January:

02.01.16

Today was a lovely day spent with some of my favorite people doing some of my favorite things. 

I planned to meet Ellie, Jess and Ruby at Omni, a cool new cafe/restaurant I had been to with mum just before Christmas. It used to be a sandwich shop I would go to for lunch when in high school but had recently been bought by friends of my disability support tutor (what a small world!). All the food was inspired by the owners travels around Asia and its lush there!I got up extra early to sort out Ellie presents (Because I couldn't be there for her birthday party) and it seemed a good a time as any to give her 21 gifts. She really liked it and I was so happy :) We ate and then walked down to the coast where we grabbed a coffee. 

 When I got home me and mum sat down to watch Gone with the Wind, something which we had been very excited to do all Christmas brake. It was the last chances I would have to hang out with mum before she went on night shift and would spend all day sleeping. As we watched we ate risotto and I painted. I am particularly pleased with this experiential piece; I don't usually do portraits as I find faces very challenging but I am really inspired by these expressive brushstrokes and very stylized final result. I will defiantly be producing more works like these. 

03.01.16

Its so weird to be back. Cooked tea for mum as she needed to spend the day sleeping in preparation for her first night at work, and so walked to Sainsbry's to get ingredients. I was just making a fried rice. It is so odd to come home and walk paths I used to walk almost every couple of days. I have no idea what its going to be like when I come home for summer, to stay permanently, or rather, until the next thing comes along. I'm beginning to realize I don't want to live in or around Newcastle at all. There is nothing for me here... 

06.01.16

I spent today chilling at Emily's house and making art along side Emily who was writing an essay for uni and Bethan who was working on her A Level project. I ended up staying for lunch and tea and then the three of us went to my house so I could do more henna for them. Bethan got a lift home and me and Emily spontaneously ended up making mug cakes and watching a couple of films. Her and Kyle were recently broken up at this point (...not that that lasted very long... im so mad...) so we talked it out and had a really lovely day. She then went home, but not before convincing me to go on one last Thursbay with the girls before I headed back to Leeds!

This is a photograph of some henna I did on Emily's foot a few days earlier which I am particularly proud of, I'm getting better!

14.01.16

I spent all day doing dissertation until Adam sent me a text asking If I wanted to join him for a pint and then go see The Hateful Eight at the Light cinema. I needed to priorities my school work so I missed out on the pint and met him at the film. I really enjoyed the film, which was much more of a psychological story than an action packed adventure - I like that! I snuck in drinks and gave Adam a couple, so to pay me back we went to the pub after. Because Adam was leaving within the next few days I tried to think of a place he might not have been to before and so took him to The Angel, a real working mans pub in some back ally off the main shopping street in Leeds. The place has its own brewery so there are limited options but its cheap and the drinks are good. We discussed the film for a while before we were joined at our table by a group of working class men on cocaine. They were very nice and we had many interesting conversations, particularly with a guy about our age who was doing a law degree whilst also owning two of his own businesses. He was very interesting and extremely fucked up on coke. 

When the pub closed we were invited to join them back at one of their apartments in the city but we decided against it (stranger danger and all that!) and instead went to Sela bar round the corner, another bar Adam needed to drink at before leaving. We got a pint each, found a table and ended up catching the end of this random band's set. They were very american/rockabilly inspired and were awesome! We made sure the bar was clapping and cheering enough for two encores! All in all a very good day x 

17.01.16

It snowed! It only lasted about 24 hours but I think snow is so beautiful and makes everything look so magical. Old places suddenly look new and I find that really exciting! 

26.01.16

Yet another random selfie. This one was taken in the privet disabled student study room in the library which are my new favorite place! Dissertation sucks, but when you can book your own little space in the library for a couple of hours to work on it it becomes that little bit better.