The librarian's tangents.

Went on a photo walk on Saturday. Was a lovely time

Started at the Churchill Arms in Notting Hill, walked to Earl’s Court for the Great British Beer Festival, marred mainly by the fact that, as it was the last day, a LOT of beer had run out (which was more than a good deal of the audience could do – ba doom tish). Then it was away to the Gosh comics opening (sadly missing the Dave McKean signing but always lovely to see some of his artwork on show and finally off to Chin Chin Labs, one of my favouritist places on the planet. Liquid Nitrogen ice cream? Yes please. I always have the special (which on Saturday was Basil Choc Chip. Yum, honestly).

Anyhow: couple of sample pics and more here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/56759148@N00/sets/72157627254828691/

A title which made sense in my head, in some manner. Sometimes these things just fall on the screen in some way.

Click for larger version.

Actually, come to think of it, it came about as a tweet to someone who’d just come back from holiday and asked if they’d missed anything. Something along the lines of the title was my reply. Not that I’ve got anything against the Eiffel tower, or Paris, despite it being the fashionable comic book acceptable target for mass destruction of the moment.

(Image made from two photographs, digitally smurged about using Pixelmator and a couple of the in built filters, one of which Photoshop hasn’t got and is dead useful but one of which doesn’t work as well as it should – cough: looking at you, non off screen affecting Kaleidoscope filter cough- Macbook Pro).

Because painting this was way better than marking. That said: finished the marking today, phew…

So I’m taking some students to London in September and I thought I’d walk the ground and see where we can go. Suggested venues were the Tate Modern (mixed feelings), the V and A (love it) and the British Library (ditto). As the BL has a sci fi exhibition – which fits right in with what I’m aiming to do in term 1 – I wanted to check it out prior to possibly taking the students there. I’ve come away with mixed feelings. The exhib is very good and there’s a lot in the LIbrary to make a trip very much worthwhile but the inability to take photos for personal use is tricksome. Mulling it over now but that’s not a tick on the positives list.

Anyhow: enjoyed the library and then walked to Camden, which is something I may do with the students, to enjoy some places I thoroughly love: the lock, the Stables and Chin Chin labs, purveyors of fine ice cream made using liquid nitrogen. My daughter and I had a tin of something on a moped at the lock and then yummed down some Mexican Caramel ice cream and probably both wished we had space for two

Once we had the energy to get up and move on we went to the Tate Modern (a lot of lovely stuff in there but some pieces which beggar belief in their inclusion. I don’t think I’ll take the students there, although it’s a shared trip so depends on what the other teachers say. For a start it requires a lot of maturity to walk around and examine the contents and someone wishing to laugh it all off will find a lot to assist them). Personally I like more than I dislike in the galleries but, well, daughter was less impressed and she’s closer to the target age group than I am.

Finished off, wearily by that point, in the V and A. I wish I’d had more time to be there and more energy to walk around it more fully, but it’s an ace place and if we don’t do the Library that’ll be my second choice with no hesitations. The blue and green sculpture above the info point was screaming out to be photographed, so I did. For the most part I took very few pictures and drew pictures as it was a mix of a reccy and a day out with my daughter. That said: some pics here…

Which is as counterintuitive as it sounded but good fun with the company I had

The Yellow Brick Road.

Sunset Fish

(as ever, click for larger versions).

Not that it has to be made on Monday necessarily but… scary…

Basically I now have two choices in front of me: stay in the place I am knowing that it’s likely to get a HECK of a lot more stressful over the coming year and, worse still, by staying there I may well be targeted to be the fall guy for a departments failings or b: leave (or at least drop my hours to the extent that I’ve all but left) and concentrate on freelance again, which in itself is stressful but hopefully a lot more fulfilling.

Actually, written like that it seems a fairly cut and dried choice… But… there’s so many buts. We need a new roof on the house so it’s a terrifying time to make such a big decision. Similarly my son begins his new schooling at a special need secondary – scary (for both of us) but will staying at work give us solidity or a basis of stress that defines all else.

