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Dream House 2

Sunday, November 26, 2006
As all I seem to be talking to people about at the moment is house hunting, I though I would enlighten you to the particulars of Dream House 2. This is a house we are very interested in, as it's in a nice area, the house is of good size and the bedrooms are good too. We haven't decided yet whether this is "The One" yet, but we're very enthusiastic about it.
These are photos taken from my second viewing of the house when my mum came up to see it this weekend. It wasn't that late when we went, but 4:30 means darkness at the moment!

This is the view up the steps to the front of the house. Note the handy automatic light that comes on if you walk near the door. The house is on a street that looks rather like the road that Phil lives on...

Here are some photos of the kitchen:



 For me, the selling point of this house is the kitchen. It's absolutely lovely and almost double the size of the one we have back home. The landlady said the major downside of it is that it doesn't have a dishwasher... I don't think it bothered us that much!


 These are photos of the lounge, which is at the front of the house. It's not a big room, but is nice and cozy with a couple of good (albeit rather grubby atm) sofas. And it has a fireplace... wow.
I have to point out at this moment that this house makes the house we viewed the other week look like a hole. Which it was. But anyway, it makes it look even worse.

More pics in the next post -->






More Dream House 2

Following the previous post, here are some more pics of Dream House 2:

Here are two photos of the bathroom:



It's quite small, but very clean and nicely kept with everything we need, so it's all good.


This is the first bedroom which is located on the first floor. I wasn't able to take a picture of the room when i visited, and the one He-re has on their site really doesn't do it justice as it's actually an incredibly large room, but this is the one that Isa would like if we went ahead.


 These are photos of the second bedroom which is located on the second floor. Again, the picture makes the room look quite small but it's a good size. This would hopefully be my room if we went ahead with the house.



These are photos of the third bedroom which is also on the second floor. This one needs some work done on it and there is no-one living in it at the moment which makes it look a bit bare and dingy, but it's aa nice size room, even though this is the smallest. Sri would have this one if we had the house. There is also a fourth bedroom which is used as a spare room.

And...
Just some nice pics taken around a rather Christmassy Leeds before my mum had to go home!

See you all in 12 days!






An eventual update

Monday, November 20, 2006
I realise I have not updated this for a while, and although Phil nagged me to come and update about a week ago, I tried and nothing was uploaded because I was still sharing my net connection with my friends. Having logged into Blogger, I found that my unpublished post was still saved here, even though it never appeared on my blog. So, just to prove that I DID try to update:

14th November 2006 - Yay for BT
2 weeks, lots of books and one incredibly messy room later (as shown below: PICTURES TO FOLLOW!), I finally finished my Assignment 2 last night.

I'd like to point out that my room isn't this messy any more, I've actually had time to tidy it now (even though personally, I think it looks relatively organised actually). Also, the apple juice and the cotton buds were essential to the completion of the essay :D But YAY! it's finally finished and I can now relax. Coincidentally, if anyone wants to read my essay, I can send it to you (it's only 1500 words).

And another YAY! - I now have an internet connection. Well, currently, I'm still stealing Isa and Sri's one, but I will be connecting mine up tomorrow. But either way, I finally have net access. So I can talk to everyone now (and do research, of course).

In other news, we've been looking for houses for next year (they seem to start early up here in Leeds), and we're going to view Dream House 1 on Friday! I'm also trying to arrange a viewing for Dream House 2 as soon as I can, but I will let you know what we're doing once it's all been arranged. But it's all very exciting! :)

So there you go. Anyway, for this update.
I am no longer stealing my friends' internet connection - while Phil was staying with me, he installed all the relevant stuffs and sorted out all the scary wires and now I have my own internet connection! I also have free evening and weekend calls, so if someone would like me to call them who cannot afford to call me, contact me somehow and I can give you a ring!

