Long time no update, which i kind of do alot.

Umm i dont know where to start really, i mean since i last updated. I quit at 118 after getting a job at an architects practice in Cardiff in May. They then offered to pay for a Masters course for me, which means i started a MA:Urban Design course in September at UWE, but i've stopped working there :( So i'm officialy a skint student again *sigh*

I do however have a job guaranteed for the next 3 years at the same architects practice as an Urban Designer :) woop. So come June next year i will be a professional and have a big fat dissertation under my belt- that is actually quite scary.

I also moved in with Phill in about June. Dina moved into the other room a month or two later so all is good :)

It hasn't been all plain sailing though.. my mum moved out of our family home in August which was really difficult. It came as a shock but she was unhappy there on her own and we all had to respect that. I really miss the house and its memories, and now it feels like i have no real home, but hopefully it will never come to the point where i'm actually 'homeless' so to speak.

Anyway thats all there really is to report on. Life has been good for the past 6 months or so, its also been a bit difficult, Phill and I came close to splitting up for a while which was horrendous, i just didn't know what to do with myself. But i'm pretty sure thats all in the past now. I guess everyone goes through these kinda things - 'Character building' my Dad would always say.

Hello to anyone that actually still reads this. Which is probably nobody but still its nice to get something down in writing thats not a report or acedemic.

Its 20 past 10 and im in bed ready for sleep. I sorta feel old.

Anwyho (i dont know if i said but..) i started new job last monday, tis ok. Today i was on the phones and the majority of the people i had through were REALLY scottish people. I couldnt understand a word they were saying, were really abrupt and nasty, and i had NEVER heard of half the places in scotland, they're worse than welsh towns. I also realised that i dont know the majority of locations in the UK, my geography is awful. I also had two prank calls... like 'can i have the number of a sexy woman?'. Tis actually quite funny, sorta breaks up the mundane calls quite well.

I've been quite organised lately, im getting all my finances in order, started up internet banking, and when i start getting paid (friday!!) i can start paying people back their money in weekly installments. go me! Also me & the phillip are going to see a house to let on saturday morning. tis in the street directly up from Le Pub. Heaven!! It has the coolest spiral stair case EVER. although the estate agent said its in bad condition, i guess we'll be the judges of that. Tis a two bedroom house and Dina may be having the other room :) tis good cos i get some of my favouritest people in the same house.

im just watching Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and i now really really regret not going to see Bill Bailey at like 2am at Glastonbury. :(

In other news, im getting a new phone on wednesday... i have actaully had the phone im using now for about 4 years. its oooooooooooold (well compared to todays standards!) I have nothing else to say so toodlepip.x

Phills blog has inspired me to write my own 'Most annoying songs of 2007' list. In no real order, as theyre all ready bollocks.

Rhianna - Shut up Drive.
Shut up and die.

Rhianna - Umbrella.
Ella ella ellla. arrrrrghhh.

That fat black bloke with the high pitched voice - beautiful girls. Oh his name is Sean Kingston.

Any other song that sounds like it was sung by a chipmunk on acid.

Timbaland - Apologize.
All he actually does is go 'eh eh' in a strange grunty way.

Mika - Grace Kelly.
He's just an annoying man.

Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
Its just wrong.

Hellogoodbye - Here in your arms.
Again chipmunks, with some synthesizers.

I cant think of anymore, and my list is quite similar to Phills. Also, nobody really reads this do they!?

I have a job! Starting monday. Nothing too exciting though, im afraid, i'll be working for Yell on their 118 service. Theres two weeks training first (paid woo). I sat in on some calls for a while because i was early for my interview, and the speed they go through them is amazing. One bloke rang up and asked for 'Strip Club', i giggled to myself but (unfortunately) turned out it was a paint stripping business. Still, i think little things like that would amuse the hell out of me. In a really nosey judging way!

Anyway heres some random photos i told myself i'd start uploading.
( A good man is hard to find )

From now on i am going to start taking more photos, and posting more on my LJ. Of the most randomest things ever. I had a new digital camera for Christmas off Phill so i have no excuses really, do i?

Hello. So its 2008, its the year for getting a job, learning to drive, getting a place of my own and growing up.

I'm with Dina on the drinking thing, i am definately cutting down from now on. I've just recovered from what, basically has felt like a two week long bender, even when i was flued up i was drinking. Not good sense. So yes maybe the occasional friday or saturday night, but no longer 3 days every weekend.

