Awww, just received my very first Ali Express wristwatch (1,39.- free shipping, takes less than 7 months to arrive!) It's adorbz! I can finally see why people love shopping at Ali Express so much! It may fall to pieces within a week, but looks damn hot so far. Now excuse me while I go to a jungle to find ancient Aztec pyramids. 

But where do all the bobbypins go?

 Good thing I'm too lazy to truly be convinced by the joys of lack of sleeping, because, you know, one MAY claim to only require 5 hours a night to exist, with perhaps an hour of nap after lunch, but then a few days into this treatment - as it happens every time - I sleep through two alarms that would wake up a firefighter's station, standing the General up and now have to either hop on a bike and rush after him, or alternatively, try to catch a Saturday train... 

The problem is I have too many awesome things to do and I really want to be doing them. All of them. Now!

     I've more-less successfully finished my very first box of bronze finds from the museum, which I have been asked to sketch for the purposes of a catalogue. I am now, almost officially, an archaeologists' apprentice. Nerdy stuff nobody else wants. The idea was to learn how to do a proper sketch, using the comb and the beak ruler, but alas, I am restless and I've just learned to take a photo, draw off the photo and then adjust the mini discrepancies in measurements. I also tend to try to really PORTRAY the bitch, whereas my job is to just outline it. I really REALLY like side views of things, often drawing several from various angles, which will later be entirely useless. So a lot of lines within or entire drawings are just a waste of time, but they are just so damn adorable. There's a movie coming out, some dikey whine-fest about Molly Anning, which is the opposite of how I feel. There may even be talk of me going out into the field. Whaaaaaa O.O

Finishing college, majoring in archaeology, has ever been on my list, it's probably even in my blood. After the new car, new house, new camera and walking the PCT, I can totally see myself doing something as wild. Abstract enough to be densely plausible.

The second thing  is painting cityscapes, or at least learning to, in a tiny Hahnemuhle sketchbook, following a purchased online course. Or two. The promise was to paint something every day. Mostly I make copies, but sometimes I make original things. I am not yet very good at painting buildings - I cram too much of everything and have little to no control over how much brightness or how much shadow I want to deploy. But, practice.

Addicted to purchasing Daniel Smith paint - and also genuinely a LOT of expensive drawing material like brushes, paper, pencils, pods, palettes and other P-starting words, I've unsuccessfully tried four times to buy another Kindle, eventually just spending the money on more Jackson's Art Supplies stuff. I keep buying theirs, just so that I can sneak in more and more DS paint. As a result, I now have enough supplies to last me two lifetimes. I have enough to open my own store, haha, if only I wasn't so territorial. It's mine, all mine!! I may stab someone if they reach for a single pencil. Like Smaug on his treasure. I know totally how he felt.

I have SO many beautiful books I've not yet even flipped though. A lot of them have pictures. Most, to be fair. Survival guidebooks and ancient text catalogues, Watchmen comic and Paradise lost in graphic novel version, tutorials and poetry and almost everything I could find by Walter Moers in two different languages.

Third thing, of course, is the Goose. Beckoning me almost daily, in small hints. Like a young horse coming to my cottage window to remind me he was purchased for outdoor adventure. I know, I know.

Fourth thing is the harvest, which is tomorrow. Then I really have to go and see gran. Really do.

And finally, in two days, I have promised to start Batch 6. Right after harvest. 

But first, catching a train, crossing a region and trying to catch G. If I miss him, he will be back home by the time I get there. Stupid circle. It's a principle of the thing. Better take the bike helmet, in case I need to borrow a bike to get home again, just in case. He has been known to abandon me in places for disobeying him. Though I usually get back faster than him in such cases, just to annoy him further :D

Uh, and there's a hive I'm trying to salvage. Story for another time. Fickle bees. 

I have to say, though, it feels good, when you start a new project, to already have absolutely all materials required in your stack :D

Lagging behind, I know, I know ...

Have I ever mentioned how freaked out I am by K-Pop bands? I'm sure I must have. Luckily the algorithms rarely bring them up, but I get physically repulsed by seeing a K-Pop boy band. Something in my brain - a brain which would otherwise ADORE a hot Asian youngster of any gender - just fails to comprehend what it's seeing ... A band of cloned mannequins without any individual feats, all in makeup, looking like 9-year old girls, thin as if they've never been fed since they got off the tit and moving in this weird, sideways way, like a broken gyroscope, often in synch. It's just ... Too much plastic on a human? Too much nothingness in a theatre? The notoriety of their psychotic fans? The fame gained for an absolutely abhorrent, instantly forgettable product? Dunno, I can't pinpoint it. 

