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.