Brussels Trip

Belgian Waffles and Belgian Chocolate, Eaten.

My trip to Brussels was awesome. When I told people that I was going there just for the weekend, they all asked me, "Why?". And my response was always, "Why not?". Why not indeed. It was cheap, I had time off work, and it's better than spending your weekend going out and drinking. (Not that I do that anyway)

Friday 28th March 2014
I finished work at 1:30am and rushed home as quickly as I could. It was fucking freezing. Luckily I had packed everything before I left for work, so all I had to do when I got home was to charge my phone, and get some sleep.

I got an hour and a half of sleep and woke up at 4am. I hit the snooze button until ten past, then made myself get up. Dhalia was having breakfast, and I was making sure I had everything ready. We left at 4:30am and walked to Cardiff bus station. We weren't waiting long and we both managed to have two seats each to ourselves. I slept the whole way to London which was sweet. However, I discovered that going to toilet on a moving bus was incredibly hard work.

We got to London at 9:10am and checked in to get our tickets. We went and got a drink. I bought a mocha and a bottle of water. We then walked to our gate and managed to get on the bus straight away. Unfortunately we weren't able to have seats to ourselves this time, but we sat next to each other. It was going to be an 8 hour journey so I planned on sleeping. This was stopped by a very annoying beeping sound that went on whenever the bus moved. This made Dhalia incredibly angry as he searched for his earphones to block the sound out. He threatened to not go to Brussels if he had to suffer the beeping all the way there.

I fell asleep for half an hour, when we pulled into a service station. The driver was trying to fix the beeping. It wasn't really a problem anymore as everyone had gotten used to it, but I guess it must have been frustrating for the driver. Lots of the other passengers crowded around him offering their assistance, assuming that they all had some superior knowledge of bus beeping noises that the driver lacked. He then informed us that we were going to stop at some garage further up ahead so the beeping could be fixed. This pissed us all off.

We stood around a garage in Kent for half and hour while a bunch of mechanics attempted to fix the problem. When they were done, the driver called us all back and we were finally on our way, only to discover that the beeping hadn't actually been fixed at all, and stopping at this garage had been a complete waste of time. Me and Dhalia agreed that our driver was useless.

We finally reached Shepway, where we would be going through the Eurotunnel via train. However, when we got there, we were told that it was too busy, and we had to wait a few more hours until we could board. All because our driver stopped off to fix a minor beeping noise. Me and Dhalia went inside the small mall to get some food and coffee.

We got back on the coach at 2:45pm and headed for passport security, which was French-run. This was more time being wasted. The french police came and took all of our passports, then a short while later they returned them all back to us. We were finally allowed to head onto the train. It was quite weird, being in a coach, inside a train carriage. It was going to be a 35 minute journey, so we walked around the carriage for a bit until we arrived in France.

We arrived and we were closer to our destination. From here until Brussels it was just driving non stop, past fields. I watched everything go by, then when it started to get dark I shut my eyes.

At 8pm we finally arrived in Brussels. We pulled into the bus station at 8:30pm and got off with great relief. We had no idea where we were going, but followed Dhalia's map on his phone, which didn't really help much. There were loads of people out, sat outside bars and cafes, and the streets were very busy. We were starting to get tired, and finally made it to the hotel at 9:30pm. First Euroflat Hotel is where we were staying, and it was 4 stars. Sweet. We checked in and I took the last map on the desk. We were on the sixth floor, and our room was pretty damn sweet. We had a single bed each, a TV, a small kitchen area, free tea and coffee, and a mini-bar. We dumped our stuff and went in search of some food. We found a place called Le Vieux Saint Josse, where we arrived just in time before they stopped serving food. I had a Croque-Madame which was a grilled ham and cheese toastie with an egg on top. I also had a Bofferding beer. I think Dhalia had the same, and a glass of 'Judas', which he couldn't resist buying. The food hit the spot, and we then bought a coke each and sat outside.

We headed back to the hotel at 12, had a cup of tea, and both fell asleep watching Family Guy on BBC3.

