Goodbye 2013 (Happy New Year)

This year has definitely been one of the busiest and so much has changed since it began. I have lived in 3 different places in two different countries (doesn't that make me sound like the jet-setter), have worked as part of a household unit abroad, and in a charity in London. I was lucky enough to be able to travel around Italy, look after two very special kids, and make friends from all over the place. I started university, met some lovely people who I can now call best friends. I made my first ever short film. It has been crazy and strange and full of lots of new things, so goodbye to 2013.

Hope you have a happy new year filled with lots of laughter. Happy New Year :)

PS the video above is a taster of the one I am making of 2013. Have got quite a lot of footage to go through though.

On traditions and family.

A little film about Christmas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtZjz20ZqTs

This festive season has really made me appreciate my family, and the closeness between us, the way we spend boxing day playing hysteria-inducing games such as 'reindeer-hoopla' (which involves the family wearing antlers and throwing paper rings at each other's head) and Musical chairs, which my 82-year-old grandfather still delights in. It always end with us collapsed on the sofas with tears of laughter running down our faces while the Christmas music still plays softly in the background.

I love how we always dance around as we decorate the 'tree of horrors' and then revel in its horrific nature when we are done. It's a tradition that we decorate it until it nearly topples over just to make it as tacky and gaudy as possible.

I love how Christmas morning is always spent with our closest neighbours catching up with chat and nibbles as the girls show us their gifts and we all feel merry in each other's company. 

 I love how we always take silly family photos much to Grandma's dismay - 'you young people, always taking photographs.'

I love how we always go to Somerset House to ice-skate, (we're pretty sure it was our 11th year this year) a few days after Christmas with our favourite friends-who-are-like-family, it's a time for catching up, a lovely skate and a walk back along the north bank of the river followed by a feast of a dinner back at our house before funny party games are played late into the night. I love these people. Here's to another 10 years of skating.

Merry Christmas indeed. Hope all your Christmases were wonderful, and that New Year is good to you.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Hope that your Christmases were as fun and festive as ours, we saw lots of lovely family, indulged in delicious food and felt very lucky to both give and receive thoughtful gifts. Feeling blessed (and full)

Merry Christmas!

The Annual Neighbourly Camp Out!

[Disclaimer: this is a post I wrote in August and forgot to publish. Thought I might as well now]

Every year for the past few, all our neighbours have spent one weekend each summer camping together, we cook over a fire, find big hills for sunset watching (then subsequently miss the sunset usually), toast marshmallows, go for long walks, climb and swing through the trees on makeshift rope swings, stargaze, giggle, and chat long into the night, singing and strumming by the fire before we all get as warm as we can in sleeping bags and begin again the next day.

It is wonderful. It's so nice to escape the city sometimes, breathe fresh air, forget any worries and log off the internet.

This year, we headed to Hampshire for the weekend and set up camp in the woods (but not too far from the loos!) - it was gorgeous and felt like we could be in the middle of nowhere far far away from the city.

Here are some photographs from our trip:

Things that happened this year: the synchronised wake up, the tooth brush dance, the 'Fresh b-m' joke, guitar strumming into the night, the time when we got seen frolicking by the owner and he eventually joined in which had us in hysterics, singing the sound of music, going for long walks, a visit to the town to pick up ice lollies and to find the house we always dance in front of, getting the rope swing stuck over the tree, having our camp invaded by random strangers one morning as they got lost when walking the dog, lots of lovely conversation and singalongs and funny games. I have so much love for this crazy bunch of people and am very happy that they always let me gatecrash their camping trips :)


Are you a fan of camping? Any funny stories to share?

Channeling Rapunzel.

These are some of the final images for one of my photography modules based on the theme of MYTH, I chose to focus on a modernised Rapunzel and the little details within the scene I had created.

The shoot day was great, we went to the park early in the morning, blasted Taylor Swift music from our phones and got a lot of funny looks from strangers, the tripod I was using is not very subtle. Very thankful for a friend willing to model though.

'Lost' - My 1st short film,

Can't believe that I actually get to say this, but I made a short film as part of film school. I still can't quite grasp the fact that I got onto a film course and get to study the art of film-making. As cheesy/cliche as it sounds, I'm so happy/blessed/lucky to get to be studying what I love in a beautiful city by the sea.

Anyway, enough of the gushing, onto the film.

The brief was a film. Any topic. 3 minutes.

Looking back, I'm not entirely sure where my idea came from, or why I decided for it to be so sad, but my main focus was the editing and the shots I would shoot rather than the story I would write. I've never been a writer, I didn't want the film to have dialogue. But without the voice-over that is in it, it wouldn't be complete - those are my thoughts anyway.

It was so much fun to make, we shot on 4 different days, went on location, shot alternate endings, cried with laughter while trying to make each other properly cry, wasted 3 onions, told many sad dog stories, spent many late nights in the editing room toying with where the plot should go and had a very good time. I really enjoyed the whole process and was really happy with how the film turned out.


Hope you enjoy. Let me know any comments/constructive criticisms.

