things i do lately.

Yes, it's true that I have been absent from my blog as of late. BUT it's with good reason as my two friends who are better friends than the average friend, commonly referred to as "best friends," are here for a week visiting! So I've been acting as a tour guide (kind of.. not that I would ever consider myself an adequate tour guide of London) (but I do okay) and getting up to all kinds of cool and interesting things with them. So I thought I'd give you a small preview of what I've been up to lately. Because that is why I have a blog. So you can see what I've been up to lately.

Books at the book market on Southbank!

The gold glittered in real life. :)
Spitalfield's market on a Sunday morning.

Fur fur fur coats. So much great vintage, so little finances in my bank account.

Street art on Brick Lane.


Chromeo show! :) :) So amazing!

Got grabbed by this guy when walking down Southbank.. I yelled "I don't want you!" at him.. it didn't work.
Gates of Kensington Palace

Vintage bottles on display in the Room of Tears inside Kensington Palace in the 'Enchanted Palace' exhibit.

Metal outfit designed by Boudicca on display inside Kensington Palace.

Another Enchanted Palace installation.. hundreds of toy soldiers!

By far the coolest thing.. in person all this looks like is a thin row of blinking LED lights.
You can see the image of a woman in your peripheral vision. It's completely insane and awesome.
The Prime Meridian! Yeah, I was in two hemispheres at once.. no big.
View of Greenwich from the palace there.

Wreaking havoc on London... :)

If this does not suffice for you.. a) Don't read my blog! Go away! You are unwanted! or b) Hey, I'm going to Barcelona this weekend, alright? Is that foreign enough for you? Cripes.


Pip, pip.
x

heaths and dead people.

Okay, so my title might be a little misleading since I didn't actually see any dead people, and it might possibly get construed in google searches that this is about Heath Ledger (too soon?) but alas, it is not about seeing the ghost of a delicious-looking man. No, good people of the Internet and mostly Facebook Friends, this post is all about HAMPSTEAD HEATH and it's surrounding area, including HIGHGATE CEMETARY. Nothing wrong getting your heath on, you know? The only thing that could have made it a nicer trip was if I was also eating a Heath candy bar. But those are so hard on the teeth.. *sigh*

At any rate, (that is one of my favorite lead-in phrases, have you noticed? Fun game: count how many times I've used this phrase in my blog. You'll win a piggyback ride from me!! So tempting, I know..) Hampstead Heath is gorgeous, full of rolling hills, grassy knolls and big-ass trees. (Pardon my language. It's true.) It's also full of DOGS. Lots and lots of dogs. Everywhere. It's awesome. It's like a little slice of heaven on earth for dogs too because there's lots of other dogs for them to sniff buttholes with and to mount gleefully without being judged. Even though I was definitely judging the Golden Labradors who were doing the latter.. I mean come on. You can't escape inappropriate PDA no matter where you go here. Even the dogs are ruthless.

But, back to talking about non-crude things, Hampstead Heath is absolutely a must-see if you're in London, just because it's so.. un-London. It's a nice change of pace, and is similar to Richmond in that sense. It's also the highest point in London, so you can get some pretty nice views of the city down below. Another awesome place that's a bit tucked away is Highgate Cemetary. It's the final resting place of Karl Marx and lots and lots of other people who I am not familiar with. But it's so stunning and peaceful, with many parts overgrown with ivy and trees. All in all, it was a nice trip up to Hampstead and a nice way to spend a Monday. Even though my buttcheeks got a workout from climbing up and down and up and down hills the whole morning..


Beginning of DOG HEATH. Or Hampstead Heath.. Whichever.

Woody. Like my dog.

Hipster Tree: uprooted, because standing upwards is too mainstream.

Leaves :)

Ladybug + bark.

  
Cottage in the heath.

Overlooking a pond and 'bridge.'

Dew still on the grass :)

There's a dog in this photo..

Highgate Cemetary

The top of Karl Marx's grave/statue.
Fern! [gully]

Overgrown gravestones.

There's plenty more where that came from.

