Still continuing with Jessica's trip over here, which means I'm about a week and a half behind. The last few days of Jess' trip were packed full, we went and saw a play called Spring Awakening, it takes place in Victorian Germany and most of the music is rock-ish, I'd compare them to the songs in the movie Across the Universe. It was a really interesting play, the actors were great, but it was fairly depressing, still worth seeing though. We made a trip out to the Indian place in Harrow that Mom and Dad took me to, just as good as last time, better even because this time I wasn't sick.

The last Saturday of Jess' trip a group of us headed to Thorpe Park, an amusement park outside of London. We were there for Andrew's birthday, he loves roller coasters. The lines take forever to get through but it was lots of fun. We even tried out the new Saw ride based on the horror movies, it just opened this season. The ride was pretty awesome, only two rows of five people each would go at a time so you really experienced everything up close. The big drop is 90° up and than 100° down so you actually turn back in on the ride. It was so much fun. Typical English weather it had to rain once while we were there but to make things even more exciting it decided to start pelting us with hail for a few minutes. Luckily that helped clear out the line a bit so we got to move on a bit quicker. We were all plenty exhausted and falling asleep on the train ride home. Back at my place I made up some pizza for us and then we had some of the cake that I had made for Andrew the night before.

Sunday I had to work but Jess came out to visit and hung around the pub for some drinks. She got to meet the owners and some of the regulars, they were quiet amused by her, and her by them, good time.

We made a trip out to try "The London Bridge Experience", it was pretty much a haunted house in the vaults of the London Bridge. We also grabbed some very tasty fish and chips from a well known place downtown.

On our last day we ran some errands and went for afternoon tea at Harrods. Definitely worth the price. There was a piano player entertaining us while we ate through two plates of sandwiches, two places of scones, a dish of pastries and two pots of tea. I was very full by the time we left. After that we headed over to join a Jack the Ripper tour lead by one of the leading Jack the Ripper experts, he has two books out on him. It was a large group but still worth going on, the tour guide was very knowledgeable, it was graphic and gory but interesting for sure.

Since Jess left I've been working hard....kind of. This past Thursday my friend Jemma came with me to a party for this magazine called KnockBack, their editor is one of the women posing for me for my final project for school. The party was a lot of fun, there were two live bands and a dj, plus a martini bar and dancing. We drank a bit, danced a bit and laughed on the tube ride home as we each read our free copy of the new issue, the magazine just gets better each issue. I also finally got a chance to meet the editor in person, she seems really nice and energetic which should make the shoot go really well.

Friday James, Andrew and I went to a party at Jemma's house, the theme as we were told was "clubbing nightmares" so Andrew and James wore button down shirts with their collars popped and I put on a little black dress and killer (literally) heels. Turns out most everyone else was wearing florescent and dayglo tutus, leg warmers and the like. They had a few djs that played and the party was still going strong when we hopped into our cab around 1am.

This morning I had my first actual photoshoot for my final project, no more test shooting for this girl. My first subject was a woman named Ellie Levenson, she's a journalist whose first book, A Noughtie Girls Guide to Feminism, comes out this summer. I went round to her flat to do the images as that is where she does all of her work, it's a cute little house with a nice little backyard. The shoot went really well, she was so friendly, did the traditional make-a-cup-of-tea thing before we got started and we chatted away throughout. And she has already agreed that if we need to shoot again she is more than willing. It was good to get everything started on the right foot. I'll post tomorrow the two images I've narrowed it down to for her shoot and you all can give me your opinions, no feelings will be hurt. I have my second shoot tomorrow, I'm going to photograph my friend Jemma (she's just everywhere in this post) in the veternary office she works in, she works as an assistant and is going to go back to school to become a vet. It should be a fun shoot, plus I probably get to play with animals while I'm there.

Here is the link for the images from Spain with Jess.