2008 is the year for good health. I'm going to try and find myself a new dentist as i cant remember the last time i went and now im off the books. I'm going to take the plunge and visit the doctor for routine health checks, jabs (cry.) etc. I've started taking Cod Liver Oil as i read its very good for you.

And i'm gonna get off my lazy arse and do some more excercise, even if its something stupid like getting myself a glass of water even if someone else has offered. And more sex, apparently the best form of exercise!

If i had a job right now i'd be made. Speaking of which, i should here off the people i went for an interview with. I'm really anxious about the outcome, because if i have got it, its too good to turn down right now, but at the same time i have no idea how im going to get there and back everyday for 8.30 in the morning. I could get a taxi but thats going to be ridiculously expensive. But then getting a bus to town, a train to cardiff, a bus from cardiff to Pentwyn... probably adds up to near enough the same. Basically Pentwyn is right between Newport & Cardiff but hard to get to unless you bloody drive. I wish i didnt put driving off for so long :(

I have however, put the wheels in motion, i have a license form (somewhere) that i picked up a few months ago...assuming it hasnt changed, and i just got my passport pictures done at Tesco (i look like a mug)

This year is also the year for travelling. I want to go to Paris (i know its cliche but i don't give a shit) and Ireland and Venice and Rome and Madrid. Just for a weekend i'd be happy :) I also need to visit my uni friends as i havent really contacted them properly for a while.

Also if i havent got a design job by June i;m going to start up my own business, because there are NO independant interior/space designers in Newport or surrounding area. I found one business that was somewhere near Blackwood i think, and they charged £40 an hour and they were Royal Shite, they redecorated houses, but probabaly has worse taste than my Nan, apparently with textiles and carpet picked out by Stevie Wonder on acid.

And... bollocks. I was meant to ring about a job at 118 247 today and ive just realised its 5.30, balls. I hope they havent gone by tomorrow, they rang me ages ago :( Balls.

P.S i spent my new years eve at the Phills flat with Phill, Lewis & his girlfriend, Rendel and some chavvy stoner twat. I got really drunk really quickly to amuse myself and insulted the said chav, and he undoubtably heard me. So if i dissapear off the face of the planet, the Rogerstone Mafia Massive have probably abducted me.

I've stayed in every night since sunday!! Phill popped over sunday, monday and tuesday night for an hour or two but apart from that ive had done bugger all in the evenings. (Being skint sucks) And tonight I'm staying in again! I thought i'd not make any plans as its my mums birthday and shes buggering off out with her friends. So now im left on my loner, again. Its phills cousins birthday so hes going to Risca to get drunk with his family.

Moop.

I may stay in and treat myself to my mothers gin and maybe watch some 80's fantasy films - i watched Return to Oz this afternoon, it was on BBC2, so i have a craving for them now.

In other news, all in all my interview went as well as it could go, i have absolutely no idea of the outcome, so heres to hoping. *thumbs up*

Its official, i do have an interview at 9am tomorrow. Im sooooooo scared! I always get nervous for like talks, presentations and meeting important people so i know its natural, and i always manage to do fine ( i seem to get the gift of the gab when im nervous!) but i guess this is quite an important interview.

I'd be over the chuffing moon if i got the job!! At the same time i wouldnt be too upset if i didnt, because its based in Pentwyn, which is a bitch to get to when you dont drive. It'd take me about and hour and a half to two hours to get to work everyday (on public transport) The other option is, if i do get an offer, to do an intensive driving course, which is expensive as fook, but probably worth it in the long run. Hmm. Job = money = experience. Pentwyn = shite location.

Anyway its for a company that designs offices with up to a million pound contracts....kerching! They have just started doing retail and commercial stuff like hotels, resturants and things like carshow rooms. My recruitment advisor blokee got me the interview after telling the company about my 'Colour-Cure Corridor' project (haha sounds lame! but its an office installation that uses light therapy to reduce stress) but apparently they loved it. So go me! Plus the recruitment bloke is also giving me a lift in the morning! Couldn't ask for much more really. He's been fooking ace, i only met him like 2 weeks ago and hes got me an interview already and he says theres probably more. I met another bloke about three months ago from a different recruitment company and hes hardly got in contact with me... so Kudos (whatever they are) to Acorn recruitment. Highly reccomended!

