Swanpillows speaks

start reading if you dare…
and you might want to get comfy.. its like an old fashioned slide show of our recent trip to America.

off we go..

ok, we didn’t really pull the camera out until a few days into the trip.. when we were on our way to Kalamazoo with my uncle mark (see below).  He had a meeting there and we hitched a ride to Detroit to catch a flight to DC.  Here is mark, (the only picture of him with his collar on - he’s a priest), matthew and I trying to figure out this weird-ass pay-for-your-parking system.  seriously confusing and ineffective I would imagine.

And one of many photos of the Matthew and i…

Here we are, before stopping in Detroit for the night, at the farm where emily teaches horse-riding.  Those are some of her horses in the background.

Here is me with one of her horses.. unfortunately I cannot remember its name.  We seem to have matching manes though.

and matthew…

Emily in her natural habitat…

Matthew in Emily’s natural habitat…

Now we’re in DC, and Elizabeth is at work.. Jeremy takes Matthew and I exploring for a couple of days.. this is us, exhausted by the heat, and we’ve only just left Diane’s house (Diane is Jeremy’s mom).  Note, of course, the McCain poster in this yard…

Matthew and Jeremy.. looking like two cool dudes.. looks like they should have a soundtrack here or something..

This is at a fountain betwen the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.. there was one for each state and I just had to pose..

Matthew also poses..

Jeremy gives us our very own souvenier of the Licoln Memorial - as seen in the background.  (for those of you not acquainted with American mondey.. this is a one-cent coin.  it has the lincoln memorial on it)

Reaching the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.. gosh it was hot. 

This is me messing with an effect on my camera.. so you can see inside the memorial but can’t see the people and things on the steps outside.

Jeremy must have said something funny here..

It really does look like that..

and like this..

Its also very big.

Jeremy chillin with Einstien.

Outside the whitehouse.  Looking suspicious I might add.

Two men posing as secret service agents.  Turns out they were there for some fashion shoot, but people kept coming and getting their pictures taken with them.  as seen here.

And this was the model they posed behind.  Leopard skin. wow.

Me and Mr. Bush’s house.

the rest of the crew..

We were allowed to take pictures in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Outside one of the museums..

Jeremy is a recent graduate from Law School.  That’s the Capital building behind him.  (see Schoolhouse rock: I’m just a bill, sitting here on capital hill…)

The streets of DC.

And our last night in DC, we had a very lovely evening in the Tikki room of a bar called Madam’s Organ.  The Tikki room was on the roof of the bar.. and the local area is called Adam’s Morgan (hence, Madam’s Organ, ahem.)  We were all so hot, tired, exhausted, and cranky.. but once we chilled out, it was one of the highlights of my trip.

the other lovely couple.

Sisters, Sisters.. never were there such devoted sisters…

And here, on our sad journey to the airport via the Metro.  Notice all four of us are in this picture.. with Elizabeth and I in the reflection.

Back in Michigan, at Ben’s graduation party.  Here’s the grandparents and Aunt Leigh sitting outside at the barbeque.

It was also father’s day.. and Grandpa got a little something..

From right to left.. Grandma, Ben (the graduate!), Aunt Leigh, and Jeremy (Emily’s other half)

Grandma and my man.

Emily and her man.

My mom and dad (her man).

Dad and Jonathan Fegel busking in downtown Holland.

Matthew filming..

Further downtown, our banners were on display!  These are some paintings Matthew and I made whilst in America last - commissioned by the Holland Area Arts Council, they are hung up downtown during non-Tulip Time.  Here is Matthew’s dutch take on American Gothic.

And here is my Birth of Venus (with a dutch hat on) - both of our banners are now slightly battered, with noticeable peeling on both sides.. we think they probably weren’t stored that well.  Shame they didn’t simply use the originals to make banners.  As it is, the original paintings are getting destroyed.

Me outside of the Everyday People Cafe - my favourite restaurant. About 7 years ago, I was their first in-house pastry chef.  Matthew and I had a nice lunch here and they were still serving a dessert which I introduced to them when I started - a lovely creme brulee on puff pastry in a raspberry sauce.  Not that I’m bragging, but I saw on a magazing clipping inside the restaurant that they call this their signature dessert! hehe.  of course I didin’t make it up myself.. I got it from the french chef I worked with in New Orleans.  I didn’t speak to the owners or anything while I was there.. but I did see them and the business seems to be going strong.  and of course the food was good.

