At the end of the day, when all is said and done...

Everything seems to be coming to a conclusion in my life at the moment. Our beloved Ham House project is rolling nicely into a fun but health and safety conscious event! I don't feel the urge to get student drunk all the time. University life is coming to a hault, with a high chance that I might even graduate and my house mates and I actually know what we are going to do for at least a year after we have finished. And the best part- I don't regret any of it. There is nothing in my life that I wish had been different, because, after it all, its come down to the here and now. And I'm content, happy and a little bit amazed its all turned out so blooming well! Granted, there may be times I'll think 'Oh b***er', but after the initial sense of panic/regret/another generic sad emotion, it will either be a turning point or just a small fraction into something bigger than that moment.
Keep Calm and Carry On, or, if you like: Buck up your ideas and get your arse into gear!

My own personal Nightmare.

I have a re-occurring dream. Since I was about 8 I have had this one dream which would appear every few years or so, and every time it does it scares the hell out of me!
Basically its like an old horror film, all grainy and dark. There's a scene in a laboratory where un-nameable hideous things happen. There's a creature that resembles Frankenstein's monster, and the worst bit for me, there's the being chased. And not just any chasing, I'm being chased by a ruddy great big lion. And as I hide in a giant tyre (don't ask me why there's a tyre there, it just is), and when its about to find me, I wake up. Trust me, it doesn't sound too bad, but it is when you have no escape from it! Its a horrible typical nightmare.
I had this dream again last night, and even at 21 I still got completely freaked out. so much so that I didn't even want to hang my legs over the side of the bed when I got up this morning for fear I would get pulled under.
However, I couldn't help but wonder- what does it actually mean!? especially the lion segment of my own personal hell, seeing as that lasted the longest. I rang up my mum, who has a dream book (for use of emergencies only, obviously). She had a look and this is what it said for lions in dreams...

Lion

To see a lion in your dream, symbolizes great strength, aggression and power. You will overcome your emotions and/or difficulties. As king of the jungle, the lion also represents dignity, royalty, leadership, pride and domination. You have much influence over others. You need to exercise some restraint in your own personal and social life.

To dream that you are attacked by a lion, indicates that you have many obstacles to overcome. You must resist the force that is driving you to self-destruction.

(good old google books meant i didn't have to write it down)

I found this funny really, and strangely enough I took it as a good thing. My life, like everyone elses are full of challenges, and I guess my dreams are representative of that. When I tackle whats in front of me I sleep soundly, when I don't I dream of the lion. Essentially, my head is telling me to sort it out, get things in order, and to not be a coward.
Maybe from now on, when I dream of the terrifying lion, instead of being scared I should take it as an alarm bell. From now on, when that dream rolls in my head I'm going to check my draws for any unpaid bills, see if I'm going to miss a deadline or wonder if a community event needs organising.

2 weeks to go! ek!

right oh! it is pretty much two weeks until the BIG event and it is all coming along nicely! still lots to sort out and organise but it will all be done and sorted by the time curtains are up.
everyone has/is doing a fantastic job, although there is a sense that its coming undone around the edges. we need to keep in contact and we need to keep focused! there is a little confusion generally about whats going down, take today for example. is it a meeting or is it leafleting?? everyone seems to be having different ideas! although it great that ben and jen have taken it upon themselves to organise a rehearsal schedule for their fantastic story. looking forward to getting that on its feet.
on an even better note- today i will be handing in my last ever essay! major nerves going on in my fingers...especially as i haven't finished it yet! but that's not the point- I'm going to be fecking ecstatic when i hand it in because that will mean i can spend the coming weeks of ham house and only ham house! that means undivided attention on our project! about time!
I've marked today in my diary as 'the final push' and that's exactly what it is!

generally :)

Its good to hear that our epic walk around on the 15th paid off! People are starting to get in touch with our email to see whats going down. we'll have to do it again nearer the date to remind peopel about it, and this time we really should include the saturday date to inform all about the 'Creative day'! Definitely had some aching the next day though, but worth it. Walking around Ham by Teddington lock i didn't realise how beautiful it was. You come off the main road and a few seconds later you're looking out over a wonderful park and the river. All very romantic!
everyone did a great job rectifying the leaflets at the pub, and thank you to mark for sorting out our paper routes! I don't think anyone got lost...also nice to see where the pubs are at.

