149/365

Day 149

This coconut has absolutely nothing to do with me! I went to Gemma's for dinner tonight, and supposedly this is her flat's mascot. I seem to remember he's called George. We had an ace night, with fajitas and chocolate puddings (a bottle of wine for Gemma), and then a viewing of "Where the Wild Things Are". It's been too long since we've seen each other, we had lots and lots to catch up on!

148/365

Day 148

Because we're most definitely young adults, me and Jonathan went to play crazy golf today. Slightly embarrassing for him when I beat him by two shots, especially considering he plays golf quite a lot, but even more embarrassing when it took us three attempts to add up the scores correctly, eventually relying on a calculator. As my victory prize, he got me an ice cream, then we went for a little stroll along the beach so I could brag. I wasn't planning on going out tonight, but I got persuaded and ended up at Korova, which wasn't too bad! What wasn't so good was the fact that we didn't make it back to my flat until about half 4, meaning that the sun was already coming up. Throughly depressing.

147/365

Day 147

The grandparents treated me to lunch at Jimmy Chung's today. It was good to catch up with them, and tell them all my exciting news so far, but I'll be brutally honest and say that it's not my most favourite restaurant in the world. Infact, it left me feeling pretty ill. We took a little drive up to see the new flat aswell, and then they dropped me off at home. Just a nice, chilled day, even if I did feel a little bit sick in the afternoon....

146/365

Day 146

Okay okay, so I forgot to take a photo for today, but this still counts because I watched this video (for Lonely Islands "Jack Sparrow") at least 10 times today. It's brilliant, especially having seen the Pirates of the Carribean last night. If you need a giggle, find it. Like most other days this week, I did absolutely nothing during the day, but in the evening I went for a little walk along the beach and to La Lombardia (The UK's oldest Italian Restaurant!) for dinner. And to top it off I got to ride in the Cliomobile, complete with Eeyore in the back.

145/365

Day 145

Well, I didn't think I'd drank that much last night, and I certainly hadn't mixed, but how close I felt to death today seems to suggest otherwise. I spent the majority of my day in bed, listening to the radio and reading. I did however manage to drag myself out for a little trip to the cinema to see "Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides", which was actually pretty funny. And I got a pick 'n' mix which made me feel a bazillion times better!

144/365

Day 144

Today we found our flat for next year. We viewed it at 10 in the morning, and by 3 in the afternoon we'd paid the deposit. We move in in two weeks time! It's so nice, 2 double bedrooms, loads of storage, high ceilings, I'm in love! In other events to happen today, we went to Slain's for lunch, came third in the pub quiz (and Gavin won the limbo round, such pride!), went to exo for motown again and then had macaroni cheese in a cup for my drunk food. Probably the best day I've had for a while!

143/365

Day 143

Given that this is technically the holidays now, I thought I'd get my sketch on because it's been absolutely ages. Turns out I'm a bit rusty. I got this far with a drawing of the beach before I got very very annoyed with myself and turned back to my guitar for comfort. I decided to challenge myself on the ol' guitar, and had a shot at the Frank Turner cover of "District Sleeps Alone Tonight". After about 5 hours, I've got it pretty much nailed.

Oh, and today's the day it was really windy. REALLY windy.

142/365

Day 142

Again I'm implementing the "this photo was taken after midnight" rule, and this is an absolutely stunning photo of my and me future flatmate. Just imagine the banter we're going to have. I certainly felt the affects of last night when I woke up this morning, starting with a pounding headache. I then discovered I have a friction burn on one elbow, bruises all down my other arm, bruises all over one of my shins, a scraped ankle, and the tiniest hint of a bruise on my chin. Well, I guess that's what you get for three heavy nights out in a row. On the other hand, I did wake up in time to hear David Attenborough's Life Stories on Radio 4, which made my day disproportionately better.

141/365

Day 141

I recycled a very similar outfit for tonights night out, which was to the Cops & Robber's themed night at Korova. As usual, I was the only person dressed up, but I'm used to it now and I just go for it full pelt. Again we all got a little bit drunk, hence why me and Gavin are swimming on Kjersti's kitchen floor in this photo. For once we splashed out and got a taxi into town, where we had more alcohol in the form of Jaegerbombs, which was certainly a poor idea. I also vaguely remember them playing Mumford and Sons when I was out, to which I undoubtedly got very over-excited about.

