Well thats us back now to begin the new term. I can't say I'm sad to be back. I enjoy just going into uni and seeing whats happening. I can't believe it's the second term already though. 2009, my 25th year. Half way to fifty, although if I continue to party like I did over the holidays it'll be touch and go whether I make it thirty. Still feeling a bit tender after all the festivities and I was hoping coming back to uni would provide the opportunity for a bit of a detox but it's not really looking all that promising.

Coming back the design room on Monday I was left shaken and disturbed to discover the said room had been raided and pillaged. Obvioulsy my initial reaction was that some Savoy Centre savage had been looking for knock off equipment to sell on their stall but on closer inspection I was stunned to discover that the design students had been victims of extreme fundamentalist Health and Safety fanaticism. Luckily the we managed to retrieve most of our things all though there is no sign of the ellusive charger that made our WMD's (Ipods and MP3 players)such a clear and present threat. Interestingly enough my charger was at home over the holidays as was Grants so where the other one came from that meant there was such a pressing need to remove the WMD's is anyones guess.

Anyway we're back and we've got hundreds of work to do. We've got a theatre history project with Ros. I was hoping to be doing a bit of research on Elizabethan theatre but ended up with Victorian. I don't know anything about that topic yet so the possibility remains that it might actually be quite interesting.

Today we found out we had to produce a lighting design for a dude that is going to be playing a 50 minute piano thingy called Once Around the Sun. It's 12 pieces each representing a month of the year. I was up hearing the guy playing bits of it and it was something special. Really good. I'm quite interested in the changing of the seasons and nature n all that so I really felt that i got something out of listening to the guy play. I was quite nervous, and still am a bit, at the prospect of having to light something when I'm such a virgin in that particular area. However we've been sitting discussing idea's and we've got this guy Malcolm helping us who seems quite excited by it which is the best sort of help you can get. I'm glad to get the opportunity to be involved in doing something. Projects are necessary and interesting but this is something that makes a pleasant change.

The project it's self is coming on OK I think. I've not actually started researching yet. Not because I can't be arsed but I'm just trying to get to know the characters in the play and also the themes. It's not a cheery play but it's got a certain dark humour too it, a Glasgow humour I guess. It's actually quite depressing as I find the play is quite political and it's message reflects a lot of my own beliefs. At the end of the play there is a slight hope that people would make things change. The play is set in the mid 70's so 30 odd years later it kind of feels like the hope uncertainly expressed at the end of the play was pretty much unfounded and the main idea about the destructive grip of apathy on the working classes has grown even more relevant in the present day . However even although it's not the sort of play you could feel cheery working on I think I'm going to get quite into it. The hoplessness of the people in the play will be interesting to try and bring to the audience (if there was one obviously) but there's the technical challenges of switching time periods from one line to another. I've got lots of ideas already and have a good idea about how I'm going to go about researching but I want to feel confident I really know the play before I start trying to come up with a concept.