On Lake Michigan…

Matthew particularly likes this shot with the shoes… hehe.

and he didn’t want me to put this picture up.. but I thought I looked quite nice in it. hehe.

Here was a deer that came close to assaulting us on the way back to the car… It stomped its feet as we took pictures and walked past.

we like it.

Matthew was looking forward to his Kilwin’s mint chocolate chip… yummm. in Saugatuck.

Back at the house with the parents - taking pictures with my new camera now…

And now here are several pictures from my dad’s gig at Saugatuck’s Corner Bar on the last night we were there.  I guess my dad and his musician friend, jonathan were not very happy with the atmosphere and all at the gig, but I know I enjoyed it.

And.. i took some pictures of our trip to the airport, but they just make me too sad, so I’m not going to post them.  Instead, I’m posting this sad looking loaf of cinnamon bread.  My mom told me it would get ridiculously squashed in my suitcase, and.. of course she was right.  heh.  I’ve stopped eating it now. its just too dense. But in a way.. it sorta looks like I’ve been feeling this week, just depressed.

I’ve had a really lovely holiday, and I know its hard to come back from any holiday.. two weeks of not getting up at 6:30 in the morning.. and all that, but I found it really really hard to say goodbye to my family this time.  I think this must be because there was such a long gap since I had seen them last.. and I worry that it will be another long gap.  But of course I will not let this happen.  I also feel terribly guilty and stupid for having moved so far from home sometimes.  Why couldn’t my dream have been less far away? or at least lead to earning a bit more money.. heh.

Anyway, its late now.. I just wanted to get all those pictures on and write a little.  I’ll moan a bit more about being away from my family later on.. heh.

x 

I’ve been meaning to post a list of resemblances…
I’m always looking at people and saying, hey that reminds me of so-and-so..
Unfortunately, this Alan Sugar - Papa Smurf doesn’t work as well as I would like.. maybe its the mannerisms.. thought I couldn’t seem to find a single picture of Alan Sugar smiling.. or a single picture of Papa Smurf NOT smiling. heh.

And of course there’s always the scary resemblance between Eddie Izzard and the singer, Pink:

I can’t seem to think of any others at the moment.. but rest assured I will post them when they come into my head…

In more normal news..

Well, i say normal.. Matthew and I have made a last minute decision to go to America in like a week’s time! We were going to plan a week in Cornwall (southwest England), then I found some amazing flight deals to go to Venice (£40 return for both of us!). In any case, we decided that if we were going to spend several hundred to do either of those holidays for a week, we should consider going to Michigan.. I know I’ve been going on for a while now about visiting my brother in California and my sister in DC on my next trip, but it seems this is just too unrealistic - I simply cannot afford it. So, rather, than postpone my trip for a year, we decided to go just to Michigan for a couple of weeks. We’ve put it on my handy-dandy 0% interest for 12 months credit card. I was trying to book something for July, and then realised we could save about £400 if we booked it for June instead.. this was on Monday.. its now Thursday and we have just 9 days before we leave!

So… that’s pretty exciting, right?

I keep thinking of things I want to buy in america.. heh. the dollar is very weak against the pound at the moment.. and everything is so ungodly expensive here. …and of course I keep thinking about how nice it will be to see my family.. I think this must be the longest i’ve been away from them. This is part of the reason we decided to not wait till next year. I’ve been quite frustrated that it hasn’t been within my power to visit.

Anyway, so that’s the news…

x

(we’ll be flying on one of these)

So, its been just over a month since I’ve been to London..
Matthew and I will be heading to london on Saturday.. and I just can’t wait for this weekend to come. Its a bank holiday weekend here in England this weekend - this means we all have Monday off.

And.. we were going to plan some fabulous weekend away to the Isle of Wight

or something, but alas, we decided to be sensible and pay attention to the fact that we cannot actually afford to do this at the moment. sigh. Anyway, we’ll be heading to London on saturday to see the members of A-ha at the Royal albert hall.

