Having to Catch Up Again!

Sorry! Yesterday was busy busy! In the morning we had a lecture on 18th century dress. It was SO good! I love clothing lectures. I tend to not take notes though because Im listening to hard. Sometimes its tricky to listen and write! After the morning class I sat around for 2 stinking hours waiting for my culture and ideology class. I really wonder why I attend them. I learned nothing. The first girl who went showed us 4 pictures and said nothing about the. Obviously she had thrown something together at midnight the night before. Then the second, she was more entertaining and lively but when she was done Paddy said that she had to check her facts because most of her historical background was wrong. Are you kidding me?? We are in a Master’s course! Check your facts! After that waste of time I came home and studied. (I fell asleep from 5:45-7) I gave up after 9 and went to bed early. I feel like an old person saying this… but it felt AMAZING to go to bed early!

I woke up this morning at 9 since I didn’t have to be at school until 11 for my exam. I actually woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go! Maybe I need to go to bed earlier…. I slowly got ready because I didn’t need to make a lunch, and meandered to school. I stopped for a coffee (it was only a pound!) at Pret A Manger. We had to be in the common room by 11 and I was there at 10:40. Oops. So I sat and looked over my notes. My pet-peeve in life is everyone huddling together and freaking out about tests right before. By this point you either know what you are talking about or you don’t. There isn’t any point to be quizzing yourself and everyone around you on stuff. So I tried to ignore the people freaking out (and sometimes if I listen I start questioning myself). At 11:30 we were ushered into the room for our test.

We had to put our bags by the wall, and then find a seat. In the center was a group of objects and around the outside was our chairs. The first 5 minutes we weren’t allowed to write, which is the smartest thing. I stood up and went to see what I wanted to do. There were two paintings (we had to do 1 of them) and a silver object, ceramic, and a piece of furniture (we had to pick one) I stop at picture number one… instantly “Botticelli, renaissance, 1490” pops in my head. Off to a good start… next is an ugly ceramic thing that I kinda know 1 thing about. Nope. Next was a beautiful neo-classical corner cabinet. I didn’t know if it was French or English, and I was only 75 percent sure it was mahogany. Nope… I see picture number two and think “Rococo, Fete-a-galante???, sack back dress”… not enough to go on so I decide to do picture number one. I get to the silver and realize although I promised myself I wouldn’t do silver (it can be tricky) I knew I was going to. It was a candlestick that was a Corthinthan column…. Neo-classical. I check out the hallmarks…. There are only four, and one is the lion passant… its English and its neo-classical. That’s more than I can say about the cabinet or the ceramic.

Our five minutes are up so we can start writing if we want. Everyone flocks to the silver candlestick (it was a dead giveaway) so I head towards my Madonna and Child. No one else goes for it, everyone else picks the Rococo. The Renaissance is my strength so I go for it. I cruise through it… I notice that its heavily drawn on underneath the paint. Its not Venetian. The eyes remind me instantly of Botticelli, but Christ’s feet are awkward so I don’t think it’s the actual master (and Christies lent it out to students… it cant be) I guess at a date (1490) but then Im stuck… is it tempra or oil on panel?? I guess tempra but I could be very wrong. Ill have to see on that one! I give it a kick butt justification (thank you Professor Ciletti and Tinkler for killing us with that many Madonna and Childs) and faster than I know the half an hour is up. (after the test we were all mingling and our tutor Rebecca said that my painting was Italian, and after Botticelli. It may even be by him!!! Christies is trying to figure it out, but it has been so heavily restored that it wouldn’t matter much. Bam on painting number one!)
The candlestick was next, and I had it all to myself thanks to everyone leaping at it earlier. I measured it (which is hard because we cant bring our paper and pencil up to the main table. We can only write at our seat) and I look up the hallmarks. 1771, british bam… this will be easy. I think my description went ok, and my entry hopefully wasn’t missing much. My justification on this was a little short but I threw in George III, Robert Adams and Pompeii. That has to be worth something! Again the half an hour flew by and before I knew it time was up and the test was done.

Everyone mingled about and marketing came in to take pictures of us looking at the objects. Keep your eyes out for Christies literature of yours truly on it!! We hung around after and talked about the objects and what they actually were. I really think I did well. We shall have to see though. Hopefully my format was right! I cant believe I am saying this (but hey everyone else in the room thought so too) that was the most fun I have ever had on a test. It wasn’t that stressful really. It was just you and an object. I was lucky that I was really confident on both of the objects. If my painting would have been dutch, or a landscape I would have been in a little bit of trouble. I was lucky though! The real test is next term and we need to do 2 paintings (out of 4) and 2 objects (out of more… I don’t know how many)

I can home after and watched a Pan Am episode to unwind and ate lunch. Then I called EDF to figure out what was going on. I am being charged for the right meter…. But the credit I thought I had was what I owed. But I gave him a meter reading and it went from 166 pounds to 60.69 pounds. I don’t get how it works. And he said that I need to read my meter every three months or so. Ok… weird. He was such a nice guy and asked where I was from and did the States do things differently. Ummm yes. We read our meter every month! I signed up for direct debt (I save 10 percent this way) so my monthly payment is 40 pounds a month. If I give them antoher reading in the next few months it may drop down sime, but not much since they averaged how much Im using. Dude Im going to read it as soon as it gets warm considering I wont use hardly any! I feel like electric is kinda like the internet… you pay a monthly amount and basically either use it or don’t use it. Gah. So confusing.

Phew my fingers are tired from all this typing. Im off to work on my presentation for culture and ideology. My goal is to be the best one! I cant believe tomorrow is Thursday already! Wasn’t I just complaining about my first day back from vacation?? Oh tomorrow is supposed to be 61 degrees!!! WOOOO!

P.S today's picture is the head of..... (someone please know this!!) Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (its therefore Venus's head) See her eyes?? They look JUST the my madonna's today. Thank you Botticelli for your distinctive style!