The 30 Day November Photo Challenge

So in an effort to be more creative in my life I am undertaking The 30 Day November Photo Challenge! This challenge is posed by a photographer named Michelle who I once met at a craft event and whose blog I have been following. You can see her work here: http://mycreativephotography.co.uk/

The challenge is:

I am very excited to be using my camera regularly again and now that I have an IPad too (yes! I am now one of the technology advanced), I thought I might try with some photos from that too.

Back to the World of the Living on the Night of the Undead

The last few months have been hellish. September is always one of the busiest periods for me in my job, but this year the beginning of term was extra crazy, with my colleagues and I working well into the evening without breaks or even meals. My husband is also been working extra hard and the strain of such an effort is starting to show. Stress is one of those things that actually does not always really affect you at the time of a crisis or busy period but then a couple weeks or months later you start feel fatigue, sluggish, unwell and emotionally messy. The work schedule of September and a summer full of stressful family obligations ended with October being a month of colds, flu, general tiredness and long bouts of sleep followed by sleeplessness which I can only describe as 'burn out.' I suppose the only lucky aspect of the whole situation was that both my husband and I suffered from the 'burn out' at the same time and so we have spent the rest of October recuperating and taking it easy. I am emerging from the funk and taking a much more philosophical approach to work. As one close friend of mine said to me recently, 'The job is replaceable. You are not.'
My husband is taking a little longer to return to normal life, he still very tired (he attended three political conferences and worked for around 26 days straight with only two days break), but even he is starting to smile again and feel more relaxed. 'Never again' he says and I agree with him.

It does make me wonder about the nature of our modern lives and the stress that its causes us. Most of my friends have or are still suffering from long-term stress at some point during this year. The single friends I have are stressed about not having a partner and the married ones are stressed about the expense of children. The friends who hate their jobs are miserable and the friends that love their jobs are worried about being made redundant during the recession and so working much harder than they should. And all of us, well most of us, are totally and utterly disillusioned about the idea of ever being able to own our own home. Perhaps we are the generation that entered the world with expectations of life that were far too high? Perhaps we embarked on some big stages of life development (such as career progression, marriage, kids, buying a house) during the wrong economic time and a period of massive technological change that society has not caught up with yet.

Either way, it is up to us individually to change our own lives and more importantly, raise our own spirits when opportunities for change do not immediately present themselves. I have always been a big fan of coping with whatever life sends you. Dolly Parton once said 'The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain'.' Taking to heart words of advice from a woman who has had a fair amount of plastic surgery and opened a theme park called Dollywood might be a bit risky, but her words do ring true. You have to experience the bad in life in order to appreciate the good.

In an effort to claw back some of my life from my job, I have been leaving work on time, visiting friends, attending events, reading books, taking photos and even sending a lot of Halloween cards. This week was of course Halloween! The spookiest night of the year! On Thursday we traveled to The Forum in Kentish Town to see Birdy play live. Birdy is a young singer songwriter who first came to fame two years ago when she was 15 years old and covered a song called 'Skinny Love' (a song originally written by an artist called Bon Iver who composed and recorded the song after a particularly messy breakup from his girlfriend).

Birdy's version was a hit, especially after it was revealed how young she was when she recorded it. Her first album was filled with soulful covers and melancholic, but beautiful tunes. Two years later and she is now 17 and her music has only improved. When we saw her perform live on Thursday, both my husband and I felt that her talent and music will only get better as she matures. She has naturally beautiful voice and despite being very small on stage (she is quite short), it was clear, her lungs were very big. Her new music uses a whole band of instruments and is a lot bigger and more dramatic.