Tate Modern is also holding its UBS Weekend thingie this weekend..

free weird activities. I’ve never actually attended this before - when I was working for Tate I didn’t feel like visiting it on my day off… heh. However, Matthew keeps groaning whenever I mention visiting some galleries on Saturday.. so we’ll just see.

I’m also hoping to go to to coast or something this weekend in our new little car.. for the day, maybe get a pub lunch or something..

(many british beaches have pebbles and/or sand like this..)
Anyway, its friday morning - and i’m nearly there..
This week the traffic for some reason has been horrendous!

I’m a little worried about how much the traffic stressed me out this week. On monday (and i’m almost too embarassed to mention this) it took me 2 and a half HOURS to get to work.. it would have only taken me two hours, but after sitting in stop-and-go-highway traffic for an hour on the M25..

(you’ll notice the M25 is the London Orbital - meaning its always a problem!)
..on a bleary Monday morning, i managed to miss my exit to the A1(M),

which meant i got off at the following exit and got lost somewhere called Barnet ()for a half an hour. It is very difficult to describe exactly how poorly sign-posted some areas can be in England… you’ll have a map in front of you that says the A312 or some such road should be off to your left soon.. and you pass a road to your left, but there’s no mention of what the name of the road is.. only that some little town called Frith is two miles in that direction.. thus you miss your turning, and… not like in america where every road you take is in a straight line and you can simply take a jog around a block or something - you end up on some twisty turny road for 10 minutes before you see anywhere to turn around or get some sign which tells you you’re now back where you started from.

And another thing l- turning around - isn’t allowed in peoples’ driveways! isn’t that weird? people will actually come out and yell at you if you use their driveway to turn around (not that i’ve had this happen to me yet).

Of course, when i lived in america, i used to complain that i couldn’t get lost if i tried.. out on the country roads by Holland, even these are big grids with numbered streets… And there are lots of things i find delightful about England, but when you’re an hour and fifteen minutes late to work.. lost in some stupid town still 30 miles from work.. it can get so stressful. And I was in such a calm mood to begin with.. all ready for my week ahead. blah. it sorta ruined that.

But, like i said.. now its friday, and i’m very glad of my weekend.

I would just like to state for the record again, that i’ve really been wanting to come and visit everyone (family) for a while now… and its coming up to 2 and a half years now since I’ve been back to see everyone.. I’m finding it very frustrating that I don’t have enough money to make this trip. I am also finding it frustrating that my parents cannot come to visit me because they’re spending oodles every month simply covering my student loan… blah blah money blah. Anyway, I’ve been thinking about everyone alot lately.. i really want to visit the California Jenkins, i really want to see Elizabeth and Jeremy in DC, and of course I want to visit all the Jenkins’ and Hatch’s in Michigan.. and if you add up all those extra flights and things.. its alot to save for. blah.

Speaking of loans.. the latest This American Life was really interesting (I say the latest - the latest NEW episode - they seem to just air repeats while they devote their time to their tv show, heh) - Anyway, this episode was about the whole ‘housing market crash’ that’s affecting america and the rest of the world.. and basically what started it, how it happened, and stuff.

Anyway. i’ve been doing some of this waiting for some software to install at work.. and i gotta get back to doing stuff now!

x

So, the last week or so has been really lovely here in england.

You’ll notice I don’t say this much.. usually the weather does a little bit of this, a little bit of that.. alot of drizzle and its been a long, cold, nothing-y sorta wintery time for a while now.  So we’ve been taking my nice little car out on lots of trips… to car boots, and last weekend we went to Whipsnade zoo!

We saw…

’s

’s
and
’s

oh my!

heh.

Whipsnade is part of the ZSL - zoological society of london - in conjunction with the London zoo.
I’ve sent off for a year long membership! yay! (ok, i’ve actually only filled out the form.. and its sitting on table ready to send.  I cant really afford to do it now.. but its such a good deal, and if you do soon after visiting, you get to subtract the amount you paid on your visit - ahem. £17 per person! but we also used a fancy coupon we learned about from Martin’s Moneysavingexpert website: )

Anyway.. we’re off to Verwood this weekend - to visit matthew’s friend Doug and his girlfriend Marzena.  They recently moved down there and we haven’t seen their place yet!  I’d elaborate.. but its past nine and i must get to work!

x

Well, I thought I should write to let you all know how things have been.. I’ve had my last day at the Tate and a whole week now at my new job.