140/365

Day 140

Architect's official night out tonight. The theme was "dress like an architect", which means large amounts of black/stripes, glasses, braces, models etc. Unsurprisingly, I was the only one who really went for the dress up (I always am), but I don't care, it's just because I'm the fun one. Despite the fact I look the most sober in this photograph (by quite a way), I don't actually remember it being taken. And I didn't even end up in the same place as the rest of the architects at the end of the night.

Oh, and in sad news, the camera round my wrist in this picture flashed it's final flash tonight, succumbing to the years of abuse it has been through at my hands and dying. It has served me well, and it'll make this project a lot harder not having it around anymore. Goodbye old friend.

139/365

Day 139

Today was fun. Big Crit up at uni, so we went to see what kind of work will be expected of us in the years to come, then I headed into town for a flat viewing (there was a lot of pine...) and then I went and got myself a job trial! If I can get a flat and a job sorted for this summer, then I'll most likely be staying in Aberdeen, rattling around on my own. Then we went back to Garthdee for the big crit after party, where we drank the free alcohol and got a little tiny bit tipsy. From there we plodded to the union where I fell of a seat, then to Woolmanhill where I fell asleep on Gavin's corridor floor. I was awoken for a trip to Liquid (ew), where we played on the bouncy castle, drank pitchers from teapots, and Kieran and Gavin got married (as this wedding photo shows). Then I got the hiccups, sobered up, and moaned for the rest of the night, Standard architecture madness!

138/365

Day 138

And my holidays start here. On my first day of freedom, I went into uni... Ah yeah. I did. For no particular reason, just to hang about and see how everyone else did in their reviews. Then I went to Primark with Abby and bought myself a pair of summery espadrilles for £3. Which I thought was a bargain, but Abby was appalled that I even considered buying them. We held a vote when we went to the Bobbin for dinner, and it was 4 - 2 in favour of them. Which doesn't really matter, because I'm going to carry on wearing them anyway, they make me feel cooler. Had myself a nice Chilli con Carne for dinner, and no drink, to make up for last night, and save some of myself for the next three nights....

137/365

Day 137

I SURVIVED! First year is OVER and I didn't die/severely injure myself/fail/not make any friends. I think that counts as a success all round! Got myself a cheeky B in studio, although the lecturers said they were disappointed I didn't get an A (damn you, photoshop!). Obviously the only way to celebrate was a casual motown sesh with the Aberdeen Uni lot, which was great fun.

And now to relax and get stupidly drunk for the rest of the week. I like to think I deserve it!

136/365

Day 136

And welcome to my new studio, equipped with... eh, not very much as it turns out... We were cast out from our studio today for other years reviews, so I set out myself a little space in the basement with my laptop for company, and mad my cool white folders for my review tomorrow. All the work is done now, it's just presenting it in a way that makes it appealing to the lecturers. Pretty much done by 7 at night though. Now we wait, my review is at half 3 tomorrow, eeeek.

And no, I'm not on facebook in this picture, what do you take me for?!

135/365

Day 135

Just a casual day with some more work in studio, but I decided I should finally clear out some more of my stuff, like my brick samples. They now have pride of place in my bedroom, because all 18 year old girls should have some form of building material in their room... If people don't think I'm strange enough when I meet them, just wait until they come visit. In other news, the claw made a comeback when I drew around 3000 bricks on my plan in 4 hours, and I went for a cheeky Sunday night Koppaberg in this cute little bar called the Wild Boar.

134/365

Day 134

I swear if I wasn't so much of an idiot, I could actually occasionally have productive days... Today I realised that I didn't have paper or ink, both of which I need to complete my folio, and the art shop was closed. No worries, I'd just head to Hobbycraft. At least, that's what I thought. But they didn't have the right quality of paper (I bought it anyway), and then I accidentally bought silver ink thinking it was black. Brilliant. On top of that, I spent a good 6 or 7 hours in uni. On a Saturday. Dedication?

133/365

Day 133

Lucky me, I got to spend the majority of today on a Megabus going back up to Aberdeen. And we all know how much I love megabuses! The journey was made slightly better by having a book and an iPod full of decent tunes, but the fact that we had to change buses in Perth, the only place between Fife and Aberdeen where it was raining, did not improve my mood. And the second I got to Aberdeen I headed straight to Uni and handed in my essay. That's 2 modules down, one to go!

