Podcasting

Well, I have discovered the greatness of podcasting!
Recently I found a site called boagworld.com which I have found quite useful, so while I was there I decided to try downloading some podcasts to my ipod mini as I haven't done this before and wanted to experience a podcast.

As it takes me an hour or so to get to work, listening while driving seems like a good idea as we are not allowed headphones in work any more, (yes I know, ridiculous!) . Any way Tuesday morning was the first time I listened to a podcast and it was surprisingly good. Its a great way of finding out opinions, what people think of certain programs and having your fears/thoughts confirmed.
I now know that I'm not the only one who feels that way about certain issues and now I wonder why I haven't done this before.. I am the only designer in my team at work which means I haven't got anyone to bounce ideas or thoughts off which is sometimes difficult.

So now, instead of wasting my precious time listening to Radio1 for a little over 12 hours a week, I can now learn something new. I'm actually looking for a good Photoshop podcast so if anyone has any suggestions or knows of any other podcasts that would interest me, please feel free to let me know which ones you are listening to..

1st LIVE website : www.perfectstudios.co.uk

Just so you know, I have put my first website I have done in a while LIVE. You can view it at http://www.perfectstudios.co.uk. It was a long slog to get this web site done as it was a re-design, which I now realise take longer than creating a brand new website.
Please let me know what you think..

Sagrada Familia & Casa Batllo

Well today is the day I have been waiting for, for over 10 years.
We are going to see Sagrada Familia! I really cant explain what this actually means to me, but I couldn't hold my excitement. We took the bus to our destination and got off a little too early, so we figured if we looked into the air we would be able to see the church and would be able to find our way, but we had actually lost it momentarily. Considering how big the building is we just couldn't see it, we turned the last corner and still couldn't see it.. Until we looked up! Then we wondered where it had come from.

We got into the long queue and waited our turn to get through the gates. Well what can I say, this building is breath taking and I have never in my life seen anything as beautiful. For the next 3 hours we took pictures of nearly everything we saw. We decided to get the lift up as the stairs were closed due to the amount of tourists and the view was fantastic!

Once we had finished the tour of Sagrada Familia we where hungry and needed a small something to tide us over till we got back into town. On the same road was a McDonald's, so we went in and got some burgers to take out. We sat on the bench outside to eat and if I was told over ten years ago that I would be sat outside the Sagrada Familia eating a Maci D's on a bench I would have never believed you!

We got on a train to take us back to La Rambla which would take us to our next destination, Casa Batllo. Now this building inside and outside was as good, even better than what I saw in the books at college all those years ago.. Taking the tour of this building topped off our holiday.. Fantastic! If your into art and architecture, I suggest you go to Barcelona and see as much as you possibly can. The last two days have been amazing!

I can say that this holiday reminded me about being in college, being into art and art history, creating lithoprints and how wrong they went but also how great they went when you got it right. This holiday has brought back that passion I had when I was in college as a young artist/designer. I love it so much! I need to design and be creative because if I don't and am not there is no point in being me...

Girona & Dali Museum

Today we had to be up early to get on our coach to Dali's city, Figueres. So we got up at 6:00am to make sure we where there for 8:00am in Placa de Catalunya which is at the top of La Rambla.

Our first stop was at Girona where we had a walking tour which lasted 1 and a 1/2 hours, after it we had 2 hours free time, so we decided to go and see the Museu de Cinema which was really good. By the time we walked round the museum it was time to get back to the coach for the second leg of our day trip.

It took another hour on the coach to get to Figueres which is where Dali was born. Andy had a little sleep while I watched the country side go by.
We arrived at the car park just behind the Dali museum and all you could see were gold figures which looked like they were waving or dancing almost. Once we got nearer to the museum you could see the red castle part of the museum with the eggs lining the top of the turret. Fantastic! By this point Andy had already taken 8 photos as Dali is Andy's favorite artist.
On entry to the museum you were greeted by a large naked brass woman standing on top of a black Cadillac, and one of his famous paintings was behind it and it was enormous!

The whole gallery was very different to an normal gallery, parts of it where not what you expected them to be. For some reason you were only allowed to stay in the gallery for 2 hours and 15 minutes, I don't know how they monitor that but we left after 2 and a bit hours to visit the Dali jewellery museum which was equally fantastic. We didn't have enough time to have a good look round as we needed to get back to the coach. This was another great day had in Barcelona!

Once we got home we went in search for tapas. I remembered a flyer handed to us earlier in the week so we went there. Its a restaurant called "Sinatra" and the food was fantastic! So if you ever go to Barcelona you need to go to find this restaurant for some GOOD food..