An Aussies Perspective on Snow

Imagine a whole city of churches, valleys, hills and numerous villages.  Now imagine that same city with a beautiful dusting of snow on top.  You're imaging Luxembourg.  Well, you could be imaging many other cities but I'm just going to tell you about my recent visit to Luxembourg.  Before deciding on heading to Luxembourg, I had numerous people advise me that it wasn't so wonderful and that there really wasn't much to do there.  The latter half of that was true, however the city itself was absolutely stunning (mainly due to the snow that decided to appear overnight).  As an Australian, or in particular an Australian that lives in a very humid and tropical part of the country, snow is another world for me.  It's like seeing a sunrise for the first time, beautiful and enthralling all in the one moment.  Unlike a sunrise though, snow stays for a while and although the novelty may wear off for most people it definitely never has for me.  On my visit in Luxembourg however I did find that there are both positives and negatives to snow.

One of the spectacular views from the top of the Bock

Heading to History in Order to Rethink the Future

I believe that society has come to pressure people to conform, especially when you're my age.  This statement is definitely a major generalisation and I would like you to interpret it the way you want whether you're the conformer or the rebeller (two indefinite terms that can be stretched and changed when you would like).  Anyway, the moral of the story here is that when you complete high school, you should go straight to university to study something that your school set you up for.  Soon enough you should be graduating and in a stable job.  Then comes the process of finding a husband/wife which you should have definitely completed by the time you're 30 because you need to be proactive in your society and well... breed.

This is all wrong.

A European Christmas

Between the hula dancing at my Christmas work party and the risotto eating at my Crickelwood family Christmas dinner, I feel I may have neglected my blog over the past few weeks.  Due to these aforementioned Christmas-themed events my camera has been receiving an almighty workout... or should I say my camera phone.  Yes, unfortunately I didn't get too snap happy (with my decent camera) at all of the Christmas parties, dinners, outings and so forth and for this I'm slightly disappointed in myself.  However, I am fairly new at this photography journey and I want to bring along a motto with me.  A motto that shares experiences with photography, a motto that allows the buffer time or the time where one is not holding their camera in front of their face.  What I mean is, I believe that technology is slowly becoming a need rather than a want and therefore I set day or time limits on the amount of time I am holding my camera for.  OCD you might think?  My best friend would probably respond with "Absolutely,"  however it is only a way for me to keep photography as my personal passion rather than it becoming a chore of sorts.

A Sad Goodbye

The first friendly face that I met after stepping off of my 24 hour flight from Brisbane to London was a lovely person named Madelene.  Although her main purpose of meeting me was to simply divert her attention from a slightly annoying man, she had no idea that we were destined to be roomies in our new house in Tooting.  While Tooting, three storeys high, was bustling with a bunch of new friendly faces both Madz and I were in a square box of a room sleeping half a metre from each other. Living and breathing each others daily routines for a good five months there simply wasn't anyone else that could be closer to me.  Both of us had our fair share of tears due to workplace frustrations and simple unfortunate events.  However we also knew exactly when to comfort each other with cuddles and many seasons of tv series.  Unfortunately it wasn't long until Maddie's feet wanted to walk the depths and breadths of Europe itself, so we parted ways before either of us could be too sad about it.  With Madz wandering through Europe and myself moving into a new house on the opposite side of town, we both had things to focus on.

Festive Frenzy

It's that time of the year folks... yes, that's right it's the festive season!  With Christmas just around the corner and 2015 awaiting it's fresh new year's resolutions, we can tend to become a little overwhelmed by the entire process.  It's a matter of figuring out who will put the Christmas tree up, whether or not someone's been good enough for Santa to visit and exactly how many relatives are going to stay in this small space called home.  [Oh, by the way I apologise for my insensitivity to all other kinds of religions or even those that don't celebrate any religion here but Christmas is my family's tradition and has been for many generations.]  All in all, for me the tradition of Christmas has become a day of sharing love and appreciating those in your life.

And... the festive season begins!

What I Love About London!

Baz Lurhmann once said "live in New York city once but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once but leave before it makes you soft," (from Lurhmann's song Sunscreen).  I believe this to be true in regards to London.  The big smoke is a city that will make you hard.  You might not be able to see that it's that kind of city at first, but eventually you will understand.  It hasn't happened for me yet, but I can see that one day it might do.  Therefore I want to appreciate it for all its worth while I'm here enjoying the ride.

