Just a few reasons why I love the Design Museum

The Idea of a Tree,
Designed by mischer'traxler

Extrusions, designed by Thomas Heatherwick Studio

Soma, by Ayama Serfati

I went around the Design Museum on Wednesday,  my first visit in quite a few months, and, as always, i was left awed and inspired by the exhibits.
I went because I realised that it was the last week for the Urban Africa exhibition by David Adjaye

It consists of a series of photographs plus graphical information about african countries and was thought provoking.

But as always, it was the pieces on show in the annual Brit Insurance Designs of the Year that had me wowed.
From the amazing folding plug and sugru moulding putty to the astounding BMW concept car.
Go and see this while its there.
You wont be disappointed.

2008

And another year has rolled over and put it's self to sleep without too much in the way of stress and turmoil.
Or at least, when I try and bring specifics to mind to write something like this , thats always how it feels.
A large space full of errrrrrring and ummmmmming rather than lots of how-on-earth-did-i-fit-it-all-in-ing.

Actually thats what happens when someone asks me any kind of question.
It's as if the act of trying to recall anything presses the empty button and dumps all my memories down an inaccessible well.

A couple of things stand out though.
Like ....
Spending an evening dancing around a trophy and trying to lose my last chips at the charity roulette wheel [ isn't it odd that you invariably win when there's nothing to lose ] at the Awards .
Getting the start of new work on my arm by Bugs, forgetting to take water with me and feeling totally shaky after the 3 hours on putting the monochrome base in.
Finding storage space in my house for a load of stuff that an idiot friend [ you know who you are ;D ] was going to dump as a new and happy time was started in the US.
Visiting my Mum and realising how much i miss her now she's 4+ hours away and not 40 mins away.
Getting totally choked just saying goodbye when what's left of my family got together to scatter my Dad's ashes in a freezing sea.
Nearly messing up my relationship with my oldest daughter.
Getting stuck in the Victoria and Albert when they locked everyone in for a reason that they kept to themselves.
Drooling over the Vogue exhibition at said V&A.
Finally finding a pair of shoes that are more comfortable than my MBT's for work so i can look like i have normal sized [ and rather cute looking ] feet.

The whole year had a feeling of bringing things to completion.
My partner is now settled in a job he loves.
My own working life has become more manageable with the addition of a trainee and a new part time staff member letting me get to grips with things I've been putting off for over a year.
I've re-aquainted myself with some of the things that I love doing and which I haven't had [ or made the ] time for since my girls came on the scene.

And now I'm putting my mind to what I want to do with this coming year.
For I do want to actively DO something with it.
To take it by the pants and modify it until it fits ME perfectly.

*Raises my glass to a Glorious New Year*