Birdy at Kentish Town Forum - Photo by Dan Massie

Photo by Dan Massie

We had a great time at the concert and I loved hearing the songs that I had been listening to for months, sung live. Her accompanying band were very good too and it was nice to do something fun during the week instead of working and the usual household chores! The Kentish Town Forum is a rather strange venue though. Firstly it is huge and decorated like a massive old victorian music hall, with two bars and big booths at the back of the second level. Most of the venue is seats, except for a section in front of the stage that is for standing audience members only. For this concert it was stuffed with people who sat on almost anything, including some stairs to the emergency exit. Throughout the event people were talking the entire time, including one pair of women behind us who spent the whole night complaining about a mutual friend who was absent and subsequently not able to defend herself against their extended tirade of fury. Audience members were constantly dripping in and out of the hall for drinks, snacks, to find friends, to talk to security (who seemed to be conversing on loud walkie talkies) and as soon as Birdy came on stage a million phone cameras popped up as people tried to take photos from more than 10 meters away. At one point I felt like I was viewing Birdy through a dozen tiny screens as a crowd of people in front of me vainly tried to take a good photo using their IPhones. I felt like saying 'Oh for god's sake, just remember the experience, will you! Stop trying to preserve it with a crappy tiny photo!' The velvet-covered seats proved that even too much of angood thing can be bad for you, as after around 4 hours of music and chatter, our butts started to feel sore and our legs got stiff. I have been to my fair share of gigs, but not to one in a good long while and so I think I forgot how many hours you sit around while the venue does sound checks before each performance, how many people talk over the music and how often you have to queue for the toilet. Perhaps I am getting too old for all of this?

The Kentish Town Forum (and the strangely sore velvet seats) - Photo by Dan Massie.

On the way home at Kentish Town Tube Station, I definitely felt too old. Kentish Town Station is an interesting station because not only was it decorated in plants (planted by TFL staff) but it was also decorated for Halloween. It was also besieged by people in Halloween costumes, most of whom were pretty drunk and all of whom were in their early twenties. There was some ingenious costumes, one woman was dressed in the style of the Mexican Day of the Dead (even with a full made up skeleton face). The escalators down to the platform were being repaired so we all bundled in a big crowd down onto the staircase to march down 177 spiral steps into the dark depths of the Northern Line Tube. After about 50 spiral steps, you start to feel a little dizzy and the group of ornately and creepily dressed drunk youngsters behind me (who were much too excited to be travelling on some stairs - one woman was applying fake blood on to her mouth while skipping down the concrete steps) made me feel all of my 30 years. Ah to be young again!...and drunk and dressed flamboyantly!

In fact I have noticed more adults dressed up for Halloween this year. When I was kid, mostly children dressed up for trick or treating. Adults, especially in the UK, did not seem so bothered. But this year, people went all out. On Friday I counted three dead nurses at Baker Street and on Thursday there was a geisha at Waterloo, two ninjas on the Northern Line, a giraffe and crocodile in Kentish Town and six sexy Vampires, complete with blood and fangs on the Jubilee line. Camden was full of inventive costumes. I always prefer costumes that have shown real originality of thought. Anyone can dress up as a 'sexy witch' or a vampire, but the really creative costumes that require time and effort are the ones that I admire most. Of course all week people on both sides of the Atlantic have been posting photos of themselves in their costumes online. Below are my three favourites:

Game of Thrones style costume - obviously the best part of this getup is the baby dressed as a mini dragon.

A very original costume based on the saying 'When Life gives you Lemons, make Lemonade'

I love this costume simply because I actually fancy making a huge cardboard house and wearing it about.

The Monday Morning Photo

Today's Monday Morning Photo is Autumn Leaves in Wandsworth.

Sweet Potato Falafel...

I have become addicted to Sweet Potato Falafel. They are delicious and they do not only have sweet potato-yummyness in them, but also carrot, chickpea and raisins. I like a good raisin in an semi-savoury dish. You can also have lots of fun with falafel as illustrated below:

Falafel + Bill Clinton Plate = unintentional hilarity. Okay, so slightly intentional positioning of last two falafel.....

Tokyo 2020!

Well done Tokyo! The capital of Japan won the bid to host the Olympics in 2020 last night and there was footage of elated and ecstatic Japanese citizens awake at 5am (Tokyo time) hugging and embracing and crying.

Years ago on 6th July 2005 when London won the bid for the 2012 Olympics, I was not so ecstatic, but I do remember feeling a sense of quivering excitement. I had lived through various Olympics and seen them on TV, but never in my own home city. I was working in a big bookstore in Central London at the time and we announced the news of the win over a large tannoy system and cheers went up throughout the store. Of course the next day four Islamic extremist terrorists boarded tube trains and a bus and killed 52 people and injured hundreds more with suicide bombs in their backpacks. So any jubilation we might have felt as Londoners was quickly replaced with horror and then deep sorrow (and a fair share of anger).

