New year cheer!

It’s time for a long-awaited entry; and what better day to start one than the first of January? Yes, happy 2009, folks! I was just thinking yesterday that ‘2009’ really doesn’t have the same ring to it as some other years; ‘two thousand and eight’ was a bit boring too really, come to think of it. No, I’ve concluded that the best year will be 2010, because then at least we can say ‘twenty-ten’ and that sounds pretty awesome. I’m not forsaking this year yet though, I’m sure it’ll be a productive year for me and one of my new year’s resolutions is to keep this blog up through 2009!

So what’s been going on in my life since I last wrote? Well quite a lot actually, a few days after I wrote my last blog I had a trip to Paris for my course, which was absolutely amazing. We were only there for a full three days but they were stuffed to bursting with interesting visits and places that by the end I was quite exhausted. The travelling there wasn’t much fun either, it took 12 hours driving to the harbour, crossing the channel and hopping over to Paris to get there and it too, was exhausting. When we arrived I found myself to be living in one of the seediest and cheapest parts of town, the Moulin Rouge, and for those of you who haven’t watched the film (me included, but apparently the area looked classy in it) the Moulin Rouge is essentially a red-light district, filled from top to bottom with some of the most cringe worthy shops and clubs you can imagine. For example, we students stayed in a hotel next the (wait for it...) SEXODROME, a charming place with a shop, peep-show cabins and much, much more. James- my roommate and I would often stand looking down over the street from our windows at the scene. As day turned to night, more and dirtier little French men would walk along the boulevard, clearly weighing up the pros and cons of the Sexodrome’s 12 euro peepshow walking back and forth, their eyes glued the big signs and flashing neon. Eventually they’d give in, scuttling into the building and James and I would be left there laughing to ourselves. Oh, another reminder of how seedy our hotel was: You could book a room for just half an hour (or ‘session’ as the hotel called it)... just think about that.


The actual Moulin Rouge (Red Windmill)


The SEXODROME

Anyway, none of that detracted from the experience, it was cheap, comfortable and served good breakfasts- all of which was enough since we were only going to sleep there after all. We visited some amazing buildings whilst in Paris too. ‘The Villa Savoye,’ which was a massive, shiny, white, modernist house designed by Le Corbusier and built in 1929 was a joy to behold as we walked around it’s carefully plotted insides. Everything was pristine and I took many photos and sketches on my way round.
We visited museums, architecture expos, the Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, an urban park designed by one of the previous lecturers at Portsmouth and so much more. I won’t bore you with the details, instead I’ll put up some pretty pictures.


The Louvre


The Eiffel Tower


The Notre Dame


The Notre Dame (Behind, in HDR taken from 3 images)


The Villa Savoye


La Geode, from the Urban Park

So once I got back from Paris it was only a few weeks to go until Christmas and in that time we got another project completed and worked right up until the end of the term. When the holidays finally came around I was very glad to have a rest- even though I still had work to do on a new project, it was still good to be relaxing at home for once. My friend, Nathaniel kindly gave me a lift down to Devon in his car- which turned out to be infinitely less stressful than catching the train, as you can imagine. Christmas down in the countryside was great actually, and being back and seeing old friends has been excellent too. Although one drunken night I managed to break my new, expensive iPhone quite spectacularly in that I was so drunk that I put my trousers into the wash without checking any of the pockets before going back to bed. My friend Dan said at the time: “Tom must’ve left some coins in there, I can hear them clanging about,” I just sighed drunkenly and in the morning Dan said quietly: “Erm, Jamie... you put your phone in the wash I’m afraid, mate. It’s broken... badly.” He was absolutely right, I was gutted, and spent the next day looking through the legal documentation that came with my phone, quickly realising that there was no way I could get another one for free. So... in the end I had to go back to the O2 website and cough up for another phone. This poor student just got a lot poorer. Still, that didn’t dampen my spirit as I went on to have a great Christmas with my family who spoiled me and my brother rotten!


The broken iPhone

I got some awesome presents relating to architecture too, one of my favourites has got to be Francis D.K Ching’s visual dictionary of architecture, which is basically a book filled with almost every architectural term with glorious hand-drawn illustrations to mach. It really is something to behold, even if you’re not studying architecture it’s still absolutely fascinating. Who knew, for instance, that you could have a ‘Flemish Bond’ arrangement of bricks within a wall? Fascinating!



Anyway, I go back on the 5th of Jan, and I can’t wait to get stuck in again, it won’t be long until the end of the semester and the dreaded portfolio hand-in. I hope you, the reader, are well and that you have a great new year!


(It was bloody freezing in this photo, by the way!)