My home-made battered fish! Woof.
#FishAndChips (at My kitchen)

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone talks about London, England? Grey.
You couldn’t be more right. It’s just that, grey.
But in its grey and rainy coating lies history and character.
My first visit back in March 2012 stretched over a 24 hour layover. Arriving in the small town of Gatwick where I could stretch my arms from side to side and touch both sides of the road, to a short train trip into London.
Besides squealing with excitement, I remember thinking “grand, this city is grand”. You could just smell royalty!

Walking through London Victoria Station was surreal. I’d never seen so many people jogging in all different directions. It’s a wonder no collisions have been reported.

Hyde Park next to Westminster, much different by comparison to others I’ve walked through was so well maintained. Luscious greens, perfectly trimmed grass, bouquets of flowers oozing with glorious colours. And the lawn chairs? Were they bolted to the ground because where I’m from they wouldn’t last long enough for someone to take a picture.

My first real fish and chips lunch with a pint of beer. The sizes were enormous! Was this normal? I tried to be discreet and check out the situations at other nearby tables. Later, I realized that when ordering a beer in the UK one must ask for ‘half pint’ otherwise you end up with a fish owl.

And just like that it was over. I returned home from my first real taste of what my future will look like.

Aside from the exhaustion, slight jet lag, and not enough words in my vocabulary to describe what I was feeling I was the happiest girl in the world! And I couldn’t wait to get back on that plane to another adventure.

So I found this article. Has anyone tried any of these places?

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Planning the cards:

In my studio sketchbook i began designing some thumbnail sketches before experimenting digitally:

(below -testing out different typefaces for the ‘title’ of the poster)

(below – the initial sketches i did to scan in and experiment with)

As you can see, in the above screenshots i had been changing the illustration for the border, its colour and the title before deciding on the final result. In the end i chose the lemon motif as the border as it has previously featured in some of my other pieces, and i think the simplistic shape works well as a frame to border the poster.

(above – i began considering the typography that i would use for the bulk of the writing on the poster design, initally i simply used fonts within Photoshop to visualise what style i wanted to use, e.g. decorative, or a more hand rendered, personal style.

I finalised the typography with a handwriting style as its more personal and matches the typography in the word ‘menu’ which also features.For the subheadings i added a yellow coloured drop shadow to help distinguish them from the rest of the type.

Although as seen above, i had positioned all of the type to a point where i was happy with it, but i felt it looked abit plain and not quite right so went back to my sketchbook to consider what i could do to improve it.

Below i am experimenting with different subtle backgrounds to diminish some of the white space in the background. I experimented with both an image of sand (to obviously link to the british sea side connotation that is linked to fish and chips and also newspaper print to link to the traditional way of how the takeaway food used to be packaged).(differing the opacity of the background image to make sure it isnt overbearing and distracting from the focal point)

images of my studio sketchbook through out creating the posters:

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2 FINAL POSTER DESIGNS:

I have initially primarily experimented with the letter F to link to the word ‘fish’, i decided if i liked the way these letters looked i would then begin to illustrate the rest of the letters! The illustrations that help make up the letter are all fish and chip/british seaside related, e.g. seagulls, lemons (to put over fish), icecreams, fish, sauces etc! These where quite time consuming but i’m really pleased with the result and plan to incoporate the design into my final pieces in some way.

Corridor...

Bicycles...

Library... dissertation folder which reminds me of the Xbox games console...

West Street...

Fish & chips at the Chinese...

Extension cables...

Industrial Piping...

Portrait of...

Giant steel box...

Flesh of the pipe...

Street life...

Street gates...

An intro into a non-digital photography project titled; ‘Depictions of Place.’ We were expected to visit different areas within Farnham and its outskirts using an SLR camera – strictly no digital! Executed through a minimum of 10 exposures either in black & white or color. Conveniently, 5 years ago, I was given a Pentax Mz-30 35mm Film Camera with a Pentax 35-80mm Zoom Lens and I had never used it! It was in fact, probably one of the best decision I’ve ever made, regretting I disowned and neglected such an amazing camera! After 2 weeks of hardcore shooting, developing and processing, I became very familiar with the whole SLR experience and I loved it! I was also unfamiliar with the town, so it became a very enjoyable experience with what I think was great success! Within the photography brief, there are four different approaches to go by, being; The Lone Outsider: ”Lone outsider at odd with the world.” The Insider: ”Inhabit the world they depict.’‘ The Activist: ”More overt in their ways… often political.” and The Fine Artist: ”Photographs things as they are”…”World being the raw material.” I managed to fall under all of them and I wanted to keep it broad but within guidelines, so I focused on Society, Architecture, Industrial Elements and the Countryside within Farnham. I discovered, the further my search was, the more successful I became at revealing what a well and truly lovely place Farnham really was – and my idea fed on that alone!

Statz

In the lead up to this weekend however, the fact that I’ll be out there on the tarmac hasn’t exactly altered my lifestyle – which I nervously accept, it probably should have. Denial works great up to a point. And that point is probably on the side of the road somewhere between Owhiro Bay and Wellington CBD.

But it hasnt all been fun and games though. On Tuesday (21st) we did some very serious training. We re-traced our previous course around the bays on what was a breezy but warm evening – initially spurred on by the reward of a decadent caramel fridge tart waiting at home (I told you it was serious).
Both of us being pretty geeky when it comes to all things tech (we’re totally cool cats otherwise), we had our smart phones on doing some stat tracking – so we could gauge how we were doing in terms of speed, time and beguilling facial relaxations.
If you’re interested in the mobile app, its called iCantBelieveImDoingThisRightNowAndItsOnly7KmBut21KmOnSundayOMGIMGOINGTODIE. Or something. I forget.