Saturday 29th March 2014
I woke up at 7 and had a shower. The shower wasn't as nice as the one I had in Malta, but it was still nice. I came out and opened the balcony doors and looked out onto the city for a while. There was a small beam running through the middle of the doors, and was the only thing stopping anyone from falling out. Not that it would stop anyone from falling out anyway. Dhalia went for a shower while I watched a TV channel called ShortsTV. We watched an amazing animation called Flat World, then we left and headed for the town.

We had left our map in our room, and despite seeing loads of tourists holding maps, there was nowhere around that supplied them. We didn't really have a plan of what we wanted to do, but we knew we wanted to look at a few of the landmarks.

We firstly went in search of breakfast, and we had already decided that we wanted Belgian waffles. We found a small place that supplied them and bought one each. Mine was pretty tasty but filling. We were stood next to a group of American girls who sounded Californian, and they were really annoying. We finished our waffles and popped into a souvenir shop, and I bought a Brussels keyring. We then ended up in Grand Place, which is a big town square surrounded by magnificent buildings. We took a load of pictures and went looking for the Comic Strip Center. We couldn't find it anywhere, and ended up walking around all of Brussels, when we suddenly remembered that we needed to buy a plug adapter. We bought one and continued on our search. We eventually found the Comic Strip Center, despite there being no sign outside saying that it was there. Also, we realised that we had pretty much walked right past it about 45 minutes previously.

It wasn't that great if I'm honest. Tin Tin was the main attraction, and despite the fact that I enjoy comics, this museum just didn't interest me. We needed food so went in search of somewhere to eat. We walked down some cobbled side streets that were full of restaurants and extremely crowded. We decided on a place called Coin De Mer. It was 14.50 for a three course meal so we were sold. It was very nice inside, there was a little fire which made it look better. I had these breaded cheesy cakes for starters, which looked like fish cakes, followed by salmon, then a sundae for desert. It was very nice. We decided to take a slow walk back to the hotel afterwards. We had done a hell of a lot of walking already, and it was very hot. I had been filming and taking photos while we had been there.

We got back to the hotel and I immediately took a Coke from the fridge. It cost 3 Euros, but I really needed a drink. We took turns charging our phones while we watched ShortsTV. Dhalia went for a shower, then we went for a little walk and stopped at a small corner cafe called Le Franklin where we each had a coffee and sat outside. We were on a street that had four pizzerias on it. After looking at all the menus we decided on one called La Barca Blu. It was quite a small place and was full, so we were directed upstairs, where there was a lone man sat in the corner using his laptop. We sat in the opposite corner and waited to be served. We both chose a pizza, and mine was called The Bismarck, which must have been a reference to the Chancellor of the German Empire in the 1800's. Or maybe it didn't. It was a pretty tasty pizza. We left and decided to once again go where we went the night before. Dhalia had a coffee and I had a hot chocolate, which was the best one I have ever had. It was nice being able to keep sitting outside. It was, as I put it, "Very European".

We left and went back to the hotel, where we had a cup of tea and once again fell asleep to Family Guy.

Sunday 30th March 2014
This was our last day in Brussels. I got up at 8 and had a shower. I put the kettle on and Dhalia went for a shower. I started packing my things as I flicked through the TV channels, going through Magnum P.I and French Scooby Doo, before landing on RT. We left and I paid for my Coke at the reception and we left for our long walk to the bus station. There were lots of police driving around, and we saw a limo go past followed by a security convoy. There were lots of closed roads, as well as a marching band, Chinese flags, and Chinese tourists. We then realised that it was the day the Chinese President was visiting Brussels. Along the way, we popped into a chocolate shop (One of many) and bought some gifts, and I also bought myself a hot chocolate spoon. We then went into another souvenir store and bought a postcard each.

It took us ages to get to the bus station and we were completely worn out. We stopped at a Starbucks-style coffee shop and had an iced strawberry drink each, then went across to Panos, a cake shop. Dhalia bought some baguettes and I bought some pain au chocolat.

