Happy Birthday to Me

Me and Nic at the British Museum

Me enjoying a cocktail at Maxwell

Me blowing out the candle on my birthday cake - thank god there's only one!

Today is my 49th birthday. God, that sounds old, but, even at 49 girls just wanna have fun! So I spent the day in London with my girlfriend of 30 years, Nic. Here's what we did:

• Visited the First Emperor exhibition at the British Museum - amazing!
  
• Had hamburgers, cheesecake and cocktails at Maxwells in Covent Garden - yum!
• Went shopping at Muji - lots of funky Japanese things
• Gossiped all day!

When I got home I drank champagne ate amaretto and praline birthday cake with Joe and the children. Then I felt completely stuffed!

I got loads of cards and presents, too, so all in all I was spolit rotten.

I'm a very lucky girl. 49 may be only a year away from 50 (eek) but today I felt 21.

Comics and Fantasy Art

Calum with Lord of the Rings fantasy artist, John Howe

Calum spent yesterday in London. He went to see fantasy artist John Howe who worked on the Lords of the Rings films. He attended the book signing at Forbidden Planet of his latest fantasy art book. Calum said he was extremely friendly and that they chatted about drawing anatomy.

Afterwards Calum treated himself to lunch at Pret a Manger and then hit the comic shops, as usual. He found a new comic shop in Charing Cross Road called Orbital Comics which had the best selection he's seen at the most reasonable prices.

Calum managed to spend £58 on books and comics during the day, but he felt it was money well spent as he is building up a really impressive collection.

I think it's brilliant that Calum was able to go down on his own and do his own thing.

It's another sign of how much he's growing up.

Art for Art's Sake

Calum at the UCAS exhibition

Inside the exhibition

The Business Design Centre in Islington

On Tuesday 8 November Calum and I spent a day in London attending a UCAS exhibition on Art and Design courses available at universities in the UK. (http://www.ucas.com/students/exhibitions/).

It was called Design Your Future and was held at the Business Design Centre in Islington. It was absolutely fantastic. We did six months' research in one day. With nearly 100 stands and workshops throughout the day on topics covering everything from digital art to applying to university, it was well worth the trip to London and taking a day off from work and school (Calum had to get permission from his teachers).

Calum was able to see how the different universities presented themselves visually (especially important if you're considering studying art or design there), talk to existing students about their own personal experiences and chat to tutors about what the courses involve. I was able to quiz them on the practical stuff such as fees and accommodation.

So, who did we like best? Calum is really torn between St Martin's School of Art and The Glasgow School of Art, both of which have excellent reputations. Both are also heavily over-subscribed but Calum's good enough to aim high.

We were also impressed by Nottingham Trent University and attended a excellent talk on digital media by a fantastic lecturer called Ian Grant from Thames Valley University - so there are plenty of choices.

Calum came away enthused and excited about all the potential opportunities in front of him. It also confirmed his choice to go to art school. He now knows he'll probably have to go to do a foundation year as well and that was useful to find out.

As well as attending the exhibition, we managed to take in three exhibitions at The National Portrait Gallery. The main one was Pop Art which was fabulous. Calum and I liked the Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein pictures best.

We were absolutely shattered when we got home, especially as we'd picked up three carrier bags full of literature and they were very heavy to carry around. However, we both agreed it had been a brilliant day.

Next stop - university open days!