We’re back home now, after a tedious and somewhat uncomfortable train ride. We arrived at the station just after five am (ugh!), took my gran back to her house, stopped by tesco and then dragged ourselves to our own humble abode. I kept falling asleep in the car… And when we got home I had lots of mail waiting, which made me feel better haha. I had bought a book, a DVD and a sleeveless denim jacket online, and also had some letters from various people. Which included the “gift” from the band Little Fish. They were doing this promotional type thing where they would send 100 little drawings to the first people to sign up and I managed to get in. They do it now and again, so if you don’t get in the first time you can try another.

So I already went through most of the things we did in the other blog entry, but now I have photographs. This one is my brother and me sitting in Pizza Express, where we had dinner on our last day. I tried their new thing (well, I haven’t been in quite a while) where you kind of get a donut shape pizza with salad in the middle haha. I didn’t want to go for the usual pasta thing or veggie pizza, so I thought I’d try this and it was pretty good. I’m not a huge fan of pizza, but there weren’t a lot of options for dinner. I objected to going to another shitty Indian or Chinese place… I’ve had enough carbs this holiday. What is it with going on holiday and not getting any decent yet afforable food? Haha.

I may or may not have mentioned seeing Dirty Dancing in the previous post… They were sold out of Wicked tickets so we went to see Dirty Dancing instead. We being only my brother and I, since my gran wasn’t feeling too great after walking so much. My parents were going to the British Library together or somewhere in Leicester Square, I can’t remember. The musical was surprisingly good! I was a little wary after seeing the movie so many times, but I really really enjoyed it! My brother, Connor, did too, which surprised me aswell hahaha. The actors were very talented and it was a nice change for them to actually sing some of the songs: although they were mainly performed by the non-speaking parts. It was a little odd how they did some of the scenes, using a turning circular platform to change from scene to scene and having a car on the stage etc, but it was smartly written. Definitely recommend it to anyone that is ever in the area!

At the lack of remembering anything else… here’s a nice photograph of our Travelodge. No, I don’t recommend staying here if you can afford better haha.

I WILL write a better blog entry once I’m home, but thought I should at least write something while I have the internet. We – my brother and I – are sitting in the British Library on our last day here. The train home leaves around 9pm tonight I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE. I love it here. We’ve been staying nearby Camden and there’s still so much to see. Two and a half days is definitely not enough to do everything around here. I was actually expecting us to be in a more “posh” area of London – y’know with the bridge and Big Ben, etc? But we’re nowhere near there and haven’t visited once. Not that I’m complaining. It would have been nice to get some photographs to send people, but this area is entertaining enough and WAY to keen to steal my money. Well, my parent’s money, since I ran out and they’re so lovely and kind. HAHA.

I will upload photographs in the next few days and possibly show you what I brought, depending if I’m not too lazy after this. Let me tell you, the journey to and back from London SUCKS. We’re on the London Sleeper of whatever it’s called and we only get somewhat-reclining armchairs that are so frigging uncomfortable. I mean, what can you expect when you can’t afford First Class (which we have done a few times when going to Edinburgh and it’s super comfy) to get a bed haha. But, man, impossible to sleep. I’m hoping I’ll be so exhausted tonight that I’ll sleep easily.

So far I recommend the ‘rokit’ store on the Camden highstreet, which sells really cool vintage stuff. They have denim jackets, vest, leather jackets, old jeans, retro dresses, lots of bags & shoes, scarves (cheap, too! I have one wrapped around my head haha) and other cool things. I didn’t buy anything else apart from the scarf, but my brother bought a brown leather jacket with these huge shoulders hahaha. I had to convince him it looked good! “Wear it with confidence” I said, with a complacent smile across my face ^_^ …Anyway. Across the street and “upwards” a little bit is Camden Market, I think, which has lots of t-shirts, shoes and other various clothing. The sellers there are a lot more likely to give you a deal if you say you’ll come back later. For instance I was going to buy a skirt for £12, but wasn’t too sure I liked it. Then he lowered it to £10 and I just went for it. There was this funny guy selling all these Bob Marley t-shirts, Rastafarian hats (tried to convince me how real they were, but I saw them somewhere else too!) and bongs. We were standing at the stall looking around (I really wanted the hat… but £18? Seriously!?) and then the t-shirts near the ground began shaking. I was like “oh my god, what’s down there?” and after a while the guy just poked his head through the t-shirts and was all “How you doin, man?” It was hilarious. Dreadlocks and whatnot. A little cliche, but I couldn’t stop laughing.

