It's not just Alberta that is turning toxic

Never mind the brief skateboarding ad at the start.

Jeeeeesus Christ

THANK you Mr.Ban

From Upon The Great White Horse

Last time I was in Uffington I didn't end up going here, but I'd been three years ago and never really forgotten about it. The Great White Horse is arguably the site in the area and the view from here is magnificent - or so I'd been told! The day I'd been atop it for the first time, there was an absolutely ludicrous mist covering the countryside and I was denied the view. Thus, during one of the days immediately following my time in Athens, I asked my friends to take me up there again and this time I was much luckier.
The often quoted "they" say that if you stand upon the eye of the horse and make a wish, it might come true. Despite my disbelief in these sorts of things , it was just too amusing an idea not to try.

HUH

"SAM I GOTTA GET BACK TO YOU ON MY SMOKING MOBILE PHONE WHICH IS A MORE EXPENSIVE MODEL THAN OLIVERS, SO I CAN BERATE HIM FOR FUNDS I OBVIOUSLY NEED"

Well, it looks like my contact at Network Rail has reached the end of it's continuously extending ways. July 27th will be my absolute last day inputing railway forms in the dingy borough of Barking.

Okay!

Now job hunting has got to get serious. But, on an encouraging note, not more than a few hours after I learned about the contract....I got an email letting me know that I am long-listed for a job whose listing read thusly: "Junior copywriter required for trailer, TV & Radio commercials, at Soho based creative marketing agency. No experience necessary. Must have passion for writing, movies AND commercials."

I have to write a commerical for coffee, a thirty-second tv spot, and have it in before next Tuesday. If it is suitably marvelous then I will be short-listed, which I can only assume leads to an interview (or perhaps some chav wrestling).

Oh oh oh, last night I was harrassed at bank machine by a homeless man - but it soon became okay because he had to take a call on his mobile phone. I considered being a smartarse and waiting for his call to finish so he could resume badgering me for money, but then I remembered there must be a hundred better uses of my time than arguing with somebody who is clearly on the street either by choice or poor decisions. The mentally ill and genuinly disenfranchised of the homeless population don't buy sodding mobile phones!

Bits and bobs

Well, one splotch of England is pulling it's weight rather well.

Meanwhile the BBC has just dumped a pile of new jobs into the market, BUT they are all open purely to the disabled. Thus I am guessing an affirmative action quota needs to be filled.

Sheesh, anybody feel like pushing me down a flight of stairs?

Addendum: Posterchild's July 10th entry is a hell of a lot more novel and adds a lot more to the community than most street art - check it out! Hell, emulate it!

A few pictures from around Uffington

Athens Roundup

Right, sorry for the last few Athens posts just being picture dumps. Between several distractions and the worry that I might be approaching carpal tunnel syndrome, I've been reluctant to spend a lot of time adding text to them. But then, there isn't a whole heck of a lot to say. I must admit my trip was rather top-ended in interesting things to mention. The cruise was fun, but I became rather closely acquainted with the phrase "monotonous beauty" after hours and hours of the same gorgeous imagery of blue waters, islands, little villages...Day three I left unstructured and used to spend a few hours exploring the suburb of Glydfada, where I had a decent lunch and grabbed a beach towel for use at one of Glydfada's many, many beaches. I was tempted to try and see if I had the chutzpah for one of the nude beaches I'd heard about - thinking back to the brave, bareback bikers. But it's probably for the best that I didn't find them, since I couldn't even muster the chutzpah to ask a stranger "EXCUSE ME, WHERE ARE THE BEACHES WHERE THE CLOTHES ARE OPTIONAL?". Sorry, Athens, you lost out on a sight to last the ages!In the evening I mostly enjoyed pottering around the streets of Pelaka, the cafe and shopping district which lay along the North-Eastern side of the Acropolis. By this point I'd basically stopped using my camera as I felt like I'd seen more of Athens through it's viewfinder than my own eyes. As I suspected might be the case, my new memory card led to me taking a few hundred photographs in the first two days...by the third I needed a break, lest picture-taking become a compulsion. It was during these wanderings that I found that print shop which united me with the cold, warm, loving, hating eyes of Triplex. The kind of aimless city wandering I enjoy doesn't generally make for great stories though, sorry!
During what time I had during my last day before I had to catch my flight, I toddled around the National Gardens a bit and bumped into a bird house which I hadn't seen before. Later I went to take the tube back to the airport. At first I was stunned at how clean it was. More so than Toronto or Montreal's systems and certainly lightyears ahead of...oh, say Baker Street Tube Station in London - which I swear still has coal dust from the Victorian era on it (that might not be hyperbole!). It looked a bit like what 1960's futurists envisioned rail systems of the mysterious year 1999 to look like. In stark contrast to all this was the section which doubled as a small museum, seen in the last photo of my previous Athens post. In the far backdrop you can see where they allow you to see a cutaway of the earth which is marked with all the different era's of Athens ancient history as you go deeperthrough the layers.
Flying over the Alps I went back into ultra-tourist mode and took several pictures as we passed that famous landscape - which you've been browsing while reading this post. After a quick stop in Zurich where I bought some duty-free Swiss chocolate and quickly hopped back on to come on back to good old London. That last photo, which is a bit fuzzy (sorry), is of Hyde and St.James park.

All in all the Athens leg of my vacation was very novel, but I found myself kind of just wanting to get home near the end. I suppose it had been so long since I'd experience extreme heat for several days running that I forgot how much I didn't like it! Plus it really is a city for couples or large groups, not a lot is there to accommodate the lone traveller. I might go back again, but not on my own and not before seeing a lot of other places first. The next time I have a bit of cash to spare I'm going to hop over to Paris for a weekend, I think. Looking back over the week, I think I may have taken more from the second leg of my vaction - my return to Uffington.

My admiration for those who use Wacom tablets...

...just went up about 300%. Yesterday John helped me get my computer to finally recognize my lil' tablet, so today I've been doodling with it and generally trying to get the feel. I find it's best not to look at the tablet at all and I think I'll get to the point where my tablet drawing is about as good as my pen & paper drawing in another day or two. But these first few experiments keep bringing me back to falling on my ass while trying to learn how to snowboard for the first time...