More unemployed stuff

I am a stereotypical Guardian reader, which basically means I'm pretty left wing. So imagine my utter happiness when my unemployed friend and I decided to check out our local area today and found out that you can get The Guardian newspaper for free at The Guardian cafe at Boxpark! This is going to be my new daily task - coffee at the Guardian cafe for free newspaper and soduku!

Free Guardian paper at the Guardian cafe. Nothing pretentious about this at all! 

Blue soup

Have you ever watched Bridget Jones's Diary when she ends up making blue soup? Well I made some noodles and looking at the soup broth I thought is that blue? The answer is 'yes'!

Blue soup

Edinburgh Fringe

My amazing friends and I finally got to go to Scotland together. I say finally as my mates always go up to Scotland and ever since I've known them (which is a pretty long time, mind!) I've kept saying, 'please take me, please take me'!!

We decided to go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place every August for three weeks in Scotland’s capital city. The festival caters to everyone including people on a budget. We decided to find free shows. I'm not here to write reviews but one of the memorable shows we saw was a short play acted by proper annoying Southern acting toffs called Prawn King. Hmm, what can I say about this show? Well some memorable songs include..(you have to sing this, mind) ' The Circle of Sea Life' (Lion King), 'I just can't wait to be Prawn King' (Jungle book) I think the absurdness of this play was it's only saving grace really.

Thankfully we saw the show for free!!

Just incase you didn't believe we were at the Fringe Festival!

3.5 mile race

It was my running groups turn to host some sort of competitive 3.5 mile race amongst a few other running groups, so I decided to participate. I've never really run competitively since my track and field days at school when I was about 10-11 years old (I was really rubbish by the way!!) I just thought I should show support to my group, plus I was curious as to how I would fair in a competitive environment amongst other ladies in my age group - check out the competition so to speak.

Anyway, I can't compare myself to some of the ladies. Some of them are seriously fast!! It's pretty amazing!

A day of culture

I have been finding it hard to run for the last few sessions. The last few runs I have hardly been able to hit 3miles. It sounds strange to non-runners but I basically hit a mental block. My body is fine but my mind doesn't want to play. So I am now testing running without music. So today, I went for a run (without ipod) and instead of my usual run around the park I decided to go off and explore. And my run was really good. I managed 10 miles and I quite enjoyed not having to fiddle with earphones as I run and actually listening to my breathing, to the klink klink of my keys in my pockets, to my surroundings. I can actually hear myself think. So I'll see how this running without music goes for a while, but so far so good.

My recently unemployed friend and I decided to spend the day doing cultural things today. We went to the British Library, which is just a giant library. It's a strange place. Basically loads of people sit around on their Macbooks. I'm not sure if they are working or just surfing the net, but every seat inside was taken by someone on their Mac! We couldn't actually get into any of the reading rooms as you need to get a card and we were too lazy to do that. However, I think I might do it another time as the library has a map room that I so want to check out.

Inside the British Library

Afterwards we headed over to the British Museum. It was packed and so hot inside! We got to visit ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and Japan. There was also an exhibit on Eastern Propaganda which is just my thing. I just find the whole subject really interesting.

Inside the British Museum

Some examples of Eastern Propaganda posters

Lets forget job hunting for a while

I am bored of job hunting. I am bored of watching my phone for phone calls that are not going to come. So after speaking to some friends of mine I have decided to go away for a short while. You'll find out where in a few days time. 

Sebastião Salgado: Genesis and Free Ride

I ventured out to West London to go see the Sebastião Salgado: Genesis exhibit at the Natural History Museum. It was pretty amazing and I recommend it if you get the chance to see it.

Today was a great day to be out if you like to cycle but are too scared in Central London. Lots of roads in Central London were closed off to cars so people could cycle the major sites. It was nice to see so many families out, free from worry about getting run over. I cycled part of the route, seeing if I could get any freebies but realised I wasn't going to get anything free so went home.

When I got home my neighbour came out to see me. We both park our bikes in the communal hallway, always unlocked. It turns out his bike got stolen a few nights ago. In all fairness his bike was much nicer than mine, but I would be terribly upset if my bike got stolen.

Cycling along the traffic free Mall.

Urgh, another interview!

Ended up going to Winchester for quite possibly the weirdest, dullest job interview. Winchester is about an hour away from Waterloo Train station and I was reluctant to go to this interview (the job is London based, not Winchester!) But I was told I could wear whatever I wanted and should make the most of Winchester and go sightseeing beforehand - I should check out the local sights. So I went to the cathedral (where Jane Austin is buried) and went shopping.

I then turned up for my interview, with camera round my neck (really!!) and ended up getting grilled for 1.5 hours!!! 1.5 hours talking about Project Management is a very long time! It just went on and on and on. I had to try so hard to NOT do the Jen face. Anyone who knows me well enough knows exactly what the Jen face is. After the 1.5 hours all I wanted to do was run back to London.

No idea how the interview went. I lost all interest after about 45 mins. On and on and on......

Winchester Cathedral. Jane Austin is buried here.

Throwing on the Wheel

Today I learnt how to throw clay onto the wheel a la Ghost. Demi Moore however, made it look far easier than it really is. Let's just say I'm not naturally gifted but it's so much fun to use your hands to mould and shape something. I liked the messiness of it.
In the end I managed to make some sort of bowl, though brief was to make a tall cylinder.

Throwing on the wheel and this is the outcome

IN the evening the Wildlife Trust had an end of year party for all the participants at their Kings Cross site. They fired up the clay oven and made home made pizzas. Yummy. We also managed to find a really cool beetle. Not sure what type it is but it's cool!

Pizza baking in the clay oven

Beetle