Sometime during our training we realised how starving we actually were – at one point I actually thought Shelley was going to make a dive for an unsuspecting OysterCatcher, such was the ravenous lust in her eyes. I think it all came to a head as we strode along the water in Hataitai, discussing the copious amounts of pasta one should eat before embarking on a 21km walk. There may also have been mention of breads, potato and…. *dear God Im hungry*

The 7km Route (red pin = fish n chips)

Now. It’s coincidence that it JUST so HAPPENS that by MERE CHANCE and who would HAVE THOUGHT that by SOME FREAK OF NATURE, its exactly 7km from where we left off for our training, to the Fish & Chips shop where, naturally, our training came to its conclusion. And to be very clear: we forwent the fish in the name of healthier eating.

We also might have caught the bus back home and continued with the carbo loading (chips on cheese buns) just to be sure we could do it properly on Saturday night before the race and THEN there also may have been some decadent caramel fridge tart afterwards (as foretold).
Yes…there could very well have been…

Now THATS what I call training.

HELLO.

On Monday the 8th of August at half past of the twelve, in the downstairs boudoir of The Forest Cafe, in Edinburgh, comma, myself and Mr James Anderson (Apprentice Tailor) shall be performing unto you a historical presentation regarding – I just saw a chicken, go me – a historical presentation regarding an unexplored nugget in the Edinburghian Fish’n'Chip Emporium that is Time.

‘The Life and Times of an Edinburgh Monster’ is a title that, in hindsight, gives away quite a lot.

Via the medium of lying, Mr James Anderson will contact the spirit world and appear unto you as various characters from history – also two live men – and I will interview him regarding what he has seen, re. The Monster of the title.

If you do not like Monsters, be warned, it crops up a lot. But perhaps your opinion will be revisioned henceforth witnessing our display of pure unadulterated histoire (French for ‘History’)? Yes. Yes it will. For as long as I have breath in my body, I am committed to lifting up small pieces of slate from the rockery of fate and crying ‘Fie! What history goes there?’

Largely I get no response, or escorted from the garden centre, but occasionally I find grains of truth, hidden from sight. And I plough these grains like a bad metaphor. What happens when you plough grains? That’s right: Fact.

So, Monday’s half our slide-show and interview extravaganza will essentially be my sewing my grains of fact amongst the ignorant.

What can you expect from this? Well, you will doubtless learn a few bits and pieces about the history of Edinburgh, the greatest city of all time in the Lothian area. You will learn about its peoples and places, and snobbery and violence, and trade and commerce, and its surrounding hillsides. For example.

This is The Crags. So know you now. If you wish to learn anything then you too should head on down to witness the first event in the Inky Fingers Summer Minifest, which has other things on that are less good but probably still worth watching.

Oh, and it’s free.

Yrs. Indulgently,

Andrew Blair (Historian, QED)

Chip Ahoy
8 Broad Street,
Padstow
PL28 8BS
01841 534753 ‎

Having surfed up a fair appetite, the gang decided on an afternoon jaunt to nearby Padstow for a bite and a wander. By the time we arrived, I was pretty much ready to eat my own arm, so was rather delighted when we spotted Chip Ahoy. I was pleased to see they did half portions of Fish & Chips, and Mushy peas were only a £1, bringing total spend to less than a fiver for something quite reasonable for two to share. I also managed to get some scrumps (google it) thrown in and this sparked a discussion on the Norf / Sarf divide. Everyone’s favourite past time…..The Fish was cooked on spec, the batter was golden & crisp and grease was at a minimum. Very good indeed.
A particular highlight for CJ was a Pineapple fritter! I have to admit that it really was quite delicious in the way only battered and deep fried fruit from a tin, can be.
There’s really no need to venture over to Rick Stein’s joint (around the corner) when you’ve got this belter of a Chippy offering top quality servings of Haddock, Plaice and Cod.

Farmers Arms
St Merryn,
Padstow,
Cornwall.
PL28 8NP
01841 520303

http://bit.ly/k4ez9D

By Sunday night we were all surfed out and the prospect of firing up another disposable BBQ seemed pretty much like the worst idea ever. Never fear, the pub is near.
I haven’t been to a proper pub in AGES. We arrived slightly too late for their Sunday Carvery – the popularity of which was being displayed by the many red-faced locals leaning back in their chairs whilst desperately loosening belts…..We ordered from the regular menu and to be honest the food wasn’t fantastic. I chose a rack of BBQ ribs which had definitely met some BBQ sauce at some point but were a little dry by the time they reached me. Fillet of Ling (similar to Cod, slightly firmer flesh) was also a slight miss. What the place did have in bucket loads was ‘Pubness’. On the final night of our little holiday, though completely shattered we stayed merrily chatting and joking right to the end (even attempting hide and seek at one point). They had to throw us out at midnight, we would have stayed longer. When put in this light, not even the crotchety waitress who was dead against us moving tables can upset my memory of the place. Maybe we needed to get over ourselves. Maybe I needed a mocha-soya-hazelnut-latte…..
All in all a good spot (pick meals carefully) and as it’s under the St Austell Brewery, the beer’s not ‘alf bad either.

BoF.