132/365

Day 132

Here's one of my skills tasks for studio that I've finally decided to do. I'm pretty happy with this considering I've never really used sketchUp before, and it looks remotely like a house! Aside from spending a stupid amount of time today staring at a screen in an attempt to get this done, I went to the dentist and made chilli. It's nice being home now and again!

131/365

Day 131

Hiya Frank.

Yep, for the second time in 4 months I went to see Frank Turner live. I'm going to say it's the perfect way to relax after an exam (which went okay, I left half an hour early). I took the sister to the gig with me, out first ever show together, and although she didn't know enough of the words for my liking, she seems to now have become slightly obsessed, which is perfect. Oh, I'll also mention that this was a tiny, tiny, tiny venue in my hometown of Dunfermline, and so my Dad had to come and pick me up from uni and drive me home. And he forgot to bring me any food, so he had to deal with a decidedly grumpy Katie in the car on the way home. The MacDonalds we went for before the gig didn't help either, hello heartburn!

130/365

Day 130

I chose this photo for today because I thought these diagrams almost looked cute, but I've since realised that it might be fate that in the top left corner is says "FAILURE". Oops, I'm not feeling so confident for tomorrow anymore. I spent today being antisocial again, panicking, and adding bits and pieces to my journal in an attempt to make tomorrow's 2 and a half hour slog that little bit easier.

129/365

Day 129

So who's the super keen student who finished her essay a full 4 days early? Oh yeah, that's me! This is good, because it means I can now knuckle down into Building Technology even more, hopefully get another A in that exam. I did, however, email the essay to my Mum to proof-read, and I'm possibly expecting a reply along the lines of:

"This is rubbish. Start again"

128/365

Day 128

Well, the end of Alex's night out wasn't exactly a disaster, but it can certainly be described as bizarre. After leaving the union to find Dundee was experiencing monsoon conditions, we wandered back to halls getting absolutely drenched in the process. Upon arrival back in Tay Mills, we realised that the sky lights had been left open, meaning that EVERYTHING in Alex's kitchen was swimming. We barely had time to close them before the fire alarm went off (it wasn't us) and we had to go and sit outside. Again. But it's all cool cause Alex made us chips in his deep fat frier.

127/365

Day 127

A break in the endless slog of revision today, when I hopped on a megabus and headed to sunny, sunny Dundee for Alex's 19th Birthday. After a trip to Lidl to stock up on gin for the man himself, and the most disgusting wine in the universe for me (diluting it with lemonade didn't even help), we had some pasta to line our stomachs, and played that drinking game that was the reason for me not remembering my 18th birthday. Bumped into a couple of folk from back home, then headed out to the union, which is probably the best union ever. And it's mega cheap.

126/365

Day 126

There's absolutely nothing I can say to make what I did today sound exciting. Revision revision revision revision. Although I did get to spend a good few hours reading through some lovely old books, finding quotes for my essay. This is the essay that's meant to be 1000 words long. I'm pretty sure I have 2000 words of notes to work from. Sweet!

125/365

Day 125

And now back to work. I spent today cooped up in the livingroom (because there's no internet in there) revising Building Technology, for my only exam next Wednesday. Got a good few hours in, probably around 6. Took myself on a little run at night aswell, because I hate being stuck in a little room all day. Especially when it's actually sunny.

124/365

Day 124

I finally caught up with technology today, and went to see a 3D film at the cinema. Now understandably, you can't take photos in the cinema, so I recreated what I presume I looked like with those sweet sweet glasses on. It was another lovely chilled day, with a little walk along the beach, a fact stuffing session at Pizza Express, and then the aforementioned trip to see "Thor". Which was quite funny.

Oh, and as a result of last night I was suffering from the wine shakes for most of the day.

123/365

Day 123

Another brilliant day off from uni work. Books and Beans, Union Terrace Gardens and the Art Gallery with Jane, then to exo at night for some wild dancing at Motown night. You don't even need to be that drunk (I was, but oh well) to enjoy some Stevie Wonder. Or Aretha Franklin. Or Tina Turner. They had all the tunes on, that's for sure. Oh, and I didn't go out wearing the bonnet, I borrowed it from a hairy man who resembled a teddy bear. It was just a good night all round!

