Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Easter update
I haven't updated in a while because I've been blue and not really in the mood. Not to worry though, I still lurk around.
For Catholic/Protestant Easter my uncle and aunt came down to visit from Manchester for three days. They brought a lot of hyper chaos with them, as they always do.
As soon as they left I took a two-week holiday from work to visit home, just in time for Orthodox Easter. (I took all my holiday time of the business year that is ending all at once.) So for the past week and a couple of days I've been in Athens; seeing friends and family, going on bicycle rides with my father, doing a bit of shopping, getting some stuff done.
I even went for a short two-day trip to the island of Hydra. As soon as I get round to fixing them up, I'll share some photos with you. It is a beautiful island (but then again the countryside in Greece is generally very photogenic.)
*Sigh* I am remembering the things that irritate me about Greece - and Athens in particular - but also the things I miss. Mainly I miss the weather, the sea, the more easygoing people, the food.
That's enough for now. I'm still in rather an uncommunicative mood.
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Lying low
I have been rather quiet lately. I have been feeling depressed and uncommunicative. I have been lurking around (mainly in the Klaine fandom) but haven't been up to actually updating.
A friend (the only friend I have in London that I see with any frequency) who has also come over from Greece to look for work is having a bit of a meltdown these days and it's affecting me too. Work is as disorganised and tiring as ever, and I'm still not getting any positive responses from any architecture practices.
Anyway, I am considering trying to sell some of my artwork as greeting cards on the internet, either through etsy or a more card specific site like cafepress. I'm not sure yet if it will actually be worth the effort, especially considering I'm not all that prolific. What do you say?
Do people order cards from the internet?
Yes
No
No Idea
Monday, 13 February 2012
Let it burn
A drive by post to say that tonight I want to cry.
I know, like the rest of you, that politicians are all a backstabbing corrupt lot that you should never never trust, but some things are so big and so important, that you believe that even they can find enough common decency within themselves to do the right thing from time to time.
But no. Last night my country's parliament, yet again, sold off yet another piece of our liberty and our hard-earnered rights as workers and citizens as ransom to the IMF and World Bank. And for what? For a shitty little bailout that will not even cover the whole fucking debt, that can never ever be covered. No matter how much we sell off of our country, our rights, our dignity, our soul. And you know the fucking IMF will demand every last thing from us until they leave us broken and destitute. Isn't that what they did to Argentina? And Poland? And Russia?
They know exactly what the people want. Let's default, let's go bankrupt, let's go back to the drachma. Let's be poor and hungry, but on our own terms. With our rights, and our soul and our country intact. I would rather be poor and free, than poor and enslaved (to the banks, the "free market", the corporations). Damn it, I would rather be poor and free, that well off and enslaved.
So yeah, much as it pains me to say this, because I dearly love my dirty, dingy, ugly Athens, let it burn! I would rather we burn our cities down than let them believe we will take it lying down. If they want to do this, let them do in the old-fashioned way. With terror and torture and murder. Rather than pretend that this is for the good of the people, or that this is in any way democratic or acceptable.
And as I say this, I sincerely hope that our police force and our army eventually side with the people. It's a long shot. It never seems to happen. But one can only hope that this one time can prove to be the exception to the rule.
I know, like the rest of you, that politicians are all a backstabbing corrupt lot that you should never never trust, but some things are so big and so important, that you believe that even they can find enough common decency within themselves to do the right thing from time to time.
But no. Last night my country's parliament, yet again, sold off yet another piece of our liberty and our hard-earnered rights as workers and citizens as ransom to the IMF and World Bank. And for what? For a shitty little bailout that will not even cover the whole fucking debt, that can never ever be covered. No matter how much we sell off of our country, our rights, our dignity, our soul. And you know the fucking IMF will demand every last thing from us until they leave us broken and destitute. Isn't that what they did to Argentina? And Poland? And Russia?
They know exactly what the people want. Let's default, let's go bankrupt, let's go back to the drachma. Let's be poor and hungry, but on our own terms. With our rights, and our soul and our country intact. I would rather be poor and free, than poor and enslaved (to the banks, the "free market", the corporations). Damn it, I would rather be poor and free, that well off and enslaved.
