snow in london - part 3

ah! thought i've had enough? nooooo! here's more snow pictures! i know you're all "come on sara, we're so tired of winter, bring us something to long for spring!" but you want to know something? i like the cold. it's nice and cosy and makes you appreciate wonderful things like scarfs, or central heating, god bless who invented central heating, that makes coming home such a happy moment (and a special person does it too).
so here's some black and white very cliche pictures of the snowfall! hope you enjoy :) i'll stop now. promise.

snow in london - part 2

i couldn't help it! more pictures of snow! after the big snowfall on saturday night, sunday woke up in a beautiful white world. we walked through regent's canal to primrose hill to enjoy good snow fun with lots of londoners. we found a big plastic bag and used it to slide down the hill as it was a real sled.

and as i said... it snowed on saturday! and it was a-m-a-z-i-n-g! no matter how much snow i see i still have a childish happinness about it... we laughed, we jumped, had snow ball fights and even slided on a hill.
snow is so beautiful!

light and shadow

yesterday i spent the morning in bed. london is freezing these days (they even say it might snow tomorrow or sunday) and i caught a cold. nothing too serious but felt much better after some rest.

when i was in highschool i did the drawing course at "sociedade nacional de belas artes". one of the exercises i loved most was to draw a hanging white sheet trying to capture all the subtleties of light and shadow only with pencil. challenging!

yesterdays sun entering the room reminded me of this exercise. even freezing london is sunny!

 

happy new year

oh no, i did it again! went on months without talking to you and now it's a new year already! bad me and bad my time management. however you would be glad to know that one of my new year decisions was to be more present on this lovely blog. although i'm probably speaking to 3 people this blog is very important to me and i don't want to let it go.

so here's to new starts! last weekend was the official london celebrations of the chinese new year and we went to do some dragon sightseeing. it was nice but didn't that many chinese around, mmm... why? dunno...

in the images below i only used my 50mm lens. i love that lens!

on brave friends

It’s hard to see close friends suffering with deception in their lifes. It’s hard to see really good people in pain for no good reason. It’s sad to see them deal with crazy stuff you think only happens in movies. It makes me angry how can someone be so selfish to harm another, specially when it’s the another you are supposed to care above everything. It’s sad to see love break with such an impact.
But on these incredible sad moments I’ve discovered how strong my friends are, how they managed to find strenght where you thought it wouldn’t be any left and they move life forward with new energy and new love. And I can only think how hard it must be and I feel so proud.

london

are you really my friend?

photo by tanja hollander.

like many people i have mixed feelings about facebook. i was never a great enthusiast but i have my account like everyone else and i admit to enjoy strolling through peoples lifes like a voyeur and drop my "likes" every now and then. and i also like to see what my distant friends are doing and believe i'm closer to them with comments and likes. at the beggining i was a "purist" - no, i will never accept anyone who is not my true friend! i soon ate my words when work colleagues and old highschool friends i didn't even remember the existence started asking to "become a friend". i quickly forgot my purist principles and now have 420 friends (too many? too few?) and often ask what is the sense of this community?
many times i abstain myself of saying something personal because shouting to 420 people my feelings or too many personal details feels too ackward. so then it's no longer a group of friends but a group of acquaintances. sometimes i think of using it as marketing for my photos and my shop but it would feel like i'm imposing something to supposed friends and i have created a special page for that anyway.

ok, i'm blabbing here. this long intro to share with you a really interesting project photographer Tanja Hollander created that i found through etsy's blog. she had similar thoughts about FB and on experience of reflection on the modern ways of communication decided to visit every one of her over 600 "friends" and photograph them in their homes. i thinks it's an amazing idea and a very personal journey too. can you imagine talking to all of your facebook friend's face to face?

etsy's blog post | are you really my friend? | the facebook page!

the other day silvia was also talking about her relationship with FB too.

thanksgiving

last saturday we pretended to be americans and gathered with some friends to have a turkey feast for thanksgiving!
i'm always amazed with talented cookers. F. got everything ready and we just had to bring the wine!
there was actually one american in the room so he took the pleasure of carving the amazing turkey for us.
it was so goooood! it was also so great to be with new friends laughing, telling stories and enjoying a good time. i treasure so much this moments...

here are some pictures (the vegetarians might be a bit shocked - sorry!)

and in the end another talented cook serve us pumpkin pie.
we were so full we didn't move until it was time to run for the train. what a lovely evening!

