North Wales

Rokas and I went to Wales on Thursday, to Conwy, a small town by the sea with a nice old castle, and to Llandudno, a seaside resort town about 20 mins drive north of Conwy. They're both situated on the northern coast of North Wales. The weather wasn’t too bad but it was a bit cloudy and not as sunny as during the Malham trip last week. One of the attractions of Conwy is Conwy Castle, built by King Edward I and completed in 1287 (which makes it 720 years old). The view from the top of the castle was beautiful but unfortunately, the photographs didn't turn out that great.

Next stop - a walk atop the medieval town walls, which surround the entire town. There's a similar town wall in the city of York which I visited last year, but I think the one here is in better condition. From the top of the walls, I was able to look down at houses and in some instances even look into the living and dining rooms of some homes. At one house, we were able to look down a skylight into a bedroom! (I'm sure historians and tour guides would be hugely disappointed at the focus of my interest.)

After Conwy, it was off to Llandudno, a town with a nice seaside promenade. On the way up a hill known as The Great Orme, Rokas saw a classic Morgan sports car parked outside one of the hotels and decided to have a look. The owner, John Towles, showed us a leather-bound book with photographs of the construction process that went into making his car. Each car is individually made to order, and made by hand!

We chatted for quite a while and I loved the atmosphere at this hotel so if anyone is thinking of visiting Llandudno, do check out the Headlands Hotel on Hill Terrace Road – more info can be found here
http://www.stayinwales.co.uk/detail.cfm?i=3357.
By the time we finished, it was a bit late to climb up The Great Orme so we went to the pier instead before heading back.

Humpty finished

Well, I'm almost a week and a half behind schedule in my work but I've finally finished Humpty Dumpty. Unfortunately, I haven't started any programming work (programming? I'm an arts person!) and have done next to nothing for my final project, and everything is due in about 3 weeks. I wish I had more time. If anyone reading this has a time machine, please let me know.

Malham Cove

One of the nice things about doing a course in Yorkshire is that you're close to many beautiful places with amazing scenery. Take Malham, for instance... a small English village in North Yorkshire in the Yorkshire Dales (population 120, according to Wikipedia). My friend Rokas and I went there this afternoon with a group of university students. We walked about a kilometre and a half from the quiet village of Malham to Malham Cove, a gigantic limestone cliff reaching up to about 80 metres (260 feet). Apparently, this was once a waterfall during the melting of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age. I don't know much about these things but I do know that the view from the top was absolutely AMAZING! I think that's one of the nice things about England - the English countryside with its quaint little villages. It's exactly as you see it in travel pictorial books! Of course, this is assuming you like the countryside and are not one of those people who need to live within a block of a McDonald's. More info on Malham Cove can be found here:
http://www.malhamdale.org.uk/malham_cove.htm

Humpty Dumpty

So this is my first 'official' post. I'm really not sure about this whole 'blogging' thing but I'm willing to give it a go, so... let's see how it turns out. I left Sydney, Australia in September 2006 and I'm currently halfway around the world, in the UK, doing my post-graduate degree in animation and special effects. The past week and a half was spent doing an animation of Humpty Dumpty fighting with a lightsaber (that's soooo in line with my level of maturity!) ... but so far, it's not looking that great.