On the evening of my last day at the Tate I went out for drinks with my co-workers, and we had a lovely time.. It was also George’s 30th birthday, and, though he was feeling a bit ill he came out which was, of course, very nice.  Here is the invite he made for the event:

In the end, we ended up with quite a small crowd, but it was a very nice crowd.. We had drinks at the Royal Festival Hall and moved on to the Giraffe restaurant nearby (had a yummy burrito and fabulous drink called the silk stocking).  My co-workers (or should I say ex-co-workers) also got me a bunch of leaving presents which were really sweet:
Kirby: King of Comics

I think I was supposed to be a bit sad because I was leaving, but I found that I wasn’t sad at all.  Of course I will miss the friends I have made.. but its not like I won’t see them again.. I have asked to be invited to future get-togethers and things.. and they’re only in London!  If anything, leaving my recent job has been like a weight off my shoulders.. I have only had one anxiety dream about the job since I left.

This is probably because I know that the people covering my position will still be dealing with all the stresses and annoyances which made me leave.  I made many suggestions about how my role could be improved (in such a way that people wouldn’t feel the need to pull their hair out and quit) - but I am not convinced that the organisation will be able to make any changes at all.. which leads me to discuss the refreshing change of scenary that is my new job…

As you know, my new job is with Brora, who produces scottish cashmere.. and my new title is Creative Artworker (which sounds very nice indeed).  I have to say, that in the weeks leading up to my new job, I was more concerned with wrapping things up at the Tate and thinking about my new commute (by car) than with the actual work I would be doing in my new job.  I also (as you will know if you’ve read any of my other posts) obtained my british driving license and bought a car in the last month.. not easy things to accomplish here within a month.

My commute is pretty ok - the drive should take me 45 minutes, but takes approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes.. or an hour.. its still quite changeable, but I only managed 45 minutes once - that was monday on the way home from work.  But monday, on the way to work - it took me an hour and a half!  I started out taking the route suggested by google maps and multimap, but this seems to involve taking three highway-like roads (two dual carriageways and a motorway - all 70mph roads).

I managed to find a slightly better route.. I am not quite sure if it takes me less time, but its a bit more pleasant and cuts out one of those dual carriageways… and, since the bit that I really don’t enjoy on my commute is the changing from one big road to another - this helps.  ‘Changing from one big road to another’ in this country involves massive five lane roundabouts with lots of confusing signage to direct me to Stansted and Heathrow airports.. and I’m always having to work out where to go at short notice - and of course everyone around me commutes daily and already knows where they’re going.. heh, with little patience for me.

Of course all this will become easier - it already is a lot easier than it was on Monday.  I’m already feeling my normal, comfortable driving-self again.. (no longer terrified of driving on british roads).

Anyway - the job, itself at Brora is pretty cool so far.  My new co-workers seem friendly, clever, and open to my input which is really nice.  I already feel like I am being taken more seriously - treated more like an adult.. and will be able to make a real difference in my new job (things seriously lacking from my previous position).  Its quite funny going from a fine art environment to a commercial, fashion based industry.  I don’t feel like a fashion sort of person.. but fortunately, this doesn’t seem to matter.  Still, its funny to spend my day playing with pretty images of models instead of paintings..

They are sending me up to Scotland on Wednesday, as well which is exciting!

(Berwick-on-Tweed where the factory is)
I get to see where and how the cashmere is made.. and i love that sort of stuff.. ever since seeing how crayola makes crayons on Sesame Street when I was little.. I love finding out how things are made and how they work.

