Thursday 18 July 2013

Three Good Things

I follow lots of people on Twitter - and the day one of them Liz (@Margot&Barbara) tweeted that she'd done a blog post about 3 good things in her life. It was a really positive life affirming post that made me smile and I said I'd do a post along the same lines too.

My three good things are:

Mr Pops - (if a person can be a thing)  my ever lovely, kind, thoughtful, patient, generous husband who shares my sick sense of humour, love of cameras and photography and cats. We've been together for 17 years and I know it's a cliche but I honestly couldn't imagine life without him. Well I could but I'd rather not as it would be horrid, flat and miserable and no-one else would laugh at my poor taste quips.

I'm part of the Place and Memory Project (details here ) and it is one of the most exciting, interesting things I've ever had the privilege to be part of - I'm learning lots, challenging myself and yesterday I spent 6 hours in the university library reading about the history of my place and its social context.

It was blissful to be in the comparative cold of the Brotherton Library at the University and lovely to be away from tinternet based distractions - and so instead of sitting at home pointlessly clicking refresh I distracted myself with books. Lovely, lovely books. I've mentioned this before but I love the tactile nature of books - their weight, their feel, their smell, their musty spots if they're very old and the delight of discovering someone else's to do list or an old bookmark or best of all a photo in a secondhand book. You don't get that with a kindle - even if it is easier to fit in your bag....

I won't tell you what my place is yet - but all will be revealed soon and one of the chapters of the books I was reading yesterday for research was entitled 'A Celebration of Death' so you can start guessing now where it is...........but also I didn't have the happiest or easiest of times at university so this is a bit of a reclamation for me too and it is feeling so good to overlay old unhappy memories with positive happy new ones.

but as a taster here is a pic from my place - there will be a prize (of no monetary value whatsoever other the glory of being right) for the person who can tell where this is from....



Nicknames/Epithets - I've got a few at the moment, my all time favourite given me by a chum at a party is a 'lens that focuses wrongness', I think he meant it in relation to my sense of humour but as I am also a photographer who really likes taking pictures of urban decay and what have you this pleases me enormously.

I've also been called a low rent Martin Parr - this was in connection to my love of tacky souvenirs and memorabilia and it is tremendously flattering to be mentioned in the same breath as such as skillful and wonderful photographer as Martin Parr. I love his work.

A classmate on the creative writing course I've been going to called me 'Fifty Shades of Graveyard' which really made me chuckle - as a self confessed bit of a goth (albeit one with a penchance for big band swing and the Beach Boys) and a devotee of Hammer Horror, anything macabre and uncanny this sums this part of me up nicely.  He called it me after I told him I'd enrolled on a Skeletal Human Remains Analysis Course at the Museum Discovery Centre as at first he didn't believe me but trust me it was real and it was brilliant, I learnt lots though I remain unable to tell left from right and am rubbish at reassembling pelvises but I got to handle lots of human skulls so I'm a happy woman.

Last night a chum gave me another - 'the Tim Burton of Knitting' after I showed him a kind of mutanty kitten thing I made recently. Tim Burton is one of my favourite film directors - Ed Wood and Frankenweenie are two of my all time favourite films evah!! and I adore knitting - it's a win win combination.

Here is a pic of the kitty and zombie/mummy doll type thing


What are your three good things?

Thursday 11 July 2013

Busy, Busy Busy.....

There are times I love being busy and other times when I think 'stop the world, I want to get off'. Pottering time is essential for me to feel on top of things rather than underneath and overawed by them. Mostly my pottering takes the form of tinternet surfing but I'm hoping to get in the habit of going for a walk pottering - as not only will this be a bit of fresh air and exercise and also an opportunity to look at my locale anew. I don't think familiarity necessarily breeds contempt but I do think it stops you noticing things so I'm hoping if I pop out for a walk each day and if I take my camera with me I'll notice things anew.

I'm also intrigued by the idea of taking a map and directions for one area but using them for somewhere else - and just seeing the route it takes you and what expected and unexpected places it'll take you......