Super super awesome time

Been awhile since my last update.. but as they say "time flys when your having fun!". Days have been going by so quickly at work.. but I cant really call it work, I'd rather call it Super super awesome time. Everyday is a treat, dont have to spend half the day looking at the clock counting down the hours left until I can go home because that time just comes and goes and I gladly work overtime. All the hardwork and determination is finally paying off abit. I'm not there yet because this is just an internship but I know 100% that theres no going back now...Ive tasted the sweet honey of my dream job.. I will become a (AAA) professional concept artist and nothing's going to stop me.


But enough about super super awesome time...

About 2 weeks ago was pancake day (in france), yes apparrently some people think pancakes are so special that they made a special day for them.(nah im just kidding it has something to do with cleaning out the kitchen and using up let over ingridients or luxorious ingridients back in the day when people were poor and didnt have gigantic Tescos with walls of food big enough to kill you). My housemate Lucie asked me if I wanted to eat crepes (I heard crap) on friday with her and acouple of friends. And I was like whaattt do you want to eat?!! Then she called them pancakes.. so I accepted her offer even though I dont really think pancakes is a propper meal.. I need meat!(no homo). But Lucie reinsured me that they ate their pancakes with all kinds of meat and cheeses so that helped.

Speaking of meat... english people have some weird dishes. One of em that I saw in the store was called "Toad in a hole".. its a couple of sausages in dough with spices, that you then put into the oven. I tried it, but mine turned out all crappy and half cooked so it was pretty terrible. But my housemate Christina told me how I could make it from nothing. (magic) So I might try make it myself some day.

Anyway back to pancakes.. on friday only one of their friends showed up so it was just the 4 of us and alot of pancakes and wine. Which turned out great because there was just enough pancakes for the 4 of us hehe. And they were good too, they fried the pancakes first.. then turned them over, put cheese(sometimes more then 1 different kind) and some ham on, then closed the pancake and fried it all together. I think it would make a great breakfast.




Last week thursday LT(my girlfriend) arrived here in Newcastle just as I finished work, so I picked her up from the station and we walked back to my place. It was really great to see her(in person) again.. because skype is just not the same.

We had alot of things to celebrate this weekend
- 12th feb was our 1 year living together anniverssery (even though I'm not there atm)
- 14th feb was valentines day
- 18th feb was our 5 years together anniverssery!!!

We kept thursday night pretty simple because I had to work on friday. So we just stuck some pizza's in the oven and spent the evening together catching up.

 Friday after work LT came with me to a local pub with a few guys from work where we had a burger and beer. On saturday we had alot plannend, first off we went to town and to a local musuem wanting to see more of what Newcastle had to offer. The musuem was called The Great North musuem but...... the only great thing about it was that it was for free.. thankfully.  It had alot of different stuff but not alot of anything and they didnt have alot of information on the things they had there either. But they had alot of interactive stuff for kids so I guess its a great place for parents to go with their kids or for schools. We also went to a small planetarium there which you did have to pay for. I thought it was going to be about planets =( but it was short documentary about the space race (america vs russia to the moon etc).

After walking around town we went back home to rest abit and get changed to go out for dinner. I'd reserved a table at a place called The Living Room. It has a big white piano, big chandeleers and the menu looked great. People at work also recommended it. So off we went back to town for a delcious dinner. We both had king prawns for starters, Lts fried in spicy oil with herbs and mine were deep fried in beer batter YUM! For the main course I had some lamb and LT ate salmon. We didnt really feel like dessert so we skipped that and paid.

After dinner we walked around town for abit cause there was a whole commotion going on. We saw loads of people in the street gathering in different places. So we walked by to see what they were all looking at. Apparently there was some kind of silent street plays going on. People were all dressed up and some had a small set doing all kinds of stuff but without speaking. It was interresting but not entertaining enough for us to stand there in the cold and watch so we headed back home.

There we met up with Yann, Lucie and Euwyn (a couple of my housemates) and then we went back to town!(yes for the third time, luckily you can buy a metro ticket here called the day saver. It costs about 1.5 times a normal oneway ticket costs.. people normally buy them as return tickets. But once you buy one you can use it the whole day as many times as you want... i think?)

