Cardigans On!

I just got back from an internet-free week in Wales, staying in a cottage just outside Cardigan.

It was a 60th birthday present for my Mum, and the first time in about 17 years that we've all been away as a family, as our Paul and his girlfriend Amy were there till Monday.

I was worried it would be a bit weird spending so much time with my Mum and Dad, for the following potential reasons;

a) Becoming a teenager again, and moping around being generally uncommunicative, except to the people I'd be texting constantly.

b) It being a bit like some kind of weird Alan Bennett thing, 30-something man shuffling around out of season run down seaside resort with pensioner parents, enjoying silent brews in greasy spoons.

24 hour party people

Luckily, it was none of the above, and we had a good time. Admittedly, we did spend a lot of time in rundown seaside villages, and enjoyed more than our fair share of greasy brews in greasy spoons, but it was nice, and we share a common nostalgic romance with these blustery, faded places. I think it's because of when we had the guest house in Blackpool, and would look forward all through summer to the time when the holidaymakers were gone, and you could walk up and down the prom getting torn apart by the wind and breaking up the journey by regular arcade stops to play the penny waterfalls.

Before I went away, I started learning Maya, under the tutelage of Ben at work. I can't wait to get back to it. - I'll post some screengrabs. I'm using the same character I've mentioned before, and I'm enjoying the process of developing her through comics, Maya, Second Life, Illustrations etc. We're going to use this Maya model to test out some rapid prototyping too, as a kind of dry run of a potential research project later this year.