i smell of holidays

 

aah, summer. well, an impressively warm spring. it's funny, i'm not a fan of hot summer like so many people are as i don't like being too hot and i also love love love winter (again, unlike many) because i love being cosy, by the fire and i love how the sea looks on a grey day. my favourite season is autumn but this spring sunshine is certainly making working so hard a lot more pleasurable and it does feel good to finally have a tiny bit of colour in my cheeks. i love the fact that i need sun tan lotion in april (and no, i'm not a snob about brands of lotion, i just have very sensitive skin on my face and, if you do too, i recommend this!). and i love the fact that it makes me smell of holidays as, of course, relaxing on the beach is a fabulous thing to dream of while it's all work, work, work. and then i'll have an immense holiday when it's all over (blog post to come on that...).

this is my third day of working al fresco and it will make working this weekend* much more tolerable.

*yes, i am working this weekend just like last but very dear friends are flying in from spain for a wedding and staying with my parents' so i'll join them for brunch in the garden tomorrow and have half a day off. lovely :)

have a lovely sunny weekend everyone x

ps - this is actually my 200th post and i wanted to do something special but it'll have to wait until i've got more time...

wavy

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gosh, it's amazing what difference a day makes.

yesterday was a tough one. despite working outside* all afternoon, i felt pretty low and fed up with work. i also felt particularly stabby. other negative emotions this past week have included feeling terrified at the enormity of the task ahead since this is, by far, the most difficult thing i have ever had to do in my life. have i said that before? probably a number of times. forgive me but i will probably repeat it on a weekly basis.

i also had a workload reality check and had to cancel some social arrangements and say no to other invitations so that felt pretty rubbish. but i have chosen to work in this way because that is my best chance (i know how i work by now) at getting targets met on time.

there are lots of positive emotions at the moment too. and not just today when i am feeling chipper. i'm very proud of myself for having succeeded in immersing myself in my work and it feels good. i am confident about the work i am so far producing and i am so very passionate about my research and the data i've collected (after following families through their first year of parenthood).

in all, i would say this week has been wavy. (thanks to hels for this term).

here are a few pics of my first week of project hermit.

wed - wine to steady the nerves before project hermit began

thurs - data, notes & coffee. #currentview

 fri - taking a break and getting sun on my face. #currentview

sat - shedding a few tears as the enormity of writing up dawns on me

sun - apt reading for mother's day

mon - good old fashioned post-it notes and pads helping me organise my PhD in addition to spreadsheets

tues -work was going well but my mum bought be these flowers to cheer me up when times are tough

wed - outdoor office.

*i am so lucky to be able to work at my parents' whenever i want. their house is a sanctuary and they have the oh so important outside space that my beautiful bristol flat doesn't. i tend to move location quite a bit when working this hard (to keep me alert) so i move from room to room, house to house, cafe to cafe.

two more things - it will be interesting to see if anyone reads this since i won't be advertising it on twitter (taking a complete break for a while) and facebook (still zero regrets about quitting). also, i am still updating my pics daily to my flickr site.

putting my life on hold

so far, work is going really well and today is a particularly good day but i have had a workload reality check and earlier today i had to cancel some social arrangements.

my PhD isn't my life's work but i want to do myself and my data justice so i'm prepared to make this sacrifice.

my mind is filling up with all the things i'll do when i've finished (a fantastic trip, possibly move house, have a huge party and most of all get my regular social life back!)

one of the first things i want to do (after i've drunk my body weight in veuve clicquot) is make this cake. it seems a very fitting celebration cake.

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mother's day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my amazing mum. she's my best friend and i am so lucky.

dearest darling mum, happy mother's day. i love you.

♥

note - my favourite photo (the second image) was taken at the arnolfini and my dad knitted the hat :)

adrenaline antidote

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project hermit (see previous post) is going well. taking a step back from social media / social networking (well, twitter to be precise) is very refreshing indeed. and since quitting facebook, i have no regrets.

my work is off to a good start (*breathes huge sigh of relief*) but i've noticed i'm quite hyper. i got myself geared up to doing this final push but i need to calm down a little.

so, i've found myself reverting to a technique i've found very useful in the past when life has been full of anxiety and stress. it's so simple (just take five minutes out to slow your breathing, control your deep breaths and visualise a calming scene). the scene which i picture each and every time is the beach above - flora bay on the bigger of the two perhentian islands in malaysia. raffaele (my ex and now dear friend) and i went there about ten years ago. we'd been snorkelling every day and seen basking sharks and seals but hadn't spotted any turtles.

on a day when the beach was completely deserted, we were swimming around in the shallows and spotted a turtle. we swam after it, managing to keep up with it for quite a while. it was beautiful and such a serene moment. sitting back and picturing it now.

and relax...