Regardless of job outcome, i think i would like to go out and get nicely rat arsed this weekend, in the name of christmas.x

Oh and Haha! Dinas dad is buying me a bottle of wine for being a good friend to Dina, bless his cotton socks! That actually made my day.

Shit!! I appear to have an interview for an interior design job in Cardiff....i'm actually pooing myself. I don't know the details as of yet, my mum just informed me that my recruitment consultant rang today informing me, she cant remember the name of the company that he said, but all will be revealed tomorrow morning when i ring the bloke.

I'm sooooooooooooooooooo scared. I haven't been for a job interview since the one i had for Asda, and that was in 2002! Plus i haven't got an updated print out of my portfolio, the only one i have is in PDF format on my laptop. And they want to conduct the interview Thursday morning... sheeet, so that means no time to print one out (plus no money my last one cost me £35!)

I'm scared but excited! Eeeeeeeeeeeep. Triple eep. My first real life changing interview.

I needed to write alot down in here, just to ramble sort of thing. But everytime i open this window my mind goes blank :|

I've been poorly for the past week or so (small violins again) and i still dont feel myself. My head is banging and it feels like im walking around in a daze! I'm feeling just a bit poo in general really, i have nothing left to look forward to and im still skint as hell. I'm not even looking that forward to xmas.. I guess im a bit excited because i dont know what anyones getting me. I haven't asked for anything and couldnt care less if i get nothing but... nobody has actually asked me what i want this year which means they have stuff planned and its all a big suprise :P

Actually, scrap that. The thing im most looking forward to is being able to lounge around for a few days, watch xmas tele, eat chocolate and nuts and have an excuse for getting drunk on nice wine during the day! Although part of me thinks i should take it easy that year... as i have put on some weight *sigh*.

(Oh god, reading over that i realise how much of a selfish shit i sound! Xmas is about love, family frienship, etc. bla)

Its not much weight at all really and i dont think i really look much different, maybe a cheeky love handle here or there. But i guess im just one of those people who never puts on weight and now i have discovered i that have for the first time im a bit suprised. I blame joblessness.

Oh god. I've just made myself hungry! *double sigh*

Umm in other news i have adopted dinas hamsters for a few days. One of them is a right nibbly little bastard, so he doesnt get much attention. I feel quite bad for it actually but it really needs to sort its act out, maybe go to hamster detention school or something. Its quite an active little thing though, its been awake practically all day and night as far as im aware, and has shredded up and bitten every piece of newspaper in the cage and stuffed it all into the corner into a massive den, it looks well comfy. The other one has just been asleep! The lazy little bastard.

Anyway im off to make me my 300th bowl of chicken soup this week. Ahh the perk of being ill.

i bloody love watching star wars on a sundsay afternoon.
it just feels so right.

sometimes words cannot describe how fucking funny i find Scrubs!

it is officially my happy place.

Its me again, about to moan about my non existant jobless life (get out the small violins)

na, im gonna try and not ramble about being a government scrounging arse hole. instead im going to write down my thought about the fattest man in britain.

true story.

i watched a documentary type thing last night about the fattest man in britain, who was 49 stone. He didn't even seem to care that he was the size of a mammoth, that he was slowly killing himself and that he had no real quality of life. On a heavy night out he drank 40 pints, and then went for a curry where he had something like 5 main dishes, 5 sides, 3 rice and all the naan bread. His girlfriend (who was also fat... and very brummy) fed up him the same as a family of 5 aswell. She cooked him a cottage pie and it wasnt your average portion, he ate a WHOLE pie.... in a dish the size of a big baking tray, like practically oven sized.

Anyway im rambling. But then i realised that i have indeed turned into a bitter sadistic little shite, when i thought to myself that surely someone needs to just kill him and put him out of his misery? Or better just kill himself. I mean, there really was no way out, he had no control of his eating and his stomach was like 3 times bigger than the average so he'd always be hungry if he did eat less.

Even worse he didn;t have a job, because he was so fat, which means he also was a government scrounging arse hole, but how much money did he get exactly!? I mean to afford 40 pints on a night out, 25 on an average night, about 9 curry dishes a week, and then most mornings he ate two cooked breakfasts from a greasy spoon, thats an absurd amount of money... that hes not even earning.

