half term

Sam finished his SATs a couple of weeks ago, so let him have day off school to come and watch his friend's sister KM in Billy Elliot. About 15 of us went and had fantastic seats. What a show! The kid playing Billy was absolutely amazing - so much energy and talent. Sam was on the edge of his seat (so was I!) and came away really inspired. Need to check out 'Billy School'!

Then half term was upon us. Seemed to go so quickly and can't really think what we did. Spent a lot of time at home in the garden enjoying the beautiful weather. It was the village fayre on Monday and I helped out on the Scouts stall. - the boozy tombola - that seemed very popular with 16-year-olds! Hmmm! One of the highs of the week was rainy Wednesday when Sam and I went to see Coraline - amazing 3D animation, amazing story, weirdly dark - just my cup of tea.

Sam spent loads of time in the shed with his music making. He has started to upload to Dope Tracks http://www.dopetracks.com/profile/sjkoolboy. I love the idea of being able to share your music this way and that people can access it to rap over - but not too sure about his 'fans', the language they use and the discussions they are entering into. Wondered if there was scope here to follow this as some kind of research project. Need to give this a bit more thought.

DFSA has got the gallery for the Summer Show and, wow, it looks good. Private View on Thursday was great fun but too busy chatting to look at other courses so returned on Saturday for another look.

Florida

We made this video at Epcot on a ride. We spent 6 days in Disney World:

Then  we went to New Smyrna Beach - my favourite part of the holiday...

         more photos to follow....

so much to blog about...

I don't know where to start...

First - the job - all fine with my 0.5 on DFSA but everything around me is changing. KR has become a Professor, LW has had her full time post reduced to 0.6 and SL, the course leader, has to have a second interview for his own job. The animation team have gone on management courses! So goodness knows where or when we will have some clue about how the course will shape up in the future.

Secondly - the school project. I will be finishing printing with Y5 tomorrow. They have made some lovely images that don't seem to duplicate those made by Y6 too much. There will be plenty of variety in the outcome. I have put together some A0 grids of 16 images and I am getting quotes to print and mount eight of these to construct the final image wall. Work with Y4 begins after Easter, but I may have to ask Luke to deliver the introductory presentation as I will be in Florida...

Which brings me on to the final bloggable item. Holiday. Yippee! We just booked a cheap fly/drive to Orlando. Disney World here we come. I swore I wouldn't go again after visiting the Paris one a couple of years ago. I hate the artificial, consumer driven, tackiness of the whole experience. But the kids (and Mark?) love it. I look forward to chilling by the beach for the second week.

And one more thing to add... Google found our old friend Alexis S for us! She owns a cafe that sounds incredibly cool, hip and trendy in Miami http://www.lunastarcafe.com/ Hope we get to visit or meet up with her.

half term break - for school anyway!

As usual I had to work during half term but did manage to get a few days of fun with the kids. On Wednesday I took A to see The Sound Of Music, Thursday we had a lazy day and Friday we went for a walk with friends in the forest in the lovely sunshine. I found out that Monday 23rd was an inset day - shock horror! Great to have such good friends that helped out with the children as again, I had to work.

Saturday was a gardening day. We dug the vegetable patch and started to plan what we will grow this year. Tried to get the kids interested in it but with no luck. So much for family fun with the Farnham Food Initiative... I would love to join but only if the whole family was up for it. Can't seem to persuade them in the pleasures of growing our own... if it was cocoa beans to make chocolate - that would be another matter!

On Sunday we went to London - skateboarding on Portabello Rd, farmers' market at Salusbury School, Queens Park and Camden Market. A has a t-shirt from cyperpunk shop - Dog Save The Queen.

freeeeezing weather

University closed. School closed. Road into Rowledge impassable, blocked with skidded cars that can't get up the hill. That's our last two days. But what fun we've had in the deepest snow I've seen for ages. They say it was like this in 1991 but I reckon Mark and I were in India or somewhere because I don't remember it. We have built snowmen, been sledging, spent far too long in the pub, walked in the forest, had log fires and generally chilled out. It's so strange to have a couple of unexpected days with the family and no plans to do chores, visits or whatever. It is almost better than a holiday!

