What I’m up to right now + archiving blog

Hello everyone!

Firstly, I’d like to admit that I accidentally moved the latest few entries to the trash and permanently deleted them… I thought I was deleting drafts but I guess I should have checked more clearly, that’s my mistake. What’s gone is gone so I guess I should try not to think about it 😬

How has everyone been since my last entry, if anyone is still here? I’ve been doing okay, life goes on. I (strangely) saw a piece of my artwork that linked to this blog whilst searching on google and I had totally forgotten this had existed. I did initially think about deleting this blog but I’ve decided to keep this as an archive instead.

As for my personal life, I graduated from university in 2017 and have been working full-time since. I really like my job, it’s in tech, and I earn an okay amount to support myself so I’m pretty happy. I still occasionally freelance for my previous workplace, although I might ask them if I can start doing extra part-time work with them officially.

It’s hard to condense the past 4 years of my life since my last entry… I guess 5 years since I accidentally deleted my more recently blog entries haha. I just felt like I was encountering one problem after another, but things are better. My last (deleted) entry talked about my problems finding a job up until graduation. I finally found a job I was passionate about, which was incredibly lucky because I had just graduated. Everything was fine for a few months but then I deleted severe insomnia. This is the first time (yes, it was more than once!) that I cried in front of my boss. I just felt like I had no control and the insomnia really affected my ability to do work and concentrate so I was at a complete loss. I developed anxiety because I was worried about sleeping, and then I couldn’t sleep because I was too worried! Actually now that I think about about, in my last year of university I had the opposite issue of severe fatigue. I also had anxiety back then which made it hard for me to leave the house.

I’m not sure what what point the insomnia got better but again, things improved for a few months. Then, suddenly, I developed tinnitus and once again was thrown into despair as it exasperated my insomnia and then it turned into severe anxiety. This was possibly at the lowest point of my life and I had contemplated running in front of a car or taking pills just so I could become unconscious and make the noises in my head stop. This was the second time I went crying to my boss, who was very kind and recommended counselling at work and putting though to occupational health, who then referred me to a wellness programme. I was slowly improving again and, funnily enough, when the pandemic came it was right after I had moved into a new flat that was a bigger place and one that I bought myself so I was in a really good place for a while. Yes, the lockdowns did affect me a little, but I was just happy I didn’t have to rent, lived in a bigger place, could decorate, and had more time/saving money as I was working from home instead of going to the office. I still have insomnia and tinnitus to this day but it is not affecting me as much as previously. So yeah, there were a lot of ups and downs over the past few years but I just consider everything an experience.

This will be my last post on this blog so I wish everyone the best! 💖 Take care, and stay safe!

6 more things to know about Tanzania!

Hey friends!

It’s very rare I talk so openly about Tanzania in public so I want to share some more insights about the country. Hopefully for people planning on coming here, you will be prepared for what is to come! Feature image: Hippo Lake at Ngorongoro Crater / Jo Law

1. The power cuts here are frequent and intense. If you are going to live in Moshi like me, pretty much do not expect any electricity during the WHOLE weekend unless you live in a rather rich area like Shanty Town. It’s frustrating, but I guess there’s nothing you can really do about it. Other than complain….
2. Expats and foreign volunteers are a plenty. Tanzania is one of the top 5 countries for volunteers to find work, so it’s not surprise if you manage to meet a few other foreigners beside yourself whilst you are here. After all, I am a volunteer also.
3. Nights are the most beautiful here. Little light pollution and power cuts? Yes, please! The stars are incredibly bright and beautiful here, especially if you ever get the chance to go camping in the middle of Serengeti. I can make most bright stars in the Tanzanian night sky!
4. Most Tanzanians have 2 cell phones. This is because different network providers have different deals, so most people go for 2 sims instead of 1. For example, 2 big networks are Tigo and Vodacom that have tigo-to-tigo and vodacom-to-vodacom offers that will save them money.
5. Internet by phone. Let’s face it, there is pretty much no wifi in Tanzania, even at cafes. We have Raha wifi that’s pretty shoddy, and the super expensive Smile Technology 4G internet. The cheapest and most efficient way to get internet is by tethering your phone to your laptop and buying internet bundles on your network. For about 50p/75c, you can have 1GB of 3G internet per day, which is more than enough for one day’s worth of activities, unless you are downloading or streaming in HD. I stream a lot of video in 240p and read a lot of manga, seems to be enough but I can’t get connection all the time inside my house, which is a bummer.
6. Most Tanzanian food is vegan! A shoutout to my vegan friend Kerri who runs a cruelty-free make-up blog, most Tanzanian food is very much vegan and does not use eggs or even milk. Beans are very common additions to rice and sometimes spaghetti. Salad is accompanied by most food, which comprises of tomatoes, raw onions, and cucumber in vinegar. Pili pili is also common, which is spicy aubergine or just chilli in general in tomato sauce, along with slices of avocado. My favourite Tanzanian food? Kiti Moto, which is unfortunately not vegan; it is pork with vegetables in a creamy tomato sauce. Kiki Moto literally means “a chair set alight” because apparently Muslims are not allowed to eat pork but they love Kiti Moto so much that they eat it as fast as possible and leave the restaurant, as if their seat is on fire!

