You've been framed

A welcome break was well overdue after a week deprived of sleep. May and myself just took our time settling in to Westbank, lovely. All boxes were unpacked, all contents dispersed or thrown out after being vetted by May... "Erm... What's this and do we really need it?" I must admit, it's looking amazing, with the lamb slow-roasting in the oven we were able to spend the Sunday framing, hanging and dotting our interesting ornaments and oddments around the place before Ian came to visit. If you don't count the movers and lifters, he was our first visitor and the person designated to break in the sofabed we bought last week. I didn't get chance to get a full blown report, but worryingly he told us he'd felt a bit tom and dick in the middle of the night. I hope he's not allergic to Ikea furniture... Maybe it was the Chicken Cottage Dixieburger he'd had before he arrived!

Tom's leaving drinks

After work May and I managed to squeeze in platefuls of sashimi, edamame beans and endless bowlfuls of Miso at Yo! in Farringdon before Snakey Jake came to join us for some chicken. You just don't go to a sushi restaurant and order the chicken, but then again Jake's always liked to pop the bubble of convention. After hearing about Jake's bid to give up all vices after a trip to Bupa left him holistically cleansed, we cut to the Three Kings in Clerkenwell for Tom's leaving drinks.

Tom's off to LA on Friday after having an epiphany and heading over there to hook up with JD Powell and the rest of the scriptwriting crew. He'll be staying in Silverlake for a couple of months basically to see what happens. I must admit, I'm kind of jealous of him as I know he'll have a brilliant time. It's good to be impulsive and spontaneous, it kind of keeps the soul young. Anyway, after the third pint, I'd realised I'd left my bag in Yo! Sushi, May and I said our farewells and went back to pick it up. Luckily it was still under the table we'd sat at!

Late of the Pier

After work we all tumbled down to Kentish Town Kentish Town yeah. We had a tipple in the Junction and listened to Colin update us on the trials and tribulations of Luton living before a pint in Pineapple... and maybe one or two in the Bull and Gate before finally heading into the Forum for Late of the Pier... Who were actually pretty good. I was amazed as I thought they were just one of those bands who had stumbled into a decent producer and magic'd up a winner album, as it happened they pulled it off.. and as it happened, we were the OLDEST people in the crowd. Serves us right for getting tickets for some bloody nu-rave band, we should have known. At one point, some kids came up to us and asked us whether we had any pills, I asked them whether we looked like drug dealers and they said yes!... We were still wearing our jackets and loitering at the bar, so I guess we looked shady. I didn't hang out at the bar all night, I jumped up and down for a while before I couldn't compete any more and left them to it.

I don't feel too clever today, mind.

Sofa so good!

By Friday night I had packed up everything I own and moved it into the living room, that evening I found myself sitting on a bare mattress on the floor watching a portable tv on the floor and eating a tin of cold ravioli out of the tin... You'll be pleased to know that 24 hours later my circumstances had changed considerably!

I picked up the van and a hungover Jonny Herbert by midday and we hotfooted it back to Commercial Road to pick up May the bag lady. We had a close scrape at McDonalds before heading back to Bethnal to pick up the first of my stuff. It was a long day and even though Herbert was a Godsend, the McSlump really affected him and he was drifting in and out of consciousness all afternoon. May's mum and dad turned up for the 'bed swap' and a spot of fish pie which was ace. I'm pretty sure May's mum is enjoying us moving in just as much as we are!

After everyone had left and I'd driven into town to drop off the now catatonic Herbert, May and I had a lovely bubbly ending to the most exciting Valentine's days I've ever had.

The following morning, as I still had the van, Ikea's bright lights beckoned us over to the heady heights of Edmonton. This time we didn't have any help, which made the upgrade from tired looking existing futon to brand new sofabed even more of a challenge... But nothing we couldn't handle. After a few huffs and puffs, the wrapping was off and Reading Corner™ was looking the bollocks.

Notice how I strike a marked resemblance to Dave from Chas 'n' Dave after finding a flat cap in a box!

Lacoste Animations

Phew!... I've finally finished the Lacoste animations, with a little help from Whatley and Simon. We've been working pretty hard to get these finished but it's been mightily enjoyable getting back to drawing kooky pictures and making them move. I'm hoping now that everyone at work will now see these, prick up their ears and start thinking about tackling briefs with motion graphics as well as traditional media. I had my review on Thursday with my boss, which went really well but I still could do with more from management to get the most out of my rich and varied skillset. (I'm not boasting, honest.) Anyway... Here are the links to the files.

Africa

Japan

Melanesia

New York

Count Duku

Today has to be a good day. I completed all three sudokus in the Metro on my way to work this morning. Easy, Moderate and Challenging... I breezed it.

If I manage to read the interesting parts of the newspaper before Kings Cross, I can usually complete the Challenging puzzle, but I looked up after completing it and I was at Tufnell Park, which was pretty good by my standards, so I cracked on with Moderate which I finished at Highgate. I finally put my tip and strip sexy pen down at Finchley Central after whizzing through the Easy 'duko.