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hermit

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last week i wrote about taking time out at the weekend to focus on my thesis. it worked in a sense. i wasn't too distracted but i also wasn't completely immersed, which is what i need. i metioned that there may be weeks where i would have to become a hermit but that time has come sooner than i thought. i thought i would do this if the momentum was good but i've realised i actually need to do it immediately in order to 'get in the zone'. i need to be living and breathing my data and thinking about little else.

i am hoping i make so much progress over the next few weeks that i will be able to come up for air but there is no way of knowing how i will get on.

i will still blog as it is a nice escape. i will still read the blogs that i follow. i will still use twitter but much, much less than i do now.

essentially, i won't be connected with people in real life and people virtually in the same way that i have been up until now.

i need it. i need to put my work first. just for a while.

off into the wilderness i go...

hurrah for meeting twitter pals in real life

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this title should actually read 'hurrah for making new friends' because that is what has happened.

say what you like about twitter but it has some huge plus points. now, i don't normally blog about my social life. this isn't what this blog is for. plus i think it's important to actually live my life rather than feel i need to document every twist and turn. in fact, dani hampton writes a lovely 'small reminder of being in the moment and blogging' here.

however, i have made some truly wonderful connections through twitter. i am a very proud 'twitter knitter' and was all set to meet many of the (mainly london-based) twitter knitters at a party but then couldn't afford to get there last month. but there are more parties being planned and i'm so excited to meet people in the flesh that i've been chatting to on twitter for almost two years!

there is a huge community of tweeters in bristol and i was invited along to a foodie gathering at the lido last summer. it was great fun and i met some really lovely people. because i was planning to move to brighton, i held off on meeting more bristol-based people since i already have a good amount of friends here and didn't want to meet new people that i would then not have time to keep up with. i have always been someone who doesn't have tonnes of friends but the friends i have are very dear to me.

then it turned out i wasn't leaving bristol after all and, after quitting a facebook and (temporarily) falling out of love with the internet, i decided to throw myself into reconnecting with old friends (which has been just lovely) and meeting new ones. i had initially followed emily when i thought i was moving to brighton as i thought it would be a great way to establish a set of people to meet for coffee etc. despite culling lots of brighton-based tweeters, emily and i had regularly chatted on twitter so i stayed in touch with her. there were regular attempts (still ongoing i'm pleased to report) by me, hels and fritha to get emily to move to bristol. emily mentioned she'd come to bristol to meet us but i never thought it would materialise. but, the other week, on her way back from a long weekend in devon, emily stopped off in bristol and met me and fritha for drinks at the deco lounge (hels was in thailand so unable to join us). it was *such* a lovely evening and i regularly cried with laughter.

a week later i met up with lia for the first time. we had hoped to bump into each other at the inaugural montpelier basement supper club but i was unable to go. we had drinks at moreish on chandos road since it was near where we both live and it was *so* lovely to meet her in real life. i know we'll stay in touch and i'm looking forward to knitting on her veranda at some point over the summer.

last week, i organised a big bristol twitter meet-up and 11 of us had drinks at the lido (pictured above via). i was *so* nervous (as i often feel anxious about big gatherings) but a great time was had by all. about half of the faces were knew to me but i already felt familiar with them from regular twitter conversations. i commented that fritha (who i'd only met a fortnight before) felt like an old friend. weird but true! the lido was a lovely backdrop for the event - (i have already blogged about the lido here, here and here. can you tell i'm a fan?) the only drawback was that they had arranged the tables (for 20 guests) in a horseshoe shape so it looked like we were at a wedding. a bit odd.

anyway, there were 11 of us there (all on twitter) including four knitters, a few foodies, a writer, an illustrator and a baby! jo had brought her sweet (still very new) baby, mersina, along and so we were all thrilled to get to meet her (and her mum!) for the first time. the only picture of the night shows fritha holding M. i borrowed this image off fritha's blog and you can read her write up of the night here.

(photo taken by martin, M's dad).

i am about to become a hermit in order to get my thesis written on time but, having met people from twitter over the past few weeks and many of us having exchanged mobile numbers, i know i'll see lots of them again (soon) - fritha and hels for drinks this week. also, lucy (a 'real-life' friend who is now a fully-fledged twitter knitter) and i are booked to eat at the montpelier basement supper club in april hosted by elly and dan. to read more about the supper club, you can see dan's blog entries here.

exciting!

joy

three things. just because.

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this has gone viral and i'm sure you've already seen it but it deserved a posting. i first saw it when elly (@pearcafe) posted it on twitter.

bristol photography

i discovered jonathan taphouse on twitter and have been a fan of his documentary photography ever since. a few weeks ago he posted this photo on flickr. for more of his stuff see here and he also does wedding photography here.

his caption read: 'BRISTOL: cycling offence -This gentleman cut across two lanes of moving traffic on his pushbike. Cursing and waving at the cars as they slowed and tooted!! ...what he didn't realise was that one of the cars was a police officer. Busted!!'

i told jonathan i was sure this was the big issue seller based outside tesco on whiteladies rd and jonathan suggested i show him the picture.

the other day, i asked him (the big issue seller - i don't know his name) how he was. not good as he'd been mugged on stokes croft the evening before and had a large bruise. i bought him some biscuits and showed him jonathan's photo on my iPhone. he was thrilled and let me take a picture of him to show jonathan his approval :)