Youtube of crayon factory on Sesame Street
And they have also brought me a fabulous brand new Mac to use… its causing a bit of computer-envy around the office which is a little awkward, but I guess it alright.

its terribly beautiful.. a huge screen and no separate CPU.
I’ve already brought my new speakers to work.. so we’ve got amazing sound now too.  I’m very glad that my new co-workers also need music to work…

Anyway, I’m getting used to using a Mac again.. and getting used to using InDesign now instead of QuarkXpress.  I already have my two new co-workers added as friends on Facebook.. I think we’re going to get along very well.  It’s all going terribly well indeed.

Th-th-that’s all for now folks.

First, I’d like to say thanks to all my family members who commented on my last post… its so nice to get messages from all of you!  I know you all know how much I’ve been wanting a car… hehe.   Though - it has been nice feeling all environmentally sound and holy…

it wasn’t really for the right reasons.  I would have gotten a car years ago if I had had the opportunity.  But almost 6 and a half years without a car… I like to think its helped things a little.

So its my last week here at the Tate.  I have some mixed feelings, but I won’t bore you with any more complaints about my job here.  I tested my new job route to work on Sunday - starting at about 5 in the evening, after I’d been out driving around for fun all day.. probably wasn’t the best idea, really.  The trip there took 45 minutes and consists of driving on two dual-carriageways and one motorway.. For those of you in America, I will try to translate - though… i couldn’t really tell you the difference exactly between a motorway and a dual carriageway, they’re both basically like highways - and you go 70mph on them.  So, not really a scenic, leisurely drive for my commute.. and of course England is not built on a grid system… so my path is by no means a straight line.. heh.

So you see… from A to B is a bit silly.. but its 70mph almost the whole way
You may notice High Wycombe is down in the left corner there… and most of Matthew’s family is located in High Wycombe.. and some in a few other places around.. but being in Chesham at the moment - we’re actually further East than any of them.. so we don’t exactly want to move even further east, but we are contemplating moving within the next 5 months or so.. we just need to keep my commute in mind as well as Matthew’s need for public transport.

And now for something completely different…

The Third Coast Audio Festival is holding another competition of sorts.. where they invite people to contribute short audio pieces, based around certain themes with certain restrictions.. The new one is quite interesting: Radio Ephemera
I always intend to enter these things.. but I find working with audio a bit tedious.. and i never actually sit down and do it.. I was brainstorming ideas on the way in to work today, and I definitely have some ideas, and I’d love to submit something.  I’m just so visual.. I can’t really mess with sound unless it is presented to me in a visual way…

Anyway, th-th-that’s all folks for now.

x

Drumroll please…

that’s right - i’ve actually bought myself a car
please meet, Ziggy:

Ziggy is a 2000 Ford KA, with approximately 74,000 miles.
a smooth ride…. and includes cd player, yay!

Ziggy and the proud new owner…

Well, i’ve just been online for like 2 hours solid trying to work out what the best insurance deal will be for me… heh. 

I’ve finally settled on one of these silly women-only brands, but i’ve opted for all the nice extras - comprehensive cover, with breakdown and legal cover, as well as a courtesy car and extra personal insurance.

phew.  I need to go eat some dinner.

i’m sure you’ll all rest easier tonight knowing that i have a car…heh.  This means that within the last month, i have gotten a new job, quit my old job, passed my driving theory test, passed my driving practical test and bought a car.  I think we’ll be headed to a car boot tomorrow.. i think i’ll have a glass of wine now to celebrate Ziggy’s maiden voyage.

oh, i haven’t explained how the name Ziggy came about… the colour of this car is stated on its documents as ‘moondust’ and Ziggy sprung to mind. 

also a weird big brother celebrity spotting incident which coincidenced with the purchase of this car, someone who was on the same big brother as the recent Ziggy. 

but its all a bit too complicated and unimportant to explain - just a bit serendipitous (sp?). 

x

You’ve got just under 2 hours to vote for my friend, Biggi and her art performance on the Fierce Festival!

Due to some confusion about the effectiveness of voting from work (we’re all under the same IP address) - she’s not had nearly the amount of votes she should have! Please vote now!

http://myfiercefestival.co.uk/vote-now/

(I recommend voting for Whisper in the Yellow category, I Scream Van of Horror in the Red category, and of course Biggi’s Consuming Independence in the Blue Category!)

x

(AMENDMENT: Sorry, i got that wrong - you have untill noon tomorrow GMT)

So,
to continue on with the driving saga… I took my test on Saturday in Leighton Buzzard in the rain, and passed! yay! This is a major relief.