Those are the Tanzanian facts for today! Have any questions? Let me know in the comments and I’d be interested in hearing your opinions!

Repost: Umisachi & Yamasachi Brothers

Hey friends!

This is a repost from a while back, originally drawn in June 2014. The reason for reposting is because someone posted it on a Facebook group, conveniently the same one I am a member of, and claimed it as their own. They eventually credits but the post was taken down and I removed it from all websites too. Almost a year later, I am reposting it. (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑

These two characters are the Japanese Gods Umisachi and Yamasachi from the game Puzzle&Dragons. They are my favourite cards and my main leader for almost all dungeons, so I had to draw them! I started playing Puzzle&Dragons in my first year of uni and man, I have played it every single day since. I left my DeviantART watermark on it since I’m too lazy to remove it haha.

When I am back in UK, I would love to draw these two again or at least make something with an elaborate background because I haven’t done that for a really long time. Having a full time job is so stressful, and even worse when you don’t have power!

Infitia – Characters (Development)

Whenever I have free time, I like to (very slowly) work on a motion book I am developing. For the moment, I am writing a detailed synopsis of the story and designing some of the characters for the story. As a student in a full-time job, it is extremely difficult for me to find time for any personal projects these days.

Quick background of the project (for those unfamiliar with it):

The website for this project can be accessed here with a brief summary of what it’s about; it is still in development whilst I find the time to create more drawings for it. Infitia means “denial” in Latin and is a black and white comic which explores the relationship between Victorian era and mental health, as well as the treatment of the working class and underclass, particularly children.

The story follows the main character’s every day life suffering from mental illness and amnesia, and his journey as he slowly regains his memories and comes to terms with his past and his crippling mental health. Many many hours of reading and research went into this project so I hope I can make this as realistic and entertaining as possible for you guys!

So far I have only designed these 3 characters, but I am hoping to do some more very soon. These still aren’t 100% concrete, though I am pretty certain Henry and Sophia will not be changing. These are the descriptions of these characters, and I tried to keep it as spoiler-free as possible!

Characters of Infitia (left to right): Viscount Henry Wakefield, James (?), and Lady Sophia Cunningham.

Characters:

Viscount George “Henry” Wakefield: A 14-year-old teenager with an incredible gift. Intelligent, creative, and trustworthy; he is the pride of the Wakefield family. After finding a homeless boy on the streets, he convinces his family to take him in as he believes this boy will be a great man one day with help and rehabilitation. Henry is incredibly interested in psychology and the cognitive workings of the brain, as such he is very acute subtle changes in body language to better understand what people are thinking.

James (?): An enigmatic homeless boy who doesn’t remember his own identity; his only identifier being his only personal possession, a hat branded with the name “James”. The Wakefield family took him in as a domestic servant. He suffers from severe clinical depression and can suffer from random bursts of fear and panic, but doesn’t understand why he has these feelings.

Lady Sophia Cunningham: A young girl who encountered James in the past and was touched by his kindness when he rescued her drowning puppy. However, she knows the boy as not James, but Charles! Which is the real name? Sophia is secretly attracted to James, but Henry really likes her.