We got on the coach which left at 12:15. We were both pretty tired so we slept. Later on, we came to the French border control where we all had to show our passports and put our bags through the scanner. Then, for some reason, me and Dhalia were both body searched and had our bags searched. This took ages, and the rest of the bus were waiting for us.

We drove onto the Eurotrain and began our journey back to the UK. As we came into London, we saw how dirty and rough it all was, and with all the foreign travellers sat around us, I felt embarrassed and ashamed. The traffic was ridiculous, and we were certain we were going to miss our bus back to Cardiff. We got to London Victoria 5 minutes before our bus was due to leave, so didn't have time to grab any food or drink. And everyone was getting in our way so we were getting very annoyed. We arrived at our gate only to find that our bus was full, so we had to get on a less nicer, secondary poor man's bus, where there was nowhere to charge our phones and no little table in front of us. We both then decided that we hated London and that the next time we visited another country, we wouldn't come back on a Sunday.

We finally arrived in Cardiff at 10:20pm and went to Tesco for some food and drink, then went home. I was incredibly tired and worn out and missed Belgium. But it was all worth it. Brussels was a lot cleaner than the UK, in the sense that there was no litter on the streets, and the air was a lot cleaner. There were also no obese people that we saw, and everyone looked healthy. A lot of people there rode bicycles, and there were hardly any fast food restaurants in the city.

One thing I did notice in Brussels is that there are a large amount of zebra crossings, but were placed in between traffic lights, so could only be crossed when the green man was shown. Also, even when it was a green man, cars wouldn't always stop. They speak Flemish in Belgium, but French is also one of their main languages, and I slowly became accustomed to saying 'Bonjour' and 'Merci', which felt strangely pleasing.

I enjoyed Brussels and would highly recommend it. Au revoir and merci Bruxelles.

                                              The view from our hotel room.

                                             The mini-bar in our room.

                                             My tasty Belgian waffle.

                                             Where I bought my tasty Belgian waffle.

                                                The best hot chocolate in the world.

                                                Grand Place.

                                               The Belgian Comic Strip Center.

                                                      Me in Grand Place.

                                              Our bus being 'fixed'.

                                            Eating in Le Vieux Saint Josse.

Cut Out Animation Pilot

Cut Out Pilot, Done!

So the short cut out animation I've been working on is now complete. It took a lot of hard work and patience, but it's finally done.

Where the voices and dialogue aren't perfect and don't perfectly synch in time with the mouth movements, it was the flow of the story and the visuals that were my main interest in this project. The sound department is something I will work on in the next episode.

Stay tuned for updates!

Murder For Sale; New Short Film

My first short film!

So I have completed my first short film; Murder For Sale. It follows the narration of a murderer as he reflets on his killings.

It is written by one of the School Of Bitches boys, Dhalia of Sweet Animosity, and filmed and edited by myself.

This is the first in many collaborations between myself and Sweet Animosity, so stay tuned!

Cut Out Animation Update

Mouth change. Snap. Mouth change. Snap...

So my 'pilot' animation is well under way. The first scene has been done, and I am working on the rest of the episode. There will be about 4 scenes in total. All of the characters and locations are made from card, which is pretty time consuming but I really enjoy it and gives it that raw, hand made look. You can watch the video here!

New Animation

So I've been working on a new animation. It will be cut out card stop animation, much like that of South Park. This is the best way of animation available to me, and with coloured card the possibilities are endless. I am in the process of making the main characters, and will be making the locations shortly.

Stay tuned!

Malta Videos

I did a lot of filming in Malta. Around 7.5 GB worth in fact. The plan was to make a video for the Comic Con, and a more personal one, like one of my daily video diaries.

