Blues and Chutney

There's a cool restaurant in Arusha called Blues and Chutney. We went for lunch and had neither blues nor chutney. It was delicious and the decor's cool: I'd recommend it.

Art A Level: Manga

Okay, so I'm not really sure if I can include this under the A Level heading, but I did it in my sketchbook. I've wanted to try drawing manga since I was a teenager and decided to give it a go using a guide i bought for the kindle. I realised afterwards that using a berol pen and watercolour pencils was probably not the best idea, because the ink has run. I'll know for next time I guess! It was a lot of fun but not that mentally stimulating at this beginner's stage.

Here are some more, which I didn't colour in. I did them after the above ones and I think they are a bit better:

All my A-Level work so far is in A3 sized sketchbooks, which, as my teacher/friend keeps telling me, is not big enough alone to pass the A-Level. I have to work bigger. I want an A2 sketchbook, but can't buy one here. I could order one from Amazon, but it would take 4-5 months to arrive, if it does arrive. I don't like those big scary white sheets of paper, but I guess I'll just have to be brave.

Making bouncy balls

I got my husband this snazzy kit for christmas that you can use to make bouncy balls. Today we made the balls together. It was really cool! It comes with these sachets of PVA (the same stuff that school glue is made from) and you just fill up the molds and leave them in a cup of water for two minutes. When they're done, they really do bounce! Above is a picture of the ones we made.

They remind me of big candies. Or small planets. The green one glows in the dark, and they really do bounce! Usually we can't order stuff from overseas, but on this occasion I ordered it to my parent's house and they brought it over.

Art A Level: Vaseline

I've been experimenting with a new technique that involves sticking pictures onto paper, smearing vaseline onto them, painting over it with acrylic paint and removing the vaseline once the work is dry. The top one was my first attempt and didn't really have a theme. The bottom one, which i prefer, was my second attempt and the colours make me think that the theme is 'mermaids'.

We came back home from Dar

It was really great. We used the brand new airline, Fastjet, which has tickets for only 32,000 tsh. I'd recommend it to anyone. Mostly we swam and swam and swam. And ate and watched movies and swam some more. It was super hot and humid. You see that cake photo there? I always want to order cake when I go to Africafe, but then I eat too much other stuff and can't. So this time my strategy was to only order cake.

Happy New Year!

As you read this we are celebrating the new year in Dar Es Salaam, the big dirty city on the coast of Tanzania. The good thing is that we are not actually staying in the dirty city part, but the beach 7km away from it.

We're staying at the Best Western, which is the fanciest hotel we've stayed in whilst on a holiday here (we usually stay in dirty places for a few dollars a night, but this time we decided to splurge). The main reason for the splurge is that when we travel I usually get sick: I've had malaria, typhoid and dysentery. We figured it's pretty much impossible to get sick while staying in a best western.

We've got 5 nights here and then back to work. Jouni my husband has a new job working for the British council teaching English: I'm still teaching 5 year olds at an international school.

Collage Box

I love when people give me those fancy gift boxes, so I was delighted when my parents arrived with two in their suitcase containing gifts. They're so useful for storing all kinds of things, but I didn't want to use a box all year round with 'merry christmas' all over the lid, so I collaged it. I used a couple of magazines and some art gallery leaflets. I think it looks so cool now!