Anyway we went out to party together in town, we started with.....

yes you guessed it..

Lloyd's Bar!

We first just sat down upstairs together, had a couple of drinks and chatted abit. But after awhile LT couldnt sit still anymore so we went downstairs to the dance floor. Euwyn told us that he was the best dancer of Scotland so we couldnt wait to see all his moves. Once we got down there he let go of all reality and went into a totally different zone of dance-sensation and did the most awesome dance moves I'd ever seen.... is what I would have said if he had done any cool moves at all =(  If he was the best dancer of Scotland then the Scotish version of "So you think you can dance" must be really entertaining on a comedic level.

LT noticed that the girls here are very different to those in Holland.. and in some ways quite the opposite. They dress up like hookers but they dance like teenagers at their first school dance...keeping boys an arm length away. But it might have just been the bar we were in.. I dunno.
One thing I do know.. is that the chicks here really like to get smashed.. and as I said in one of my previous posts drunk chicks + high heels is not a good combonation! This one girl we saw fell 3 times while trying to cross the road...But on the plus side.. she was crossing the road to catch a taxi home.

When we'd had enough of the dance floor we went back upstairs to sit down, Yann and Lucie said they were going to have a quick smoke outside so they would be right back. But after about half an hour they still hadnt returned.. until suddenly Yann showed up with the manager... He came to tell us that they wouldnt let Lucie and him back into the club because they had french passports and werent english! Kinda messed up, but I''m guessing its gotta something to do with the French and English history and it was getting close to closing time so maybe they didnt want more people inside... but still I'm kinda dissapointed in Lloyd's Bar now.


We then just went to another bar, had a couple more drinks and after awhile took a taxi back home.


Sorry I didnt have any picatures this post... I really need to take more photos...
Hopefully my next post will be filled with glorious ones of my many adeventures.

End of my First Week

My first week at Atomhawk is finished and theres only one word I need to describe it and thats awesome! Ive had a great time so far, it took alittle getting used to working 8 hours a day again but its good to be back in a rhythm.

Im really enjoying the work that I get to do and the work that I see getting done around me. As I mentioned before Ive got a great seat in the corner where I can watch a few of the screens of the other artists and see how they work. Every now and then I walk around and ask them some questions and they also come by to see what Im working on and give me some feedback which is great.

Atomhawk is really busy at the moment, theyve got a quite a few projects running, so not everyone is working on the same stuff and sometimes they dont even work on the same project all day, but work a few hours on one then switch to the next.


Ow heres the view from the office window that I said I would post.

At the end of the week a couple of us went out for a drink at a local bar which was great because in the lunch breaks we usually go to the local store and get some food and then when we get back people sit at their desks and eat and dont talk that much. But I got to talk to the guys (and girl), find out where they were from and where they'd worked before they came to Atomhawk.

Anyway.. with all the good.. comes some bad (we must bring balance to the force)

I dont have to get up super early in the mornings but the mornings are still crappy thanks to the shower -_-. Its like a freaking enigma... I have to turn the hot water on 100% and then when I turn the cold tap on the water goes from scaulding hot to freaking ice water! And theres a tinnnnyyy sweet spot that takes me about 1-2min to find every time. But when the tempature is right the water pressure is crap. Oh and did i mention that I have to bend down to get my head under it.....ugh I miss my easy shower back in holland.. just had to turn it ON! end of story.


This saturday was also loads of fun!(but not really) I had do food shopping for the coming week and do all my washing from the last 2 weeks. I had to get really creative with finding a places for my clothes to dry because I dont have one of those drying racks(yet). Thankfully the last guy that was here left a load of his hangers in the cubboard.

I also cleand out one of the kitchen cubboards. I found out a few days ago that it was from the guy that used to live in my room so.. I could use it now. But when I first opened it I got scared and closed it straight away...It had things growing inside....look at the photo if u dont believe me...(its a potato)

But I got rid of all the rubbish inside and purified it all with loads of anti bacterial spray. DIE SCUM!

While I was shopping I found this... BEST Ice creams ever! Combonation on my favorite childhood chocolate with ice cream and popping sweets! Gonna be eating alot of these the coming months...