Following on from the previous week of all things lovely in London, I thought that my readers might want to hear a little something that I love about London as well.  Of course, I most definitely agree with everything that everyone mentioned in the previous post however I do have some of my own "London loves" too.  So without further ado, here they are:

What's to Love about London?

This week I decided to round up a bunch of brains (aka my friends and work colleagues) and ask them what they love most about London.  The great thing about rounding up these brains was that they're all from different parts of the world so they all had varying answers for their "London Loves." 

A view of the Shard at dusk

Quick Blast

Hi everyone!  Just thought I would quickly post up something letting you all know that I'm currently having some issues with all of my photo's on my blog.  Unfortunately some settings have been changed around which has forced me to go ahead and update each post separately therefore all of my photo's might not be up again for a few days.

I sincerely apologise for this little hiccup and hope you can all forgive me! :)

Pondering Passions

I've been staring at a blank screen for quite some time now.  Every now and then I disregarded the blank screen by messaging my Mum back in Australia or chatting with my housemate about how London is making us tired people however, I kept on returning to a blinking line waiting for me to type something inspirational.

I had nothing.

That's when it dawned on me that I may in fact have no prospects in life and I might even possibly be very lost in the game that is named 'Life'.  Yes this may sound utterly depressing but then I had an after thought... isn't that what the majority of 20 something year olds feel like?  I'm damn well hoping that every 20 something year old answered yes in their heads just then.  If not, then my bet is that you're one of the lucky ones.  So while I spent one Friday afternoon alone in Hyde Park with the so-called-vermin (squirrels), I thought I might write out a list of my own passions just for some sort of future reference for myself.

Captured a tiny squirrel snacking on an acorn

New To Me

As I sit cross-legged on my bed observing the view outside my window with the overcast, washed out sky turning a deep purple while the rain sweeps over the gardens and buildings that lay ahead in the distance, I can't help but reflect on London so far.  The ever-changing experience that living in London is has made me realise that there are multiple things that have become very new to me.  For instance, the layering of three different shirts is a completely new everyday routine for me and the need to wear enclosed shoes everywhere I walk is also a definite new experience.  Even the closeness of grocery stores is an exciting new idea in my life.  It's most certainly safe to say that the past eight months have brought various new things into my life.

The F Word

 "Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive.  Both men and women should feel free to be strong... It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of ideals." (read Emma Watson's entire speech here or watch it on YouTube here).

Emma Watson took a stand for feminism on Saturday at the recent U.N. and for that I am so grateful.  I personally haven't researched much about the topic of feminism in comparison to some feminists but I have been following Watson on her journey as the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and I am so in awe of her and how much she has done (and will continue to do no doubt).  Watson is dedicated to a position which looks at empowering women around the world and bringing men, women and any other gender together to fight against gender inequalities.  She has inspired me to jot down why I became a feminist in the first place and why it is necessary to be a feminist in this world.  So here are all of the reasons why I became a feminist...

Friendship Always Lasts the Distance

This mid-week post is purely based upon the fact that it's Dan's 21st birthday back at home.  For those of you that don't know me so well, Dan is one of my best friend's.  She inspires sarcasm in me, whips out the most witty statements I've ever heard and most of all she is one complete opposite human being to myself.  This is the main reason our friendship has always lasted the distance.  Whether it was the time between our pitiful fights in grade 10 or whether it was the time between high school and finding our adult selves.  So, in order to wish her a joyful birthday I've put together a tiny video (I had to do this in the nick of time due to being so busy lately) that hopefully brings back some memories.

A Learning Experience

What a week!  Many museums were visited and once again too much food was consumed.  There was pizza and dinosaur bones, historical paintings and rotating mirrors and so much more.  The best part was the immense amount of learning that was done over the weekend.  I guess I'll just get straight into it...

Natural History Museum



Transport Taste Tester

Apologies in advance everyone as this week has been an extra lazy week.  Therefore, I whipped up a quick taste tester video of London's fine old transport.  I hope you can forgive my blurry and shaky camera work and good luck enduring the pain of the boring filming I did!  If you have the time please do give me suggestions as to what you would like to see next week and I'll do my best at trying to come up with some other cool things.  Also, make sure you get your vote in the poll sitting in the side bar!  Thanks again for reading/watching and I hope you have a fantastic week!

A Bit of History For You

St Alban's Cathedral



Apart from being rather excited about winning a free trip to Morocco this past weekend, I also did quite a bit of adventuring around a little place named St Albans.  This tiny little destination is packed full of history in every single street and corner.  One particular infamous piece of infrastructure is the St Albans Cathedral or, as the local people refer to it, The Abbey.