I'm a bit worried about the students losing a couple of days lectures but I am sure we will make up time somewhere down the line and I have been posting announcements into Blackboard that I hope they will read and act on - including a project to make a photograph a snowman!

the last 2 months....

I can't believe I haven't written anything since 8th November. A friend and I were walking near Frensham Pond last week and she mentioned she had found my blog! Didn't think anyone read it so that was bit of a shock... and a wake up call to get a bit more active in here. 

We had flu round the family twice before Christmas so that knocked us out a bit. Now we have finally finished our family festivities - starting with Sam's birthday party at the beginning of December and Amelia and Mark both in last 10 days, with Christmas and New Year sandwiched in the middle. The season of cake, cake and more cake and a rapidly expanding waistline! 

Exposures meeting with Goldsmiths just before Christmas was cancelled because all the staff had flu so Grace and I are finally taking the archive to the library this Tuesday. I started the 'my school' project on Wednesday with a Y2 DFSA student, Luke, assisting. I have also applied for a teaching fellowship at UCA as the project seems to fit the bill for such an award.  It should help the University to further its Widening Participation Scheme and will further my own research objectives of wanting to make work with the local community, particularly in terms of trying to establish creative projects with young people. I should know whether I have been successful by the end of next week. 

more pictures from paris

daniel's appartmentout the window and over the rooftopsthe thinker lost in thoughtan eiffle of the seine

delicious pastriesxxxxxxx

I love my phone

When I'm at home I have a picture of Big Ben on my phone, when I can't get a signal there is green fields, when I was in Crete there was a picture of the Acropolis - and look what I got in Paris!!

paris

Spent last weekend in Paris with old pal Pauline and staying with mutual friend Daniel. What a wonderful time we had. Daniel's amazing appartment is very central, near Bastille, so we did loads of walking, visiting the Rodin Museum, Pompidou Centre, and taking in the sights. We were also lucky to see the Melies - the Magician Of Cinema exhibition at The Cinematheque Francaise - a great opportunity to catch up on the work of a pioneer in special FX that I previously knew little about. Popped along to visit the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde in the amazing Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise. Add to that some wonderful food and wine together with tasty cake and foot baths provided by our host - a real treat! Pauline and I are already planning to get away to the Venice Biennale next year...

kalives, crete

Flew back from a wonderful break in Crete on Tuesday evening (already it feels like the distant past). I had forgotten that it is actually possible to have a relaxing holiday. I guess Amelia has finally reached the age where things get a bit easier so that is part of it. But just to be somewhere with no rain, a pool just a leap from the door and beautiful views across the Souda bay. Wow! It was glorious. Mark and the children played in the pool most mornings while I was able to sit in the sun and read, snack lunch, trip in the afternoon (beach, mountains, lake, Chania etc) and then dinner in a taverna each evening. I've put on nearly half a stone.

mother ivey's bay

Back from camping in gales and torrential rain. I had about 3 hours sleep each night with the tent flapping keeping me awake. We had a couple of sunnyish days on the beach so I suppose that makes it all worthwhile. It took up a day to pack up the car, half a day to pitch, half a day to pack away and probably more than a day to work through the laundry mountain when we got home, so not particulary effective use of our holiday time. No wonder I have lost my voice from exhaustion. I think Sam and Amelia enjoyed themselves in the main, but think they were a bit fed up with all the stress the weather and sheer hard work caused us.

It was lovely to see our friends Liz, Mike and the boys there who told us about Mother Ivey's years ago. Liz has been holidaying there since her childhood. They were in a caravan and kindly froze the freezer blocks for us each day. Also caught up with Ann who has just recently moved to Perren Porth. What a lovely creative home she has there. My kids asked question after question about all her wonderful arty things: masks, paintings, puppets and so on. Good luck to her with her wonderful paintings - particularly enjoyed the surfing hares!