We viewed Dream House 1 on Friday, and unfortunately, it wasn't all that dreamy. In fact, it was a complete waste of time. When the landlord asked me to phone him an hour before we were supposed to be viewing just in case he forgot, I thought he was joking. Well, he wasn't. When I phoned him an hour beforehand as planned, he had completely forgotten about us and was unable to meet us at the arranged time. On top of that, the house we wanted to view wasn't actually available for viewing, so we had to arrange to see a different house that was supposedly exactly the same. So, we come and see the house, and realise that actually it isn't anything like the one we were supposed to be viewing. For example, it was minus a dining room. Also, we weren't that happy with the house because one of us would have to live in a box room with 2 foot of floor space, and another would have a room twice the size - a recipe for arguments and problems, no matter how friendly you are. So, after deciding that we really did not want this disorganised and annoying man as a landlord, we came home, rather disgruntled. At least we made him give us a lift back into Leeds because we didn't know when the buses were that late in the day. I have arranged a viewing for Dream House 2 (which better actually be dreamy!!) on Wednesday, so hopefully things will start to get a bit better for us from then onwards.

Last night we went to see Spirit of the Dance.
I invite anyone to watch the video that made me want to see this show: http://www.spiritofthedanceproductions.com/spiritofthedance_index_01.htm.
The show promised "a foot-stomping international production featuring the passionate latino rhythms of the Tango, Flamenco, and red-hot Salsa along with powerful show-stopping Irish Dance". We got: a load of Irish Dancing along with 30 mins of singing from Ireland's Three Tenors (including a Westlife cover, a Queen Cover, a bad Phantom of the Opera cover, and some traditional Irish songs). No latin rhythms WHATSOEVER. Also, the show was 2 hours long, including the interval. Which means, after minusing a 20 min interval and 30 mins of Three Tenors, you get a 1 hour 10 min show. Which, in my opinion, is not worth £10.50 (at the cheapest rate!!). So yes, a highly disappointing Riverdance rip-off.

Well, I'm off for another 3 hours of constant moving and body analysis. Yay for me.
I guess things can only get better, eh?






Practical Assessment One

Thursday, November 09, 2006
Swiftly following the last one, for anyone who was interested in my practical assignment marks:

Conceptual Development: C
Creativity: C
Content: B
Skills and Techniques: B
Investigation/Research: B

Comments:
This was an extremely clear and well organised presentation that had a tight structure and a clear participatory framework. Despite the frantic technical hitches at the start, the group worked well together to produce a coherent narrative that involved the audience as framed witnesses responsible for making a decision over the unfolding drama. The use of film at the beginning provided a useful framework for the overarching theme of media manipulation and the quality of it was good. The sharp change of pace and dynamic as the main character appeared and the audience were led into the court room showed a strong sense of the theatrical. Instructions for the audience were extremely clear at all times and their involvement controlled and well managed. Whilst the group had spent considerable time attending to the language of the piece, it might have been interesting to experiment a little more with style. Whilst a courtroom drama perhaps lends itself to naturalism, the aesthetic dimension lacked creativity and risk at times. It might also have been worth considering how the audience could have explained their decision more fully rather than merely announcing their verdict. Opportunities for audience involvement were built in but a little constricting. Getting this balance right might be a target for future work.

Lizzy, you have made some excellent contributions throughout the module and clearly have a great enthusiasm for this kind of work. Your articulation of ideas on your first presentation was particularly impressive and shows the high level at which you are responding to tasks set. Very well done.

Overall mark: 62%

I guess it's not that bad really, although isn't it strange how my percentage is exactly the same again...
I'm currently working on the essay to support this module, so we'll see how I do overall later.






Oh help

Monday, November 06, 2006
For anyone who wanted to know how I did in my first assignment:

Coverage: B
Analysis: C
Presentation: B

Comments:
This was a very interesting paper. You gave a strong argument with a real sense of your own position in relation to the argument. You write stylishly and articulately, and explain your ideas well. You also gave a solid sense of a self-reflective position with regards to your understanding of yourself as an emergent artist with a specific agenda. Structurally the body of the essay was good, your argument flowed coherently and logically. Where you fell down considerably is in your failure to develop appropriate introduction and conclusion and your failure to use citations to back up, extent and further develop your own argument. Your introduction needs to map out the entire essay and not just the opening section as you do, and your conclusion needs to stand as a statement for your position in the argument itself, rather than as a sad add on at the end. This is such a shame as the main body of the text was excellent.
Bibliography is well laid out (such a shame you didn't use it).

Overall grade: 62%

I think maybe i should go crawl somewhere and die :(
As an extra note, one of her sentences didnt quite make sense... heh.