Sorry bank account.

I'm making a promise to myself and my bank account that this will be the last unnecessary spend until Christmas.
The next, and only, things my money will be going on are renewing my NUJ membership and my travel money, which should be reimbursed anyway.

I couldn't help myself, this morning I spotted that Tee and Cake had released a new dinosaur tee in Topshop, so I popped in while I was in Kingston this afternoon. However, after discovering that it was really black, I decided against it and found this beaut. I'd love to own the whole collection of Tee and Cake's animal diagram t-shirts, but they are a bit pricey even for their quality and cute prints.


Tee and Cake, Topshop, £20
As I was panicking over 'casual office wear' I picked up this, as well as a glittery cord-belt skirt (which didn't photograph well). I love it, the print is beaut and it's a really good go-to item for dressing up or down. I disagree with the £17 price-tag though, I think Primark needs to remember what they are. Have you heard that they're setting up a Primark concession on Oxford Street? I mean come on!


Primark, £17

Halloween memories.

As I've mentioned, this is the first Halloween that I've not done anything in three years. It's very strange, I wonder how many other post-uni graduates feel a slight remorse for Halloween. Hometowns never are the same as Unitowns and what about all those great friends?

Anyway, I thought I would share a selection of photos with you from the last three years. I quite like dressing up, but I'll admit the lack of imagination for last year, I was supposed to be a bat, but basically just went all out with fake blood instead.

2008

2009

2010

Please excuse me while I nostalgia over everything.

655.

I've spent the last week being nervous and frantic over everything, not for any particular reason but just because I've needed to and I feel slightly overstressed. I don't think my Nikon interview went that well, but I have the lovely picture desk internship to fall back on.

I'm quite worried because I've had a very bad sleeping pattern for a few days now and have a growing anxiety over getting up and going to work. I'm not worried about being able to but more worried about crashing early due to stupidity, I don't even know why I've had this bout of insomnia, I love sleep. However, going to bed at 3am and not wanting to wake up until 12 is unacceptable when you have a job, particularly when it's a job you want.

I feel a bit on-edge, a lot of people waste their time while being unemployed by playing video games and watching daytime TV, but I've spent nearly every minute job-hunting. I'm going to spend the next couple of days slobbing-out and properly relaxing.

I'm so worried about my driving situation too, how can I continue lessons when I'm away from home from 8 until 7 and will probably be knackered? Saturday lessons it will probably be and I don't know where that puts the remainder of my social life... I feel like I've been having lessons forever, but I'm only 9 lessons in, hardly enough to starting thinking about tests, is it?

I thought I would update this anyway, despite the lack of photos and information, like I said I've been feeling so rushed off my feet so hopefully taking the time to slow things down will put me in a good situation for when I start.

TY for the memo.

In case you hadn't noticed, it's apparently Halloween, this is not something I have an issue with in fact I enjoy Halloween as much as any post-student, but everyone seems to be getting in on the act. Maybe I'm feeling slightly bitter because all the people I would usually spend Halloween with are all over the country and I won't be doing anything.

I like scary movies and I like dressing up, I'll also stretch the Halloween theme and express my love for the colour orange, however, when it comes down to 'spooky' cocktails and popcorn, it's a bit strained. I understand that it's all fun but sometimes it's an excuse and it just looks stupid. I'm kind of glad that I'm not participating in Jack O'Lanterns this year, the gunk inside pumpkins stresses me out.

Here are some photos that I took within the space of a less than twenty-minute walk up Dorking high street.






All this talk of 'spookiness' and ghouls mainly means just one thing to me, bonfire night is soon and I will be able to enjoy fireworks.

(via HelloYou Creatives)

I'll end this with an apology for the moan, I'm all for skeleton tights, orange flowers and eating sweets, but I like my popcorn standard and drinks that aren't green, that don't contain every drop of alcohol that's on it's way out of date.

Crashing and burning.

