new country syndrome

I'm feeling a bit down the last couple of days. Albert flew back to Germany, from where he has diagnosed me with "new country syndrome." Even though I'm not completely new here, I'd say that's accurate. The first few days anywhere (alone) are so disorienting and lonely. And boring. I need to force some structure on my days. I'm in Barcelona to do research for my dissertation for a month. The problem with research is the self-motivation, or, even more than that, knowing what to do in the first place.

Anyway, I still have a few pictures from London: these are from last Sunday, when Raquel and I went to the Battersea Car Boot sale. We scored several bargains for a pound or two each. My favourite was this green cardigan, which was a very happy purchase, as it was frickin' cold and windy that day! I never have enough cardigans, and most of the ones I do don't keep me warm, so this pure wool number in a neutral colour is perfect.



This necklace was my second piece from Les Jumelles, (I wear the first one all the time) and I'm not best impressed with this one. It originally had a charm of the ruby slippers attached, but they were banging relentlessly against the locket so I took them off. Seriously, if you're jewellery makers you should think of these sorts of things. In general it's kind of cheap and crappy, but I'm wearing it a bit more now that it's summer.

skirt: Spank (Vancouver boutique), shirt: Paul and Joe Sister (free with a magazine!) cardigan: Car Boot Sale, scarf: charity shop, necklace: Less Jumelles, shoes: ebay, bag: via mom

messing about in boats

Although this looks like another bucolic day in the park, Raquel and I actually went to the Sherlock Holmes museum this day. We didn't go in (although I don't know why because I would have lovvvvved it, I have loved Sherlock Holmes since I was twelve) but we ogled the outside of the building (never mind that 221 Baker St. never actually existed) and toddled around the gift shop. And then moved over to Regent's Park, which was just around the corner, and where is was a beautiful afternoon, except for an occasional very chilly wind. England just doesn't 'get' summer sometimes.

I'm currently in packing purgatory. I'm relocating, at least temporarily to Barcelona on Friday, and packing is hell as usual. I never have problems packing for short trips and usually just travel with my mini carry on suitcase. But oh. my. god. I hate looking at all my stuff and wondering how on earth I've acquired so much in however long it's been, and trying to gauge without a scale whether my suitcase will be overweight, and if so, how overweight, and who should I leave my extra sweaters with in the meantime and when are they home and how will I get the *&%&%^^# box to them... this is the unglamorous side of living abroad, peeps.

So I'll leave you with some more park pictures...







dress: Topshop via ebay, shoes: ancient Victorias, bag: via Mom, cardigan and scarf: borrowed from Raquel

Photos of me by Raquel

urban beach

Okay, this outfit only goes to prove two things: I should iron occasionally, and I should not try to take pictures at 1 pm. But anyway, it doesn't much matter, because this is only what I wore to the beach! Now, London, being on a river rather than the ocean, is not exactly famed for its beaches. But in recent years, there's been a trend within Europe towards "urban beaches;" that is, cities that don't have them, fake them. In the case of London, this essentially means a large sandbox sitting next to the Thames on Southbank. But who's complaining? It's running in Tandem with the Festival of Britain, which means there are also colourful beach huts, performers, bars, fish and chips wagons, opportunities to sponsor an Albatross...in short, there's lots of fun to be had! A friend of mine from my course is doing her dissertation on urban beaches, which means she gets to spend the summer sitting in the sandbox doing "research." Man...

So, we got off the tube at Embankment and crossed the river


The huts each have an exhibition inside: my favourite one included jars full of sand from many different beaches around the UK, along with some fun trivia about those beaches.


The "beach!"


I know you're not supposed to take pictures of people's children but a) I think that's ridiculous and a sign of the extreme paranoia of our culture and should be fought tooth and nail and b) this isn't a child: she's a fashionista. She also had on awesome red floral sunglasses


I buried my feet, and gazed at the bunting, which, like 95% of bloggers, I am obsessed with at the moment


And generally enjoyed reading my Sunday Observer in the glorious sunshine and occasional sandy wind of London in the summertime!


Pictures of me by Raquel, who I'm currently staying with!

dress and scarf: charity shop, shoes: ancient Victorias, bag: from this event

an outing to south london

These pictures are getting a bit long in the tooth, so it's high time they were posted. Shortly before I went to New York, I met up again with Raquel from Black Sheep. I met her last fall when she visitied London (documented here and here) and now she's living here! So one gorgeous spring day, I headed down to South London to go charity shopping with her.

I really like South London, which I'd kind of forgotten, as I hadn't been there in a while. It's so much more relaxed than East London, where I live. In Raquel's area there seems to be a kind of community feeling, at least among the large expat Portuguese population. She took me to a little café, where I had a milky coffee (heaven, just like being in Barcelona) and a delicious Portuguese pastry which I forget the name of but which is essentially flaky pastry and a custard-like filling. Then we went to her local charity shop, which was much cheaper than mine in East London (surprise, surprise), and finished off taking pictures in the park as the sun started to dip.

I love having made so many friends through blogging (more real life meetings coming later this week), and I'm looking forward to hitting up some vintage markets with Raquel when I get back!









dress: vintage, red sweater: charity shop, cardigan: vintage, shoes: Fly London.

gloomy ponderings on an inspiring exhibition

Here I am at the Natural History Museum, a beautiful building (especially on the outside) with a skeletal dinosaur looming in the entrance hall. They have permanent exhibitions of practically anything you could wish for in the natural world, and like all the best British museums, entry is free (at least for now; we'll see how long it takes the new government to do away with that). But we were there to see a very particular exhibit, the yearly "Wildlife Photographer of the Year."