Life Lately.

Life lately has been strange and wonderful and tiring and hard and full of new experiences. I can't believe I have been at university for nearly 6 weeks and how much things have changed but I am loving it (for the most part.)

I spend my days making films, taking photographs, listening to passionate people talk about how much they love creating art in class and trying to keep on top of everything. 

Nights are different, some nights will be spent dancing to 90s music surrounded by friends, others filled with laughter and movies, some spontaneous with a dip in the sea or a walk to see the sunset, others are work nights where we all stick our heads in our books and try to get things done. Sometimes there are water fights, or pranks or nerf gun wars and other times, I spent hours in the dark room developing films I have taken with a very patient friend. There have also been the very strange nights where we are stuck inside due to a burst pipe flooding our courtyard or the one time my flatmate and I spent the evening in A&E when he collapsed in the living room one afternoon (luckily he's fine now) - experiences like that really make me appreciate how much people have come to mean to me and how grateful I am about who I live with (for the most part hehe!) 

I am loving it for the most part and that is mostly thanks to the little family I now have here, being the 5 people that I live with, the 4 across the hall and the 3 upstairs. They are the best companions for adventures and fun nights and I love them for it. 

Special mention must go to the ones I am closest to for their friendship, support, comfort, hugs and giggles, I honestly don't what I would do without you, W, M, Z, G, L, E, A and S. 

But at the same time. I feel bad for not making more effort to make friends outside my block, I only know a handful of people on my course and although they are lovely, I only hang out with 2 of them out of class. Oops! 

Hopefully this will change as I am hoping to be more involved with things, now that freshers flu has passed and we are actually getting into the swing of things. 

I am also feeling grateful to live in a city by the sea where I can walk down the road and be sat on the shore within ten minutes, listening to the waves roll across the shore and feel the worries go away a little. 

I'm not even sure where I'm going with this post - just trying to jot down some memories before they fade because I'm loving this stage although its difficult and tiring and very strange, I think I'll stay.

A few things I would like to remember.

**Found this post sitting in my drafts and thought I would post it anyway even though it is now out of date.**

Walking into the bathroom one morning this week and finding one of our little cats curled up in the shower - isn't she just the cutest thing? 

Sunny summer evenings cycling to the pub on the hill, seeing the countryside laid out before you. I love being able to sit outside and chat while the sun goes down, in a place where there is yummy food to be eaten and drinks to be drunk.

Making the most of the location of my work, it is coming u to my last day (far too quickly I might add) and I realise that I may never work in such a well placed office ever - it is close to some many of London's biggest sights as well as many places I love such as Covent Garden, Green Park, The Royal Academy of Art, Tottenham Court road, Trafalgar Square so after work evenings have been spent meeting friends for Wahaca dinners, swimming in the secret outdoor pool down the road (who knew that there was an outdoor pool in Covent Garden), walking the long way back to the station so I can stop in the massive Waterstones in Piccadilly or the other huge one on Gower Street, and strolling down to the Southbank to watch the waves lap up against the shores of the city beach while taking in the buskers and the magic that is Friday night on the Southbank. As much I am ready to leave work, I will miss these evenings, where I get to see snapshots of the city and feel this great joy for this place as well as a bittersweet sadness that soon I will call another city home.

Swimming in the North Sea - it's a summer tradition and despite the water being chilled and green rather than a sparkling blue, it's still one of my favourite things, I love looking out and wondering what could be out there, who could be swimming in the opposite shore wondering the same thing.

Until next time.

<3

Video: Bordeaux

Here is a little film, I made about our time in Bordeaux visiting my Aunt and her family! It was good fun, with sunset bike rides, afternoons sent in their pool (still can't believe that they have a pool in their garden - it's crazy!) and exploring the city. 

<3

A week in my happy place: Suffolk.

For as long as I can remember, Suffolk has stuck out in my mind as a place that is happy, from childhood, where we would make the drive on weekends to my grandparent's house, the landscape changing through the car window from cityscape to rolling fields, from cars to cows, and it felt like entering a whole new world as a kid.

I still get the same excitement as we drive down the motorway towards the sea, for long days on the beach, the perfect homemade ice cream, the crunch of the pebbles beneath my feet, early morning walks, the sound of the waves rolling against the shore, bike rides through the woods, reuniting with our family and seeing old friends. 

This year, we got to spend a week in a small fishing town on the North Sea called Aldeburgh (where we also stayed last year and love!), despite being little, it oozes charm, has some lovely shops, friendly pubs and the Sea! 

I was lucky enough to get to invite along a friend so we spent our days rowing on the meare, going on sunset bike rides, swimming out to sea, trying out all the pubs, and meeting up with lots of friends and family and very cute little cousins (A, you really perfected your 'greeting of relatives that aren't related to you!), it was so much fun, from the sunset walks, to the card tournaments, kayaking in the evening looking out to sea and talking late into the night with wonderful people, it was so relaxing yet we did so much. It was happy and I'm so thankful for it. 

Love Eleanor.