So a massive 4 months has passed since the last post due mainly to not much happening in my life apart from more job hunting.

But last week the search was ended and I am now getting ready for my new career and life as ‘Junior Development Designer’ for Artform International.  The job starts on the 25th of Feb (the day after Carling cup final!) and I will be living with my good friend from uni called Martyn.

So heres to 2008 being a good year and hope everyone else gets something they want this year.

Ok so I doubt you will remember but on march 22nd this year I was in Sydney and wrote a post on this blog about me having seen the making for a British Airways advert in the harbour.

“Later today as I was walking around Circular Habour I saw a load of camera men and what looked like small hospitallity marquee area.  It turned out to be BA shooting a commercial.  So if in the future you see a BA commercial by Sydney harbour that from what I can tell includes an air hostess serving a drink to a cyclist, you heard it here first and I saw it in here today!”

Well…….. last night I saw the advert! amazing.

From what I can see on this take from youtube I am not in it (no surprise) but if you ever wanted to know how long it takes to get an advert from filming stage to being televised then you are looking at about 5 months. Below i have included a pic I took at the time and the link to the clip of the advert (cant seem to get the embedded video working)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUqNDisBi8c

Ok.  So once again it has been a while since my last post.

But a little bit of stuff to tell you about.  Shortly after my last post (the next day) I wrote a cheque for my mate Waple and decided to order a new set of golf clubs.  The idea was that he would be able to get them to me within a week.  Well much like my blog posts they have only just just arrived!  There was a problem getting hold of the shafts that were ideal for me and the club heads.

Anyway to cut a long story short he was up last weekend for the Windermere Glof Club pro am and on the friday before we made them in his garage.  The next day I was playing in the competition in the morning and therefore had never hit a ball with them.  As it turns out I really played well and the team i was playing in won that day!  I won a tv/dvd/vhs combination set worth £150, so not a bad return on four and a half hours of golf.

And here is a pic of the clubs that helped do it (sorry i know the pic isnt that good but you get the idea!)

Ok so here I am sat at my friend Waple’s computer.  I have been here for a few days helping him set up his very own driving range and also getting my golf game taken apart and reconstructed.  I may also be buying a set of custom clubs from him.

Anyway by the fact that I am here talking about this is an obvious indication that the job hunting is not goin that well!  I applied to a company the other day through one of these middle men sites.  It appears they are not very well equipped for the more designerly of users.  They don’t accept pdf format cv’s which is very annoying and also they struggle with any sort of complex (large file size) cv that includes images or something more original than the standard pure boring text format.  So an e-mail has been sent but guess what no reply so far!

Well goodbye for now. Off for a night in Milton Keynes and there may be some sore heads tomorrow! 

Ok so it has been a while since the last post when I said hopefully it wouldn’t!

On the web design front I have been learning to use the program ‘Dreamweaver’.  This has allowed me to edit the layout with more accuracy and ease whilst not having to learn alot of complex code.

On the job front things are going quite slowly.  There seems to be a general low in the number of design graduate jobs going.  It appears that the key in the design field is experience and knowledge of every piece of software known to mankind! (slight exageration perhaps but it does seem this way).

However I have started finding more usefull sites and contacts so hopefully things will pick up.  I feel it will also come to the stage where I will just start contacting people that are looking for experienced designers whether they would consider taking on a graduate to ‘train up’.

Since finishing the amazing travels I have been preparing for employment.

Thankfully I managed to get a hold of a demo version of the Solidworks software I was after and have since been trying out some tutorials to broaden my software experience portfolio.

Aswell as this I have once again been busy on the old web design.  If you have come via the front page you may have noticed the new design.  The main reason for the re-desgin was to ensure the content was centred in the web browser no matter what screen resolution the visitor is using.

I am still currently working on the portfolio, trying to make it as good as possible.  But the search for jobs has begun and have also had one reply from a company saying i was too experienced for their vacant job.

Anyways I shall try not to leave it quite as long until the next post and shall let you know any developments on the job front. 

So as you are aware I am now trying to sort out my CV (now on site from front page) and portfolio in preparation for the up and coming onslaught of job hunting.

However a few things have now become aparent to me.  The first is that I am out of practice in most areas of design (CAD, sketching etc).  Now sketching is fine all you need is a piece of paper and a drawing utensil.  However Computer Aided Design is different as you need the right kit.  Thankfully I have a fully working photoshop so have been able to do my website and CV.  The problem comes with more exotic peices of software such as 3D modelling software.  At University we were taught a program called ‘Pro Engineer’ and I do have a copy of this on my computer, but…the licence has run out and there is also now a new version of the software!