122/365

Day 122

Another box ticked! The building technology journal, which comes to a staggering 13000 words was uploaded for the final time today, 2 hours before the online dropbox closed. Now I actually don't have to think about bricks for a few days, nothing has driven me on more! No more deadlines for more than a week now, so I'm giving myself a few days off, and we kickstarted it with a little picnic/chilling session in the sun in Union Terrace Gardens. And then some guitar playing. And ice-cream. I'm pretty sure it's all worth it when you get a day like today!

121/365

Day 121

It's flat party time! We had a little get-together for Arlene's 19th tonight, which I joined in with after returning from uni at 7pm (quite early for me, I think you'll agree). After a few drinks, consumed from a ladle, most people headed into town, apart from me and Shannen who held back for reasons of money and early starts. As a result, we had a particularly exciting encounter with the devil's creature (A Daddy Long Legs) in the kitchen. Safe to say, after a hefty amount of screaming it met a sticky end under the cake box. And Shannen finished it off with her killer (literally) heels. I hate those damn flies. Eurgh.

120/365

Day 120

Far too much of my life recently has concerned pigeons, mostly due to the tutorial we have from building technology in which we have to design a brick doocot. Which is why I, yet again, spent a large part of the day drawing. More. Bricks. On the plus side, I got a lot of work done, to such an extent that I'll probably be able to submit my journal a whole day early. HIGH FIVE.

119/365

Day 119

Apparently there was some big wedding today or something, but I didn't care because we were going to Pizza Express for dinner, upon my arrival back in Aberdeen. I guess that was a positive outcome of my journey home. The weather at the moment is ridiculously summery, which is a bit annoying when you have to drive for 3 hours (a trip which resulted in my easter egg melting, sad times), but hey, if it stays like this until next week I may be able to get out and enjoy it, get myself a cheeky bit of sunburn!

118/365

Day 118

I took a trip back to the Kingdom of Fife today for a dentist appointment tomorrow. I decided to take my portfolio along for the ride, a move which resulted in me being the "awkward student on public transport", one of my favourite roles. Oh, and when I did finally make it back to the Bay, I found out my dentist appointment was cancelled because of The Wedding. Which means my 14 hour stay at home is utterly pointless. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm just off to eat my weight in food to make the journey worthwhile.

117/365

Day 117

Final Presentation today! I wasn't on until 4pm, with was both a blessing and a curse. It meant I had time to fiddle about with my print offs, but it also gave me a lot of time to worry. And panic. And work myself into a slight frenzy. But it all paid off, because Neil Lamb loved it. Well, he loved my design, my drawings not quite so much. Which is fair enough, they could be considerably better. But still, I got an A for my model which was a rather exciting moment for me, and I got told my verbal presentation was "extremely confident", a surprise as I was shaking like a leaf.

I know I sound very cocky, but I'm just glad it's done and I haven't failed! TO THE BOBBIN.

116/365

Day 116

Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no. It's the reviews tomorrow. Oh no oh no. Some last minute photography of our models was the nicest thing we got to do today, because it meant we finally got to venture outside into the sunshine. It's been beautiful weather recently, but you don't really get to enjoy it when you go into uni at 9am and leave once it's dark.

Oh, and as a scale, this little door is about the same height as your little finger. Now take note of the bricks scored into the walls, and the window frames I've detailed. Now please have some sympathy with my frail state of mind.

115/365

Day 115

Uni was closed today for a bank holiday (WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO US AT SUCH AN IMPORTANT TIME?!) and so me and Kieran decanted ourselves from Linksfield and set up our own mini studio in Jane's Flat. I stayed for 12 hours, and Kieran for more like 16. If our tutors have the guts to say to us that we're not dedicated, then I'll be going at them with a scalpel. Due to the horrendous amount of work we ploughed through today, we treated ourselves to a take away pizza, which we tanked because "eating takes up working time".

114/365

Day 114

Hiya finished model! That's another box on my very very long list ticked. It even fits the site model and comes with a detachable roof so you can see the rooms inside! The idea that I no longer have to score the bricks on to this beauty is hugely appealing, and I'm not lying when I say it's the best model I've ever made. I still stayed in uni until close though. Which is 9pm. And it's a Sunday. I think I'm mental.