Bogan Bingo & Choccywoccydoodah

What started out as a casual Friday night doing something completely alternative and weird in London, turned out to be a whole lot of something else!  Once I clocked off at 5 o'clock Friday evening, I headed home with my colleague and friend Emily.  She kindly offered to let me hang around her place, eat dinner and of course she mapped out the directions to my Friday evening event (thanks Emily!).  After scoffing down a delicious old spot ham and buffalo ricotta pizza from Franco Manca pizzeria, I ventured on over to the Clapham Grand nightclub where I was to join in the fun of Bogan Bingo!  My housemate Ashlee had invited me to the said event which essentially involved a lot of Aussie and Kiwi expats drinking a bunch of beer and joking about a bunch of Aussie stuff.

Bogan Bingo/Shitty Disco Event!

Excitement Revealed!

What a weekend!  The excitement still hasn't left my body and now I have to hang out until next Saturday for it to happen all over again.  Yes, I know it isn't that exciting for some of you but this event has had me gripped for a good month or so.  Of course, I'm talking about the premiere of episode one, series eight of DOCTOR WHO!  With a new face and a new set of adventures, Doctor Who returns fiercely with episode one showing a much darker side to the doctor than we've seen in quite some time.


Seoul, Sydney, New York, Mexico City, Rio De Janeiro, Cardiff, London!



Granola Bars & Growing Spinach

This week has been fairly empty of exciting activities.  In fact, all that happened was work, gym, sleep and mostly eating!  The only exciting event that occurred was the realisation of a fabulous TV show, The Great British Bake Off.  I have my work friend, Ruth, to thank for this new addiction and I already cannot wait until the next episode!  Actually, come to think of it, my weekend baking events were inspired by both TGBBO and the NHS website (which is GB's national health services website - and I highly recommend it)!

NHS Granola Bars - No Extra Sugar!



City Farms and Pop Up Cinemas

In the midst of an English thunderstorm it only seems fitting to type out another blog post for all of you.  While I listen to the cracking thunder and watch the forks of lightning spring down on the city I really can't think of anything I would rather be doing (but this, of course).  Although last week had some spectacular sights, this week was more animal and people orientated.  Due to my longing to cuddle Oscar (my family dog back at home), I decided to head out with my kiwi friend Kali to attend a free city farm in Spitalfields.

Mid-Week Madness

So it's not entirely "madness" and not technically "mid-week" but it's definitely something pretty spectacular to look at and, I guess it's mid-week for those of you that live on the other side of the world.  A couple of friends from work headed out with me to the Tower of London once the clock struck 5 o'clock on our work PC's.  We travelled on the circle line, a supposed 'slower-than-all-the-other-lines' tube (or so my colleagues tell me) and arrived at Tower Hill station with a two minute walk to the Tower of London.  There we were greeted by a crowd of tourists and every interested British person under the sun (I say "sun" as a phrase but really it was just another cloudy day).

What a Nike Day!

PHEW!  What an absolutely long, expensive-ish day.  Although I didn't really leave the house that early I managed to head to three different places today.  Nothing exciting to be honest, just places to buy things and watch people in their tourist haze.  Nonetheless it was a very productive day.  It was also a pretty humorous day due to the fact that I was exchanging text messages with my good friend from Aus.

It's The Little Things

I've now been living in London a little over five months, or rather 21 weeks and 1 day... but who's counting?  I've sacrificed a sister's 18th, a niece's 12th and a brother's 25th birthday.  I've deferred a year's worth of study (not that it really mattered as it wasn't something I was fully interested in and committed to) and I've left a bunch of really good friends waiting in agony at the mention of my returning to Australia.  Some days have been a bit of a struggle, and at times the days have been pretty breezy too, but I left Aus to fulfil my individualistic ways and I'll keep on fulfilling them until I'm finished (or sick of it)!

Housed and Hired!

As you may have read in the previous post I have had a few weeks of stress and worry in regards to jobs and living arrangements, however that has now all been sorted.  In fact it was sorted last Saturday after a sad departure from the Chilled Rd gang.  It was especially sad that I had to leave my roommate and the beautiful roof view that Tooting gave me.  So I took it upon myself to spend a good two hours standing on the roof watching a storm roll over and taking many photographs of all of the different cloud formations and colours.

Farewell Tooting and Temping

Claire's Farewell Feast!

Some of the food at the feast. 



My new temporary job required me to work
next to this beautiful building everyday.



St Paul's Cathedral.



Concerts, Discoveries and Working in London

Movement at Covent Garden Station

Neal's Yard - a colourful little gem in Covent Garden! 