The Comic Con video contained a lot of footage, footage that took me ages to separate and cut down. I enjoyed watching all the clips back though. It took me three whole days to edit it, and I made plenty of changes on the last day, things I noticed that had started to grind on me. Happy with it, I exported the video, then uploaded it to Youtube. It took over an hour to upload, and I was getting impatient. I just wanted to share it with everyone. The video contained pretty much everyone's art, so it was a good way for people to see the caliber of work that was on show. It ended very nicely, with clips of the artists talking to paying comic fans, and also talking to each other. It was lovely to watch.

The diary video turned out to be more of a summary, I didn't have enough memory (Technical not mental) to do a proper diary, so I included random things which included seeing malta out of the plane window, sightseeing, rain storms and me labelling everything as 'Maltese'. Eg. "Look, a Maltese dog".

You can watch the Comic Con video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrUlg4siprs

And here is the other, shorter video.

Malta Comic Con 2013

Malta Comic Con 2013

Thursday 28th November

 The trip to Malta was my very first trip abroad, and my first time on a plane. It was an early Tuesday morning start, our plane was at 9:30. Judas picked us up at 6:45 for the trip to Bristol. The plane journey was fine. I sat next to Dhalia, who slept most of the way. I spent the majority of my time looking out of the window hoping to see a birds eye view of European cities, but quickly realised that the only view I had was one of clouds. I managed to doze off for 20 minutes or so, when finally Malta came into view. I began whistling the theme song to 'Jurassic Park', imagining I was sat across from Richard Attenborough pointing out the window saying, "There". Dhalia started pointing out different things; where he used to work, different areas, and his mum's house. The island looked amazing, and we could see the whole country from our window. We landed in a wet Valletta, my previous conceptions about a sunny and hot island were quickly dashed. We were greeted by Christopher Muscat, one of the Comic Con organisers, and our driver Chris. He drove us to our hotel in his 4x4 land rover. I was quiet the entire journey, looking out of the window, transfixed by the completely different architecture and culture.

We arrived at 'Hotel Santana' and proceeded to check in. We were given our timetable for the Comic Con artists and guests, which looked quite fun and eventful. We each went to our rooms; Stealth and Judas were next to each other on the second floor while myself and Dhalia neighboured each other on the third floor. "Save the best till last" as Dhalia jokingly put it as the other two exited the lift. Me and Dhalia dumped our things in our rooms and headed straight back out while Stealth and Judas showered and changed. Dhalia, having lived in Malta in the past, knew the area well and proceeded to give me a little tour. We walked along the beach, with me being the typical tourist and taking plenty of photos. The view was absolutely stunning.

Dhalia was heading off to see his brother later that night, and after we met up with Stealth and Judas, he left us for the night, leaving the remaining three of us to go in search of a café or restaurant. We came across a place called 'Vinnies', where the waitress was very welcoming and adamant that we should all eat fish. We all ate fish. She tried describing the fish to Judas, unaware that his nodding was out of courtesy as he had no idea what she was saying. I had a salmon steak which was absolutely huge and filling, and very worth the €12 I paid.

With food in our bellies we decided to have some drinks, and found a small bar where we had a couple of Jagerbombs and some cocktails. We got talking to a few British people who were there on holiday. We left after a while and tried a place called 'Incognito', where we once again had cocktails. There was also complimentary food which included potatoes, nuts and chips. We were promised garlic bread, but it never came, and Judas found this quite upsetting.

The alcohol and lack of sleep had caught up with me, and at around 1am I headed back to my hotel room, where I watched Maltese TV and fell asleep.

Friday 29th November

I woke up the next day feeling refreshed and met Dhalia for breakfast. It was amazing. I'd never had included breakfast before, so I took full advantage, having numerous cups of tea and orange juice, along with cereal, yogurt, croissants and bread. I also ate what I thought was a chocolate brownie. It wasn't a chocolate brownie. I labelled it the 'joke brownie'. Judas joined us shortly after, and informed us that he couldn't get a reply from Stealth. Dhalia had some cornflakes and announced that they 'tasted like soggy paper'. We decided to get showered and ready for the day ahead. Judas, who had already done this, went for a solo walk while me and Dhalia got ready. We joined him a short while later and found a café overlooking the sea and ordered some Cokes. Stealth was stirring.

