I had a couple of really “off” weeks just then where I felt that the super-excitement that I have been carrying with me since I did my first work placement at Hot House 18 months ago had left me. I lost all interest in and motivation for my project. As a result progress has been slow. I did not finish the little robot yet, because I received my delivery of blue foam for the armature of the large scale robot and started making that instead. Last week my days mostly consisted of staying in bed till lunchtime reading old blogs and generally wasting time, then turning up at uni and hacking at this giant lump of foam with a saw and then a surform for a few hours and then going home again at the first moment I thought the roads would be reasonably clear. Hacking and filing down blue foam whilst you have zero enthusiasm or motivation to apply is hard. I would spend 5 minutes sawing or sanding and then feel like I had to rest for half an hour, I didn’t but I did consume a lot of coke and chocolate and half price Starbucks Lattes which all required fetching from far off vending machines and outlets etc.
My loathing of doing things also extended to my work at the cinema, which isn’t really doing things, I just appeared to be in no mood to be locked in a box for 2 days at a time.
The best thing about the last 2 weeks has been Sunday morning coffee which occurs because this is the only time both AJB and I start work at the same time. We get the tube to covent garden and are early enough to get the comfy seats in Nero’s and if we are lucky the use of someone else’s discarded newspaper. Last week I learned many an interesting fact about North Korea from the Observers travel section. Did you know they have a functioning socialist economy providing free healthcare, education and food for its citizens (obviously at the cost of many civil liberties – quality of life is apparently very low) and is one of the only economies in the world not to be affected by the current recession. I did not know this till last Sunday. It also provides precious hanging out time with the delectable AJB and dictates the consumption of tasty tasty hot chocolates and coffee. Wins all over.
2 Sundays ago it appeared to be Chinese new year, my route to work from Covent Garden skirts chinatown and it was pretty cool to see it decorated with lanterns and just chock full of people. Shame I had to go turn some lights on instead of wondering in to see what was happening ( I am betting there was a dragon dance…I love those.)
This weekend I had Saturday off and have started to feel a bit different. Instead of wasting hours on the internet I spent all day punching the leather I never finished from the minotaur project and starting a new prosthetic sculpt, which is actually a copy of one I did in summer but didn’t like certain features of and have lost the mould now anyway. I didn’t go into uni today but am fairly certain I can finish my armature in one more day and then get the clay on and then I will feel like I’m getting somewhere, I think.