113/365

Day 113

Surprisingly, considering the amount of red wine I drank last night, I made it into uni today (Saturday!) for a fair few hours and powered through some model making. You can tell that the project is beginning to get to everyone when the idea of trying to fit under the ceiling while standing on the table appeals to Niall and Kieran. Saying that, they are both mental anyway. Classic SB39 banter.

112/365

Day 112

And now for something not related to bricks. One of the reasons I worked particularly hard this week (14 hour day in studio anyone?) was so I could take the Friday night off and attend Blues Ball, the RGU Sports society ball. And I'm very glad, what a brilliant night. Everyone dressed up lovely (I still fitted into my prom dress, which is a small wonder considering when I got it I had to diet to fit into it), wolfed down a 3 course meal, drank (or spilled) a considerable amount of wine, and flung each other around the dancefloor at the ceilidh. And then, once we were suitably wasted, we went to liquid and looked stupid in our posh get ups.

Dear Badminton Club 2010/11, you're all legends, thanks for an amazing night!

111/365

Day 111

It's happened. I no longer have a functioning hand. No, now on the end of my right arm I have "the claw". Holding a pencil/pen/scalpel in the same position in your hand for 8 or 9 hours isn't particularly comfortable, but it hurts even more trying to move it when you stop drawing. And the more depressing thing is I've still not actually finished drawing/scoring all the bricks into my drawings/model. In the words of Jane Balnave "When I close my eyes to sleep, I see bricks." All that is going through my mind at the moment is:

"215 x 102.5 x 65 with a mortar joint of 10"

That's your standard brick size by the way. And it is a set of numbers that will forever be imprinted upon my brain.

110/365

Day 110

Well I've managed to rectify the plans and crack on with the rest of my drawings. This is the section to my building, complete with ALL THE BRICKS drawn at a 1:50 scale. Which is very very small. Very small. The annoying thing is I can't even present these as hand-drawings, I need to scan them in and photoshop them on to an elevation. Now, I know I have already shown you my amazing photoshop skills (Day 104) but I'm not quite sure I'm up to this yet. And my shoulder really really hurts from using the drawing board. I'll be a hunchback by the end of this course. With an arm like a javelin thrower.

109/365

Day 109

So one of my aims this project is to not make myself ill by overworking, and to make sure I still maintain some sort of non-architecture-related normality in my life. Hence why tonight I took a little break and watch "Into the Wild". I've watched it before, but it is literally a stunning film with an amazing soundtrack. Maybe not the best decision though, considering it has made me very seriously consider running away from uni and living in a abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness. It'd be a lot more fun than drawing bricks.

108/365

Day 108

The work starts today. One week and 2 days until our final design review, and there's a hell of a lot to fight our way through between now and then. I though, "hey, let's get on with it and get the plan out of the way, then we'll have something to work from!" and as a result, got about this far with it by lunchtime! Then Sylvia, the Italian tutor with a love of "sckyscrapes" came over and told me it was wrong and I needed to change it.

Back to the drawing board. Literally.

107/365

Day 107

But of course, Kjersti's party didn't end there, oh no. We all got suitably drunk then walked into town, which also gave Niall and Kieran an opportunity to show of their mad JLS impersonation skills. A medley of the groups greatest hits (Nope, none in particular spring to mind) was the backing track to our journey. We headed to Korova, my first time there, and then on the way home me an Kieran took a somewhat risky detour to Union Terrace Gardens. Probably not our most intelligent move to be fair. Man, I was still out of it when I woke up.

106/365

Day 106

Kjersti's birthday party today, and so I spent far too much time fashioning this beautiful cardboard house in which to wrap all her presents from the team. Which were from poundland, and included: Royal Wedding Fudge, Liquorice, a Bubble Machine, a Tamborine, and Super Glue. You can't say we're not generous!

105/365

Day 105

I made dinner for the group (well, three of them) today, a huge steaming pot of chilli con carne. And because only a few of them showed up, I have some left over for my dinner tomorrow, yay! We then trooped to the cinema to see Rio, but unfortunately we timed it wrong and ended up having to watch a slightly more mature film, Limitless. Which was quite good actually.