(this is a picture of a girl ripping up her L plate - these are the silly magneting signs you need to put on your car is you are a ‘learner’ driver and haven’t passed your test yet)

I was nervous and everything… but now I don’t have to worry about the goddamn handbrake or shuffling the steering wheel through my hands or any of that. Thank GOD. I will actually feel that I’m driving more safely when I stop paying so much attention to these two things alone. Every time I reach a roundabout, I’m thinking about ten billion things, instead of ‘wait for traffic from your right’ which is really all I should be thinking about. heh.

They do have a system over here where, if you get 6 points on your license within the first 2 years of having your driving license - they make you take the whole damn test over again from scratch. So i’m gonna have to be super careful this doesn’t happen. All offenses seem to start at 3 points. So basically, like speeding twice within the first two years will get your license revoked. Fortunately, i’m not confident enough driving over here to be exceeding the speed limit all the time..

Anyway, i’m sick of talking about that goddamn driving test.

Now i’ll be blogging about trying to find a car. sigh.

The most difficult bit of this seems to be that… in order to buy a used car, i need someone to drive me around to look at them. grrrr. Plus, I need to drag along someone who can help me tell if the car is decent mechanically. I sorta have a couple people I can call on to do these things, but I hate asking.. and they’re in matthew’s family, so basically i’m asking him to ask them.. and then i’ll be coordinating visits by calling places from auto-trader. sigh. i get exhausted just thinking about it. I have found a few nice cars lately.. but I won’t be able to go out till next Saturday probably, so no point looking just yet i suppose. I figure if the car is any good, it wouldn’t still be there in a weeks’ time.

So I’ve taken off this thursday and friday - to sorta clear my head a bit and give me a little breathing space before my new job starts (though it doesnt’ start till the 21st - i’m spending my last week here at work training some people up for my position). …and Matthew has been asked to spend those two days at his father’s house.. cleaning his old house and unpacking all his stuff at the new house. Now, of course, I think this is terribly unfair that the two days I chose to take off.. are the two days matthew has decided to spend at his fathers… and he/we have already spent two and a half of the last 4 weekends at his fathers - moving his stuff… but I’m not allowed to complain apparently. heh.

I guess I’ll just have to do stuff on my own.. though I will probably just end up spending one of the days with matthew and his father - his sister is apparently going to swing by one of the days.. and I’d like to see her and her two lovely daughters. I was thinking of buying some clothes for my new job anyway.. My current job allows me to wear pretty much whatever I want, but I’m not sure this will be the case in my new job. Its funny, there will be lots of changes.. for instance, now I actually have my own ‘office’ with all my stuff and large format printer, etc.. in the new place I believe it will be some sort of open-plan thing. And I have quite a bit of flexibility here - i’m quite independent, and, though I wouldn’t do it - I could probably go off shopping for two hours in the middle of the day without anyone noticing. Today I think i’m going to save all my breaks and have a long lunch - popping over to Tate Modern. I still haven’t seen the Juan Munoz or Man Ray, Duchamp, Picabia exhibitions yet. I have a feeling they will end soon.

I think I also need to go to the Tate Modern shop… and possibly use my 20% discount while I still can…
Lets see.. what else has been happening in the world of sarah..
It snowed! yesterday and today! I had no idea it was going to snow.. and I got up quite late yesterday - but I dashed in the shower and then out the door to quickly get some photographs before it all melted off the trees. I meant to post the pictures on here.. but I just couldn’t be bothered last night. Ended up playing a bit of Starship Titanic instead.

Also - with all my friends wishing me good luck on Saturday - I managed to win £10 on the lottery as well as pass my driving test! I got the ticket just before going on the test. I’ve never won anything like this on the lottery before! I was pretty ‘chuffed’ as they say. So saturday did turn out pretty good for me, really.. passed the test, won £10, and then matthew took me to the lovely Chesham Cottage chinese restaurant at the end of our road - had some mock duck and mock abalone.. along with vegetarian wun tuns. yummmmm.