Seven years later, the Olympic Park, Olympic Stadium and other sporting venues throughout London were finally finished and the Olympics in London began with a bang and a fantastic opening ceremony that truly represented our Sceptred Isles. And what a fantastic two weeks it was and then it was followed by an amazing Paralympics! I will never forget watching some of the events I went to see and walking around the amazing Olympic sites and feeling the energy from the volunteers. One of the most memorable moments was sitting in the main Olympic stadium and cheering with 80 thousand people all at once as David Weir crossed the finish line in first place during the Paralympics. The noise was deafening, like engine of jumbo jet suddenly roaring to life, the heat from the Olympic flame was flickering up towards the stands and people were rising to their feet shouting and clapping in excitement. I went silent with surprise. (I often go quiet when I feel overwhelmed or experience sensory overload) My husband laughed at my shocked face and clapped and cheered. 'Look! Look!' He shouted, 'Look, he's done it! He's done it! He's got the gold!' The city felt positive then, we all felt like winners and nobody felt scared anymore.

People in Japan have had their fare share of sorrow in the last few years what with their flagging economy and the earthquake and subsequent nuclear leak in Fukushima and it would be ridiculous to imagine that hosting the Olympics could erase all the pain and solve all their problems. But I can safely say that for those two weeks when the host city is staging the event, everything feels new and possible and the optimism is infectious. So well done Tokyo, get ready for a cultural adventure!

Post August Break Day 21: Something Old

The photo subject for Day 21 was Something Old.
It was a hard challenge, partly because I have so many old things knocking about my flat. Do I photograph the old typewriter I bought from an antiques shop in South London on an impulsive whim? Do I photograph the fossil in a tiny stone that I brought back from Cornwall after a particularly life-changing holiday when my husband proposed to me atop a small cliff? Or do I photograph my collection of old biscuit tins that said husband despairs of me ever getting rid of? How old should I go? I have an 1883 copy of a collection of Keats' poems and I have a Dr Who annual from 1980. The possibilities are endless!

After some serious consideration, I decided to use an object that also reflects the instrument of the challenge, ie. a camera of some kind. So here it is, my photo for the August Break Day 21 - Something Old (including my rather unwilling model):

This old Kodak camera came from the loft of one of my in-laws. The unwilling model was plied with beer to pose with the object. I enjoyed looking at it because it reminded me of my grandfather who worked for Kodak for most if his life. That is the beauty of an old object. It is infused with meaning and memory and can often make you think or reminisce.

August Break Delayed Response...

So I was doing so well with the August Break challenge and then as usual my day job (University Administrator/Communications Officer/Photographer/Social Media expert/Student Agony Aunt) took over and I lost track of the blogging. I have still been taking the photos this whole time, just not posting them online. The last three weeks have been a flurry of work, coming home and eating dinner and then sleeping to try and recover from the 10 hour days at work. I feel just like that Beatles' song 'Hard Day's Night.' It has been a hard days' night and I have been working 'like a dog.'

But this morning I awoke and realised that although I still a heavy month of massive work ahead of me, the main event of Orientation for my new students is done! The sun was shining this morning and I felt all inspired to do something creative. I ate a crumpet with butter for breakfast, had a cup of coffee and sat down and promptly wrote 8 letters to friends and family (complete with decorative envelopes and washi tape) and then decided to attack the blog!

Blogging and snacks go hand in hand. You can't really spill your random thoughts on to a online journal without having a cup of tea to hand and something yummy to eat (normally something sweet). Today my choice of accompanying snack is: Rose Tea infused all butter shortbread and a coffee with milk in my favourite mug.

So now that I am all caffeinated up, I am going to finish the August Break Challenge! Better late than never...

Here is August Break photo no. 20 - Taste.

I wonder if Susannah Conway, when posing this challenge, accidentally included 'taste' twice or she did it deliberately to get bloggers to think about different ways to interpret the word 'taste.' Unfortunately I only really think of one thing when I read 'taste' and that is FOOD. Lots of food. My favourite food. And all the different tastes available....sweet, salty, savoury, umami...etc.

The last great meal I had that tasted amazing was a traditional English summer pie with a glass of cider. I was having dinner with a friend on the Southbank and we went to the British restaurant Canteen. I have had really good meals in Canteen and some bad ones too, but they do cook a good pie and I can't resist a pie. Even in the heat of summer. So here it is, a photo of a tasty summer pie:

Of course I did get a fair number of funny looks from diners as I whipped out my digital SLR camera and started intensely snapping at my meal, but hey, lots of crazy hipsters photograph their food in restaurants nowadays. The cookbooks in Waterstones bookshops are littered with photos of 'food porn,' so I don't feel that out of the ordinary....