timetable. Feel guilty about the lack of concrete action regarding my writing project and try to bite the bullet by at least writing a review.

Grab my stuff and head out to catch the bus to my photography class. Wait at the bus stop for ages. Notice how bad some drivers are – its rush hour and the roads are very congested. There is a bus lane that starts after the junction. Some people end up in the bus lane, perhaps after turning. Some drivers then block the bus lane for ages, preventing the buses from reaching the stop 20 meters away, as they try to switch out of it. It seems a bit illogical to me – the bus lane is intended to allow the buses to move faster, but if people block the lane trying to leave they defeat the point. It seems that it would be far better for them just to keep going for a little bit until they can move out more easily rather than stopping dead and causing a jam behind them. Others block the junction as they try to get across it but jams ahead prevent them from moving out of the way of incoming traffic.

Finally my bus comes, so much for every 10 minutes. I’m not quite sure where to get off, and the bus driver hasn’t heard of where the receptionist at the centre (she eventually rang me back) tells me to ask for. Luckily some of the other passengers know the area and with their help the driver is able to sell me the right ticket. Watch the people on the bus. A woman who I think has just finished a shift at the hospital asks a young man sitting down if she can have his seat. He obliges and they spend the rest of the journey in conversation, even moving to a seat further back together. A fresher helper has a loud conversation on her mobile, it sounds like someone is telling her good news but I can’t hear enough to work out what it may have been.

Arrive at the centre a few minutes late. Run into another person at reception heading for the same class and walk in with him. The people in the class are younger than I expected – three still at college, a few in their mid to late 20s and one older woman, maybe around 40. The tutor seems a bit of an arty hippy type, with locks. He speaks quite slowly. The class gets off to a slow start as he runs through admin and outlines what we will be doing over the next 10 weeks. Pleasantly surprised to find that we will be learning how to use a dark room and developing our own pictures. I need to make sure that the SLR Michael has found for me works since our homework for this week is to bring a camera next week.

Chat to some of the other students during our break. The guy I walked in with works in marketing at Coors, another girl is doing a geography PhD at Nottingham. Hopefully we will all bond, and enjoy being terribly arty together as we ooh and aah at each others pictures.

Wait in the cold for my bus home. Get in, and cook some vegetables to go with the rice my mum has made. Saul calls. I ring him back after I finish eating. Chat to him for around an hour about this that and t’other. Head back upstairs. Bum around on the computer for a little while and then off to bed.

Room Leeds

Purple curtains, light and airy restaurant, cool jazz, attractive waiters. The Room to ourselves. Deconstructed Sunday brunch. Eggs Benedict on a white oblong plate, artistically drizzled with yellow hollandaise sauce. Perfectly poached eggs, whites looking like well formed plastic, orange yolk oozing, wilted greens, all on crispy toast. Taste: delicious. Except for salty sauce - chef with a twitch perhaps?