Popped along to the production meeting today with Mark, Al, Paul, Patsy and Tina. I didn't have to be there apparently but stuck it out anyway and it proved very useful. Everyone was saying that it would be nice to have more communication with us as a group and also that we should draw up a 4week schedule for the 4 weeks that remain! So next meeting we'll hit that!
Over, all its all looking great. The ingenious story that Jen and Ben wrote was fantastic fun and I think everyone of all ages shall enjoy it! I look forward to seeing how the design team come up with building a goat, an oyster etc etc! Fun for all! Though major things were brought up, like power supply and quantaty of materials. It was nice to see what was being done on the other side of the line too, with tech and things...

One last thing, the events team will start putting together a running of the day, and who will be were. I know its hard, but trust us with the organisation! We're professionals...ha!
but basically its all good!

paris freeze flash mob

found this online while i was suppose to be doing a dissertation.
i know its in french and also would have no place in our event but the actual thing would be really weird to see so i thought i'd share. the music adds to the eerie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtUNj2BNTsU&feature=related

catch up!

this is a catch up session!
1. MEXICAN NIGHT (24th march) was, i think its safe to say, a success. arrived at 10 to help out jenny and jade with transforming the su into Mexico, and it was very efficient and quick! jenny did a brilliant job and had a very clear idea of what was going to go where etc...even manged to get us some deals on drinks at the bar which was a bonus. my contribution was to create about a trillion cacti which were hung all around the room, but my favorite decoration, apart from the giant Mexican flag made out of bed sheets, was jenny herself. making yourself a waling fajita was just pure genius. in my three years i never thought i would be helping jenny stick peppers to her head. lots of fun! we also made a profit which is lovely and a relief! so well done the fund raising team. also to the design team for their design knowledge.
special thanks has to be made to Tina however, as it was very gracious of her to allow us to trust us with her room. although there were some issues with boundaries it was still very kind of her to let us in there in the first place!

2. MORRIS DANCING! too much fun! Zoe, Charlotte, Sarah and myself all made the trip into Kingston on the 29th march to join in with a group of Morris dancers. the hardest part was finding them! after arriving early we ended up arriving late because they were so hidden away. after going to the church, then the pub then to a church hall we ended up back at the church. lo and behold there they were. typical really!
after the wondering we had a lovely chat with a few of the members who wondered who we were. they all seemed very excited about our event, though i cannot say the same when they asked us to join in. I'm not going to lie, i am a bit rubbish with co ordination sometimes, so thought it best to bow out of the dancing so not to injury anyone. watching it looked fantastic, they all had smiles on there faces and if mistakes were made they were laughed off. the girls did a great job and decided i should try. i was not exactly thrilled as i set myself up for a fall, i didn't even understand the simple instructions! when it started though it just became fun. you really can't help but smile! leaping about all over the place and zig zagging around really is an enjoyable thing to do! they even trusted me with one of their baton/ stick things! i could have killed someone, but apparently baton related deaths are low in Morris dancing...
at the end i asked the guy what the dance was called. it was called 'Shepard's hay', and weirdly it comes from the village i live in, bidford upon avon! it really is a small world! of all the dances i could have been dragged into it was the one that was invented in my little village!

3. WORK. normally i hate my weekend job with a passion. seriously, it crushes your soul. however, over the last couple of weeks i have spotted things that have made it bearable! firstly there were some breakdancers across the road, and it was amazing to see them doing this incredible things. it wasn't long after they started that they gained a huge crowd around them. some of the moves they pulled were unbelievable.
next my manager decided to spend half an hour showing me videos off her mobile of her niece in a flash mob! this kid was about 12 and so were the rest of the participants. they were all dressed on sports gear and jumping around like crazy. though it wasn't jumping around really, it was a fantastic dance routine that they were performing. i was shocked to hear that it was the girl herself who had choreographed it!
if a 12year old girl can organise an impressive flash mob, I'm extremely certain that a bunch of young adults can pull our event off!

4. THE EVENT. i think now that the decision has been made to make the parade a story and to make the event a two day event is a relieving one. workshops will have less pressure on them and it seems like it has more of a purpose now. now we are going in the right direction!

photo shoot at Ham House

well a week or so ago (17/03) Siobhan, Megan, Edd and myself all popped along to ham house to do a photo shoot for the posters for our dear event. unfortunately it was only us four and i had initially worries about the photo looking empty, but Garry was fantastic and managed to round up five of people who work at ham house to help us, and he even joined in himself. he even joked that they should have their meetings like that as they talked about more important things while posing for the photo then they normally do in actual sit down meetings!
the photo itself took place around the back of the house as a magazine shoot was happening at the front of the house. cheeky gits!
bright colours were the name of the game as well and luckily the sun showed itself long enough to help with that, just enough before it started to rain again!
all in all it was a very fun and quick experience and hopefully when we do it again more of our group can join in and laugh about in a very natural photo shoot!
thanks to Christine too for making it possibly in the first place!