Day 302.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Halloween!
I'm meant to be a bat, and no one questioned it, even I don't think I look like one, so I just put fake blood everywhere in the end.
I couldn't put in teeth because i only have 4 front teeth, I liked everyone else's costumes though. It was quite fun, even if the DJ at Highlight is a bit lazy.

Day 287.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

So yesterday was interesting. My third shoot of the week went well and then Joe was in Portsmouth. They've made Waster dangerous and filled it with typical dangerous binge-drinking offers, vom. My stomach is whirring.

Day 275.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

This is what 9-11 in the morning looked like today, but I have my Glastonbury ticket for next year. I'm so happy, randomly I got through first and just got everyone's ticket. Long's registration number nearly didn't work (again) but for some reason his number from last year worked. Hopefully we won't need to worry about where it gets delivered too because the old number is assigned to his old Uni address. I'm so happy and excited, let's just hope the weather is as great. It's hard to imagine that it will ever be sunny again with the way the weather is at the moment.

Day 274.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

So, today Rio and Izzy came all the way down here to help me out with my half-Chinese project, I've consciously decided not to put one of their portraits as part of the 365 because I don't think it flows with the rest of what's going on here. But I think it went quite well, we talked a lot about being half-Chinese and then we went for lunch and then I took them to see the burnt-down dinosaur, it smelt really weird. The weather was pretty miserable but it was a pretty nice, productive and busy day and I'm very happy that they helped me out.

Day 270.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

This is a photo of the ring that came with the candles that Long and Moon bought to go with Chris' Hannah Montana cake. You can alternate your Disney Princesses should you so wish.
Today was Chris' 22nd birthday, so we went out for a meal at Giraffe - because we had vouchers, not because we're millionaires - and then went to see Scott Pilgrim vs The World. It was the second time around for me seeing Scott Pilgrim, I wanted to watch it again as soon as I came out of the cinema, and all the boys loved it, for some reason we were the only people in the cinema laughing...
Giraffe was nice, I had quesadillas, and told everyone how to say it properly, "kwes-a-de-ahs".

Day 237.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Today I went out with Lucy and she took me to Hammersmith and over to Westfields in Shepherd's Bush. We passed the Hammersmith Apollo and this amazing thing greeted us, 'Gervais' in 20ft high letters, brilliant. My sister was hinted at getting tickets to see him again, but I just can't afford it at the moment. I bought lots of nice new clothes, which makes a change, but it's now dawned on me that I have bills (and other horrible things) to pay for in a few weeks. Urgh.

Day 236.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

This is a photo of my teasub, my Earl Grey tea leaves came through the post so I put them to use once I got back from a wet and rainy afternoon in Kingston. It's quite neat, but I don't I'll stop buying normal teabags just yet.
I went to see Scott Pilgrim vs The World with my friend Laura today, it's pretty awesome, I haven't been to the cinema and enjoyed a film like that since I was about 15, with the exception of Kickass. As I found out, today as Scott Pilgrim day and I'm happy to say I took part, it's a great small movie and it was on my list anyway.

Day 212, 213, 214, 215, 216.

So, I've been away again - here are the photos I picked from Cornwall to be in the 365.
We had a great time away, we should have stayed longer but it's a bit different when it's a case of staying in someone's house.

Long was dying to show us all the activities going for Cornwall, so once we dropped our things back at his house, we were almost straight out again to The Eden Project. It was a nice afternoon out and we got in for free because his mum works there. It was very interesting, a much more interesting version of Kew Gardens, although I didn't see any butterflies there. In the evening we visited a few pubs around Bodmin, one of them had a lion in the window. Check my blog for that.

Simon arrived today and Long took us to a small town called Fowey and then over to an even smaller area called Polkerris, and the weather finally started to brighten up. In the evening we were very grown up and had a barbecue followed by a few drinks in the garden until late. All in all the whole holiday was very grown up.

Simon's birthday was the most activity-filled day, we took the ferry from Rock to Padstow where we found a beach but due to the weather being miserable when we arrived, only Long was prepared to swim in the sea. We played crazy golf, which is definitely my game, I won, we then had lunch and after that went for a ride around the harbour on a classic 1950s speedboat, called Jaws and we got very wet. After dinner at Katy's pub, and a wander over to Rick Stein's cookery school, we headed back to Rock where the boys went into the sea for a proper swim. After a shower back at Longs we were off out again but all of us - apart from Long - were sat in the pub thinking about how tired we were, despite it being Simon's birthday - although I think we ended up having a fun-filled day anyway.

Before Simon headed off back to Clevedon, we went out in Long's boat, which is definitely not red. We all jumped into the sea from the boat, although I will admit that I needed a bit more convincing. In the evening Long, Moon and I had dinner at Frankie & Bennies and went to watch Toy Story 3 as Long still hadn't seen it.

Our last day in Cornwall was the most miserable, with about 10 minutes of sun in total, but we had a wander along part of a beach and climbed some rocks, and later watched a film before heading back to Dorking on the train - it felt like a much longer journey than on the way there, but we made it back in one piece, it's definitely something we have to do again.

