November 2015

I just do not have the words to say that can cover how eventful this past month has been - but I can say one thing for sure: the wait is over.

The absolute highlight of this month was the last week, when after 11 months apart, I got to see my fiancee Nicole again, she flew over to the UK to spend a week with me, both at home in the north-east and for two trips to London. This was Nicole's first time getting to visit the capital, and we had a hectic but brilliant time seeing the city's sights, including Buckingham Palace, London Zoo, Regent's Park, Baker Street, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, as well as also having a skate on an ice rink down on the South Bank, and seeing the night lights of the London skyline from the top of the London Eye. Both the hotels we stayed at were great too, especially the Doubletree on the second visit (minibar and iMac in the room, anyone?)
We also combined the London trip with another DeviantArt meet-up, it was great getting to hang out with Dracorum-Order, Granitoons, TopperHay and LaptopGeek again, not forgetting meeting Qwertypictures (aka Chris Signore) for the first time. There was much walking, food, chat and drawing involved, and though it flew by, it was still something neither me or Nicole will forget for a long time.
However, spending timt together in London wasn't the only reason Nicole flew over, there was another very important reason for her being here - on 23 November, I had my visa interview at the US Embassy. It was a lengthy process, which involved waiting for two hours in between being called to a booth to have documents and fingerprints taken, the staff were very pleasant however. The actual interview consisted of questions about me and Nicole's relationship, and it was very quick, but also informal, it was more like a conversation than an interview, which made us feel at ease.
And now for the big announcement - how did the interview go? I can now finally say it after all these months...the embassy told me there and then that my US visa had been approved. It is finally happening after all this time, I can scarcely believe it - but needless to say both me and Nicole were overjoyed on hearing the news.
So this means December will be my last month living in my home country, because I've decided that I will be flying out to the US in the last week of December. This is because I want to spend one more Christmas with my family, before starting the New Year and a new life with Nicole. We both have a lot to do between now and then, that goes without saying.
Changing subject, the other highlight of this month was attending the Lumiere Festival in Durham for the third time - for those needing to know, it's an outdoor art festival that's been held in Durham every 2 years, and all the exhibits are themed around light - it was very crowded, but as always the exhibits were impressive. Some of the highlights included two flying fish creatures, mist across the River Wear, a projection of a whale swimming on the Wear and a dramatic projection on Durham Cathedral. Lumiere also saw another DA meetup, I hung out with DragonRichard for the event, which was nice.

I can't even imagine how December is going to be...but it's going to be a very important and very likely an emotional time - a lot of changes are happening, and I just hope I'm ready for them.

As always, I'll leave you with some artwork - a homage/parody of the B-movies from the 1950s that I drew for CowboyCrocket's 1950s art jam this month.

Till next time.

P.S. - Click the links below if you want to see pics and videos from my visit to the Lumiere Festival.

Videos:
Durham Lumiere 2015 #1
Durham Lumiere 2015 #2

Photos:
Durham Lumiere 2015 - Photos

No more November

I can safely say that I'm glad to see the back of November - and not just because the weather's getting colder. A number of things have been grinding my gears for most of this month.
First, a minor gripe - YouTube. In their infinite wisdom, Google, who own YouTube, decided that in order to be able to see or make comments on videos, every user must have their YouTube account linked to a Google+ account - they're basically forcing everyone to join their poor excuse of a Facebook rip-off, not to mention asking for everyone's real names to keep track of them, and to be able to force-feed unwanted adverts down everyone's throats. I'm not having it, so I refuse to bow to the pressure. However it means I can't make comments or see any comments that make on my videos, though the only plus side of this as that trolls can't make abusive comments either.
So Google Minus, have some sense and return YouTube to how it was, otherwise you will just drive everyone away from it.
I also recently found out that when I joined Blogger (also Google owned), any pictures that I post on here got posted into a Picasa web album, which I never signed up for or wanted, so I'm afraid from now on I won't be posting pictures on this blog anymore - instead I'll link you to them.

On a more important note, this month I've felt like I've been put under more pressure from certain quarters to find a job - I'm still looking, but nothing is happening still, what more do they want me to do, prance up and down the streets in a suit and tie in front of every potential employer like a sheep in wolf's clothes?
I also had a "progress review" at the work programme session I attend every fortnight, and when I mentioned about how I'd like to do something art-related, I got referred to a self-employment specialist, with a view to possibly becoming a self-employed cartoonist...however, after the first meeting with him, all I got from it was that I'd get no startup help, and I'd get taxed to death on my profits. I can see why so many businesses quickly fail now...and I'm not sure I want to go down this route now, but I'm worried that if I turn round and say so, there might be consequences. Why does there always have to be a string attached? 

There's also been stuff of a personal nature I've been worrying about too...but I'm not gonna discuss those here.


There. Rant over. Moving onto the positive stuff now.

I took a trip in the middle of the month to see the Lumiere Festival in Durham - it's an arts festival where all the exhibits are outdoors, and based around light, I first attended it back in 2011, the last time it was held before this year, and while there were some canny awesome exhibits, the event was marred by crowd control issues. This time however, those issues had been addressed, as they had a "ticketed zone" this time, meaning people had to buy a ticket if they wanted to enter the ticketed zone between a certain time; those without a ticket (me included) had to wait until after a certain time before they could go into that area.
There were some good exhibits - the highlights for me were "Keyframes" (rows of stickmen "dancing" across a building through a lit-up routine) and "Aquarium" (in which the red phone box in Durham Market Place got turned into a fish tank) - but on the whole this year's Lumiere seemed to have fewer exhibits than in 2011, and as a result was less memorable, I thought. However, if they hold Lumiere again in 2015, I'll be sure to attend.
If you'd like to see my pics from Lumiere, click right here.

Also on the subject of trips and holidays, there's a couple of things I'm looking forward to next month - I'm planning to take the train down to London to actually see the sights of our fair capital city. I've only ever been to London once to pass through it (my times transitting through Heathrow Airport don't count), so it's about time, really. I'm also hoping to meet up with two friends from deviantART, Dracorum-Order and toonfreak8 (who's visiting the UK from the US this Christmas). I just need to get the train tickets booked...

Secondly, and I may have mentioned this already, but my girlfriend Nicole is also flying over from the US to visit me again, like she did last year - she'll be spending Christmas and New Year with me, and it goes without saying that I can hardly wait for her to be here - so close now. :)

Last but not least, here's some fancy formal artwork I did for FAC-AgentC's recent "Part of the Hive" art jam on DA: "The Not-So Ugly Bug Ball"

And not forgetting...hope all my friends from the US had a good Thanksgiving.