The main but is the biggest. I can’t imagine ever leaving a college group mid course, especially one that has had as fractious and infuriating a time as the one I’m currently working with. Without divulging too much of a staff team of five they’ve had two repeatedly off with long term illnesses and a lot of messing about with rooms and… well, all sorts… Myself and one other teacher have tried as hard as we could to keep things going on an even keel and for the students… I don’t know. The egotistical viewpoint would be to say that my leaving would affect the course badly, and I think it would have a detrimental effect. But I’m not irreplaceable, so should not assume to be so. But if they didn’t manage to appoint, or worse still the new appointee ended up causing more issues? I’d feel very bad, selfishly putting my hopes and dreams in front of the students welfare.

But then again I’d also be putting my health in front of that – this year has been very stressful and I’ve never felt as poorly in a range of ways.

Anyhow, this is the week of the decision I think, I just don’t know, for certain or sure, what the decision will be. Troubling. Wifey has suggested that now is the time for me to branch out of my own and I would still have teaching hours at the college, just not as many as I’ve had this year gone by. Then again, this year gone by has had a massively detrimental effect on most aspects of me.

Tricky. I think I know what the decision will come to be, then again I am often talked round. I don’t like upsetting people and students are asking me to let them know I’ll be there next year.

Sigh.

Different subject: as opposed to the SAR report I should currently be doing I did this.

((being a photo I took while walking my mum around a garden show. I do prefer the original, but like the idea of a pair of eyes being the windows to another garden…))

Waffle to come but took these pictures of the EV’d work yesterday.

Click for larger version.

Click for larger version.

Sigh, computer network crashed, taking out V1 of waffle. It may well have been a sign…

V2: the 29th of June has long been written on my calendar as the day of reckoning. I had an EV (an external verifier to check my marking and the students work – and this year we’d had a marvellous and frustrating bunch; brilliant kids but a very dysfunctional year and OH BOY had that shown in the final outcomes. I was very nervous coming into this EV). I also three classes, 2 induction day classes, an FS exam, four interviews and… Hmm think that’s it. Something had to give.

In the end someone covered one of my classes and the exam group covered the exam. Someone else covered the interviews (which he wasn’t overly happy about but he did help and I was grateful).

Which left the induction day classes which, to be frank, I could do standing on my head. I chose to do a spin on my abstract bugs pictures, which they enjoyed, but starting with a picture of their faces, which worked well. I’ve done it so often that I could rattle off the keyboard shortcuts without looking at the computer for confirmation which was good because, for the duration of the first session the computer wasn’t working and I had to do it all from memory.

Which left the EV (pics above). I spent yonks sorting out the room (thankfully very close to the room I had all of the sketchpads stored in. Bearing in mind I had to do 6 trips carrying the wretched things, and associated artwork, I was very grateful for that small fact), the paperwork, the pads into the correct order and so on and so forth. I think it went well. Certainly the feedback offered at the time seemed fair but the marks are the important thing and, like the students, I don’t find out the final mark until Aug 18th.

I survived, that’s the main thing. And hopefully the students have been agreed. We’ll see. but I feel a LOT calmer than I did a week ago, or at 9pm on Monday when I was fixing it all up and 11pm on the Tuesday when I got everything else sorted. By Weds am it had been a loooong week.

Back to reality now; three classes today, but a lot more chilled than it has been through the month. Except for the fact that my re-interview for my job is next week and I have to teach a 20 minute lesson to who knows who. About whatever I want. That’s my weekend planning though, for now it’s a chilled day. I’m determined.

(And then, yesterday, I spent a good portion of it sitting and chilling on a steam boat… But that’s another post).

Boston.com/bigpicture is one of my weekly web trawls for fascinating things to look at and the past week has been no exception. For a while it’s been very concerned with images of a very serious and sombre nature: images from warzones or natural disasters for example and these are very valid things to cover, journalistically…

But the big picture is never better when it covers the widest range of possible things, from seasons around the world to strange national pastimes and so on. So I was very pleased to see this update which looked at a range of balloons. Lovely, lovely, beautiful stuff. Well worth a look.

I didn’t mean to… I just had thirty minutes between finishing off sending out a couple of review copies of Sylver and getting back to do the school run (spoiler: walk) and the idea seemed too good to avoid. Actually it was nice, not stunning but pleasant enough and it gave me a good opportunity to grab the iPod touch and start drawing:

and take a couple of pics while I was at it.

Then, before I knew it I was back on the treadmill again. And now to sleep….