Well – quite a week. Getting all my work framed and also getting up to Lancaster for my interview at the University – it is almost like having a full-time job again.

I think I have got too used to my casual lifestyle in Hastings as, as soon as I have real stuff to do – I panic. I had to get up to Lancaster for Friday morning, so (as I think I complained in my last blog), I had to take several trains to get there. Hastings – Charing Cross, Charing Cross – Paddington, Paddington – Reading, Reading – Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton – Preston, Preston – Lancaster. Phew… There were easier routes, but I didn’t want to get stuck on a busy Manchester train. I quite enjoyed it really. And those lovely Virgin trains have sockets – so I could plug my iPod in.

Well, I arrived in Lancaster about 8 at night and got a taxi to the campus, which is a strange concrete village a bit like the Barbican Centre in London. It was sooo quiet and eerie, with the nose of the nearby M6 the only thing I could hear. I was to stay in a halls room, but I had to find the porters lodge first…. it was all badly lit and a bit confusing to find anything… Finally I got into my room, which was too hot and I wanted to find out if there was a bar open. After following the campus map, I eventually discovered a rather empty bar, with only ‘They Think it’s All Over’ on the TV for company. One pint of lager and a packet of crisps later, I headed for my room. Which was STILL far too hot!!, And as I was on the ground floor and right next the entrance to the building, I didn’t fancy having the window open all night.

My interview was set for ten, so I got up early and had a better explore of the campus in daylight. There were bars, bookshops, cafes, building societies all around this concrete campus – and at last I found a coffee shop.

My interview itself went as well as it could have, but I was not sure if it was a job I wanted. I know no one in Lancaster and I would have to move all over again. I thought that I probably wouldn’t get it and, after a wee look around Lancaster itself, I got on the train home. ( I won’t bore you with the details of my connections this time).

Well no sooner had I settled into a train slumber listening to music, than my mobile went and it was Lancaster University offering me the job. I could not believe it. I did not say yes as I was not at all sure if I wanted it, or whether, I could afford to go and live up in Lancaster, even it is for only six months… I would phone back over the weekend.

I then spend a very agitated journey back to Hastings.

Saturday morning and I had to pick up my frames for the work going to New York. I still had to stain, wax and put in the pictures. It had to be just about the hottest day we have had all summer on Saturday in Hastings and my studio was unbearable. But I got them done, but was still pondering about the job. All through Sunday I was taking the Job and then today I was not taking it. I could put it off no longer and finally phoned and declined the job this afternoon. I feel it is the right decision, but I also would have liked to have done it, as you never know how things might turn out… but now I have to live with it.

Oh and my frames make my work look so much better… (see picture above). Now all I have to do is drag them onto yet another train tomorrow and taxi them to Piccadilly…. what fun!!!