Two brother's graves with a tree growing around them.

R - I - P

   

Until the next time I do something note-worthy;
x

1500.

In a quick note, I'm nearing 1,500 page views.. weee! Haha. But pretty good for my lowly blog of three months. I'll probably do something special when it hits/passes but I have no idea what. I'm definitely open for suggestions though, so if there's something you'd like me to do or take pictures of or if you want to see a video of me eating something gross like black pudding (which I will not eat.. the "black" bit is pig's blood..!?!?) just send me a message or something on Facebook. You could also comment on this post, but I don't know if you have to have a blogspot/gmail account to do so.

At any rate, off to the White Cube Bermondsey art gallery this afternoon and then paper writing and academics all night!

x

brighton.

**WARNING: If you have to pee or maybe have been thinking about having to pee but aren't really sure.. Do Not Read This. There is an abundance of water associated with this post. You've been warned!

So I've found a place that I'm [more than] slightly obsessed with.. The city of Brighton! Here's a little map so that you know where it is because maybe you'll get to visit me there someday when I inevitably move there..

  
In actuality it's about a 45 minute train ride from London to Brighton, which is really quite close. I completely fell in love with it, it's by the water, has a pier, it contains a crazy Asian-style ex-royal palace and is filled with lots of awesome shops. (And very attractive guys.. heheh.) It's also known for it's gay culture, but alas, I am not a gay man so I wasn't really able to appreciate that to the fullest.

I had a lot of fun there, saw a scary swarm of birds flying over this abandoned jungle-gym-esque thing in the water which was creepy and unnecessary. Not really sure how that correlated in my mind with "I had a lot of fun there" but hey. Who cares. Onto the photos!

Beach! Rocks!

A feather.. evidence of the presence of birds. Not necessarily of their presence of mind though.
Do birds even have brains? I don't think it's been proven..

The far end of the pier and crashing WAVES.

Wavves.

More pier. Because it's the only thing that juts out into the water.

This is the other thing that resides in the water. Eerie jungle-gym-lookin-like-thing.
It is also home to a swarm of birds at dusk, where they fly around in a large black cloud, possibly having a bird orgy
or plotting to take over the world.

Me, being cool to try and compete with the coolness of Brighton.
Water churning.
Walking towards the pier.

The sign lighting up! Weeee how festive.

Ferris wheel and more beach/pier greatness.
It was a little deserted, save for S Club 7 playing out of the loudspeakers.

TURBO

Warter warter fence wood.

Me and Abby!
The Taj Mahal!? No.. The Royal Pavilion!

Gate to the Pavilion. The Royal Pavilion was built and used by George (IV), Prince of Wales from 1787 to 1811.

You aren't allowed to photograph the interior, but it's lavishly decorated in Chinese/Asian/Indian style.
It's kind of neat because hardly anyone at that time had traveled to East Asia, so the whole thing was how they
imagined things might look over there.
An engraving of the banqueting room; the ceiling is one of the large domes. And it actually does look like this..
It's so fantastic.

The interior ceilings of the domes are the most impressive.. and they both hold giant chandeliers that are in turn
held by giant dragons. I didn't just make that up.
You can still see Asian influence.. by way of Big Buddha.
Graffiti/street art.

Your basic street.

Lots and lots and lots of stores and vintage/secondhand stores! Also, there was a ton of American clothing.. ie;
things like 'soccer' jerseys and things, sweaters from Cape Cod or with wolves. I wonder if we export our
Salvation Army leftovers? Hahaha.
The Pier all lit up!

Sunset over the Channel. :)

The pier at night.. I really had no idea I took this until I looked at my camera later on, haha. But it's nice!
Like I said, I really love Brighton a lot. If you ever visit London, it's definitely worth a cheap ticket and 45 minute ride down there for the day!

No idea what I'll post next.. I don't even know if I have anything planned. Maybe I'll go try to take pictures of Christmas lights or something. Never too early for the lights! (But if you're the kind of person who listens to Christmas music before it's December.. I give you a judgmental look through the internet. Feel shame.)

x