HELLO!

(© Hannes Beer)

Hi, from the future!

So, I finished up this blog a long time ago and now blog when I can over at my regular blog, intoruth.
Why not say, 'hi', and give me a follow, we might have something in common and I don't want to neglect you.

Throwing in the towel.

I've been very inconsistant lately, and I think it's time that I give up.
I know I'm so close that I can see the finish line but lasting this amount of time is much more admirable than most other 365's that I've seen. So this is my last photo. It's from today and I know I've missed a few days but when I'm quitting, it doesn't matter that much.

I think this has served its purpose; I'm taking more photos, but I think if I were to do it again, I should pick a theme, what I have taken here is a quite an interesting diaristic set, but it does somewhat lack consistency. Although, maybe this has affected how I work in the real world and I've been able to develop more of style.
Sorry I gave up, but I'm so stressed right now and I really did give it a good try.

Day 265.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Apologies for being very boring today, here is what our fridge looks like.
Only 100 days left to go!

Day 220.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Out with the old, bit of a spree, my new handbag is dead. Moon wouldn't let it die with dignity and wore it as a hat before it got thrown in the bin. Bye old friend, you served me well, until your strap started to look rank.

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 210.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Moon won yet more tickets, this time to the iTunes Festival to see Biffy Clyro.
We had dim sum, it was delicious, I was so full all the way from Leicester Square to Chalk Farm that I didn't speak, we waited in line for over 2 hours because didn't plan the day well enough, but it was quite a fun gig anyway. It's the second 'free gig' I've seen them at within the year, Moon and I are clearly favoured by the iTunes people.

Day 200.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Today I went to see Toy Story 3, best film I've seen in ages, made me cry three times. It's so, so good, and outdid my already pretty high expectations. The only thing I regret about seeing it is not being young enough to get all the toys and play with them, I'm still thinking about getting them.

Day 199.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

So I guess today was a bit of a laze, a wind down from the busy weekend. I have read three trashy magazines.

Day 179.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

So, yesterday, after 178 days, I actually forgot to do a 365, I'm kind of devastated. But here are two images from today to make up for it. I think I was too tired from Glastonbury to completely bother yesterday, I hope it won't happen again.
Moon and I met up with Jason and Michelle this evening, they're a really nice couple to hang around with, it's a pity that they're in Nottingham most of the time now. We then met up with Aaron who appears to hang around with actual kids and the resulting event is probably my worst experience this summer so far, I am not 16-17 anymore and I'm glad I can hang out in pubs rather than with a few tins on a hill. We were meant to watch the sunset but you couldn't even see it, at all.
Once that was over and done with we went to where Mark works and it turns out there's a really tame fox that hangs around, as much as I love foxes, this one was rank, was really thin and looked like it had some kind of disease.
So, I guess the old friends that I hardly speak to anymore are doing fine, they seem to be both staying the same and growing older at the same time.

Day 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177.

GLASTONBURY!
First day at the top, most recent at the bottom - which I realise is a different order to how the blog usually goes.

You don't know how far away the cars are from the festival until you get there not to mention that you can't even see the festival on the way in.

This is the 'Hollywood sign', forgot that I walked around at night on this day because the rest of the festival was so knackering but, I did get to see Shangri-La on my last night.

One of these also read that they provided, "No bullshit, the best chocolate milkshake on site", can you guess what it is yet? Toilets weren't too bad until Sunday, I guess thanks to these guys. I saw Mumford and Sons this day, who not only put on a great performance but also seemed really touched by the reaction of the crowd, made me so pleased for them.

After saying that we'd make the important trip to Shangri-La and Arcadia, we decided we should just go back to the tent and make a fire and have marshmallows instead. Moon was so sulky that he didn't get to do the fire that he fell asleep, I'm guessing he was probably exhausted too but I'm sticking with sulky.

Usually, as the higher bands on the bill performed, people climbed the 'Star of David' to get a better view, we saw one guy cut his leg all the way up, this is for Faithless, who were alright but not as amazing as Stevie Wonder, who followed.

Saw this little guy as we were leaving the festival, it took us around 8-9 hours to get home from campsite to the door. I love this photo and I love that nothing of mine was nicked or broken, I did lose my hairbrush though.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

What a blast that was. I can't even describe how huge, how amazing and how surreal it is, and don't even get me started on the walking, the suntan and the dust. Know what you're getting yourself in for and bring a trolley.

Day 106.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Day 81.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

Today I was treated to a date.
I did a pretty decent workout at the gym, and now my legs hurt.
Then I finally got to see Shutter Island, which is brilliant and has motivated me to finally watch Blood Diamond, it relates to my dissertation (loosely).
AND THEN, I went to Giraffe and had this tasty dish.
What a nice day, I even woke up early, now I am basically tuckered out, so I'll be viewing Blood Diamond from my bed, in pyjamas.

Day 75.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I am happy with my shoot, this photo definitely won't make it into anything final but it's so funny.
I feel a bit more confident using the studio, I still might need a bit of help but at the moment, I'm pleased with what I got out of today anyway.
L-R: Andy, Moon, Sam, Chris and Sam.
Can you tell they're not professionals?

Day 64.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

The oven has been very useful today, I made this and these.
I am a mighty fine chef. ♥
Our kitchen floor has a lot of crumbs on it...

Day 62.

© Ruth Johnston 2010

Some days, the mind really does boggle as to why there is much point in attending certain sessions at University. I did watch part of 49UP in another session though, I think I will try and school up on it to argue my case for why we should present a seminar about it. I also had a bird poo on my head on my walk home for lunch, luckily I had enough time to wash my hair before going back in, I reckon it was karma trying to tell me to be a better person.

Day 60.

© Ruth Johnston 2010

Moon had his birthday party last night, it was pretty crowded in our house beforehand but it was a lovely atmosphere. We then went on to Waster, I've not had a proper look at those photos yet. For people that were so well-dressed, we ended up being pretty disgraceful, I'll put some photos on Facebook and on my other blog later.

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...

Day 53.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I have been seeing this cat quite often recently, so I papped it.
Unfortunately there seemed to be some form of walking bus behind me, on top of the fact I had to take this with my phone because my bag broke on the way home.
PLUS, I dressed for wind, cold and rain and on the walk home, the sun was out and it may have even been pushing 8°, in any case I was sweltering in my winter outfit.

Day 48.

© Ruth Johnston 2010

Today was filled with work, I am tired. Tomorrow, l have more work to do, I can't believe I'm 48 days in already.

Day 46.

© Ruth Johnston 2010.

I burnt my arm last week, it's all wrinkly and I accidentally scratched some of it off, my sister left me some cream for it, but it makes it really sore before it makes it better. It's probably definitely going to scar, it looks like something out of a horror movie.