Bored and loud.

These are my latest Ebay camera purchases. First the Rollei XF 35 which is a shock for the system with totally auto settings. I used 2 films in this on my birthday at Muse, but have not received the films back yet - delays with flooding and postal strikes.

Secondly, the Olympus 35 RC, which has the fully manual settings. I am still finishing a film on this, to check how it works and such. I look forward to seeing how this differs to the Olympus OM-1N I have.

At the moment, I have ultimate freedom to, essentially, do whatever I wish. I recently turned 18 - which for the UK, means everything is open to me (except 21+ bars!) and I’m legally an adult. I finished my exams last Friday, so I’ve officially finished secondary school and just need to wait for the results in mid-August.

As most of you know, I have a ticket to Melbourne for the 30th August - one-way. That’s right, I am moving to Melbourne for the forseeable future in just over 2 months time. The majority of people my age will be moving out to university halls, working through a gap year or in the case of some, doing organised travelling. I know only a handful of people that will be independently travelling through a gap year. But travelling for an undetermined time is significantly different to leaving the home and family I’ve been with for 18 years, and moving into a town I have never visited (bar a half an hour stop in the airport - I didn’t leave the plane), with people I have not lived with before (and 2 that I haven’t met), in a house I won’t have seen.

For several of my friends, it is sinking in that I will be leaving - and that we’ll only be seeing each other once every few years. For me, it is nowhere near close to sinking in. For my friends, it is simply that I will be leaving. For me, I am leaving all I know, and moving into an unknown, so it’s understandable that I can’t feel the same feelings of missing them - I have so much to look forward too at the same time!

In preparation for my trip, I have 2 large packing cartons ready almost ready to go. They will leave before me, and probably arrive after me. In them will be the majority of my life posessions, although I am leaving a significant amount of things with my parents in storage - children’s toys and books etc. So although it is just about 2 months until I leave, my room is already appearing empty and the walls bare. I have several packages to post to ahead of me as well, but in the ’secure’ International Sign For of Royal Mail, as I wish them to stay as safe as possible (as it is highly unlikely that they’ll fit in my suitcase with me - several years of photo negatives and a year’s worth of darkroom work. )

In other news, I have potential new jobs - at a pub and a coffee shop!

So the move is getting closer, and it still hasn’t sunk in. I’m sure as the date approaches, these entries will become more and more jumbled.

Well, this is the first blog I’ve written. This is basically to rant and rave about something that is getting to me, and keep people I know up-to-date with what is happening.

Initially, I’d like to sing the praises of a certain website called Scarlet Mist

This site is more than simply selling tickets, it is by far the most sensible idea in the battle against ticket touts. The idea is that people who want tickets to a certain concert are set up with people who have spare/unwanted tickets to that certain concert, and they are exchanged via face value. No ebay fees, no fuss, just putting supply in contact with the demand. It’s free to use and relatively simple, you don’t even have to sign up. Just leave contact details, and if somebody wants the ticket, they express their interest and the website exchanges the contact details so you can organise how the switch will go down - meeting on a street corner or via the dreaded Royal Mail.

Surely this is much more sensible than banning the on-sale of concert tickets via Ebay and other such channels? Often it is because of an unforseeable event that tickets go spare, and if you don’t want to lose out on money, the most popular and well-known avenue to go down is Ebay, which of course is plagued by people looking for their profit. Scarlet Mist is offering a safe place and an honest place to get tickets for a reasonable price. I fully support them!