It's nearly march already, so..I'll post the calendar for it already cause you know. Time. There is no such thing.
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ALSO! I;m moving house on the first. No more old crap house with holes and paint peeling and carpet coming off the floor. We're moving into somewhere that's been built within the last few years, so everything is fresh, new and clean. Also, we have a space for a washing machine and dryer which means doing the clothes isn's a weird treck to an over priced laundry and a chore that takes more than an hour. Like wise we will have a boiler that can just stay on, which means the dishes can be done every night in like 5/10 minutes. Rather than having to wait for a half hour for the water to heat up and then dishes getting piled up because it cost money to heat the water we wash with.... anyway. So yeah. The places is a bit smaller, but, it will be nice and cosy.
Oh, and I finally got to go through some of those photos of when Tom and I went to Angouleme to see his aunti Su, who is the most amazing person btw. She was brilliant. Kind, and all that other good stuff. Amazing cook, prepared the best sandwiches I ever had ever. Made these amazing desserts like, everyday. She was always making Tom and myself tea and coffee. AND, and she even bough us breakfast in bed one day. I was like WOT. Man, I was living that up. I just couldn't belive it, it was like being on a proper holiday for real... And I wish i got more photos as well...
I will say though, the very first thing I noticed, was the shutters.
Everyone actually uses their shutters over there, they're not purely decorative like most shutters you'd find on the houses in the US. And So many of the houses would have all the shutters closed, and even have a shutter for the front and back doors. SO all these little houses looked like weird warehouses at first. It wasn't really until about a half hour into our ride from the airport to Su's home that I realised they were all houses...
She actually lived in a little town a bit away from Angouleme , but the town centre itself had some real moments of beauty
I realised that, the way it seemed anyway, was the outside appearence of buildings were not the real focus, but the insides of buildings were immaculate. Most everything just kind of looked like a giant block outside, but really different on the inside...for Angouleme anyway...
We actually went to the Comic Festival of Angouleme, and that ran over the weekend, so we spent the Thursday and Friday looking around. It was juts brilliant.
I really wish I took more photos, but was just gobsmacked by allt he brilliant books. I mean, there were all these like, prop up buildings that have just, countless books inside. And the variety. It wasn't just traditional american style comics, as one would think. No, these were like, story books, with art. The varying styles of each and every book was just, mind blowing. Real boost of encouragement of producing my own work. It was fantastic just being able to look at every type of technique, even though I couldn't understand a word of any of the text.
They had all sorts of exhibitions as well, like this one crazy one of all these stamps. It was a real treat. We had no idea that it was down there but man. We had a good time just kind of examining all the different types of stamps and trying to figure out what was going on with them. It was insane the amount of detail in them and all the creative ideas behind them. It was all hidden away in the main town theatre underneath the auditoriums in a weird almost cellar like room. 
And Tin Tin was to be found everywhere, being that the long time collaboratives of the series, Jacques Martin, had great presence in the festival itself. (I think there was a monument of him there in Angouleme, if I recall correctly).
I'm not entirely sure of the exact ties as to why the town was infatuated with Tin Tin, but Angouleme itself had a very huge and great appreciation for art.There was outstanding graffiti and murals everywhere.
I really only managed to get one decent photo at all of anything, as we were rushing around everywhere in town, and I kept saying to myself "later, I'll take a photo later" not realising that later would never come. There's always another day.
We rushed around a few shops and had lunch out at one place called "Le Grand Vie" which was aaaaaaaaaamazing. I had baked potato with parma Ham, and tom had the same but with salmon, and we swapped some. So so so so good. Anyway, here's a photo of some chocolate shop we walked by, that we walked into, but didn't buy anything cause...well, next time...
Everything looked so good though.. Man. Man. They also did like, pastry stuff and loads of other things. Also, I have no idea who that dude is in the photo. Just ignore him.
And they sold these teddy bears as well.
And I wanted to just grab one off the shelf, but then realised all of them would probably fall right onto the floor, one by one. So I stopped myself, and behaved...
There were a few other shops we kind of browsed into, like this music store with this bitchin stair case.
Tom and I kind of just ran around messing with things, cause they had this weird ass room in the back, all while Su spoke to the store owner politely.
There was like, a million and one posters in that room, of like, Prince, Elton John and other random but brilliant pop stars. But the majority of the store seemed to be dedicated to classical music. In fact, the whole side wall of the shop was covered in nothing but.
All of them, classical.... Over all we had an amazing time out, hanging out with Su. We learned a lot about herself and all the craft making she does. She does a lot of card making and papergoods, and like customizing ordinary things to make them very whimsical and just beautiful in general, much like herself. I'll have to grab a few samples of her work and give a shout out, because she does some really nostalgic sort of things. Like those pretty boutique places that have ribbons and lace tossed here and there with a crystal chandelier sort of feel. I felt really inspired by the whole event , had a few tip offs about projects and ideas and what to do, and it really drove me to try and complete things, which is why I'm still trying to go strong with my calendar project (as strange and un-enticing as it may be for the majority of people) and really just trying to get back in touch with my creative side. I've been doing quite a bit to try and progress technically with my work, but I think the creative aspect is starting to suffer because of it... one of the evenings before we left we treated Su and her family to some lovely patisserie stuffff.
Tom and I bought these two chocolate muffin type things with a really rich centre piece, and Su and her two children picked some out of these.
Perhaps next time I will get one of these bad boys....
Anyway, I better run off. I need to shower, and it's an absolute gorgeous day outside. SO I'm going to take D for an extra long walk with some of this new music I came across.
Freddie Joachim - Out of Season
Freddie Joachim - Strawberries
He has a few free downloads on his site. but I've yet to go through some of this purchasable work, which I will do to see what his substance is like. Really feeling it so far though...
Love love!
