Slides are the No1 Killer in the Tate Modern...

Even spending 2 hours on a train to London was going to be worth while as we were to visit the Tate Modern. And we did. Briefly. Arriving in London we walked to the Tate and saw signs exclaiming about strikes, of which we all took no notice of. We arrived at the Tate to find however that perhaps we should of paid attention to these signs. The Tate was closed.

Well, I exaggerate, the exhibitions were closed. The only thing open in the Tate were the slides and the gift shop. And let me tell you know, London is a long way to go just to visit some slides.

Don't get me wrong, the slides were fun. But as Steve said 'It's either one of those things that you get or you don't'. For me, the slides were no more than a little fun and a chance for me to show off my safety skills by donning the protective clothing they supplied.

2 slides, a trip to the gift shop, and one very expensive ball point pen later...we were back outside.

A few of the group decided to head off to the design museum, whilst the rest of us headed off to Leicester Square. Arriving here, we split into a couple of groups and set off on our on travels. Our first stop was to get some food...so we did. Or we tried.

After a very eventful lunch being attacked by pigeons we set off once more, in the direction of Oxford road. I feel this could perhaps of been a slight waste of our opportunity, being in London after all, as the majority of the time we were shopping in places we could of visited in Wakefield. Just bigger. And busier.

It did however give us a chance to 'bond' a bit more. And as usual, over a interactive quiz machine in pubs. At least we were learning. Upon leaving the pub, we decided to actually go somewhere worth while. Yet another mistake in our day.

Who knew it was so hard to find a tube station in London? It shouldn't be. Should it?

Almost an hour later, we abandoned the tube idea, and a few of us decided to go for a walk back to Leicester square. After another quick drink, it was again time to go 'exploring'. This was perhaps the best part of the day, as just around the corner from Leicester square, we realised that we were right next to Trafalgar square, with Nelson sitting upon his column in all his glory. The lights surrounding the fountains and the statues created a fantastic atmosphere, and was much better than the seedier part of London we had visited so much previously over the day.

Nothing else really relevant happened yesterday. We went for something to eat, a quick drink, and headed back on the train.

Thursday was a completely different matter however, as Chris' 'Task Bombs' came into play.

We were first told we had half an hour to recreate a newspaper article on Jonathan Gee. This I found relatively simple, although I only just scraped in the deadline a few minutes before (use all your time as Steve always says). I was quite annoyed to find that this task was only a tester however, and that our first real task would start....now.

Another relatively simple task at heart, create our own newspaper article using the same content we had previously been given. This was much harder than I first imagined however, and I quite struggled to come up with different designs. In the end I came up with a design I was relatively happy with, and was quite different I thought to a usual newspaper layout which is what I aimed for.

Our second task of the day was to create a design for a company's label to be used for a series of paints. We were told we could only use two colours, black and the colour of the paint, and that it was to be a purely typographical answer to the task.

At first again I was quite frightened at the thought of the task but in the end I was really impressed with my final outcome. Although I feel that perhaps I had not used my time as wisely as I could, I do feel that the pressure has helped me to create one of my best looking pieces of work yet. Though of course the marks will soon tell.

Next week will be a slightly nervous week for me, as we have to give a presentation about our time at The Design Mechanics. We are also been given yet more of Chris' 'Task Bombs' and this time they are going to be even harder.

All in all though it has been a really enjoyable week, and I think it has been just what was needed to get everyone back motivated in the course, as the mood seemed to be dipping a slight bit.

In the meantime, I look forward to hearing about what everyone else got up to in London, and what they thought about it. And also I look forward to reading the many Clash or Jam (the band, not the condiment).

Have a good week. Pictures coming soon.