© Ruth Johnston 2010

Day 205.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

So I was out for my friend Lucy's birthday tonight, one annoying thing about having to take trains everywhere is having no choice on how long to stay and when to go home, needless to say, I am home early, but I had a really nice time.
We went to the AllStar Lanes, Bayswater and played a game of bowling - of which I lost - and then went on to have a delicious meal followed by this↑ cake. I think they went on to karaoke, which I wish I could have done, but I had to leave at 10 for fear of not actually knowing how to get home - but when I got to Wimbledon, I feel as though this was a con, oh well it doesn't really matter, it was still a fun evening.

Day 197.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

So, after making it down for the 8-9:15am breakfast this morning, I went back to bed for hours and hours before heading out for a round of golf and lunch at The Tenth Hole, lovely.
We are going to watch Predator later, looking forward to walking along the seafront, this weekend has been so nice so far.

Day 146.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

It is Simon's last night in Portsmouth tonight and probably the last time I'll see him until everyone's graduation, this is him putting party blowers in his mouth.
We're going to celebrate and say goodbye to him in style, even though he's not leaving until tomorrow afternoon.
It should be pretty fun. Bye, Simon.

Day 141.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

This is our garden, featuring barbecues.
I like this one, I've tried not to resize it so when you click on it you can get the full-feel that you can't get from the tininess of yesterday's panorama, but I think Photobucket resizes bigger photos -poo.
The barbecue was fun, even if it was more of a stop-in lunch rather than a laze-all-day. I have even more silly tan lines, I don't know what I'm going to do about them.
It was so hot in the garden, there was hardly any wind, I am suspicious of what temperature the weathermen are saying.

Day 140.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Day 140?! I feel like I'm dangerously close to the half-way point here, which is untrue as there's still a bit to go, but still...
This is a panorama of The Common today. Being an exam widow seems to be subsiding as Moon realises that 'all work and no play' really isn't as good a work ethic as it sounds, it's nice because I get to see him. I try not to distract him too much.
The Common was a bit windy today, but it was still nice and sunny, I managed to get a bit sunburnt even. A strange mist descended over Portsmouth at around 2, which is what you're witnessing here, weird.

Day 112.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

So, today we went to go play golf and had tea and cheesecake at The Tenth Hole afterwards.
I was not great, but it was a nice way to spend a bright and sunny afternoon.

Day 110.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Moon, Chris and I went to look at a house today, it would have been really nice, if the people living in it weren't so filthy.
I wonder if it would be out of order to ask the Estate Agent whether they will deep clean the place, should we move in, I have arranged a few other viewings for next week, fingers crossed they feel more like 'the one'.

I've made a lot of plans today.
Apparently I have to pitch an idea to a band....... in front of other photographers that I'm up against.......

Day 106.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Day 100.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Nothing special for today as nothing special happened.
If it's 'Day 100' today it means that today is the 103rd day of the year, and that's weird, not quite a third through yet though.
I spent a lot of today looking at potential new cameras - now that my loan's in, but I did manage to finish my dissertation proposal, it's not brilliant, but I think I'll pass, few adjustments to be made but it's basically finished.
I think I should get out in the sunshine tomorrow.

Day 82.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Lucy is here. I haven't seen her since July last year and before then it was even longer.
Old friends are great, I think she is back to her normal self and that she's happy.
We went to the Historic Dockyard to celebrate her visit, and did all the paid activities, apart from the Naval Museum but the ticket's valid for a year anyway.
I liked the Warrior best. It's a pretty decent day out, and I'm not even really interested in that kind of thing anymore but, if you'd asked '11 year-old me' where a great place to go would be I'd say, 'to see the Mary Rose', which we didn't even see anyway because it's new museum is all under construction until 2012.
I wish she was staying a bit longer, but I'm looking forward to Moon's quiz later, particularly after all the history I absorbed today.

Day 65.

© Ruth Johnston 2010

From my first proper test shoot to actually getting somewhere, I can do nothing until next Thursday, but with the few volunteers I have, I should be able to get everything done in a couple of shoots - professionals would do it in one, but a professional, I am not.
Today was quite stressful but I have a rough initial interview with Andy and proper idea now. I have to buy a million magazines tomorrow and pay that bill - which may be hundreds but it is a couple hundred less than Simon and Long's.
This was taken with my SB-600 on a tripod, it did a better job than I thought but not as great a job as I'd have liked.
Andy is wearing Moon's t-shirt.
I have 300 days left of this project, this year is going too fast already.

Day 54.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I got an initial test shoot down for my final brief.
I bumped into Andy on the way to the studio to meet Moon and chanced it and he said he'd stand in, it was a good job too because it was a while before our model for the Sunday supplements piece showed up.
I think I have a better idea of what kind of spread I want to do, I just need to find a magazine that would use me, I'm thinking Vice but for me, that's a bit obvious, plus I'm not 100% on how mainstream the magazine has to be.
I got a few good shots, but it was mainly a test run, helping me gain more confidence in using the studio, and aside from needed a little bit of help with the light metering, it's quite fluid once it gets going.
I think I need more fashion magazines, this is getting expensive, I've bought around 10 magazines so far...