The Entrance to Neal's Yard



Dancing in the Parade at Pride in London

Wednesday Wisdom

The London Eye on the most sunny, beautiful day.

It's that time of the week again, it's hump day!  For those of you that know me at all I may have mentioned watching (numerous times) a particular ad on TV while I was travelling through America, by a company named Geico.  For those of you that haven't heard me speak of this almighty ad then you seriously need to re-evaluate your life's priorities.  I'm only kidding, check out the ad here and let me know how much more joyful your Wednesday/Thursday (sorry, I forget about time zones!) is because of it.

Temporary Sun and Work

A day well spent baking in the sun on the roof of our shared house.

The cute cafe across from my new workplace.



After my photography course was over, I became slightly worried at the fact that I might be unemployed for quite some time.  That's if I don't look around for a permanent job sooner rather than later.  Fortunately I am currently listed with an agency that helps to get me temporary work placements (which is how I started work at my previous place of employment).  

'London Moves'

The Busker's Circle.

Empty Southbank Benches.

Light & Trees.

A Rotating Carousel.

Londoner's Feet.



This is my first ever photography project (*eep*)!  We were given the task of choosing a particular concept/colour/situation - pretty much any singular idea that we thought might work in a series of photos.  Then we headed to Southbank and our tutor told us to go out there and capture our idea!  My idea was simple - movement.  I am so often drawn to this particular concept due to the beautiful stillness you can capture in a single object or person whilst also capturing movement in other objects/people around them/it.  It’s just so interesting having a subject matter absolutely still in the frame while there is a bunch of movement going on around them.  It’s like a person/object is stuck in perfect, serene calmness while there is a whole lot of madness happening around them/it.  I so often relate to this concept  as I believe that I’m a very driven person so when I have an idea or something that I’m passionate about I will generally jump right into it not thinking about the mess it could create around me.  I’m just so glad I could end the photography course with this set of photos, I’m very proud of what I have learnt in these past four days and I’m excited to see what lays ahead for me.

Anyway, I hope I look back on this one day and realise how far I’ve come … until then.

A “Colour-Popping City”

A couple of colourful chairs along Dean St in Soho.

One of many graffiti doors in Soho.

A Pop of Blue!



Red!



London is definitely the place to find a heap of colour, and bright colours at that.  Every where you look, there is colour.  Whether it’s someone’s hair, a construction workers vest, the bright paint colour of a door or even the beautiful colours of the spring/summer flowers.  Ultimately London is a very lively, colourful and as I’ve learnt in the past, FREE (which is a coincidence because it’s actually stupidly expensive here) city.  During the second last day of my photography course we learnt all about colour, how to look for it and how to place it properly in a photograph.  As I’ve learnt, it’s actually surprisingly easy and quite powerful if used well in photography.

Here’s a little taste tester of some of the ‘Colour’ photos I took during our practical learning.

British Museum Trip

The infrastructure of the British Museum is sensational.
This is just the roof.



A Doorway to the Gallery.

Entrance at the British Museum.

Artefacts at the Museum.



Here’s a bunch of pictures I took at the British Museum today!  The photography course is going so well and I’m loving every moment of it.  The tutor/teacher has a wealth of knowledge relating to all things photography so it makes myself and the rest of the students feel at ease knowing that we will understand anything within at least 10 minutes.  There’s so much to take in it’s overwhelming but I will seriously treasure this learning curve for the rest of my life because it has helped me to understand so much more about photography than I ever knew.  Now I might just spend a few hours at my local library looking up famous photographers and famous photographic techniques that I love :)

Oh and just a side note… I also took a wonderful picture of an older man who allowed me to photograph him for this course.  The coincidence was that he was actually a portrait painter.  He was such a beautiful person and he kept questioning me asking if he looked okay and if his moustache looked okay on the camera…. it was just such a perfect end to my day!

So glad that I invested in this course, definitely a worthwhile move.

Beginner to Amateur

Lone bike rider in the traffic of Trafalgar Square.



Trafalgar Square fountain.



Soho Square gardens :)



Another fountain in Trafalgar Square.

Sunset Shadows.

A light painting of a love heart - for all of my friends that support  me! :)



Chimney silhouettes in the sunset.

