Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Glasgow: One week later.

So enough dilly-dallying around! Time for some serious posting!
Let's start at the beginning: Thursday Oct 18
Trip to the airport started us off at a bright and early (only not so) 6:30 in the morning to get on the Tube to get on an overground train to get the bus to get us to the airport by 9 am. It was fairly uneventful getting there and even on to the plane, though I did meet almost everyone Cassie works with in that span of check in and boarding which made it kind of confusing when trying to figure out who people were later. The flight was amazingly short and smooth, I barely had time to realize we were in the air and freak out. We got to walk around Glasgow a bit once we got there because our hotel rooms weren't going to be ready for a few hours. They held our bags for us though, which was nice. Downtown was just a few blocks from our Hotel so we all headed out to get something to eat. After trying several places to seat 18 people we end up splitting up, Cassie, Aoibhean (Ee-Bv-an), Erika, Michelle and I ended up eating at a Spanish "Tapas" restaurant that was pretty tasty. Note: Tapas just means little appetizer sized dinner things that you are supposed to order like 3 of each I have Cassie begging me to make a Tortilla now because I got her to try one there. After lunch Cassie and I meandered around downtown Glasgow for a few hours before going back to the hotel for a quick rest before trekking out to find the Pizza Express. Which we walked 3 sides of a square to find. We were late, but we found it, enjoyed our pizza and most of us went home. It really wasn't that eventful, the next day though, that was crazy. Friday started my first, most people's second, Model Comp event. We got up early, had a hotel breakfast and all packed into the coach (bus). The mall we get too is really really nice, big open area with a glass roof and the goodie bag pallets are right next to the elevator. This is very important, as we discovered the boxes used to ship the goodie bags were not strong enough most times to actually hold what was packed in them, so they would crush or tear if you looked at them wrong. This naturally made it very difficult to carry. So Cassie and I found ways to worm out of it. We had to make Jeff's scripts and go sandwich shopping for the crew. By sandwich shopping I mean going into Marks & Spenser (think a step above JC Penny's but with a food store) and get 30 pre-made sandwiches of all varieties and bring them back along with at least 12 2-liter bottles of water. Pre-made sandwiches here are delicious, even if you have to HUNT for one that does not have mayo or a soft cheese on it. During this and most of our time working we were followed by the most incompetent and rude person in the group, who shall remain nameless. She made Cassie and I both feel very angry and unappreciated throughout the trip even when we had done twice the work she had. On more than one occasion she was snappy for no reason other than she was hung over and over bearing. I threatened to Cassie to stop working if her attitude didn't change, that's how bad she was. Thankfully we weren't the only ones who had problems with her and everyone in charge knew that. But back to Glasgow. I really felt bad for some of the girls who walked through the line, they seemed so hopeful to get scouted, but there was no way in hell that they would be models. This is coming from someone who will also never be a model, not even a plus sized one. I had to herd a number of girls past their tall chosen friend to stand beyond to wait for her when they would all pool up behind her waiting for their scouting. It literally left me feeling like the I'd just told them that Santa was dead or something like that. Not that too many girls in Glasgow got scouted. It was a rough town, which typically means rough looking people. Some of the girls were pushing baby carriages and you know that the baby inside was their's. This was a competition for 13-17 year old girls. A number had tattoos and badly done piercings, or where just plain missing teeth. Really some of them would have been quite pretty if they just took a squeegee to their face and got off the 2 inches of makeup they were wearing badly. Cassie stopped two girls who looked 14 easily with their height, clothes and makeup. They were 11. It made me want to dry inside, as there is no way I'm letting any 11 year old I ever have try to grow up that fast. I really like my mom's rule of one type of make up at a time starting at 13. Start with eye shadow, at fourteen get blush, and so on until you know... 16 when you start going to high school dances and really it's not crazy to wear. I'm not saying that you're a bad parent if you let your little girl wear makeup, just don't make her grow up too fast, you'll miss her. Anyways, there weren't many girls coming through and we ended up staying an hour after we were supposed to close, sending many a 8 year old through with a suspicious glance and a goodie bag, we finally closed up with an extra 100 or so goodie bags still in boxes behind us. We loaded everything back onto the bus and headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner. At this point Cassie and I got gussied up like no other to go out with everyone after more Pizza Express. We found the second Pizza Express much easier with 7 goodie bags in hand for our servers, managers and whom ever when we got there as we had a group of 26 people to seat and feed. Every one there was happy to have really started the tour and Cassie and I made friends with Xavier, one of the makeup artist. He and I ended up splitting 2 and a half bottles of wine before we left, making the evening quite entertaining. Dinner took a while because of the size of our group but it was all good fun. We left dinner to proceed to a beautiful Victorian building with a really cool little bar inside. Soho Bar, I think it was called. They played great music and I learned something important. American's dance like hookers. Feet planted, butt shaking. English? Think 1980's swinging arms and touch-steps. It's pretty difficult to try and change your style of dancing after 5 or so glasses of wine at dinner but Cassie and I managed it by the end of the evening. Everyone had a lot of fun, especially as we practically ran the bar. I didn't drink any at the bar because I didn't bring any cash with me, but it was kind of nice to sober up a bit before attempting to get home. When we all did decide to leave we tried to get a taxi for the 6 of us that were all going together. Cassie called a cab over and it's sat 5. So what does she do? She shoves us all in a taxi and walks off by herself! She literally shoved me in the taxi and shut the door, then made sure the taxi left before I could turn around and get out. I didn't want her walking home alone, but it ended up working out as she escorting two of our tiny female models home a block from where she shoved us in a taxi. I ended up waiting for her in the lobby of the hotel until she got home. But she got home safe and sound. We left for Sheffeild the next morning.