2011 365 - best of march

i'm still keeping up with my photo a day project and you can see the whole set (which i upload to daily) here on flickr. my favourites from this month are here with the first 'sweet couple' being my top favourite. other photos i'm really pleased with have been (and will be) included in blog posts this month.

writing space

a brief break from the world of twitter (and regularly reading blogs on my google reader) has been good. i have worked well this weekend and not been distracted by the nice weather and events going on in bristol (such as spring love food fest. i've sent e-mails to old friends and texts to new. and one of my closest friends is coming over this evening for wine and a bite to eat so all is good.

but i am about to become a bit of a hermit. it is the only way i will get my PhD finished on time. my aim is to submit a finished draft to my supervisors at the end of august. then i'll go on a much needed holiday for a few weeks in september (blog post on this to follow as it's super exciting). when i return, there'll be all those fiddly changes to make and shortly after it should be ready to submit to examiners.

as is usual when i write, my mind whirs (as mentioned in my last post). last night i cast on a new knitting project which will provide a nice break from study but i will also keep up with blogging. i have no less than 21 posts drafted in my head and, again, it is a nice break from work. i will aim to stay sociable and see friends two to three times a week (including weekends) but there may be weeks where, when the momentum is good, i just need to completely get my head down and not speak to a soul.

the space i write in is also very important to me. i have blogged about this ideal space before (on my old blog) but it didn't transfer properly when i moved from posterous to blogger (gah, that old problem rearing its ugly head again). so, here it is again.

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mum and i are currently talking about staying somewhere (for a week or two) in the next few months to write with zero distractions as we both have academic writing to do. we have that most middle class dilemma of trying to decide whose holiday home we'd like to stay in most.

i also really love working at kitchen tables. and if i could sit at either of these two and write, i would be very happy indeed. although entertaining at them would be even more fun.

these last two images were spotted on megan boley's pinterest. while i think pinterest is a great idea and have seen quite a few twitter pals using it, i have resisted the urge to join as it would just be another distraction from work. also, if you don't follow megan's blog, or follow her on twitter (@meganboley), you really should, she's one of my favourites. she's very funny and very beautiful but most of all i just love seeing her little boy benton grow. he is (no exaggeration) one of the sweetest babies i've ever seen and megan takes simply gorgeous pictures of him. see?

right, back to work for a few hours for me. enjoy your sunday afternoon everyone.

n x

taking time out

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i'm taking a (long) weekend off. no, not to have leisurely breakfasts, pootle round bristol and hang out in the sun. i can recognise the signs - a long (for me) previous blog post, post-it notes on my coffee table reminding me what future posts i want to write, a very long e-mail to fritha and thoughts whirring about what to knit next. all these activities mean i'm avoiding what i really need to be doing - my PhD.

i have a very tight timetable to be implemented today (or maybe tomorrow...) to make sure i get this thesis submitted on time. so, i'm taking the weekend off twitter and blogging. i'll keep posting my daily pics on instagram and my flickr 365 set because that's not distracting. i'll catch up with blogs through my trusty google reader next week and, if i'm progressing well, i may reply to DMs or @ messages. but, essentially, i won't be checking what else is going on.

wishing you all a lovely weekend and i'll see you on the other side.

n x

in the heart of the moon

last saturday, everyone was all a flutter with excitement about the super moon. i went to the deco lounge for drinks with my friend eszter and snapped this picture on my trusty iPhone as we walked up cotham hill.

it was quite incredible. so low and heavy in the sky. and so big! when i got home, i saw that channel 4 news were asking people to tweet them their #supermoon pictures. i duly tweeted but never thought i'd get a response having seen some of the other incredible shots taken with better cameras and super lenses. they immediately re-tweeted it it (to those of you not on twitter, they shared it with their followers) and it has, to this date, had 855 views. and the next day they posted it in their super moon gallery.

i took a screen shot from my iPhone to capture it immediately. so pleased :) you can see the other fabulous entries here - all way better than mine but i like that mine captures the moon in the city.

one of my favourites posted on twitter / in the blogosphere was charlie's moon

which hels (charlie's girlfriend and my twitter twin - an in joke, you had to be there yadi yada) posted on her fabulous blog.

last night, after a great night out meeting twitter pals (blog post also to follow on this), i was still awake at 3am knitting for japan (blog post to follow soon on this too) and pottering in my flat and i noticed the moon through the slats of my living room blind.

i can't have a post about the moon without my two favourite moon songs. what do you mean, you don't have a favourite moon song? get one tout suite! i'm inspired by the 30-day song challenge that fritha (@moonbeatle) and jo (@stillawake) have been taking part in (click on the links to see their songs) but i fell at the first hurdle 'name your favourite song' as i couldn't possibly name just one favourite. but these two are definitely two of my favourites.

nick drake - pink moon



this next, is actually called 'hawa dolo' but it's from ali fakre toure & toumani diabaté's album in the heart of the moon (where i borrowed my blog post title from).



i think this song is utterly beautiful. and i love the album cover so here is a better image

however this song also makes my heart hurt. i'm sure, if i ever saw it performed live, i would be in floods of tears. so, even though i'm feeling ever so happy today, excuse me while i go and have a little weep. i blame the #supermoon.