For the past few days I have been undertaking a photography course which is something I have always wanted to pursue in life.  I still have a remanding two days left of the course but I have learnt so much in the first three days alone that I feel blown away with my own results.  I’m actually slightly humoured by the fact that I have had my DSLR for three years and for those three years I have not known how to do all of the simple things that a professional photographer does with these types of cameras.  Now that I know exactly what I’m able to do with my camera (and I still have a lot to learn of course), I can continue to practice in order to gain some sort of possible career out of it… perhaps — well they’re my own thoughts anyway. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends here and at home that support me through this particular decision.  Now to just find a temporary contract so I can start getting paid again next week…

Oh and I'm exceptionally bias with my own work, so if you could comment on my pictures or let me know which ones are terrible or awesome that would be fantastic! :)

The Great Contiki Challenge 2014

Our contiki lanyard and completed challenge sheet.

"A street named after a Pharrell song" - HAPPY!

A view of the London Eye on a beautiful blue-skyed day.

Team MAKA with a Mind the Gap sign.



The Banksy Tunnel. Which is essentially a massive tunnel used for graffiti.
In other words, The Graffiti Tunnel.



For those of you that follow me on my other social media sites (Facebook or instagram) you would’ve seen a bunch of photos go up that related to something named The Great Contiki Challege or #TGCC14.  For those of you that didn’t, I’ll fill you in a little bit more.  On Saturday my friends, Amz, Standie, Madz and I headed off to a challenge which is organised every year by our friends at Contiki.  This challenge is essentially a massive scavenger hunt throughout London where each team is given a challenge sheet in which they need to complete (or complete as much as possible) by the end of the day.  Anyway, I don’t want to go into too much detail of how the game works instead I’m going to fill you all in on where the scavenger hunt actually took us…

We roamed the streets of zones 1 and 2 throughout London, snapping pictures of Mind the Gap signs, royal street names, a famous memorial in Postman Park and the place where Sherlock Holmes jumped from the building.  We also travelled from tube station to tube station capturing images of the Banksy Tunnel, the London Eye, the view of Buck Palace from the blue bridge in King James’s park, the Truman brewery, a pop up shop made from a cargo ship, the houses where Jimmy Hendrix and Handel were neighbours 200 years apart and a shop named Choccywoccydoodah in Carnaby St.

Everyone had sore feet and retired to bed after the long day it was.  So all in all, it was quite the eventful day!

A Weekend of Peace & Rain

Apologies for the late blog post this week (I generally try and conform to the idea of posting something at least once or twice a week).  Last weekend, I made it all about me.  On the Saturday I bought a ticket to the Mind Body Spirit festival which was being held at the Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre.  The festival was spectacular, and had many different stalls and free stuff available.  I had my aura read, my personality regarding my horoscope was explained, I decided to join in on the dance walking, then I listened to Ruby Wax speak about her new book, I munched on some raw vegan peanut butter brownies and drank some non-alcoholic vegan pina colada’s and I attempted/was encouraged to do many more things.  The end result?  I had an absolute ball (which means, I came home with a heap of freebies - SCORE)!  Sunday and Monday (public holiday) were lazy days where I did all of my washing, cleaning, TV show watching and other small things that needed doing.  So the weekend really was a me weekend, and I’m happy it was!

 

Fortunately (or unfortunately, however you like to see it), the weather has been perfectly rainy and not too cold which has been simply delightful.

Punting, Walking and Napping in Cambridge

A view of The Backs in Cambridge.



The famous view of King's College
from the comfort of a punting boat.



Sneak peak at the Virginia Creeper on the back of one of the college's in Cambridge. 



Madz and I enjoying the sunshine!



A spectacular view of Corpus Cristi College. 

We named a duck Arnold and fed him scrumptious food.
I think he was a little happy to have friends.

 

A spontaneous trip to Cambridge can never go wrong… or can it?  Our Sunday trip to Cambridge ended up consisting of closed colleges and cancelled tours (a.k.a we couldn’t climb the steeple of Great St Mary’s like we wanted to).  We did however arrive in Cambridge and head straight for Market Square where we bought ourselves some beautiful button friendship bracelets.  After wandering around Market Square for a good half hour we headed on over to Great St Mary’s Church and King’s College, where we were eventually influenced to join a punting tour at 11am.  We hopped on board the punting boat with 10 other people and saw the many beautiful sights of Cambridge along The Backs.  We then strolled through the town taking in the sights of the many different gardens, parks and shops.  

All in all the highlights of the day included napping in Jesus Green, eating salted caramel fudge while punting through The Backs, watching all of the locals ride their bikes through town (I swear Cambridge is very much like a smaller version of Amsterdam - in terms of bike riding), watching someone tight roping in the middle of a park and viewing the various historical buildings which is what makes Cambridge, Cambridge.