Untethered

This week, our university is holding an Artsfest. I contributed in a small way by helping out with the joint exhibition of Photosoc and Leosoc (which stands for Leonardo Society – i.e. it’s an art society). The title of the exhibition is “Untethered” and it features about 2,000 origami birds suspended in the air. The birds are made from original photographs and artwork by members of the aforementioned societies. So … I helped make some of these birds. Not too many, but I helped.

It was fun. We had a bird party with pizza, drinks, movies and origami-making. When the host suggested we watch King Kong – The Extended Edition, I thought he was bloody joking. I had not-so-pleasant memories of watching King Kong in the cinema with my parents as a kid. I was bloody bored and kept walking about and moaning to my parents in a way roughly equivalent to “Are we there yet?” King Kong was already such a slooooooooow movie, so why why why would anyone want to treat themselves to Extended Edition? Funnily enough, it turned out to be the perfect backdrop to hours and hours and hours of origami making. I didn’t even know how to make origami birds before coming to this party, but I learnt.

Results below! The real thing can be seen in Blyth Gallery, Level 5 in Sherfield Building at Imperial College. (Hurry! I think it’s only open till 25th Feb.)

These rubbish photos were taken with my phone. Sorry for the poor quality.

Shall we have a baby???

Despite the peer pressure from all over the blogosphere, I successfully avoided doing The Valentine’s Day post yesterday. Because, really, do you want to hear my single-woman whining? You do? Well, I always get Valentine’s presents from the wrong men. Pretty much every year, I get something colourful in the post and my heartbeat goes racing and I get all excited and then … I read the person’s signature. But hey, free chocolate.

Yesterday, I celebrated Valentine’s Day in my own indulgent single way. Romantic dinner at Burger King followed by 14 hours of  luxury sleep. But just so you don’t say I didn’t give you any loving this year, my dear readers, here’s a silly love song for you.

Shall we have a baby?

Charlie Straight is an up-and-coming Czech band. In 2010, they won three Czech Grammy awards. I’m not a massive fan or anything, but the teenagers love them and they come from my town, baby! Same high school and all.

P.S. Doesn’t that song remind you of Kate Nash?

P.P.S. As for myself, we shall definitely not have a baby today. We shall remain single and use condoms furiously. Because we’re young and life is too much fun.

Kung Hei Fat Panda

On Sunday I headed down to Trafalgar Square for the Chinese New Year celebrations. It’s become a tradition for me now. This year was the third time I attended. It’s in February, so the weather is usually a bit poo and there are huge crowds of people, but I love the dances and the colourful costumes. It’s always a great opportunity for photos, as long as you have a decent telephoto lens.

2011 is supposed to be the year of the rabbit, but judging by the theme of this year’s  Trafalgar Square celebrations you would think it’s the year of the Kung Fu Panda. They really went OTT with the sponsorship activities, to the point where it was getting annoying.

On the plus side, I got a free fortune cookie from the Kung Fu Panda people. It said, “A half-solved problem will be fully resolved next month.” Now I’m scratching my head trying to figure out which one  of my problems is half solved. Love? Work? Exams? Family? Finances? Something completely different?

 

the parlour @ Canary Wharf

After that Ice Sculpture festival I wrote about earlier, we were all feeling a bit chilly. To our rescue came the parlour and their hot chocolate. I can’t vouch for their food, since we didn’t eat there… and of course, since this is Canary Wharf, it was a tad bit overpriced. But I loved, loved, loved the decor. What a perfect place to end a photographic expedition!