Friday, October 26, 2007

NOOOOO!

my turtle broke! the little stem holding him on the chain just broke in half today! i am devistated.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

**Names changed protect the innocent

I'm back from the first leg of the Sucrose/ Remmil** makeups tour. Updates on their way as we speak.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Ten Day Break! Exciting!

Tomorrow begins my ten day break. Really that's a day early, but I'm spending it with Cassie working a Modeling Competition all over England. Actually our first stop is in Glasgow, then to Sheffield followed by Manchester and then Norwich before a day off home in London. After that there are two smaller day trip things to cities I can't remember.
*** Because I will be traveling I will have very limited use of a computer, as such I won't be on AIM or Skype from here until Wednesday. I will try to check my email every or every other day. ***
Work was very, very , very slow this week. Adrian is in Holland and no one knows when he'll be back. Without him there isn't much work to be done. Though yesterday I spend the day turning a manikin into a dress form. That was actually a lot of fun and it involved power tools. I felt very proud when I was done. Chris is going to hopefully show me how to cover it in linen when I get back from break. Monday I spent in Shepard's Bush with Ginny looking for fabrics for a mermaid costume they are working on. She told me that it seemed like I was the one who had lived in London for 20 years, not her as she was very confused by the tubes we had to take to get out there. She hadn't ever been out to the shops there. It was actually kinda cool, because for once the shop keepers weren't all snooty. They generally are because they think I'm so little fashion student looking for free samples, when really I'm a work-study kid looking for free samples. I ended up staying up way WAY past my bed time last night as I had a paper due this morning. And I'm a terrible terrible procrastinator. But it got done and now I'm off to bed so that I can be well rested for tomorrow's journey. Which starts at 6:20 tomorrow morning. Gag me.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

So remember how I said my day Friday was interesting....

It just got weirder.
It all started with Alicia, Morgan and I getting all gussied up and attempting to find a bar or club we hadn't been to going to like crazy before the covers started. As we are cheap and refuse to pay cover. We ended walking around, getting badly hit on by 3 different men all trying entirely too hard to score with us. Alicia made the deadly mistake of attempting to be nice in telling them to go away. By nicely I mean by making eye contact, attempting to talk to them and not saying flat out that she wasn't interested or ignoring them outright like Morgan and I. They obviously had some liquid courage in them, and where rather persistent. That is until I gave them the Evil Eye of Doom (r). They left quickly after that. We ended up just stopping by a store, picking up some cider and going back to Morgan and Alicia's flat. Where Alicia proceeded to get Scwasted as she puts it. And that she did. Much tomfoolery happened. It was a fun evening, but no pictures where taken. Which really is better for Alicia, as she was not in a good state to have photos taken of her. Even if they were just to help her remember. I ended up going back to my flat just as she was getting sick and Shane and Willie are heroes because of how they helped Morgan and Paula take care of Alicia.
Saturday I went shopping with Morgan, bought a few things like a denim skirt and cute hoodie, and a few other things. Mainly just had a bonding day with my favorite Morgan. I helped her find a cheapish hotel for her and her boyfriend to stay in when he comes to visit that was close to the study center. After we went to a pub to watch the best rugby game ever. Watching England beat France and the Beast go down!( He's the guy in blue.) He's friggin scary, a caveman. Google French beast and you'll see who I mean. He's vicious on the field too. It was intense game. England own the semifinals and the finals will be played next weekend, while I'm in Glasgow with Cassie. Which maybe a little dangerous, as the Scots don't like the English. But I'm watching that game!
Today I slept in late, was generally pretty lazy. Morgan and I went to the Barbican to see their new exhibit, Seduced: Sex in Art from Antiquity to Modern Day, with the special event of a live quartet playing classically inspired soundtrack for them. The music was great, a lot of Spanish tango and similar music with Bach and Mozart mixed in. It was really awesome. It wasn't too long, but really really interesting.
Over all a really good weekend, even if not too eventful. Next week brings Model Comp, which means a lot of traveling and not much internet time. I'll explain more tomorrow for now, sleep. Night guys.