So yeah, much as it pains me to say this, because I dearly love my dirty, dingy, ugly Athens, let it burn! I would rather we burn our cities down than let them believe we will take it lying down. If they want to do this, let them do in the old-fashioned way. With terror and torture and murder. Rather than pretend that this is for the good of the people, or that this is in any way democratic or acceptable.
And as I say this, I sincerely hope that our police force and our army eventually side with the people. It's a long shot. It never seems to happen. But one can only hope that this one time can prove to be the exception to the rule.
Friday, 20 January 2012
A birthday girl
It was my cousin's three-year old daughter's birthday the other day (the one with the strange fixation with me) and I drew her a little cartoonish card. Wanna see it?
Monday, 16 January 2012
Weekend Adventures
As you might, or might not, have noticed, I skipped my art post yesterday. That's because I have had a tiring overwhelming weekend and I needed a break!
My uncle and aunt descended on us from Manchester Friday evening and stayed till Sunday. I love them dearly, and they are possibly the most fun of my living relatives, but they are also very very loud, talkative and tiring. I couldn't take them in large doses!
Friday evening, after they turned us upside down and got my grandmother all flustered, we went out. My crazy uncle decided he wanted to see Fulham Football stadium, just because. He couldn't remember where it was, and his car was knew and he had learned how to properly use his sat-nav yet. You can imagine how it went... We did eventually find it. So we saw it. Closed. At night. In the dark. *sigh* Then we went to eat. At a spur of the moment impulse, we went for persian, which I quite liked - I had eaten persian before - but my grandmother and aunt complained no end about because it wasn't spicy enough for them. (Read: it wasn't indian.)
Saturday after eating a large breakfast and getting a late start, we roamed around the north of Greater London aimlessly. We passed by Wade, St Margaret's, Much Hadham, Harlow and various other places. We tried getting out for a walk by the canal in St Margaret's, but my grandmother complained of the cold and made us give up. We tried to go to the Henry Moore Foundation Sculpture Garden, but obviously found in closed because it was winter. Then we went shopping, because my grandmother insisted we take her to Boots and the supermarket.
In the evening we booked a table at a pub where we met my other aunt (my uncle's - and my mother's - sister) and my cousin's eldest daughter for dinner. My grandmother downed a whiskey mac in one large gulp before dinner, got drunk and proceeded to be very loud, difficult and embarrassing the whole night. She made them take her prawn cocktail back because it was on a plate and not a glass. (I begged the waitress to just plop what was on the plate in a random glass and bring it back for us.) She insisted her roast dinner was awful - and loudly proclaimed it repeatedly to the whole pub - and refused to eat it.
Possibly the most cringeworthy moment, though, was when my uncle, aunt and grandmother started talking loudly about all the mischief the first two got up to as children and teenagers. My uncle and aunt insisted my mother was the goody-two-shoes of the family (which I can totally believe), but my grandmother said she was just as much trouble. And as proof, she said that my mother had once brought home a black boyfriend! And that my grandfather got so angry he drove the boy home! You should have seen the rest of us cringe and look around the pub furtively... On the other hand, I am feeling rather proud of my mother. It was the late sixties, after all, and she lived in the conservative middle-class suburbs.
Sunday we left my grandmother home to get some peace and quiet and went for a long walk through the mud and the countryside by Hilly Fields and Forty Hill. It was a lovely walk, I took plenty of photos, but never got round to downloading them from my camera.
Once we got home, my grandmother was all rejuvenated and was ready to rearrange the dinning room - the room I'm sleeping in -, so I spent all evening going through tons of stuff she has accumulated trying to get rid of rubbish and moving furniture. The room is more spacious now, but we still have some stuff to give away or get rid of. On the other hand, I still don't have anywhere to put my stuff, and it still is in boxes on the floor.
Oof! What a boring long ramble!
My uncle and aunt descended on us from Manchester Friday evening and stayed till Sunday. I love them dearly, and they are possibly the most fun of my living relatives, but they are also very very loud, talkative and tiring. I couldn't take them in large doses!