A lot of thought went into these designs, and Charles especially was particularly difficult. Since this comic is black and white, I am restricted to grey tones. Charles shows hardly any emotion in his facial expression, so the most expressive part of his body are his eyes and hands. To make his eyes stand out more, I made his hair lighter and gave him rather dark eyes.

6 things to know about Tanzania!

Hey friends!

In 3 weeks time I will be home in England with my family. I’m really excited to see my family again, but a little sad that I will be leaving this beautiful country I’ve called my home for the past 9 months. Feature image -> Mount Meru Meru/Jo Law

So, a few people have been asking me: What is it like in Tanzania?  Well, I’ve thought about it and here are some dead hard facts about this country that everyone should know about! This is useful for you travellers out there.

1. Service is Tanzanian style- slow. Don’t be surprised if people are slow at getting some items for you at the deka or if your food takes over an hour to arrive, that’s standard. Tanzania’s most famous catchphrase is “pole pole”, or “slowly, slowly”. If you want something done fast, unfortunately Tanzania is not the best place to be!
2. There is no such thing as noise pollution. Trust me, for the past 5 months I have not slept for longer than 3-5 hours each night. How am I still alive? To that, I say I am mentally and physically too strong to let lack of sleep defeat me. Be in cicadas, the church, or turkeys, or clubs and resorts, there’s always some music going on somewhere, it is both a blessing and a curse at the same time!
3. Bugs are your best friend. Or bug spray. But there are a lot of bugs. You know ants? There are massive ones at least 1cm large in this country. And there are Jiggers. Don’t forget the Jiggers (google it o_o)
4. Choice? What choice? Due to imports being too expensive, choice in food is only reserved for us mzungus (white people) and even then, it’s rather limited. Locals sell seasonal vegetables such as avocados, onions, and carrots at a very cheap price and some fried local fish too, plus you can get some decent imported goods such as Nutella and Dairy Milk, but don’t expect gourmet foods such as salmon or a wide selection of cheeses. A lot of local Tanzanian foods use tomatoes, beans, and raw onions. Obviously there are touristy restaurants but they are more expensive.
5. Locals are really friendly and you can get by with minimal Swahili. If you say “Shikamoo” randomly to an old person, they are really happy to respond to you! Just knowing a tiny bit of the native language makes locals happy that you’re trying, even if it is a little of and they might point to what you want for reassurance. I’m the only person at my house who doesn’t take Swahili lessons, but I do know simple phrases such as “I would like….”. A lot of locals are good at English too so there’s no harm in asking what a specific word is in Swahili. This applies to most countries you visit!
6. Boda boda. Whilst crime rate in Tanzania is dropping, accidents are going up. Before the appearance of boda bodas (motorbikes), youth would steal and rob people to get money. Now, they use boda bodas as a taxi service. Most are unlicensed though so I wouldn’t recommend it, and amputees in Tanzania are sharply increasing due to the popularity of boda bodas. Dala dala, or local mini buses, are extremely cheap and a little bit safer so I would recommend that as a form of transport, or if you have the money then definitely get a taxi!

If there’s anything want to know about Tanzania, please shoot me some questions below! I’d be more than happy to answer as best as I can.

Monster Hunter Stories -WIP-

Edit: I don’t know why the image was so small before! But hopefully it is a bit bigger now.

Just something I worked on after work a while ago. I’ve never played Monster Hunter much, but Monster Hunter Stories is so cute that I will definitely give the series a go! I just adore the art style, character designs, and colour palette. Everything about this game comes together so nicely, it’s impossible not to love it! I don’t know when I will finish this, maybe when I am back in England, which is late April~

Next time I will post some artwork of my OC Alex, who I have been neglecting a lot as of late. T_T I am also redrawing my header, since it is an old one.

Laters~

Guess who’s back?!

Hey friends!

Thank you everyone for your support over my hiatus! I am now back and hopefully ready to make some more posts. I shamefully have not documented my time volunteering in Tanzania, but hopefully I will manage to get good enough internet to post photos. I also plan to continue posting artwork on here, though I’m not too sure how that will pan out as I really don’t have a lot of time, other than on weekends (I live in a very outgoing house and have maybe only 2 hours of free time every day which is spent on Youtube, let’s be honest OTL).