We met up with Stealth a while later, who needed his coffee fix, so we went to a café a couple of doors down from our hotel, 'Milk and Coffee'. We were all amazed by the front of the menu, which had a picture of a Nutella Milkshake, and there was no way we were not going to try one. All of us except Stealth ordered some food, then we headed off to find another café. We found one in town which offered free Wi-Fi, so we agreed on going in. I drank a lot of tea, and me and Judas used up all of the Wi-Fi. We were due to meet the other artists and guests in the hotel foyer at 7, so we all headed back and got ready.

I met Dhalia by the lift and we headed down to the foyer, where we found a large congregation of people in conversation. Stealth and Judas were talking to the guys from Twisted Dark; Neil Gibson and Will O'Mullane. We joined in and spoke for a while until it was time for the coach to take us to the location of the Comic Con; St. James' Cavalier. It was a beautiful building, one where most comic conventions wouldn't be held in. We arrived and everyone set up their tables, and before long it was time to leave and head to the first group meal at 'San Giovanni'. Stealth and Dhalia went back to the table to sort things out, resulting in them nearly being locked in.

The restaurant was very pleasant, and we were all sat outside. Me and Judas saved some seats on the end of our table for Stealth and Dhalia, and started joining in with the conversation on our table. Our table consisted of John - Paul Bove, Rebekah Isaacs and her boyfriend Josh, Neil Gibson, Will O'Mullane and Mike Garley. It was raining quite a lot and water started dripping through the parasols and onto me, so we had to move the table across. I had a slightly burnt pizza and a Brandy and coke. The measurements in Malta are double than what they are in the UK, so it hit me straight away. Mike Quinton, one of the organisers, came over and spoke to us for a while. It came time to leave, and we walked back to the coach with Sean Azzopardi, who sat with us on the way back. We returned to the hotel and all retreated to our rooms, ready for the opening day of the Comic Con the next day.

Saturday 30th November

I got up at 7 and got ready to head down for breakfast. The shower in my room was out of this world. I ate with Dhalia and Judas, and Stealth met us afterwards before we got on the coach. We got to St. James' Cavalier and headed straight to the School Of Bitches table, where we shared a room with Paul Allor, Sean Azzopardi,  Ales Kot, Rebekah Isaacs, Sea Puppy, John - Paul Bove, Charlie Adlard, Sean Phillips, Michael Dialynas, Tasos Anastasiades, Federica di Nardo and Dave Lung. I set off with my camera and explored other rooms, took photos and filmed a lot of the art and the cosplayers. I spoke with the people from Pilot Anthology, Maria Isabella Grech, Peter Magro and the other artists in our room.

The Maltese Prime Minister came to have a look at all the art, and Stealth made sure he grabbed him and explained all of the images to him. I got a couple of good pictures. The day finally finished at 6pm, and we tidied up and headed to the coach. We got back to the hotel and the four of us headed off in search of a place to eat. There were plenty of places nearby, but Stealth wanted a club sandwich, so we walked a long way in the rain to find one, much to Judas' disapproval. We decided on a place called 'O'Reileys'. The woman there was English and very friendly. We ordered drinks and food. I had a double bacon and cheese burger, which was absolutely huge, it took me nearly an hour to eat it all. It was completely worth €9. We had cocktails, which came in gigantic glasses, complete with sparklers. We finally left and went to find everyone else for karaoke night. None of us got up to sing but we enjoyed watching the people who did. Josh stole the show with his act, which got more and more emotional as it went on, which resulted in his shirt being removed and a chair being lifted into the air. A lightning storm ensued which lit up the whole street and was amazing to watch. We spoke to a few hilarious guys and headed back to the hotel, our shoes absolutely drenched.

