Londres // London

Every summer & new year since I was a babe we would travel south to meet up with my aunts, uncle, grandparents & cousins in the mountains and cities of southern France. The four cousins - Emilie, Pauline, myself & Benjamin range from 19 to 22, and we've pretty much grown up together. This year it was time we organised a trip of our own, so they came to stay with me in Laaandaaan!

It had been ten years since they both came to the UK, so in the week we had, we showed them the tourist's London, the insider's London & best of all, the student's London.

Cue photos.

Their visit coincided with the river pageant for the Queen's longest reign, so in-between an introduction to how delicious porridge can be & a speedy lift to the Sky Gardens, we stood by Big Ben watching dressed up boats spray water patterns on the Thames... maybe with some royals aboard? I like to think so. 

The rest of the week we shared some amazing moments, so here are some highlights:

-Playing cards on the street with strangers at 8am. (Waiting for £5 Matilda tickets)

-Watching Matilda!!!!

-Sushi in Chinatown - best sushi I've ever eaten

-Laying watching the proms (again after playing cards on the street queuing for cheap tickets)

-Camden market meals

-Picking blackberries for a crumble

-Learning to do a crown braid

-Brick Lane Bagels

Hopefully this is just the start of many more travels for the four of us. 

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A beautiful song with fitting animation.

The Barbican on Sundays.

The Barbican is the place I discovered my favourite film. The place my parents visited before they had children. The place my mother brought me to find out more about architecture. The place to meet good friends, old friends, family.

On Sundays, the Barbican also becomes host to one of London's most beautiful botanical gardens.

When I arrived in London, the busy days and restless activities were so different to my previous village life. I loved it. It was what I needed. But after a year of London I've found that my favourite spaces in London are the quiet ones. The parks, hidden streets, gardens. The Barbican is one of these places.

p.s. the restaurant is lovely too. we spent a whole afternoon and evening there. genuinely.

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Radical Face - Wrapped in Piano Strings & Ghost Towns

Camden + Tate Modern + Tate Britain

Art brings me a little bit everywhere for gallery visits or photographing subjects. On Friday, the destination was London for a day discovering the Tate Modern & Tate Britain.

I arrived in the city that morning & decided to explore Camden before meeting my mum at the Tate Modern. I had a look at some possible uni accommodation, went into Urban Outfitters (obviously) and then grabbed myself some lunch at Camden Lock. I love Camden Lock. All the little food stalls reminded me of Reading!

After my rather lovely morning in Camden, I found my way across London to the Tate Modern and set about exploring before my mum arrived. This was my first time at the gallery and its incredbile. I recognised loads of famous art pieces (Picasso's Weeping Woman and Turner's Yacht Approaching the Coast below!) and I must say their shop is a dream - full of arty picture books.

Looking down from the higher levels of the gallery was also impressive - all the tiny people walking around reminded me of Lowry's paintings. Which were exhibited at our next destination: The Tate Britain. We walked across London from one gallery to the other and passed some pretty cool streets on the way.

Once we had arrived, turned out we didn't have much time until closing but I managed to have a quick look around and really really liked the painting above - Girl with a Kitten by Lucian Freud. The eyes and style is incredible. I also spotted some of Lowry's pieces - you see what I mean about the little people now?

So that was my day in London, topped off with a rather unflattering photo of myself mid-sentence. But hey ho, action shots are fun. I really recommend the Tate Modern & Britain. They are probably my joint favourite London Galleries art-wise, although the V&A's coffee shop will always be the greatest.

Happy Easter folks!

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'Me And Julio Down By the Schoolyard' by Paul Simon

'Uitzicht' by Bakermat (the more you listen the better it gets - especially the saxo bit)

'Rudeboy' by Dub Inc. (I'm still into the reggae)

HAPPY

Firstly, let me explain the title.

I HAVE AN OFFER FROM UCL AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

The thought that in a few months I could be living in London studying architecture at the Bartlett makes me want to run around and scream and jump. SO HAPPY. On the subject of London, I went for a day trip with one of my best friends, Anam: cue lots of photos.

After a short train & tube journey, we made our way to the many shops of Oxford Street, spending aaaages in Urban Outfitters. Predictable, eh?

For lunch, we decided to explore Soho's delights. This was my first time in Soho (I think) but we seemed to have arrived at the perfect time, it was packed with restaurants of every variety. We picked a small place called Stockpot, where the food was tasty, price was low, and the portions laarvely!

There was even a flash mob which started outside, which we watched from the comfort of the restaurant.

The afternoon followed with some exploring and shopping in Covent Garden (naturally with more Urban Outfitters) passing through Chinatown on the way. Here is a photo of some bins, I thought it looked artistic.

Chillin' with my bro.

Basically, it was an awesome day and I got a turquoise hat out of it (featured below). I also like to think I've mastered the whole tube fandango. WOO.

'Little Bird' by Imogen Heap | 'Joy' by Iron And Wine | 'The Boxer' by Simon & Garfunkel

MORE FOOD - Borough Market

Another foody post about my trip to Borough market. Mmm, don't think I will ever be fed up of food... My obsession with drawing fish is still going strong too, I have about 5 paintings/studies of fish so far and intend on doing many more, oh yes.

This stall below was quite interesting to me in particular. They were recreating the real way of doing a raclette, where you melt a huge piece of cheese then scrape the top layer off once it's melted. Our family does this a lot & I believe it is a French thing, deeeelicious.

This mushroom stall was pretty awesome too, not many people I know are huge fans of them, but how can you not be when they look so good? All shapes, shades, forms, sizes - it was incredible, makes me want to go mushroom picking in a forest, although I don't think that would be a very safe idea haha.

After our morning at the market, my mother & I walked to Brick Lane for a late lunch. It was my first time there, and the feel of the place is so cool, it felt a bit like Reading festival style-wise, if you know what I mean? I loved it.

The street art, the restaurants, the buzz, AND MY BURGER (veggie burger of course) WAS AMAZING. It was huge, the guy kept asking me whether I wanted different salads and sauces & I just kept saying yes to everything, hence why I ended up with my humungous burger of deliciousness.

I had to resort to eating the burger with a fork in the end, it was that big.

Music-wise, I'm actually listening to The Paradise album right now (music to one of the best TV series) but I'm also listening toooo: Tom Odell's album, his voice is just so mmmm.

FOOD - Borough Market

 One of the beauties of picking your subject for A level art, is that you can pick something you love. My subject is about cultures & food, which meant an educational food-filled day trip to see Borough Market in London. Of course.

The place was buzzing with people, delicious scents and beautiful displays. I managed to go around as many stalls that gave out tasters as possible, sadly they were mainly cheese though, shame I'm not a cheese lover...

On the edge of the market, I came across a Meat shop with my family name on it... awkward because we're vegetarians haha.

I must say, the stall with many paella pans was the most impressive - the colours and sheer size of it were just overwhelming! (Plus they gave out loads of free tasters)

The fish was my favourite to look at though. Since I've started painting fish more and more, I've noticed all the different colours in fish - the shades of gold and pink are glorious.

The autumnal vegetables also caught my eye, pumpkins with their warm tones were beautiful.

I hope you like food, I've another post of this coming up, I'm excited. I'm also about to watch the Great British Bake Off. Even more excited. I think I can see a theme to all this...

Listening tooooo: 'Almost Lover' by A Fine Frenzy & 'Nice Fox' by The Rosebuds