At least my writing skills are up to scratch, because I'm fairly certain that's the only aspect of the interview I've just returned from that was a success. I've bought a custard crown to console myself, I've never had a worse interview. I already know the response/lack of.
"Ruth is a nice girl, who will be a great success in her life, but she's just not what we're looking for." The interview was through a customer at my mum's restaurant, it's so embarrassing.
It's fairly obvious why in terms of this role (a costs administrator), but it really is the story of my life for the last four months. I was told in this interview that were I to be going for a photography role, I would get it because my experience is awesome, I felt like blurting out, 'WELL THAT ISN'T THE CASE IS IT?!', but I wish it was...

The thing is, I am looking forward to being a picture desk intern, I really am, I can't think of any job that I have applied for that's come up that I've wanted more and I'm so happy I seem to have got it. However, the fact of the matter is, I need to sustain myself financially too and working for expenses isn't going to cut it forever. I'm seriously banking on this being a whirlwind and worthwhile experience.

"Over-qualified photographer and all-round nice girl seeks run-of-the-mill job to buy Christmas presents for family and justify buying an iPad."

My last attempt at freelancing is placing my new (and sexy) business cards on Supermarket noticeboards. I need to go to a networking event, I'm definitely over being intimidated.

This week I'm working on:

I might actually have finally begun to get round to it! I've been putting it off basically because I've been so caught up in finding a job and going away. Now I can worry a bit less, I figured that I may as well and I've familiarised myself again so it shouldn't take as long as I thought it would, particularly now I've sorted the photo-side of it out.

I've also been inspired to create a 'Ruth Magazine' CV to send out to companies to grab their attention, don't know why I didn't think of this before I have fairly solid InDesign skillz.
I think I just needed to be pointed in the right direction, and that help came in the form of the 1987 edition of 'The Chris Wheal'.

651: All I got was a bit of knowledge and some free pens.

Yesterday, I attended an NUJ training workshop at NUJ headquarters. It was pretty swell, I got to see a lot of the faces from the NUJ Delegate Meeting and we spent the day learning about how to go about establishing chapels within universities and the workplace, something that may come in useful on this upcoming placement.

I really need to sort out renewing my membership, I will do this as soon as my (probably) last instalment on JSA comes in - wow this post is just full of acronyms.
I found the whole day really useful, I'm now considering further workshops that the NUJ offer, particularly relating to CVs and interviews but we'll see how my life is going once this internship starts. I am hoping that I can forward on all this information to my past tutor in order to establish a chapel within Portsmouth university, I would really like her to take me up on the offer, and I can give her so many free pens.





The press card is just one of the many benefits of being a member of the National Union of Journalists, you also get to go to things like this and meet lots of really nice people. As well as sharing knowledge and making friends, you sometimes get lucky and get free USBs and a drink at the end of the day.

Autumnal Cut.

It's quite typical that on the day I plan to take photos of the hundreds of squirrels that live down The Cut, I only see about three and they are all hiding. I'm very happy that it's finally Autumn and the colours are telling me so. Today was the perfect weather.

How great are these socks? I didn't even know I had them. ♥

I've got a full week and a half until I start a picture desk internship, that's quite weird. It's only for a couple of weeks (at the moment), but I will be so pleased to finally have something productive to do; much better than moaning about the Job Centre and graduate fairs anyway.

Deer me.

I am very behind on the photo-front. As I mentioned a few posts ago, on Sunday I went to commune with nature. By that I mean that I went on a walk to Richmond Park - I think next time we will go in the car because to walk nearly for three hours and to have an hour's walk back is quite annoying.
I never knew that Richmond Park was that close to my house though, maybe it's because I've never taken the time to explore before, but it's nice and I like seeing so many animals and so much green.

Moon took this and using my 70-300mm, I love how hazy it looks and the backlighting.

I love deer and although I know that Richmond Park is well known for deer, I wasn't expecting there to be that many so openly wandering around. The first one we saw was on it's own and hidden in the woods, but the further into the park we walked, the more we saw and the more out in the open they were.






It's so great to spend time with Moon doing these kinds of things, it makes me look forward to him finishing his dissertation and finally feeling as though he deserves time to do stuff like this.

Apparently you can find fandom anywhere and apparently Richmond Park has it's own fanboys. This guy loves deer even more than me!