It just puts everything into perspective. Think of all the starving children all over the world, and theres our government lining the pockets of fat bastards like him, and not so fat bastards like me. Our government is fucked, the priorities are all wrong. I think they should just scrap benefits and people should be able to fend for themselves, and if they cant, fuck it they should starve like millions of others all over the world.





RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANT.

In other news i have lots of canvases that i have painted and some textile art, plus a shite load of jewellery i made.... with nowhere to sell it. I intended on doing the art/craft fair in Newport but theres no space left. Anyone know where i can sell it? Or wanna advertise for me? :P

i want to see the world, whos with me?

by the way, how much is xmas poo? I really cant be arsed with it anymore. its lost all meaning bla bla bla i sound like my nan yes but its true.

i am officially a scrooge and i love it!

I am officially a stereotypical newport resident...

I just signed on.

I never thought it would come to this, but it has. Bastards!

Anywho apart from being a skanky benefit laundering newport skag, i haven't got much to report on. Everything is OK, not great or bad but Ok, which is.... Ok i suppose. I read a random journal and got inspired so i thought i'd do this:

three things i have eaten today:
fresh pasta, goats cheese and sweet pepper mmm
beans on toast
a snickers flapjack

three things i miss:
my dad
uni times
having money

three artists/bands i am currently loving:
silversun pickups
beirut
animal collective

three things on my wall:
a black and white photo i took in photography in my first year of college
a radiohead cassette sleeve that phill gave me once as part of a really nice present
my LCD tele (swish!)

three things i wanna do very soon:
go on holiday
get a job i like
get my own place

three things i hate:
branston pickle
newport
banging my elbows

cant you tell im bored. x

i am sooooooooooooooooo bloody fed up, my life seems to have just stopped since i have left uni and moved home.

i still cant find/get a job, whoever said getting a degree would open more doors? they were obviously talking through their arse. seriously, the past 2 months have all merged into one really long tedious day, i seem to have lost any kind of motivation i ever had.

my hairs a mess because im skint, the money i do get i end up spending on alcohol on the weekends. i really cant stick living at home after being independant for three years, its just shit, if i leave a plate in the sink i'm gonna get an earful, if i dont come home for a couple of days i get the cold shoulder, im bored of the same four walls. i never thought i'd say this but im bored shitless of watching tele and may have even watched myself out of scrubs (i never imagined this could happen) i want to do my degree all over again.

anyway im moaning now. i seem to have lost all hope and belief in myself and would quite enjoy to curl up into a ball and hibernate for a few years.

blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

haha

i fooking love this song i do. Me & Phillip are going to see them again in Cardiff woop (when tickets come on sale!)

i love the way my mum asks me to decorate the hall, and then dismisses all of the paint colours i choose! Its nice to know that someone has faith in the fact that i've just done a 3 year interior design degree..

not that what i did was really at all interior design, i have not been taught to and neither do not pride myself on picking out paint colours but i like to think i have a good eye for colour and contrast.

anyway i have an online portofolio here www.coroflot.com/laurenbrown (i dont remember HTML anymore!) i dont know what i actually do, im not an interior designer, im not an architect, im not an artist. this is why i feel lost, i dont know what kind of jobs to apply for and i dont know what i am technically qualified to do!

i'd like to think that i can mostly be described as an arhictetural 'public artist' and taking on Russ' suggestion would like to coloborate with someone somewhere to create some public art - of which i will design, and they can make (or fund someone to make) i think Newport is in need of some new public art. i mean what do we have to show, the wave? (a steel monstrosity) the pig statue outside the market (need i say more) and some shitty steel sculpture of semi important people that nobody gives a shite about anyway.

i think i may look into some funding and maybe speak to the council...i dont know what else to do? anyone have any ideas?

in the mean time ill just sell everything i own on ebay.x

i have to tell you all about Sailor Jerry rum. It is possibly the nicest spirit drink ive ever ever had! You drink it with coke and its like a splash of heaven in a glass - im not even a fan of coke, especially with alcohol but its so damn good! If you ever see it anywhere, try some. I NEVER see it in a bar or club, my union had it because the bar manager loved it, and a pub in Camden had it, thats all!

Tis a bit random i know, but i was just thinking of my favourite things as i was making some marmite on toast (mmm) and thats definately up there along with monkeys and ice slices..

p.s my marmite on toast was especially good. marks and spencer wholemeal bread, the perks of living at home! no more smart price white!