Friday, October 12, 2007

CRAZY Friday

Woah man! I showed up at work at 9 this morning, after leaving everyone still working at 7 last night, and everyone was there like they had never left. I was working non-stop (except for my 20 minute lunch) from the moment I got there until 5. Hand sewing, pinning, moving things, packing, counting, and other such jobs. It was a mad rush to get two shows out of the shop today, one had to be done by 3 as Boss had a plane to Holland and it had to go with him. The second was at 5, and it was the last of that show and I was in charge of finishing it up. 30 men's coronation robes, 8 Dukes, 10 Viscounts and 12 lower....guys.... I don't remember the name. All of them had to be assembled and finished. That was my job, the finishing. Finishing is trimming all the seams, tacking down the edges, and generally making sure everything looks nice and professional. In this case I had to fluff seams in fur (yes, more effing fur) and tack down the collar of the fur half of the robe over the stitching for the ties so they didn't look machine made. Time consuming and not very exciting. And dangerous to finger tips. I had to clean one of the robes today because I stuck my finger and didn't realize it was bleeding until the blood was on the robe. Thankfully the fur was fake and plastic is easy to clean. Still annoying though, especially as I proceeded to do the same thing minus the getting it on the robe 4 more times. Over all it was interesting to meet the new people they brought in just for the day and see every single person in the place on a sewing machine or at a cutting table working. Even Ginny who I had no idea even knew how to work a machine. Not that I didn't think she was capable, I'd just only ever really seen her walk through and work on her computer. It was really kinda cool. Once 5 hit though, everything stopped. Well, everything was done. Today was the first day in weeks where we reached a stopping point before dark. Which! comes at 6... in the span of 5 minutes. There is no transition, it's like someone flips a switch! It freaks me out! and this just started happening this week. Last week the sun would go down during my tube ride home, so it seemed like it would take longer.... I guess. I dunno, it just didn't bother me. I'm not sure why this does really. Anyways, I've no food in the fridge. So forage for food I must. Off!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Happy 4 Years to Greg and Me

Quote of the Day: "Well it's good for a woman to have a soft job like Theatre, you know, not a real job like men are supposed to have."
Gee Thanks. Make me feel good about myself. Ass.
I heard that from one of the fabric store owners that I visited today. I'm the company go-fer at the moment, but it's good because I'm learning London better. It's actually kinda cool to walk around with a big roll of fabric and a bag of notions feeling all important. Though they do seem to enjoy sending me out for the fabric that *no one* in London has. EVER.
************
ok, typing over. i just burnt the back of my hand on the oven door. I'm gunna go nurse that.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Brighton!

Hooray for Day Trips!
Today's trip was to the picturesque sea side beach town of Brighton!
Ok, never tell a Floridian kid that a bunch of wet rocks that happen to be on the edge of the water is a beach. It was a fairly pretty little city though, with the Royal Pavilion and the Brighton Pier. We toured the Royal Pavilion, but weren't allowed photos inside. :( Sad face. It was amazing in there though, Indian-esque on the outside and Chinese on the inside. With dragons and snakes all over the place, and the most beautiful wall hangings. It took along time to get through it, even though the Pavilion wasn't very big by Palace standards. After that I ate lunch with Bama, Travis, Courtney, Hannah and Rachel. We played on the "beach" for a while, fascinated by the stones and crystal clear water. Imagine, the Atlantic looking like the Gulf. No lie. We eventually made it over to the Pier that everyone was comparing to Conney Island. Having never been there it just reminded me of a permanent clean State Fair. I didn't ride any of the rides, not my thing, but I got a few good shots of others riding them. We didn't stay too long as we had to be on the bus by 3:30. I wish we'd had a little longer, even an hour more to stay. It was really just a little short. The bus ride was terrible though, so bad one girl got motion sick, and I nearly did too. I don't get car sick. Gah. But now I'm home, with work in the morning and pictures to caption.

Yesterday Cassie, Crystal and I spent a few short hours at the British Museum. We say the Asian countries, and we're planning on going back to see at least the African ones as well. They let you take photos in there too! So I have a feeling I'm going to have a MILLION! I already have near 100 from our short 2 hours there. Greg, there is a photo of a full Samurai suit of armor that I thought you would love. Enjoy.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Religion in Ireland

