31 August 2007

London Eye

London Eye

I finally went on the London Eye with my dad when he was over here in mid-August. I loved it. The view's fantastic and there's just something cool about going in ferris wheel-type capsules above London. In my opinion it's one of the London tourist attractions that aren't overrated.

P.S. I also love this photo, taken from the London Eye.

28 August 2007

Notting Hill Carnival

It is a riot of colour, sound and smell.

But not in the beginning. When we walk into the quietly expensive streets of Notting Hill the day is just heating up. Thousands of people line the barricades, many with gigantic cameras jostling for the best positions. Lauch and I wait for about an hour, staking out our spot that has been chosen because the sunlight will fall on the parade at the right angle. We idly watch the police keeping the crowd orderly.

Finally the parade comes up the street. Our ears are blasted with the sound of everyone around us blowing whistles and noisemakers and with the boom of sound-systems on the back of trucks. One guy blows into a conch shell that makes a low-pitched horn sound.

Notting Hill Carnival

Notting Hill Carnival

Men and women dance past in skimpy costumes in a million bright colours. Pieces of feather and street-parade confetti flutter in the air. A few beautiful dancers come over and pose cheekily for our cameras.

Beautiful Dancers Mid-Dance Peeking Dancer

A constant scent of jerk chicken barbecuing drifts across from the surrounding streets. When we wander over, we discover the true part of the street party: thousands upon thousands of people dancing around massive, enormous sound systems set up on the street. Thousands upon thousands of people eating from vendors, rice, curry, barbecued chicken and soft serve ice cream with flakes stuck in them. Discarded soft drink cans and takeaway containers are fast filling up the gutters. We know from the papers that around two million Londoners are here, soaking up the sunshine and the atmosphere.

We work out that two million is almost a quarter of London's population. So this is what a quarter of London in one place feels like - loud, raucous, intense, almost claustrophobic with the noise and barbecue smoke. We buy ice cream with flakes and walk home enjoying the sunshine.

Confetti

25 August 2007

Coming Soon to a Mailbox Near You

Postcard 4
My favourite postcard - click here to see the others

I'm so excited to be participating in this postcard swap! For those who haven't heard of the swap, Karen of the blog Chookooloonks invited everyone who wanted to join in to email her their address. 77 people signed up and she divided us up into groups of 11 people. She then sent each group a list of the people who we will send our cards to.

The task was to create postcards using photography, painting, or whichever creative medium you choose. The theme was 'Beginnings.' On the first of September we will simultaneously post our postcards to the addresses of people all over the world.

Mosaic of Postcards
Some of my postcards for the swap

My postcards are finished. I used watercolour and ink - excellent mediums for a person travelling. The pictures are all of leaves, mostly vine leaves. Leaves fit with the 'Beginnings' theme because they're symbol of growth. I was also thinking that beginnings move in cycles - like the leaves in the Northern Hemisphere grow, wither and die during the seasons.

I've had such a good time painting these, I hope the people I'm sending them to enjoy them too. I can't wait for the postman to arrive in September.

House With Vines
Some of the vines that inspired the postcards

24 August 2007

Best Muffins Ever!

Muffins

23 August 2007

The Crown and Greyhound
The Crown and Greyhound Pub, South East of London.

This pub is more than 100 years old. And I love it not because of its beautiful amazing old furniture or its excellent food. Not even because of the huge windows that the sun streams through. But for a more canine reason.

My aunt says that if a pub has the word hound or another doggy word in its name, you can take your dog inside. We took Ruby the black retriever in for dinner (well, the humans had dinner) and she sat ever so quietly under the table. It cracks me up. There was a DOG under the TABLE!

Ruby at the Pub

Ruby looks kind of baleful in this photo but truly her normal expression is the doggy joyous tongue-sticking-out smiling type.

I love that every man and his dog can come for dinner.

Britney & George

Britney
I was wandering around Camden Market the other day when I stumbled across these dolls. Two nice ladies came out of their shop and laughed when they saw me taking a photo. Turned out they'd just put the labels on five minutes ago.
"We had a mad five minutes and named all the dolls," said one lady, holding up George Michael. "This one has naughty bits so we had to cover him up... and all we had were pink shorts, so he had to be George."
"They're mostly gay icons," said the other lady. Other celebrities present were Shirley Bassey, Barbara Streisand and Sophie Ellis-Bextor. They are so perfectly named. Check out George pumping his fist in the air.

George

18 August 2007

Beginning

Ben Lomond
Me on Mt Wellington, March 2007. Taken with Lomo Supersampler.

Enough already with this hiatus! I have so many photos to show you I cannot wait any longer. I'm back a week... maybe 2 weeks early.

This is me on the weekend L and I packed up our home in Hobart to come to London. I am standing on top of Mt Wellington. We went up there to say goodbye.

At this moment, the future was a blank. No matter how much I worried about coming here, I never could have known exactly what would happen.

Life is a leap of faith.