Anyway, its monday morning and I havent done a thing yet here at work.. funny, i got in extra early this morning.. despite getting a text 20 minutes before leaving the house that said that part of the Metropolitan line was suspended up my end this morning. It all seemed to run smoothly by the time I got there.. extra smooth in fact.

Oh yes, before I forget to mention it on here - matthew and I made it the silly talk show sorta show - Al Murray’s Happy Hour last week, because Queen & Paul Rogers were performing a new song on the show

A friend of mine at work (hi sian!) managed to get us on the guest list! woo hoo! The show was a bit nothing-y heh, but of course Matthew was absolutely thrilled to see Queen - it was the first time they performed one of their new songs with Paul Rogers - they’ll be touring later in the year.. we’ve already got tickets to see them at the 02 arena (formerly the Millenium Dome).

I, myself, am desperate to get some Radiohead tickets for their June concerts.. but can’t quite bring myself to spend the money just now.. what with the car buying and all.. even though I now have an overdraft AND credit card. dangerous!

Another update for you all…

I’ve been struggling with the whole driving thing lately - I believe I’ve pretty much spoken to all of you (all 4 of my readers?) about my disasterous driving lesson.  It basically turned out that there were lots of things I didn’t do correctly.  I was told this does NOT mean I don’t know how to drive.. just that I need to adapt to the british way of driving.  This mainly consists of shuffling your hands on the steering wheel in an inane fashion (instead of hand-over-hand), and using the handbreak every two seconds when you are starting and stopping.  I believe this is not just a sarah thing.. but us Americans don’t use handbrakes much.. and even drivers over here I’m told stop using the handbrake as much and start using hand-over-hand to steer.  But i’ve been informed that these are nasty habits which must be un-learned. heh.

mmm it looks a bit phallic in that picture.. all by itself.
I notice that this says to use ‘in case of emergency’ heh.. this must be the American philosophy.

Anyway, its costing me lots of money and time, but i’ve got loads of hours of lessons booked between now and my test - rebooked for the final time - on Saturday afternoon.

I’ve also just booked a couple of days off next week.  I’m feeling a bit rundown - or more I feel like I’m spinning in circles, my thought flitting from one thing to the next constantly.. finding it hard to relax. 

Plus, I’ve got a few holiday days left to use up within the next three weeks.  Just three weeks left.. that’s right.  I’ve finally received the contract from my new job, and I’ve sent an email querying a few points on it before I sign.  I think the wording is a bit funny on a few points (I won’t get into them here online).  So i’m thinking about this.. but mostly its the driving stuff that’s bogging me down.  I was pretty frustrated after that first lesson where I felt I was being told I needed to re-learn to drive.  Time and money are short in my current situation.  I haven’t been able to sit and browse Auto-trader cause its just not fun anymore.  I’m really hoping I can enjoy driving at some point in the near future again.. i was so looking forward to doing it again. 

So I’m here at my desk… its Monday. I don’t have anything to report which doesnt sorta revolve around my little world.  I’m in the process of trying to hand over my job.. though not to any one person, heh.  That would just make a bit too much sense, so I’m trying to write down lots of procedures and things I had to just learn for myself… to ease the transition for the next person in my role.  I’ve tried to be very honest about the reasons I am leaving and I will be a bit sad to leave - I will miss intelligent, artistic conversation at work.. (Hi George, hi sian!) and of course miss simply being involved in somewhere that’s such an international hub for the artworld.  But i’m pretty convinced my new job will suit me more - even if the environment isn’t so cosmopolitan.  Man, it will be nice not to commute on the trains anymore.. I know people complain about commuting by car, but at least you have a physical bubble around you.. I get so irritable on the trains sometimes.  especially with the older men in long coats with briefcases.. they can be so rude!

(They don’t normally look so jolly… and here in london, the older gentlemen tend to wear shades of tan and brown more than black)

Ah, I lied - I do have something fun to report which has nothing at all to do with me.. from the Drawn! Illustration Blog:

Amazing street art made of plastic bags in New York city… it springs to life when a subway passes underneath with a whooosh!

and here are some videos!

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