I know I thought of them today when we were leaving a grocery store, a heavy bag full of shitty delicious food which I love and is just really unhealthy (maybe one salad in the whole bag), and there was a young man sitting outside, begging with a paper cup ... I know him to be there often and he, other than being probably ill in four or five different ways and severely addicted to cheap stuff, would have been young and handsome in another life, even a little bit of a rascal. We've established he doesn't mind me buying him protein bars and natural juice extracts and the like. The General usually just gives him money. But we decided to also buy him a cheese burek, and handing the little bag to him, I said: I am sorry, we didn't know whether you are vegan or not.

The look on the man's face. A man, filthy and diseased, who could have been a K-Pop creature a decade of substance abuse ago. Like he hasn't had anyone consider him human in so long, he had no idea how to react. 

Anyway. I shot Drej by an overcast lake yesterday, having another photographer there to ensure Drej gets 'shiny glorious' profile pics, as I tend to do the 'gloomy bitch' pics more often than not. Ironically, when the other photie's turn to shoot was and I was the one holding the shiny thingie, I took some over-lit closeups and that's the exact one Drej selected. 

.. and the photie:

    

Some pickies.. (Rogla and Zrece)

 Day 1 I was off to Black lake, while G chillaxed with a book and Tv in the hotel - the day started very nice and sunny, but it soon began to drizzle, it got super windy towards the top and then, at the lake, it just rained like a bitch. My trenchcoat proved to be slightly less water-resistant than I had hoped. 

I missed the hilltop I was after on the first try, so had to drive around a bit, but I had no complaints, as the region is magnificent. On the drive down the weather got sunny and hot again. In the afternoon the plan was to go to the Konjice castle and it began to drizzle again as soon as I parked. After a coffee and cake in a delicious little cafe, waiting for the rain to stop, it started pouring like there's no tomorrow. That stopped, too, as soon as I threw in the towel and returned to the hotel. 

The path to the Black lake is this chunky wooden ramp through a slightly aired-out conifer forest, really really pleasant stroll. 

This is a small pond behind the hotel, with a neat evening walking path. 

Days 2 and 3 The next day the General bit the bullet and joined me, although we weren't quite dressed for how cold it got: the plan was to poke around a bit and climb a watchtower, situated within a tree-top walkway. The view was awesome, if cloudy, and although the heights made me dizzy, going down the slide twice turned my tummy back the right way and I was fine :D Luckily the gift shop was so overpriced, I bought absolutely nothing, even though there were many super cute plush animals supposedly representing regional fauna. 

That afternoon, too, it rained as I tried to drive to the stupid castle, but ultimately I just gave up, wrote a bad review of the Tourist information center, which dismissed me, and tried to paint a little. It's not like I had 458 watercolours with me. I'm not even kidding. 

The third day I offed to explore the other direction, the smaller hills south of the hotel. the plan was to locate some lost ruins, but I walked too long and too far and by the time I found the correct hill, I was already too tired to bother climbing another. Did go through an interesting town, though. Should probably check that one out again some time in the future... 

Hotel 1: On the subject of people who tidy up their hotel rooms to perfection upon leaving ...

You know how those really cool rock stars, those hip young folk in weird black fake leather clothes with long hair and tattooes and sweaty makeup, who do drugs and drink from the bottle and roll with lots and lots and lots of teenage pussy, they get extra points for how awesome they are if they trash hotel rooms and make the life a living hell for cleaning ladies, and throw things out in the street, damaging cars and traffic?

       Well, meet the General. The man who would vacuum the room if he had the option. Who brooms the balcony. Dusts the surfaces. Who cleans everything up, folds the towels, makes the bed, arranges the curtains as they were when we came in. We kept the 'do not disturb' sign on the door thorough our stay, as we didn't want the housekeepers to bother with us and we never really use much of their towels and we take out our own waste.

        I'm just saying. We are about to switch hotels, going from one location to the next, and the General is as neat as a serial killer :D This hotel was very pleasant; it wasn't as posh as the one we're off to next, but they try hard. Tons of snow white towels, really super clean room, a tiny fridge that actually works, beautiful curtains. Really good bed, too, and really good food bar. 

I'll report and post a ton of pickies later ;)