My Home Is My Castle

photo credit

I really enjoy having the flat all to myself. It feels a bit weird as I'm so used to always having people around me, but all in all it's very, very nice to have space for a change. 

On Saturday I met up with Cherelle at Waterloo & together we took the scenic route (thanks to various tube lines not running) to South Kensington. I had wanted to go back to the V&A for further exploration since having been there for Decode and Cherelle was up for a bit of culture. The V&A is pretty amazing, lots of fashion, theatre & things from lands far far away. We visited a few galleries, the shop, had a little rest outside at the cafe, then went back for more. I very much enjoy letting my brain out to play in this way.

Afterwards I went up to Piccadilly Circus to see whether Lillywhite's would have the rebounder I want. Apparently they're London biggest sports store, but quite frankly, they're just shite. No selection at all, staff that didn't have a clue & they're not very big by my standards. They did have trampolines which I found without any help from anyone in there, but not the one I wanted & it turned out that they're pretty heavy as well, so I decided to opt to buy a bit more locally or get it delivered.

I checked out to new Japan Centre so the trip into town wasn't a complete waste of time. Found some rather tasty (& fairly cheap, all things considered) sushi & spent the tube ride home munching little rolls of rice & fish. I was craving fish like mad, which was a bit disconcerting. I usually assume that any reasonably healthy craving has a reason, I'm not entirely sure why I crave fish (raw salmon, to be precise) occasionally but suspect it's because I don't get enough omega 3 fatty acids. According to my web research there really is no way of getting them in an easy way in a vegan diet (the jury's still out on flaxseed) and I don't mind eating fish, really, so I guess I'll have a chunk of raw salmon every now and again. I've been having tuna & chickpea salad the last 3 evenings & whatever it was I was lacking, I seem to have stocked up supplies now.

On Sunday I woke up rather early for a weekend, around 10am. Argos didn't open until 11am, so I lounged about for a bit, had a lazy breakfast & then walked down the road to claim my mini trampoline. The Reebok rebounder was selling for £30 & was exactly what I wanted. Carrying up the road proved to be somewhat traumatic, the box was heavy & bulky and for some unexplained reason people develop the urge to walk right into you. With arms hurting I made it home & extracted the trampoline. I didn't try it out right away because I still had some grocery shopping to do, but I did have a little bounce later in the afternoon. It's huge fun! It's also harder than one would think, but I have been bouncing every evening now for about 15 minutes & am hoping that I can keep that up once the flatmates are back.

Work has continued to be hectic. My colleagues are still more or less avoiding me, although it seems to be getting better now. The girl that's come back from maternity leave is majorly getting on my nerves now. She's always complaining, about anything & everything. She now feels she's not getting any important work & obviously that can only be because she's got a baby now, not at all because she's been out of the loop for 9 months, is slow & more interested in chatting with everybody around her than doing her job. I don't have to work with her lots as she's got a different manager, but due to a reorganisation of the channels we're covering I will have to help her with one of them. I'm not looking forward to cooperating with her, but I do like the channel and anyway, I'm better than her in the work we do & I'm totally planning on making this job count.

I'm not doing anything exciting this week, but this weekend will hopefully feature another trip to the museum as I want to go to the Darwin Centre with Pinky. Other than that I'm staying in to take full advantage of being able to enjoy some time on my own.

Decode

 

Photo credit: 

Solar by flight404, 2009, Videogrid by Ross Phillips, Design Museum, 2008, We Feel Fine (wefeelfine.org) by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, 2005 – onwards

Yesterday was a totally grey, miserable & wet day. Nevertheless, I had woken up at 10am unable to go back to sleep again. Even worse, I was feeling awake, not quite as lurgyfied anymore & energetic.

I had found a 2-for-1 voucher for DECODE at the V&A on the Time Out website a few days back. The idea of digital art sounded very appealing, the thought of things being interactive even more (I like being able to push buttons & make art do stuff). Also, I'd never been to the V&A before for reasons totally unknown and had got it in my head that I wanted to go there on Saturday. Flatmate had foolishly agreed to accompagny me (when I told her, not on the day), so by 1pm I was bouncing up & down outside her room wanting to go. There was a brief discussion wherein weather was mentionned a few times, also it being miserable & wet, and rooms that are warm & cosy. I was relentless, I wanted to go & anyway, to get to the V&A from our place is doable with only minimal exposure to the outside world. Shortly before 2pm we were ready to go.

The museum was bustling with people when we got in (apparently more people had thought spending a rainy day in a museum was a grand idea), the queue for tickets was massive, mainly due to an exhibition called Maharaja which must be quite amazing as it was sold out for the day & people were buying tickets for future dates. We, however, just wanted our bloody 2-for-1 £5 Decode tickets... finally had them in our hands, entry was in 15 minutes, so we had a quick look around & then popped over to the entrance.

The way in (& out) is lined with interactive light sticks, that make noise & light up when you walk past. I think I could've spent half an hour just running around between them, but there was more to see, touch & jump around in front of. Unfortunately a few exhibits were broken, including a tree that sheds it's leaves & you can catch them, I guess that's what you get for having art on a computer & people poking it with their mitts. Very much loved an exhibit called "body paint" which reacted to your movement with splashes of colour.

Altogether a great exhibition, if a bit small.

Afterwards we hit the museum shop, I made a few purchases of things that you really don't need but which are rather pretty. We still had 2 hours till closing time, so we ventured upstairs to the textiles bit, getting distracted on the way by various other bits, then found the Theatre rooms, which are awesome as well. The Jewellery section is just pure shiny. By the time we got out of there our brains had reached culture saturation. We still managed to run through a few other rooms simply coz we got lost & couldn't find the way out.

A really great way to spend an otherwise pretty useless day. And my brain very much likes getting fed like that. Definitely have to go back there, maybe on my own, and wander around for a day.

We popped into Sainsbury's on the way home, I acquired all I need to make Pad Thai today, which is probably going to be rescheduled for tomorrow coz we're going out for Sushi tonight & I can't be arsed to cook. The evening was spent watching the "Welcome To The Parker" marathon on Bravo or Diva or whatever obscure channel it was.

I'm a bit less energetic today, the cold is still present but not as bad anymore, the weather is much nicer but I am too lazy to go out. All fine, though, it's Sunday which is the day of the week that you're supposed to veg out :)