Sunday was a much more relaxed day for us. We got up a little early as we had decided to go to Mass Sunday morning at the Cathedral right near our hostel. Little did we know it was a Latin Mass with readings in English. The service itself was beautiful and uplifting, all about how God grants each person talents and how they should strive to use them for the good of the world. The boy's choir was amazing, they had apparently recorded a CD recently that was getting rave reviews all over the world. But before the service I had a very surreal experience. My grandmother died a few years ago, and due to summer classes I chose to not go see her at her death bed. It was a decition that I haven't really forgiven myself for ever since. A year later I went to Rome on a trip and started a ritual of my own. If I go into church and it has offertory candles I light one in memory of my grandmother. It's just what I do, and I hadn't explained this to anyone in my group, or anyone around me. I just noticed on my way into the cathedral that the candles where there. After my group set down I left my bag with them and went to the back. As I was kneeling to say my respects a woman comes up to me and puts her hand on my shoulder. "Today is her day" is all that she said to me before she lit a candle herself and kneeled down. At that I broke down in tears. For once though they were not tears of sadness, but relief and almost joy. I have no idea how she knew what to say, or even if she knew the weight of what she said. I was still in a strange state when we left so that is one place I forgot to take photos of.

Ireland Part Deux!

So one full week later I finally get around to this. I left off at the end of Friday night, right? Right. Saturday morning we got up bright and early to get on the bus that takes you to Limerick where we were going to change buses to go to the Cliffs of Moher. We had a slight freak out as we nearly missed the bus out of Dublin, but we didn't and had a fairly comfortable four hour bus trip. When we get to Limerick we realize there is something wrong. The bus to the Cliffs left just 10 minutes before we got there... and the next one leaves in a little over an hour.... but it wouldn't be getting back until AFTER our bus to Dublin would leave without us. Yeah. So we ended up just staying around in Limerick. A city we had never heard of. But it ended up being a very VERY cool place. We meandered into the best cafe in the world, Greene's. We all had Thanksgiving Dinner, no lie, only they called it turkey and bacon. Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots and all of it was so tasty! I didn't have that, but a sammich with the turkey and salad and cranberry sauce. Goodness, it was so good I remembered a week later. Later in the day we went to King John's Castle, which was made fun by the fact that they let us climb all over every thing. AND the boys got to help the worker guy Sean launch the catapult into the river. I got a video of it, and here it is on Google Video. They'll be internet famous! If you listen closely you'll hear Sean say "thee" instead of "you" to Shane and Willie. He was pretty awesome. Sean let us climb all over everything we weren't supposed to climb on. We split up in the afternoon and Cassie, Shane, Willie, Emma and I went down along the river. The boys were looking for clovers. We ended up finding wild blackberries (Tasty!) and wild horses! Then it started raining. Hard. It was kinda terrible and then we lost the other girls, Katie, Shannon, and Alison. Cassie and the boys went down one side of the road and Emma and I down the other. Emma and I ended up going into a church to see if the girls had gone inside. Inside we found the nicest old ladies who hadn't seen our friends but chatted with them a little while. They told us to be careful, that Limerick wasn't what it used to be. We thanked them for their time and headed out to Cassie and the boys. When we all met up and went to a pub to watch the rest of the rugby game and warm up/dry off. Shortly after we headed back to the bus station, met up with the others and got on our bus home. We were probably the most annoying people on the bus, but it was a nice trip. Deffinately worth the bus trip, even if we didn't get out to the Cliffs of Moher.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Ireland Write-up: Part 1

This is the first free time I've had since returning from Dublin where I have not promptly passed out. I did manage to post some new photos, like Katie's 21st and a few of my co-workers and my place of employ. Ireland photos will be up shortly.

First off, Ireland is the most amazingly awesome place I have ever visited. The people there were the kindest I have ever met outside of small towns in the South. And this is in the biggest city, Dublin. I arrived, got a little turned around, but found my hostel and friends rather quickly. We were in a pub within the hour and enjoying very expensive drinks with a new person, Bryan, who was coincidently from back home. He was really really cool, but I don't have a photo of him as of yet. I'm still in the process of stealing everyone's photos from Facebook and captioning them all to be posted online. I had a grand ol' time with my flatmate Katie and a new girl, Alison. Never buy a drink in Temple Bar on Temple Bar. It's crazy expensive. I did end up drinking quite a lot of my cherished Cider. Mmmmm Cider. We went to 3 different bars, but I can only remember the name of the first, Temple Bar, and the last, Porterhouse. I remember the name of the last one because Bryan couldn't. We ended up meeting two Irish guys who were bound for NYC on Wednesday. I danced with one, whose name I never got. He was fun, very flirty. We were actually listening to a one man band, who played dueling banjos. By HIMSELF, and it sounded pretty damn good. We went home after last call, 3 am. We got in so late and after so much drink it was actually fairly difficult to set up my sheets. I ended up sleeping on top of my duvet covered by my sheet and trench coat.
Saturday we got up early, went down to discover my *lovely* breakfast. A cold slightly old roll with watered down OJ and a decent cup of tea. I ate as I knew we had a four hour bus trip a head of us.