On the plus side, I shall be returning home to England very soon where I will be spending a 3 week holiday with my parents. I’m really looking forward to it, we are going to the Caribbean! So yeah, this past year has been soooo busy in terms of my travelling; Hong Kong, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Sweden, Tanzania, and now various locations in Carribean, including St Lucia, Barbados, and Dominican Republic. I’m really looking forward to spending some quality time with my family!

Anyway, I will update you all later and thanks for following my blog!

Blog to portfolio?

It’s been a really long time since I’ve updated!

A lot of things have happened since my last journal, mostly moving to Tanzania. I’ve decided to do a voluntary placement for a charity for 9 months and yes, it is really stressful sometimes but I work with some wonderful people and the country is also a really nice place.

Recently one of my colleagues showed me a way to make a really nice website using a plugin for WordPress so I’m gonna try that out and hopefully turn this blog into a portfolio website. This unfortunately might mean I will clear everything out from this blog… but no worries, I will try to make an alternative blog for those of you interested! I’d really like to keep this url (A Vision of a Dreamer) which is why I might delete everything. We’ll see!

Hong Kong 2015 – Part 1

I apologise for no posts recently, it has been an extremely busy time for me as I am volunteering, preparing for travel to Africa, going on holidays, doing uni work, etc, all at the same time. However, what I do have today are some photographs which I have taken in Hong Kong.

Food

It just wouldn’t be right to not include the amazing selection of food you can eat in Hong Kong! The first photo is of chicken katsu curry which I ate at the airport. The second photo is sushi, which is extremely cheap in Hong Kong compared to England. However, I heard a lot of the salmon has been poisoned with radioactivity so I don’t know if it’s particularly safe to eat. The rest are just various things we did in Hong Kong.

The most interesting thing I ate was the Ebi burger from McDonad’s. It is a burger made with prawns and contains the usual sauce and lettuce, but also has a huge pineapple ring in it! It was a very sweet burger because of the pineapple but it was still delicious and I wouldn’t hesitate to eat it again if it they sold it in the UK.

We went yum cha quite a lot so there was definitely plenty to eat. One night my uncle invited us to a barbecue at his home but unfortunately everything was meat so I just ate the chicken wings (chicken is much lighter than the rest). At The Peak, my dad ordered steak and I thought it was really funny that it had spaghetti with it. Finally, I bought lots of Puccho, my favourite sweets, to bring back to the UK as it’s really hard to get them over here.

Ocean Park Hong Kong

I went to Ocean Park with my parents, you can easily get there by taking a bus right outside the Admiralty station if you get on the MTR. Thankfully it was a beautiful day an I took many photograph, but I still need to find time to edit most of them. These are the ones which I did have time for.

You can see some of the other islands surrounding Hong Kong around Ocean Park.

A cute Arctic Fox!

An Atlantic Sea Nettle Jellyfish which can be found in the jellyfish exhibition.

Ten Thousand Buddha Monastery 

This monastery is located in Sha Tin at the top of a huge hill. There is a path which goes towards the monastery which is lined with many golden statues; each one with its own unique features and number. Once you get to the top, you get an amazing view of Hong Kong and there is a temple which you can visit. I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside the temple but it was an extremely peaceful and tranquil setting for anyone who needs time to just stand and think.

There are many different Buddah statues located at the monastery and depending on the type of problem you have, you pray to a different one.

The Peak

The Peak is a mountain area in Hong Kong Island that is also the tallest area in Hong Kong. From the top, you can walk around the hill and see all islands of Hong Kong. It is one of a few places in Hong Kong with a nature trail for those who want to stand back from the busy city life for a period of time.

The view from The Peak is truly magical and shows a deep contrast between natural and man-made environments.

That’s all for now, I will post some more photographs soon!

An idea for this blog

Because my travel plans are pretty much non-existent at the moment due to bad weather/timing, I was thinking about another idea for this blog.

I am a huge stargazer and so I have been thinking about making a blog dedicated to simple astronomy (I unfortunately don’t have access to huge telescopes myself) and stargazing. Either that or make a separate blog for it. I can list upcoming events, information about different stars and constellations, and list my stargazing experiences abroad.

This is just an idea, I haven’t completely decided yet but it would be something better than simply posting whatever I want, which is what I do now. I don’t draw much any more so I don’t see the point in keeping this as an art blog any longer.

I’ll keep everyone updated!