braille

Blog successfully neglected for 4 days. Deary me.
Thankfully this can be my catch up blog. Equipped with pictures and exciting information (maybe).

Well Wednesday I started off by picking up some bits and bobs that I needed. Including some much needed hair-dye. I have a sneaky suspition that Vidal Sassoon won't be in the slightest bit impressed that I've dyed my hair dark brown but the pink was too high-maintenance and goes a weird salmon colour when washed out. Feeling much to cheeky to continually ask for free cuts and colour (I know, I'm not greedy). AND to shock them even more I sort of, mutalated my hair. Yeah, I got my grubby little hands on a pair of scissors. BAD IDEA. Well, it looks ok, but when you're hair is kind of the property of a salon that cut very specifically they'll know that my red handled IKEA scissors were the culprits of this DIY haircut. My excuse so far is....chewing gum? Pretty good all rounder don't you think. Anyway my hair now looks like this -


Bit of a shoddy picture but there we go.

Anyway, I had to quickly dye my hair and get stuff together to head to Bristol to meet up with the lovely Anita for the show in 'The Mothers Ruin' that she had put on. Featuring homies 'Goodtime Boys' and 'Polar'. I got in around 4pm and headed to Anitas place to meet her famous rabbit, Jeff, meet her flatmates, dump bag, sell a bike and head out to get some food. We managed all of that in an hour and a half then headed up to the venue to meet the guys and see how soundcheck was going. The venue was awesome. Small with a lot of levels, four to be exact. Dingy and everything you'd expect a 'rock' bar to be. The show was a late one and didn't kick off til 9.30pm. Both bands played awesomely and it was nice to not be in a familiar venue with familiar faces, besides that of Zoe, Anita and the GTB ofcourse. Faces I personally couldn't get enough of.

Afterward we headed to 'Start the Bus', literally 5minutes down the way. There was an illustration competition taking place involving an illustration team from Bristol and from Poland. The competition is taking place through Europe, called 'Secret Wars' (check it out, see if it's coming anywhere near you). The competition involves the two teams having a given amount of time to produce a piece in their own illustrative style. We got there when the teams had just 50minutes left. The place was absolutely packed but becaue of the sheer size of the canvas, everyone stood good chance of seeing what they had created thus far.


pretty bad lighting but this was the Bristol teams piece so far. They had covered the majority of their canvas and everything looked pretty spectacular considering they had no reference and no prior markings. They have been a graffiti group for 20years so don't feel too intimidated.


This was the Polish side. At this point me and Anita had managed to squeeze to the front, cha-ching, just so we could take a look at this rather charming fat piggy. Even though this teams canvas wasn't filled to the rim I personally prefered the work and style they were doing. Probably why I have a considerable amount of photos for their piece rather than the Bristol team.


such a handsome pig.



That speech bubble said 'Beeenksy'.

And would you believe, but my chosen team won! The Polish were titled the winners of the Bristol part of the competition. They painted a big black cross on Bristols side (which was a bit harsh I thought) and the two teams had photos together with the bad Westwood impresonator, Hong Kong graphic designer and local Bristolian illustrator. I had an awesome time, and spent sometime thinking how Cardiff and Wales in general doesn't seem to have the same opportunities. Considering it has two Cities that's pretty shocking. Luckily Bristol is just a 40minute train journey away so I'm lucky that I don't have to miss these opportunities.

When we headed outside we walked straight into the startings of a push about between two bristolian men and the Westwood presentor guy. I never thought I'd see such hooligan behaviour over art. Throwing lit cigarettes at the presentor yelling "use your fucking eyes". I was actually gobsmacked, and ofcourse, ended up in a debate with one of the guys over his behaviour and his belief that Bristol should of one soley because it was Bristols hometown. You can see why I had so many quarms with that statement. Eventually Anita and co dragged me away 'cause I get pretty defiant.

That night me and Anita stayed up chatting til 5am, natrually.

The following day we ventured to Glouster Road in search of charity shops and arty type places. Ofcourse. Anita took me to this awesome little art store with local artists work being sold and magazines etc. The exhibition showed two artists (who I'll fill in later cause my minds gone completely blank).



Artist #2




Then to a Junk shop/my haven.


This was a table top made from found china and porcelain. Awesome. When I think about all the shards I found as a kid in my garden, sigh.

Next I spent some hard earned cash in a organic/vegan/health store. Pretty much the best one I've been in yet, yes, even over Hungry Planet's store section. I bought Marinated Tofu, Silken Tofu (so hard to find in cardiff), Olive Pate, Eggless noodles, Vegan chocolate coated ginger, Miso Soup and some other bits and bobs. After all the food buying we felt pretty hungry ourselves so stopped in Cafe Kino on our way back. I got a Kino Burger with chips and a chocolate soy-milk carton. All vegan, even down to the mayo - nayonaise! When we got sent our food, the chef told me that the batch of burgers were particularly small so she gave me a free vegan muffin. What a cutie.

All completely delicious and I saved my muffin for the train ride home.

Such an awesome two days in Bristol, and I'm sure I'll be back more regularly with my lovely Zoe becoming it's most recent resident from my clan!