The whole problem is further compounded when you take a little look at job requirements in the design industry.  Sadly the more commonly requested CAD experince is on peices of software called, Solidworks and Auto CAD.  Now if I were a student I could buy a student copy of solidworks at around £50 and I could teach myself.  Sadly however I am no longer allowed to have student privileges (you need to send proof of being a student) and trying to get hold of a normal copy is both a trying task and I’m fairly sure it would be an expensive thing.

So for now I am pondering what to do and will also try to contact Solidworks to try and blag a student copy.  Otherwise I may just try and get another licence for Pro E.  

Ok people I have changed the appearance of my home page so its up to you to tell me what you think

So as you may be aware I am at home now but I haven’t of yet done a round up of New York.

Right leading off from the last post I think the anger I talked about is probably just more to do with stress.  Occasionally the city can even make a tourist a bit stressed (I’m just glad I wasn’t driving).  It may however be to do with the awful weather I had when I was there which makes everybody a little more miserable.

Anyway lets talk about the sights and what I got up to.  For the week I just stayed on Manhattan Island as I didn’t feel adventurous enough to travel to places like the Bronx by myself.  However there is plenty to be seen on this Island!

Luckily I got one nice day During the week (I think it was Friday) so I headed straight to the Empire State Building to take advantage of the good visability whilst it lasted.  I did however buy a City Pass which saved me some good time and money at the various exhibits it includes.  The view from the Observatory is a good one and you could see for a long way thankfully on the day I went up.  However I must sat that I think the Crysler building is far more attractive than the Empire State and is a shame that its not the tallest.  This night I also decided to go on a cruise to see the Statue of Liberty to also get a night time view of the Manhattan landscape.  Sadly however this perhaps was not the best idea in terms of pictures because taking night photos on a boat is a tricky task.

I must mention however that going from the Empire state to the Cruise depature point I did come across a street (west 42nd between 12th and 11th avenue) filled with police cars, trucks and bikes all to seemingly arrest just 2 people!  Typical America.

So that day was quite an adventure.  The rest of may days in New York were sadly very wet so I took the wettest days as Museum days.  The museums I went to were The Guggenheim, Museum of modern art (MoMA) and the Museum of Natural History.

Another big ‘attraction’ I went to see was the very eerie Ground Zero.  It is quite amazing the size of the hole left in the city both above and below ground level.  The area has so much light because of the lack of buildings blocking it and then at the same time you can see the metro trains in the massive hole in the ground.

Right I could write forever but lets be honest I can’t be bothered going through everything.  However I did of course do a little shopping with my main purchase being a new watch.  I did however buy myself some jeans, a NYPD t-shirt (decided against the I love NY ones) and finally I go myself a t-shirt from the Guggenheim.

Ok so in a quick way that was New York (basically it is just how you imagine it to be) and I think you can guess it wasn’t my favourite place.  In order of preference of country I would say, New Zealand, Japan (Tokyo), Australia and then New York (U.S.A).  It is a close run thing between Tokyo and OZ because I am comparing a city to a whole chunk of a country, but it would be good to go back to both countries to see other parts.   New Zealand simply has it all when it comes to tourism.  Great scenery, loads of things to do and see, background culture (Maori), cool laid back people and they drive of the correct side of the road.

So If anyone is thinking of doing a trip around the world I would say base your trip around seeing New Zealand and you won’t be dissapointed (unless you are a huge city fan).  Also I feel the South Island of NZ is the best so make sure you spend more if not the same time down there as the North.

I will now be putting a load more pics on the site from NY and others from everywhere else so enjoy those.

The End 

(for my travel writing anyway, I will be keeping this going as of course real life is now going to be taking control) 

So I have now had my first full day in NY (first one was half day due to jet lag).  I basically just went sight seeing and shopping today.  I have got myself a metro card for the week so I can use their metro system as much as I want in the week i’m here. 

Today’s sights were the Empire State Building (but didn’t go up today because the queue was massive so I think I will try and get down to that early in the morning tomorrow), Madison Square Garden, The supreme Court, Flatiron Building and I’m sure there is something else but I can’t remember now.

The big thing to note about NY is just how stressed everyone seems.  Every third noise you hear is a car horn and there’s nearlly always someone yelling on a mobile.  They can also be a bit rude but you learn just not to bother trying to be curteous.

Anyways I think I may also chuck in a visit to the Statue of Liberty tomorrow and then we shall see whats left of the day and go from there.

Gutted about Spurs especially as there was an own goal, what a nightmare. 

Only 4 days left of holiday!