This last week has been a whirlwind of trains, meetings, exploring a bit of my new home and trying to find sleep in between all of that!

So far life in the UK has been an exciting adventure, I’m starting to get more and more excited each time the sun peeks out of the clouds and the rain stops for a few minutes. I’ve found my “favourite” spots of the city centre in Guildford where I live and I’m quickly becoming a pro at navigating my way via train to London. It feels strange even now to think that traveling to London is just a regular commute now and that in about a weeks worth of times I’ll have been back and forth almost half a dozen times! I love the city, the history and all the amazing buildings and people who live there but I’m much happier being tucked away in my smaller town 🙂

This week I ventured into London to meet up with Simon McCheung, Brad Wagner and Kenny Ip for a little flickr/friendly meetup and it was so nice to see some familiar faces in the crowds (although a weird feeling to see us all there in London together!) We explored a bit of Kings Road and then stumbled upon the amazing Mister Finch’s textile display inside Anthropologie. Kirsty Mitchell had just posted about his incredible creations and I was planning on finding the exhibit anyway so it was perfect that we found it and I was totally amazed by his fabric foxes, rabbits and mushrooms. I wish I had infinite dollars to be able to buy one!

On Tuesday, which was Remembrance Day in Canada and Armistice Day in England I made my way (slowly) to the powerful Poppies on display at the Tower of London. There were hundreds of people filing out of the underground trains and thousands of people surrounding the sea of red ceramic poppies that wound their way around the ancient castle walls. Standing in front of more than 800,000 handmade poppies was powerful enough and then seeing the tearful veterans, tourists and families standing in silence was incredibly moving.

It feels so strange to stand in front of a building that was made in 1078, the history inside of its walls are incredible, historical and full of so many different people and emotions. To know that kings, queens, beggars and historical figures from almost 1000 years have stood inside those walls was powerful, it made me feel small in a really interesting way.

As the sun set and the clouds tightened their hold over the city, I took one last look at the tower and then of Tower Bridge and made my way back home to my little nest in Guildford.

 

Check out my video below and feel free to send me a suggestion of what you’d like to see me do while I’m here!