The God's are looking down.

Sister sledge

Another good weekend... Wow, I'm starting to see a pattern emerging and I like the smell of it. This weekend was another life-draw-ey weekend, but this time we had to travel to May's mum's house for it. It was grand... and endulgent. We had a luxurious four hours to draw the most ginger-ey woman I have ever seen. The last pose was a mammoth hour and a half, and ol' gingerflange fell asleep halfway through it. I managed to pull off a winner doodle of which I was carried shoulder high around Long Buckby for... But not until after we'd pissed about in the snow for a good couple of hours, sledging about, you know! I even managed to get three inches of icey cold water into my wellies for good measure. Previously I'd watched Bear Grylls surviving in arctic conditions, so I was well prepared and luckily didn't die on my way back to the house.

Kate is getting just as excited as we are about moving in, and has got a list as long as your arm of things she's going to donate to our nest. After drying off, most of Saturday afternoon was spent collecting things from the attic and taking beds apart... We were also given a choice of FOUR toasters, apparently Jas buys a new one every six months whether the old one is broken or not.

Dinner with the Doctor

It always makes me laugh when people start a sentence with the work 'fucking'. It gives them chance to actually construct whatever shit it is they've got in their thick heads. The tube this morning was running really slowly 'due to adverse weather conditions'... It's only a bit of snow, I don't think Britain is geared up like Canada where people ski down to the shops to get some fags. Anyway, this bloke got on a packed tube with his timid looking mate and started shouting that he'd just 'fucking seen the trailer for the new fucking fast and furious last night which looks fucking brilliant.' Apparently Vin Docile is back on form. I'm sure the rest of the busy tube now feels the same way and rush out to reserve their tickets.

In other news, not last night, but the night before May went out for a drink and a bite to eat with her ex-boyfriend. She needed to catch up with him being as it's just been announced that he's going to be the next Doctor Who. As a virtually unknown actor, May said it was quite odd as he was getting hounded for autographs in the Hawley Arms. There's quite a buzz about him at the moment as he's going to replace the well-loved Scotsman... Which all sounds quite nice, however he has to live in Cardiff for the duration of the filming! ... Which just goes to show, money isn't everything when you're in love, is it Candice-Marie?... No Keith.

Timeless spheres

We met Helen and her family for her private view at the ICA last night. I tell you what, MA students get away with blue murder!... May's mate Angela had created a load of dresses with period blood all over them and a couple of sporrans moulded from her mate's lower beard. Helen had created some (beautifully crafted) handbags out of pet shop pigs ears. She was moaning about the price of them, apparently they've gone up from 50p to a quid... I ask you. I always like reading the blurb that the artists write about their work, it's always cobbled together shite trying to make sense of whatever it is they've created. It never is the other way around. Some guy had written that he was born into a family of Christians and he was influenced by the film Back to the Future. Helen had written about fleshy drapes and timeless spheres... Anyway, we buggered off afterwards for some food. At first I didn't really want to go as my bank card still hasn't arrived, but I thought fuck it, I had helped Helen putting together her book, so I had the minted mutton... Which was nice.

Snow joke!

It has been so fucking cold over the weekend. Both Laura and Sarah have been away.. Not that I would normally be snuggling up to them for warmth. No no. They'd be the ones to speak to about the boiler packing up. As it happened, May and myself had a lazy weekend and didn't really get out of bed as it was way too chilly!... Sunday it started snowing as I popped over to the BBC to see Whatley and how the Croc Myths were coming along. by the time I'd left it had started to settle a bit, by the time I got back home I was back in bed, enjoying a spot of wind-tunnel with May!.. The Wind-tunnel is a godsend in arctic times! We watched a couple of DVDs and I did some freelance work for Rod the Hip-Hop Sod... By the time we had woken up, the snow had built up making Bethnal Green look like Chamonix.

Britain grinds to a halt during extreme weather conditions and I struggled to get to work, only getting the message not to bother coming in when  I got off the tube at Finchley!.. What a crock!... Oh well, I've got a lot of work to do and at least it's warm at work!

Gramps funeral

So it was Gramps funeral on Thursday... I suppose you could say it went as expected. My dad not thinking of anyone but himself and his wife made it emotional and odd in the same token. A good turn out ensured him a good send off though. It was good to see people I'd not seen for a long time, it just goes to show how respected and thought about he was.

May, myself, Cara and Dom went over to the hospital to visit Grandma after the wake. I was worried that all four of us rocking up dressed in black might alarm her but she took it all in her stride. Even though we didn't mention the funeral, I think she knew. She asked whether we had anything to tell her... I think we were too scared to tell her where we'd come from. Despite this, Grandma was on top form and was making us all laugh with her kooky ways and wild wild hair.

It was a long day traveling to Bournemouth and back in a day, the rudeboys sitting opposite us on the way back didn't help at all, and I felt drained by the time we got back to mine. Heavy day.