Friday evening, after they turned us upside down and got my grandmother all flustered, we went out. My crazy uncle decided he wanted to see Fulham Football stadium, just because. He couldn't remember where it was, and his car was knew and he had learned how to properly use his sat-nav yet. You can imagine how it went... We did eventually find it. So we saw it. Closed. At night. In the dark. *sigh* Then we went to eat. At a spur of the moment impulse, we went for persian, which I quite liked - I had eaten persian before - but my grandmother and aunt complained no end about because it wasn't spicy enough for them. (Read: it wasn't indian.)
Saturday after eating a large breakfast and getting a late start, we roamed around the north of Greater London aimlessly. We passed by Wade, St Margaret's, Much Hadham, Harlow and various other places. We tried getting out for a walk by the canal in St Margaret's, but my grandmother complained of the cold and made us give up. We tried to go to the Henry Moore Foundation Sculpture Garden, but obviously found in closed because it was winter. Then we went shopping, because my grandmother insisted we take her to Boots and the supermarket.
In the evening we booked a table at a pub where we met my other aunt (my uncle's - and my mother's - sister) and my cousin's eldest daughter for dinner. My grandmother downed a whiskey mac in one large gulp before dinner, got drunk and proceeded to be very loud, difficult and embarrassing the whole night. She made them take her prawn cocktail back because it was on a plate and not a glass. (I begged the waitress to just plop what was on the plate in a random glass and bring it back for us.) She insisted her roast dinner was awful - and loudly proclaimed it repeatedly to the whole pub - and refused to eat it.
Possibly the most cringeworthy moment, though, was when my uncle, aunt and grandmother started talking loudly about all the mischief the first two got up to as children and teenagers. My uncle and aunt insisted my mother was the goody-two-shoes of the family (which I can totally believe), but my grandmother said she was just as much trouble. And as proof, she said that my mother had once brought home a black boyfriend! And that my grandfather got so angry he drove the boy home! You should have seen the rest of us cringe and look around the pub furtively... On the other hand, I am feeling rather proud of my mother. It was the late sixties, after all, and she lived in the conservative middle-class suburbs.
Sunday we left my grandmother home to get some peace and quiet and went for a long walk through the mud and the countryside by Hilly Fields and Forty Hill. It was a lovely walk, I took plenty of photos, but never got round to downloading them from my camera.
Once we got home, my grandmother was all rejuvenated and was ready to rearrange the dinning room - the room I'm sleeping in -, so I spent all evening going through tons of stuff she has accumulated trying to get rid of rubbish and moving furniture. The room is more spacious now, but we still have some stuff to give away or get rid of. On the other hand, I still don't have anywhere to put my stuff, and it still is in boxes on the floor.
Oof! What a boring long ramble!
Sunday, 8 January 2012
Katy's Angel
This is a piece I drew on Friday for my cousin. She asked me to draw her an angel, and gave very very specific details of how she envisioned her angel. So this is my rendering of her vision. Unfortunately I didn't have time to scan it before I gave it to her and had to take a photo. With dim lighting. Of a watercolour painting. So the colours have turned out much drabber than they were, and no amount of photoshop (and lightroom, yes I pulled out the big guns!) twiddling is helping.
Monday, 2 January 2012
Shopping and Cats
I went shopping today. I was supposed to meet a friend but was blown off, so I ended up walking around London by myself. This is becoming the norm actually. Once you reach my age most of your friends have boyfriends and girlfriends and stop spending time with their single friends opting to do coupley things most of the time.
Anyway. I got two cardigans (I'm getting quite the cardigan fetish) and a t-shirt I didn't really need. I also tried getting myself some new Levis only to find out they have discontinued their old lines - and I loved their 570s! - and their new cuts are rather rubbish. They have fancy names and they measure you for them using some really weird system that I guess is supposed to impress you, but when you get down to it, the cuts are bad.
This morning I realised that I have one last piece of original art that got misplaced. So for today here's a swanky christmas cat in a hat.
Anyway. I got two cardigans (I'm getting quite the cardigan fetish) and a t-shirt I didn't really need. I also tried getting myself some new Levis only to find out they have discontinued their old lines - and I loved their 570s! - and their new cuts are rather rubbish. They have fancy names and they measure you for them using some really weird system that I guess is supposed to impress you, but when you get down to it, the cuts are bad.
This morning I realised that I have one last piece of original art that got misplaced. So for today here's a swanky christmas cat in a hat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)