Halloween

Yes, I am a zombie. The party was very crazy but a great laugh. Three course meal of slime soup, blood and guts potatoes with witches fingers, goblin toes and bogies, with cat litter cake and cows eyeballs to finish. Between each course, a three part ghost story was projected onto the wall about Robert Butcher and his antics on the 21st October at the Old Bakery... told by a throat cancered Mike wearing a shawl in a rocking chair.

After apple bobbing, Mike and I spent the rest of the evening in the basement taking guests round the 'dungeon' we had built. Candles and thick fog plus all the junk, damp and peeling paint I have down there made a fitting setting for the bowls of 'chickens livers', 'cat vommit', 'monkey brains' that our victims had to retrieve coins from. A rope to follow led them nicely into our traps, meeting drill wielding psychos, hanging corpses and mutilated dolls ending in the darkest room face to face with two severed pigs' heads and a stobe light. Great fun... for us!

Welcome back

Yes, just when I thought that my blog had died the usual premature death I am taking a minute to update on what has been going on over the last 2 and a bit months.
So the first week after quitting my job I didn't get to go to China but did do efy - Especially For Youth - as a counsellor for a gruop of 10 youth as part of a 900 strong bunch of kids from my church at Manchester University campus for a week. It was amazing. After that I had a week working on my house, fitting the stonework - sills and mullions for my windows that also went in that week. Very proud - I had to keep standing in the street and looking at the job when it was done!
Then I went to Croatia with Dan Jones for a week that was supposed to be chilling but turn into a mental whirlwind tour which was an amazing experience and involved island hopping, sleeping rough on beaches and in an olive grove, lots of swimming in the clearest water in the med and great food! I cannot hope to do justice to it so briefly so my only hope is that I'll remember it vividly (and that I get to go back in spring... plans are being made already).

Then for that last week before starting my new job, my fantastic dad who had only just that weekend got back from slaving on the french house all summer, came to work even harder on mine. He got everything done that I had hoped... all the plastering basically so that the front room is now ready to be decorated. Jon Devine had also come up the satuday I got back from Croatia and helped me board the ceiling. I have the best family and friends ever.

So worked started - Estell Warren - and I love it. I have a nice little office on Blenheim Terrace and my desk is in front of a window that overlooks Leeds University. The work is interesting (well - that's why I moved there). I spent the first couple of weeks working on designs for a small public square just down the road from my house in the new Holbeck Urban Village. My only worry is that the office are thinking of moving to Otley - a small town further out in the coutryside. I am not happy about the extra travel time this would need. At the moment it takes 15 mins door-to-door which is great.

This week I also got some great news... I've won that Landscape Institute award!!! I really hoped I would and thought I stood as good a chance as anybody but I am so chuffed! I have to go down to London for an awards ceremony on the 30th November. Also, my company has won an award for the category they entered and my friend Emma Baker has won the Student Dissertation award - a bit of a Leeds clean sweep really. They were a bit strange when they told me - trying to keep an air of mystery - so I don't really know what level of award I have won, just that I have won an award, but all will be revealed on the night! ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

The reason I haven't been updating this is because I have been serious busy as you can see - and I only posted before because my job was seriously boring!

Last day at work!

Well it has finally come, after handing in my notice a month ago, my last day at Scott Wilson!

I am excited not only beacuse I am leaving to work in a great little company, but also because I am taking a month off between jobs. Although yesterday it looked like I might be roped into staying a little longer when our director Mary came through and asked if I'd like to go to China for two weeks to work on a design competition for a new 'small' town of 8million people?... uhhh YES!

The problem is that I have committed to be an EFY counsellor for next week and have been looking forwards to it for ages. So Mary is checking if the dates are flexible but I'm not too hopeful. Nevermind. Plus I need the time to get my house fixed in time for everyone moving back after the summer.

Clearing out my desk and computer I am coming across some funny stuff from my last year in this office. We found this article while our colleague Shing-i claimed she was on annual leave in Taiwan.

Landscape Institute awards

Tonight I got in from work at 10:30pm, soaked to the skin, after missing my bus, walking home, and getting caught in a torrential downpour. I was at work late because over the last couple of days I have been getting my portfolio together to enter the annual Landscape Institute awards Student Portfolio category. It came together pretty well courtesy of Scott Wilson's (work) printing and binding capabilities! It's got to be in London by noon friday so I'll put it in Special Delivery post tomorrow lunchtime.

A few people asked me 'what do you win?' To be honest I hadn't really thought about it, I don't know if there are prizes? Just the honour of winning really... or is that pride?! Eitherway, fingers crossed!

thanks Jes... and Niall

Last night I felt it was high time I caught up with Jessamyn Pui Ching Lau, after randomly bumping into both her younger sister in Chelmsford, and younger brother in Leeds within the last month. Jes is an old friend and former landlady of mine (actually I used to squat in her Bermondsey house - oh and the Elephant and Castle one I think too?!), and we hadn't spoken for too long so many tales were told of past adventures and future plans. Anyway, after Jes suggesting that I start a blog, and I being entirely skeptical about the idea, I have spent the last day at 'work' looking into it and creating landscape fika. And now I have decided to start a personal one.

Me being me, I really wanted to have flinn.blogspot.com but this was already taken by a Niall Flinn who had written a brief couple of posts back in 2004. Luckily he mentioned where he was working, and luckier still, he was quite amiable when I called him a couple of hours ago at his workplace to ask if he minded me having the blog name. Cheers Niall, wonder if we're related?

Lastly; for all those who feel like they have bitten off a little more than they can chew, here is a picture of my house last saturday.