Today I had a bit of a mixed medium day - I went to UWE (University of the West of England) in Bristol to look around their science communication centre and to talk about maybe doing the post graduate certificate there. Being me I arrived stupidly early and was doing my normal clumsy performance with my paper work and bag and what not. My legs have also not recovered from the poetry festival yet so I found keeping up with the lovely woman who was showing me around a bit hard but I managed it.
The university campus is quiet different to UCL and IC and for that matter the OU - there was lovely wall art/graffiti type stuff with inspiring messages through out the place - they are more the sort of thing I would have expected at a six form college - but I love this type of art work so annoyed students by getting in there way to take pictures.
They also had a random fruit and veg stall inside!
The department itself looked pretty much like others I have been in that have not yet had some sort of corporate make over. There were examples of publications and works of the students on the walls and an air of hard work. I feel I was't my normal energetic self as I was having a mild flare up but then in many ways this is a good thing as I needed to check I could get about on a not so good day anyway.
As many of you know I came out of the failed to complete MRes experience knowing that I enjoyed putting together my talk and writing the essays more than I probably should have - add that to the fact that I have been building myself up as a writer and artist over the last few years and the natural shift is obvious - science communication. I've been looking at this course for a while and got a prospectus last year and have tracked down people who have done the course and spoken to friends at the uni about what it is like.
The course sounds more doable due to the structure of it than the MRes was as I like to focus on things - it is in blocks of 3 days which means it is less travel time etc... than what I was doing before which was all evenings and in London. I also now live in walking distance to the train station that takes me to the train station in Bristol I need which is a vast improvement!
I am applying for the bursary but there is only one so it is unlikely that I will get it though I have already writing the first draft of an article for it. Alaric also things this is far more doable than last time - we are in a more stable position and I have back up money for it in case and it is going be less of an issue with finding child care solutions.
Having said all this I am still nervous that I will not get a space or that something will go wrong but I still have to try. And that leads me to module choices - I want to do them all to be honest :/
After the meeting I wondered out to meet Al who was in Bristol (almost getting myself hit by a car as I was looking the wrong way :/ due to being confused about traffic flow and the round about! I also had my waist length hair down which was stupid as it was sooooo windy). He popped over to pick me up and whilst I was waiting I found goslings!
The photos are not brilliant as the light levels kept changing and it was soooo windy - I tied my hair up!
There were ducks and moles too!
I also found a bench with The Personal is Political written on it.
Once home we went to get a cat tree to stop the kitten shredding everything - Mary was not impressed that I had gotten out of the car without her again at Bristol so was very clingy - as was the kitten.
When I got home - I sat down in the nursing chair for a rest and... was instantly covered in cute things!
Animals, Art and Craft, Domestic, Events and Outings, Health, Jean, Mary, Sarah, Sci/Tech, The Family, Work, Writing | sarah | 
Thu 9th May 2013 11:26 pm | 
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An interesting Facebook meme caught my attention - I was given an age an a list of questions which I had to answer for then and now. People who liked the update were given their own ages to do by me 🙂
When I was 21:
I lived: In shared rooms in Everlyne Gardens in South Kensignton with many other students discussing science and philosophy and art into the night.
I drove: myself on work, working harder and smarter for my degree - finally I felt I knew how to do this academic stuff.
I worked: at the student union stewarding events during term time with Tuesday afternoons given up to sieving out bats teeth from cave sediments at the Natural History Museum. During the holidays I was an Outdoor pursuit instructor and site mantance bod at Thriftwood Campsite -sometimes they left me in charge.
I feared: Failure, the dark and other people, but mainly that the Drs said I possible had two chronic conditions one degenerate and the other with a age cap of 30 on average.
I wanted: to change the world, be an astrobiologist or look at human origins.
I wanted to write stories that captured the imagination and be a TV science documentary person. I wanted to show the world the wonder of science, to sing and dance and perform on stage. I wanted things to work out with this guy I'd just met...
Now I'm 32:
I live: in Gloucester with that guy I met and our two kids and our cats and our rabbit... there is lots of purple and butterflies and books and rocks.
I drive: when the instructor calls but am finding it hard.
I work: mainly snuggling little ones but also blogging, writing fiction, performing poetry, running craft workshops, baking cakes, creating science-art and trying to save the world one bit of inspiration at a time.
I fear: loosing my family
I want: to be well, to have a body that works but failing that just to do as much as I can.
Unfortunately we only caught an hour or so of the final night party Poetry Riot of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival - but what an hour with Trevor Meaney (yes not good photos but light levels were really low by this point as was my energy!):
And the sadly hilarious Clayton Blizzard with his whispered poetry and folk/rap songs that you are either going to laugh or cry or both too.
It was great fun though we sadly missed Mark Neil performing though I almost crashed into him at the top of the stairs and said my normal hello and he responded with his (I can't remember who you are) smile like normal 🙂 - Alaric appears to have transmogrified into Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi.
No really look!
I took embarrassing photos of the interns 🙂 (who should start a comedy show up!)
And I took arty pics of people taking much better pictures than me!
Other photos of events can be found at Write Out Loud and Bilt Photography (which is where my current profile picture on FB comes from!).
You can probably tell that I really really enjoyed the festival 🙂
It's been hard to get the veggies going this year but yesterday thanks to turning our dinning area into a make shift green house, we had our first home grown salad of the year.
Mary has been helping me pot out seedlings most of which actually survived the lovings of a two year old!
I have courette and pumpkin plants planted out in grow bags - I am in dispare over getting an allotment at the moment, there just simply is not enough space to grow what we want. For a start I didn't want to really be growing stuff in the 'grassy' area, for a start it is supposed to be a nice garden area and secondly we can not make it look nice whilst I am growing things on it.
At the moment we radishes almost ready for first pickings and various salad leafs, there are peas and beans and root crops in various containers. The apple tree and blueberry bushes have all survived the winter though the new redcurrents and black current bushes did not survive a late frost much to my upset.
Jeany is being very good about watering the pots and has her own little butterfly corner developing, also I shouldn't moan as the salad was very tasty and Mary eat the bowl of it I was going to put in the fridge for today's lunch!
And also we have been enjoying the sunshine and having summer cocktails and everything 🙂 Still no BBQ this year yet though 🙁
This month I am gearing up for Festival season proper as well as doing my normal two challenges - this months are National Picture Book Writing Week (NaPiBoWriWee) in which I will be attempting to write 7 picture books in 7 days. I have already completed the first draft of number one. This is obviously only the first week of May so I normally then follow it with a month of working on my kidlit stuff. The aim is an hour a day working on editing, redrafting and illustrations.
The second challenge is a month of writing flash fiction - the aim is one a day. Flash fiction are stories under 1000 words. I wont be posting them daily but rather getting ahead of myself for the Friday Flash postings I take part in.
Apart from that I have a lot of blogging to catch up on and editing of short stories to be sent off there is also the processing of festival photos to happen this month!
Children book and illustration stuff appears on Orange Monster
Poetry Festival write up stuff will be on here and Turquoise Monster
Flash Fiction is Magenta Monster
Photos in general go out on Salaric Photography
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