Sunday 1st December

The next day was a later start, so I was able to stay in bed a bit longer. As long as the cleaner lady didn't come knocking to chuck me out so she could clean. We all had breakfast, except Stealth of course, and left the hotel at 9:30. The coach ride was very long. Some sort of charity walk was taking place which caused a lot of road closures. We finally got to the Con and went straight to the table. I once again walked around with my camera. I had compiled quite a lot of clips of cosplayers, which included Assassins Creed, Bane, Elizabeth Comstock, FemShep, and a little baby Ewok.

The School Of Bitches animation was being shown in the cinema, and it was a great moment for me to see one of my projects shown on a big screen at a Comic Con.

The day seemed quite long and when it was over, we packed up and got on the coach and went back to the hotel. The four of us went to a crepe café. I had a Maltese crepe which was amazing. We went back to the hotel and sat outside for a bit then retreated to our rooms. I watched Sky News, and was astounded by the amount of shit that was going on around the world. There was the helicopter crash in Glasgow, the riots in Bangkok, the protests in Ukraine, the death of Paul Walker and the train crash in The Bronx. It's a scary world out there. I fell asleep with the TV on.

Monday 2nd December

We all had breakfast, and got on the coach for the tour of Valletta. We went to a fine art museum, then walked around and was shown a few film locations from World War Z by Fabio, who was one hell of a character. We got back on the coach and went to a restaurant on the Dingli Cliffs. The owner showed us a presentation about the wildlife and plants that can be found in Malta, however, I was very hungry and it all went straight over my head. We were given wine and water, and lots of pasta. We were sat with Tim Perkins, who was an awesome and really nice guy. We finished and paid, and went for a walk along the cliffs. It was breath taking. We had a group photo taken, then headed back to the hotel.

I went for a walk by myself down to the beach to take it all in. I went back to my room and fell asleep with the TV on for an hour, then got ready for the final meal.

I was sat next to Stealth and Mike, and sat across from Chris the driver and his girlfriend, Chris Muscat and Chris Le Galle. I had stuffed mushrooms for a starter, followed by lamb shanks. A dessert was included, but I couldn't manage it. Fabio dressed up as Santa and gave a thank you/goodbye speech. Everyone went back to the hotel to have drinks. I left for bed at around 3am, a bit deflated that this was to be my last night in Malta.

Tuesday 3rd December

Tuesday was our last day in Malta. I got up at 9 for breakfast, and made the most of it. We checked out and sat in the foyer for a few hours with Sean Azzopardi, Tim Perkins, Dave Windett, Nicolas Gurewitch and Guillermo Ortego. Sean, Nicholas and Ortego left for their flights, so the rest of us decided to get food and drink at Milk and Coffee. Le Galle and his wife joined us, while Dave Windett headed back to the hotel.

I had lots of tea as usual, and a lemon sorbet ice cream which was incredibly tasty. We stayed there for a while, mostly talking about dogs. Me, Stealth and Dhalia put in a lot of conversation about Diesel.

Dhalia left us to see his mum, as he was staying with her until Sunday. Le Galle and his wife said goodbye, and the rest of us returned to the hotel to find Dave sat on the sofa drawing. We talked until our lifts to the airport arrived. Chris Muscat came and took Dave and Tim first. We said our goodbyes and awaited our lift. Chris arrived and we had a comical journey to the airport. We ran into Dave and Tim who were heading for Manchester. We once again said goodbye and headed to our departure gate. I bought a bottle of Kinnie; 'The taste of Malta', which tasted like shampoo.

We finally boarded the plane, where me, Stealth and Judas all sat together. The journey went quite quickly, helped by the fact that I had things to read. I had bought 'Tsar' and a 1990 issue of Captain America, and a puzzle book which I inevitably graffited. Stealth was busy drawing a comical picture of a man riding a crashing plane, whilst swinging a laso, into a woman. We landed in a cold Bristol, followed by a long car ride back to Cardiff.

My first trip abroad was indescribable. I have returned to the UK noticing the difference in people, weather and cost of living, and definitely plan on travelling more in the next year.

Malta was already being missed, and a year long wait until the next visit had begun.