June 5th 2008
It’s been a bit over a month since I updated my blog and if there is any excuse I believe it is because that for the final phase of my Masters program I now have my head firmly up my dissertation…. I am currently surrounded by books, notes, emails, essays, photocopies of essays, reference materials and am in a new, sublet flat.
Yesterday I spent over 5 hours helping to clean up the old Blaenwern flat, for as is typical in communal living situations, most people left like rats from a sinking ship after the most minimal of efforts… whereas I went back, for although I moved out on May 21st, I did live there for just over eight months and didn’t want to let the few responsible people left cleaning and moving to have to do all the work… and besides, I want my deposit money back!
It was odd to see the place again, even after getting away from it for 2 weeks, returning reminded me of how much I blinded myself to its grottyness. The cracks that had once seemed charming, managing to share one fridge and one stove with 9-11 other people, the peeling paint and mold living on the bathroom ceiling, the marks on all the walls, the single plastic mattress with no box on the wire metal frame, the birds and other things living in the ceiling, the institutional carpet… its no wonder that my eyes were always having a minor allergic reaction in the mornings… but that’s behind me now, and when I hear things such as asbestos being in the School of Art studios –just across the hall from me, it doesn’t surprise me, because I found out some time ago that the wing all the masters students are in was condemned in 1996 as being unsafe to occupy. Perhaps that was why the heat kept malfunctioning all through the winter –but was fixed by mid-May and left on high, just as the temperatures reached 21 degrees, but don’t worry, it’s cooled down again so the heat will probably stop working again….
I now laugh when I hear things such as all the students being forced out of Alexander Hall two days ago, because the private landlord hasn’t paid the electricity bill and the university, in selling off most of its assets, is ever so comfortable not taking any blame for the fact that it puts its students under care of private, slightly unscrupulous landlords as an additional layer of dealing with the moronic, impersonal bureaucratic B.S. of the school itself. (Can anyone tell me why everyone but a few have to move from one building to another a few months before the end of their program…. Why do they bother to claim to have Masters residence for the masters programs if everyone is evicted just before they must begin to write dissertations?) It was all a bit too stressful. I wasted far too much time packing, moving, unpacking, and even more time trying to find a place to live. Thankfully I now have a nice sublet in private accommodation. Oh the joy of having my own little place…
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Overview of latest adventures
Graduate Exhibition and Final Exams Have been completed. Hurrah! Huzzah!
Attended last classes and lectures of the year, completed my essays, reports, teaching experience, tutorial experience and studio portion of the program.
Two of my new textile art pieces are currently being hung in a prestigious, curated exhibit at the Oriel Davies Gallery in Newtown. The exhibit is called Re:drawing.
My new website www.peargirl.weebly.com features my new work, and can also be accessed via the front page of www.peargirl.com
By hopping on trains on weekends, and because I worked over the Christmas and Easter Breaks, I got a bit ahead of my program and so was able to take a bit of time off when Tess came to visit! (plus there were two holiday weekends in May!)
April 25-27th I went to Lancaster for the incredible Hurdy Gurdy Festival. I’ve never played an instrument before, but have always said that if I could learn to play an instrument a hurdy-gurdy would be it! They’re WAAAAYYY more complicated that I expected… the wheel that turns the interior circular bow being almost as fussy as a violin bow… oh, and you have to learn to operate the keyboard upside down and blind with your left hand because the keys need to fall back into place with the help of gravity. But those gurdies… oh so pretty.
There were also events for kids and for dancers and lots and lots of concerts for the public. Overall it was a quite well-run little festival and I met all sorts of interesting people –the girl from the outback who taught herself to play the gurdy and, of course, Morris dancers who happen to know people I know, because it is a small world after all.
May 2-5 The Upton on Severn Folk Festival (aka over 40 Morris sides taking over charming Upton Upon Severn) Tess and I met lots of Border sides, watched the dancing, went to ceildhs and pub music jams in the evenings. I danced at the celidhs and with some of the morris dancers… and it was a grand weekend in folkdance land!
After the Folk Fest Tess and I caught trains on fire (literally) up to Scotland and walked the Great Glen Way –a 73 mile walk from Fort William to Inverness. It was a grand adventure and my first long-distance walk. The highlands and he area around Loch Ness was magnificent, and reminded me so much of home that I know, or knew, that I thought: I could live here! I highly recommend the Bespokes Tour guide company that put together our lodgings, arranged the baggage transport and provided us with detailed info. So we knew if it was going to be an easy day strolling along the loch surrounded by moss and train-line ruins, or seriously hiking up and down the hillsides… and what the options were each day.
After the 5 day walk we returned to Aberystwyth and Tess helped me to set up the grad show! We went to a Bretton Dance potluck night and it was good to have a friend in Wales…. It was incredible to see someone I actually recognize for the first time in nine months… instead of just seeing snippets of people in strangers (oh, hey, that looks like so and so’s nose/hair/bodylanguage/ etc.)
Last weekend there was a free community festival in the local castle ruins called Castell Rock. It was fun for a bit of impromptu circus hooping, teaching kids how to walk on mini stilts and listening to some music... a glowing golden fog visited Aberystwyth for a few days so the misty backdrop surrounding the castle ruins and the stage was truly romantic. The sunset through the fogbank and dancing in the broken castle ruins surrounded by a stone circle at the end of the day with an enthusiastic crowd to the nine-piece energetic sounds of The Mighty FUOD is something I'll recall with enduring fondness.
And that takes me to June, and my dissertation. After chaining myself to the desk ten days in a row in an attempt to rough it out I believe I need a little break so I may traipse off to find St.Gofan’s well this weekend as it’s all research for my writing!
If I’m leaving many of the details out, it’s partly because there are just too many to dive into, partly because the pictures will each say at least a thousand words (apparently) and because I need to save some of my stories for when I return, for I should be back in time for Bowfest at the latest!
Ta rah!
Hax
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