So you think you're a photographer....

This photo of a bird up there was in the 14-17 years old section!


Most of the photographers are adults however, many professionals, and all of the accepted submissions are simply stunning:




Some are sad: a shark crying a tear of blood as its fin is cut off, a turtle caught in a drift net (the turtle, at least, was released by the photographer).

While I appreciated that the exhibition featured the joyful, funny and purely wild of the natural world, these darker photos resonated with me, especially in retrospect. Perhaps it's the gloom of seeing the destruction in Japan, perhaps it's the depressing nature of all my Climate Change readings for an upcoming presentation, but it's been really driven home to me this year how severely we're messing things up. The earthquake, I suppose, cannot be blamed on Climate Change, but from my reading all of last week I can say we're in for many many more natural disasters, from storms, to extreme heat or cold, flooding, and so on. And we continue with our destructive ways; I myself spend more time fuming about a lukewarm latte than thinking about the ridiculous waste and pollution that has gone into producing it for me in the first place. We are overfishing the oceans, hunting endangered species like that poor shark, over-logging the Amazon, eating too much meat, driving oversized cars (which were swept away by that tsunami in a flash), flying too much, eating too much, and definitely not thinking enough!

We're going down.

the age of enlightenment

Albs came for a three day visit to London last week, which was obviously awesome from a social point of view and disastrous from a university work point-of-view. The first day, we went to the British museum.

I've been before quite a few times, since it's about a ten minute walk from my university, but it was my first time spending any time in the Enlightenment Room. The 18th century is an era of British History that I've never been much interested in, perhaps because I studied literature and I don't have much time for the poets of this era (except for the brilliant Alexander Pope). I love the Victorian era, the 20th century, and even the Middle Ages, but have neglected The Age of Reason, which is a shame, because it was the birth of many of the ideas that make the Victorian period so interesting: the questioning of traditions, morals and religion, the interest in science and natural history, the "open discussion of public issues" (Habermas).

The room was organized into different themes (see link) but I just drifted around reading the spines of all the French tomes, ogling the finely carved stones and minerals, staring back into the beady centuries-old eyes of taxidermied birds, while Albert chilled with the Greek busts. Apart from anything else, it was the era of great collections, when perhaps it seemed as though the key to understanding the world could be accessed through lining up all it's riches, mineral, animal and vegetable, to be prized and studied.



This dude has a lot to answer for




Do any of you vintage experts have any idea how old this coat may be? I found it in the half-off section of Beyond Retro off Brick Lane, and was powerless to resist the charm of its velvet bows and cuffs. The brand is Rothschild, It was made in Yugoslavia, and the RN number is 38843, which by my total-newbie googling puts it at about 1969... but I'd be happy to know what you think.
And yes, it needs a button (two actually) sewed on, but since I wanted to debut it this winter and not next...

coat: vintage
shoes: Camper
awful hair and puffy eyes: not my day

A bit of Alexander Pope to send you on your Sunday ways! (from the Essay on Man)

Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

London

So... finally I'm posting a few pictures of London. Not an area of London I spend much time in honestly, except when I get kettled in student protests. This however was a beautiful day and evening. The reality here is that usually the light is pretty dreary, and the days when it isn't don't tend to coincide with the weekend. ; ) I'm going to aim to be a bit more camera-happy again though. London is a beautiful city, and chaotic, and hard work, and full of surprising quiet corners. I don't feel at all like I take enough advantage of being here (partly because it's so expensive) but I want to try to see and do more. As Samuel Johnson said, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life."











photos by Albert and I

new shoes

January has been my shoe-buying month these past few years. I discovered a couple of years ago that I had hardly any winter shoes, and since then have been slowly building up a collection in the January sales. The boots in the post below were last years contributions.

I'm a bit nervous that both this years' selections are heels, even if low heels. I'm one of those people who really has issues walking in heels. The last pair I bought were in South Africa, and walking for about ten minutes total over the course of an evening out left the balls of my feet stinging furiously... I'm such a wimp. Those shoes got unceremoniously thrust in a box in Vancouver. However, I kind of found this years offerings irresistible, and they're both comfortable and well made as heels go, so to I'm going to do my best to overcome my nightmare ankles. And also to leave the house on time in the morning, since I definitely can't walk too fast!



This sight made me happy the other day. Sometimes it still doesn't sink in properly that I live in East London... the mythical East London of small and big time gangsters, flower girls, artsy parties, and Indian restaurants, depending on your decade. I saw a map in the Museum of London the other day which had all of London in the late 19th century colour blocked into various socio-economic groupings. My street was listed as "Poor/Semi-criminal." Oh yeah!

canal walk

Did you know that London looked like this? I didn't. Here is the wonderfully other-worldly Regents Canal, which runs close to my house, and is always full of colourful houseboats. I wasn't sure about posting these since they're a little random and I've come to the conclusion that I need my blog to be a bit more coherent and consistent. However, I've been loving the fact that I live in London recently, so I thought I'd share a snapshot before I jet away for Christmas (weather permitting, pleeeease don't snow)!

Today one of my lecturers encouraged all of us in the class to start a blog, as it can help you get a job. Fair enough, but this is what he actually said: "You should be posting all your academic work online. In a couple of months you'll have about 2,000 subscribers."

HAHAHAHAHA! ; D

Just let me know if you'd subscribe to a blog of my academic writings. ; ) Speaking of which, time I got back to them...





So Dickensian, this reminds me of a scene in Our Mutual Friend, when this area probably really was in the country.




This walk, like all good British rambles, finished in the pub. Cheers!