So the trip has mainly been shopping, but there are so many streets so it takes up a lot of time. We also went to see ‘Dirty Dancing’ at the theatre, which was so good! I was so sad when it finished And we were just far away enough that we couldn’t see their faces, so it didn’t seem too much like they were different people from the movie. They added quite a few new jokes, which made it a little better. And obviously, there isn’t any singing in the movie. The singers were mainly non-speaking parts, but they were incredibly talented! I’ll look up their names in the programme later…

Anyway, I’m talking an awful lot and should leave some more for when I upload the photos. Bye for now! And sorry for such a blank blog entry.

Know what? I feel sorry for the bands playing at the same time as huge artists such as Paolo Nutini or Eminem. Y’know how they have different stages? Edith Bowman was going on earlier today about how they had the HUGEST crowd at the main stage… whereas the poor NME stage was looking a little bare!

They’re probably sitting backstage thinking, “No-one’s coming to see us v_v.” Hahaha.

Ah well! I really do wish I was there: it looks insanely fun. But because of my poor, pathetic age, I’d have to go with a parent and that just isn’t cool. At all. BUT my dear lovely mother has allowed me to go next year if I get together a group. Which is A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

I’ve been watching the replays and live streams from the BBC and have so far seen Paolo Nutini, The Courteeners, Florence, Ellie Goulding, and other various bands I will remember at a later date… maybe. I have yet to see Eminem and The Prodigy, but I’m looking forward to that!

Hope all of you that ARE at TITP are having a great time and you should leave a comment on your little vacation once it’s over =)!

Click here for more…

And now a “self-portrait”…

Both taken in 2008, now edited and uploaded. Voila!

I want to change the way I write my blog. So expect a bunch of pictures, quotes, random snippets and stuff from now on. I’m done writing. If I ever have the time to write, it’s going to be for my novel or some paid job. Or something I feel strongly about that needs to be spread to the public!

Be safe!

Dana x

I finally used my film camera after all of these months. The shots aren’t great, but a few came out that I really liked!

I just watched an amazing film by director Alexis Dos Santos called ‘Unmade Beds’. The style of the movie and a little of the plot actually inspired me to turn my huge novel idea into a screenplay instead and I finally know where I want to go with my own story.

I really loved how dreamlike the film was and the parts where there were several clips one after the other, some had sound, some didn’t. Unless that was my TV being screwed up…

The part with the threesome of two guys and one girl… I kind of realised the director has a bit of a thing for including a scene like that in his films. He did the same thing in his movie Glue, which is about a plot I have yet to fully understand. Which I kind of like about his films… they’re a little no-plotty, while still keeping viewers’ interest and being sort of artsy. That’s sort of what I would like my films to be. I like the whole dark, finding yourself, poisoning yourself with booze and sex, there isn’t actually a plot in this movie about my life, abrupt ending, sort of stuff. Haha! That sounds real dumb, right?

Well, Unmade Beds is a bit hard to summarise too, so go and check it out! I was lucky enough to get the Review Copy for £1.75 on eBay, instead of paying well over a tenner for the DVD =D

I have a new OLD photo, if that makes sense. Basically I found it in a folder with pictures from Amsterdam and my German exchange, thinking it was one of the crap ones. I had a lot of those… But realised that with a little editing, it was actually pretty damn good. Maybe you don’t think so, but I really liked how it turned out! Click on the photo to be taken to the dA page, where you can find my gallery with more new stuff.

Well, technically. I finished displaying my GCSE art exhibition at school lol. I think it looks alright, but I didn’t have a lot of time to make it fancy or anything, but I don’t think that was a priority or anything. My photography sketchbook went missing though, which is really fucking annoying. It was by far the best out of the four and I was proud of all my photographs. Even though my art teacher says she can “appeal” and say I did the work, it’s disappointing that I won’t get to show it off. She’s still convinced it will show up though haha. Even if I don’t get to submit it, I’d still want it back one day…

Really nice sunsets lately and the weather has been good enough the past month to go to the beach regularly where I live. It’s awesome. I’m also really wanting to start photography again soon, like really getting into it. I’m developing a film at the moment, so hopefully it turns out well!

I’m trying to make some money by selling photographs. I owe money to my mum, my brother and possibly a friend too: I’ll explain later. And I really need to start saving for college, because I desperately want to study abroad and it’s pricey. I’m going in town tomorrow to hand CVs to various places, but I figured I should try this too. So if you like my prints, please consider ordering some as it will be helping me a lot. Frames are also available, just ask me!

Click here for print gallery

Sparkler fun! =)