As you can see by the title, I finished the drawing of Anima today. Quite pleased with the outcome and added it to Flickr but for some reason it doesn't appear to update the photo stream on the left so I shall have to look in to that.
This pictuer is of Anima, a summon from FF10. It's not the most attractive thing in the world and is actually a girl but it was a pretty fun picture to do. I like the look of the rags that seem be covering her face, held in place by the arms which seem really small in comparison. What some people might now is that in the game all your see is about the top third of Anima. The rest of her was actually hidden below ground. You can probably find this picture on the internet somewhere. I can't remember who showed me but it's out there somewhere.
I thought I would visit a school memory today in the form of a school trip to Iceland - the country, not the shop (although their mini pizzas are to die for). I took geography at GCSE and a trip they did was a 5 day visit to Iceland. I didn't think I would be able to go because it cost about £700 but my parents and nan decided to send me off in a plane to a foreign country! I shared a room with three of my friends but for some reason we shared our toilet with all 20 boys in the trip. That may sound strange but let me explain - the rooms were filled on a first come first serve basis when we got to the hotel. We were at the back of the bus so when we got there the only room left was the one opposite the door to the dining area as no one wanted it. Turns out it was the best room with 4 single beds so no sharing, and the biggest toilet of them all! Unfortunately that meant that everyone wished to christen it themselves but we shall leave that there.
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Now I can't remember the exact order things went in or everything that happened so I will just type it as I remember it.
The most memorable day for me was the day when we went to see the geysers. Geysers throw hot water up into the air. I remember thinking it would be dangerous as the barriers were only a couple of meters away from each one. Luckily the environment is so cold that buy the time the water hits you its warm and quite nice. The tallest geyser we saw was called Strokkur and launched water into the air about 20 meters high. There is another geyser called the Great Geyser of Iceland which for most the time is dormant only erupting every 8-10 hours. When it does, the water has been known to go as high as 60 meters. We went in February so there was a lot of ice around, I managed to stay upright for the entire trip and ended up ferrying people across the ice so they didn't fall over. I got an award at the end of the trip which they named the 'gentleman' award for helping everyone across.
On one of the days we were supposed to get into a very small plane and fly over to a volcanic island but due to the weather, this was cancelled. I was kind of relieved as apparently it only held 5 people at a time and was held together with masking tape! Not my type of thing to be honest. So the teachers had to find something else to do with the day and what they came up with seemed interesting at first but turned out to be a bit strange! It was a museum about Iceland's hidden people, a local myth. We started off in the gift shop where you could buy the usual stuff like shiny rocks and post cards. For some reason they were trying to sell tins of Icelandic air for about 1000 krona which translates to about £10 - bit of a rip off. The easy thing for the museum is that hidden people couldn't be soon - so the place was filled with empty exhibits with little stories. They also had a cold room which was filled with ice and kept at a constant -4. Ironically, it was warmer than outside which on the day was -7. Outside the hotel was a large clock with a temperature reading for the day as well which we always found handy to know how many layers to put on. On our way back, there was a car pushed off the side of the road so the bus pulled over to help. The couple were clearly not ready for Iceland as they were just wearing jeans a shirt and some flat soled trainers and were getting moved around all over the place! One of the boys who got off to help was pushed down the full length of the bus by the wind but all we could see was his afro - quite comical to say the least.
The last day we went to the Blue Lagoon before catching the plane home. It was a really nice experience - but at the same time really awkward. Please note that if you go there - old Icelandic man like to walk around naked. They really didn't seem to care that everything was on show to a load of complete strangers! The water was really warm but your face was always cold as it was out of the water. There was one area where the water went up to about 60 degrees. There was one man sitting in there looking like a very ripe tomato, needless to say I didn't dare go near. It was a very relaxing experience until we decided to leave. The mad dash from the hot waters in the freezing cold to the dressing rooms basically guarantees you a cold.
The worst day for me had to be the day we visited the geothermal plant. I am really interested in the whole idea of geothermal energy, but I got a migraine. A bad one. There were recordings of the noises of earthquakes that had occurred over the past 50 or so years and for some reason, they just set a migraine off. I was gutted to loose my appetite and then discover that lunch was all you could eat pizza for 900 krona. I was fed steady rations of rich tea biscuits on the coach while everyone else was stuffed full of pizza. Luckily my migraine wore off before we reached the next place we visited in the afternoon. Iceland is atop the boundary of two tectonic plates which you can walk between. The gap has been filled by magma from the Earth's crust. The walk was a downward hill covered in ice. Once again, I managed to walk down whereas everyone else decided sliding on their bums was the way to go. It was a really nice place to visit and felt really odd knowing that I was technically standing between to giant moving rocks.
I'm not sure which day it was but we also visited a couple of waterfalls. They are breathe taking, the size of them blew my mind. It was crazy to see so much water in one place and so picturesque. We had to climb up some pretty icy steps to get to the top and have a look but it was well worth it. The largest one we saw was called Gullfoss and is the largest waterfall in the south of Iceland. We must of stood and looked at it for a good half hour If you ever get to go to Iceland, I would definitely recommend going to see the waterfalls. The most powerful waterfall in Europe is located in the north of Iceland so there's no excuse to not see at least one on your trip!
The bus driver was crazy. The roads are covered in about an inch of ice during the Winter months yet he was driving with one hand and reading a book as if it was no big deal. Our guide was amazing as was the hotel. There was not a lot wrong with the trip apart from the fact we had to leave! The snow doesn't stick around for long either. At the beginning of the trip it was up around our knees, a few days later - all gone!
Our room had a scary toilet and mini fridge, each making horrible noises every 15-20 minutes which would wake you up during the night. The light switches were so noisy in our room that everyone on our side of the hotel could hear them if we turned them on!
One of my room mates who I shall not name was given an award for being forgetful. First he lost his ticket on the way to the airport. Then he left his hiking shoes on the plane once we landed in Iceland. He forgot to set an alarm the first night. He forgot pens basically everyday. The best part was he lost his award because he forgot he had been given one! He knows who he is.
The last thing I will mention is our rooms nickname. We became to be known as the granddads because we all had a travel mug full of hot chocolate with us. At first everyone laughed but when we had a nice warm drink to warm us up - it wasn't so funny any more!
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As for today, I had a Maccy D's for lunch. Sweet chili wrap of the day! Tasty stuff but I have found myself being addicted to sweet chilli recently. It started off by me cooking valentines dinner - since then I have been using sweet chilli on everything. I think I might have a chat about that recipe tomorrow because it's not too hard - because I can do it - and its really tasty. Plus the amounts of ingredients available to buy should give you enough to make two lots!
Thanks for reading!
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Thanks to technorati.com dailymail.co.uk fopnews.wordpress.com and wikipedia.org for the images used in this post.
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