on frustration

how well do you deal with frustration? i'm lousy at it, i tell you. i get angry, i get harsh, i get helpless, i get depressed.
these days i'm seeing myself as a control freak and i'm not enjoying it. i envy so much people that just relax and seem to go with the flow. they seem to do the best they can and when things don't work out... well, there's always another day... do these people really exist? could i be one? a less stressful person less able to get angry and frustrated? what's the secret? how do you deal with your frustrations?

that fresh feeling

two months in london so far and as expected it feels like years since i left lisbon.
when you move to a different city (well, when you move in general) there are always so many things to do (get a house, get the phone, get the pillows, get the pans, get the bank account, get internet, get, get, get) that time just flies. then there is the incredible excitement of the new place, the new people you meet, all the novelties of the unknown that make everyday exciting.
london has been treating me so well. i’ve walked and walked its streets, been to exhibitions, cafes, restaurants, parks, bookshops and cinemas. well most of the time i’m actually stuck in a room studying and working but i’m treasuring every break i can get! and to be honest being stuck in a room studying and working is a such a privilege.
but i don’t believe every londoner sees london like i’m seeing these days and i wonder how would it be possible to keep this magic enchantment to last. i mean, i’m originally from one of the most beautiful cities in the world (yes, lisbon – if you haven’t been you're missing out on something) and yet it was so easy to find lisbon dull and boring. that was one of the reasons i joined couchsurfing, to see lisbon through a foreigner’s eye. it was magic and refreshing, i re-discovered my own city, i was forced to leave the sofa and the neighborhood to do sightseeing, to walk around and to be amazed again with the city i take for granted.

so far london is magic and refreshing. will it ever be boring?

11/11/11 - 11 things I love about london

i like this number coincidences. i like this calendar supersticions. although this wasn't the best of days - had a headache, spent all day working in a room with no windows and I'll be working till late* -  still is a special day.

so i thought i could write down 11 things I like about london. here they are:

1. parks - i don't thing i will ever get tired of walking in a park, any park.
2. regent's canal - walk walk walk :)
3. art art art - galleries, street art, museums, libraries
4. street shopping - i think it's the best way to shop, walking on the street, not in a shooping mall.
5. markets - same reason as previous but even more authentic
6. double deckers - i know, so turisty!
7. british accent - and a café lady caaling me love.
8. central heating - no more cold winters :P :P :P portugal!
9. world food - even with little money you can taste the world
10. urbanism - low rise buildings, small single houses, this city is designed for people.
11. energy - this city is boosting!

i'm curious to come back to this list in a couple of months!
how did you spent this special day? can you tell me 11 things you like about the place you live?

* but with some rest i kicked my migraine away and had the best of dinners - sausage, apple and fennel with mash - so life is great again!

berlin

the wall fell 22 years ago.

this image is from a series called "tierra de nadie" by juan margolles, showing the areas where the wall used to be. berlin still needs to be stitched. i'm sad that there are still so many walls to tear down in the world.

splash!

Now that temperatures are dropping I remembered that 3 weeks ago I was actually splashing in an outdoor swimming pool in Hampstead Heath.



If someone had told me that in October I would be taking my swimming suit on an outdoor pool in London I would have send them to the doctor! But it happened and it was great! Crowded, noisy, cold water, hot sun and marvellous!

There are several outdoor pools troughout the city and, if you prefer something more "natural" you can actually swim in Hampstead Heath ponds!




Still weather has been gorgeous. I love cold sunny autumn days!

one month

So without really noticing my first month in London flew by!
It has been extremely rich and also a rollercoaster of emotions but I've been hanging on. Maybe, like the image I took above, still feeling a bit lost.
London is a weird city... every 1 in 3 people I cross in the street is not speaking english. Maybe I can give you an idea of how "foreigner" this city is when, at the supermarket, the cashier asked me where I was from. I hadn't even spoke and I've been told I look english (well, probably not but what is english that's my point?). Is it that maybe everyone is always from other place?
Everybody seems to be here in some kind transitional phase, even english people, even if it's been 10 years in town!
It is not helping that in my course we are around 43 students from 18 different countries and only 3 are english (and the only one from London has an italian mother and a japanese father, very londonner I guess). With so many different nationalities and cultures around I sometimes feel I actually moved to Babel Town. I also wonder how this feels for an english person? Do they love this gigantic multicultural community or do they feel their culture is being destroyed by this flow of people?
And then there is London, beautiful London, Victorian London with it's brick facades, with the pubs, with the double-decker bus, with the amazingly beautiful and amazingly big parks. London like an odd scenario to woman in burka, punks, yuppies and young portuguese girls trying to feel a little less lost.

from camden to hyde park - part 4

in the end i wanted to reach peter zumthor's pavillion for the serpentine gallery, but it was too dark...