Jenikya's Blog

I visited the U.S.A. to see my family over Easter for a couple of weeks. They are located a few miles from the 2024 total eclipse zone, so I had a short drive to the eclipse totality zone in order to view nearly four minutes of total eclipse, and let me tell you about how amazing it was. I have obviously seen partial eclipses before in Ohio and also in England but never a total one. The last total solar eclipse in Ohio was in 1806, and it was called "Tecumseh Eclipse" named after the Shawnee leader.

The eclipse started about one hour before it totally obscured the sun. Then, it went back the other direction. During the total eclipse, I could look at the sun without straining my eyes.

I had my camera and eclipse glasses ready.

During the eclipse, the colours were different. We were told that reds and greens were the best colours to heighten the experience of the eclipse.

After the eclipse, it was the drive home, and many places were doing eclipse specials. I got this eclipse ice cream.

During my visit to the U.S.A, it rained every day after the first day of my visit until the last day, which was the eclipse day. The weather got nice and warm. Before that, we were worried if we would even get to see the eclipse due to the bad weather and cloud, and the weather was changing at every moment. I am glad that the skies were clear and we had perfect viewing for the eclipse.

I love neon signs, and I came across a display at Leadenhall Market. The display of signs was created by Kemp London, which create neon signs for sale and to rent for films and television. A few years ago, another neon sign company (God's Own Junkyard) also displayed several neon signs in one of the units at Leadenhall Market. Kemp has been creating signs in London since the mid-1800s.

For lovers of neon sign art, view the other blog posts below:

• God's Own Junkyard Exhibition at Leadenhall Market: Electric City
• A Morning at God's Own Junkyard, London

Wendy's fast food restaurant started its life in Ohio in the United States, which is where I was born. The restaurant recently came to the United Kingdom's shores with one opening nearby in Uxbridge on the outskirts of London. I decided to pay the restaurant a visit and to have my favourite spicy chicken sandwich. The food tastes the same or very similar as it does in the U.S.A, but the fries taste different. (I know they had changed the recipe for them in the U.S.A. too.) 

At the time of writing this post, this is one of two Wendy's restaurants in London. There's also one in Croydon. There are a few others located around other cities in the United Kingdom.

While in Brussels in February, I visited he automobile museum called Autoworld. I visited and enjoyed the rally of Volkswagn cars, which I covered here: Love Bugs Parade at Brussels Autoworld. The museum was busy due to the rally, and I listened to audio guides with my mobile phone to learn about the cars on display.

The museum is located a few miles outside of the city centre in the Parc du Cinquantenaire. 

At the entrance is an archway, which was inspired by London's Marble Arch/

I started off at the exhibits of the older cars first, before going to the other eras, American cars, collection cars, toys, racing cars, and much more.

There was a special Volkswagen on display to celebrate for the Volkswagen lovers and owners.

One area of the museum was dedicated to the cars of the TinTin comic strip.

Autoworld had so much to see and do, and I enjoyed my visit.

Located on Great Titchfield Street is the Italian restaurant Sergio's. When I used to work on Great Portland Street nearly fifteen years ago, my colleagues and I were spoiled for choice for lunch in this part of London, and we did visit this restaurant a few times. However, it was across the street and in a smaller building. After nearly fifteen years, I re-visited the restaurant. I noticed that it was fully decorated right after Christmas, but they started to take down some of the lights by the time late January came, and my visit was then.

I had a cocktail to start with, which was good enough. They didn't have any room for me inside the restaurant, so I had to sit on one of the outside tables, which made all of the light have a reddish glow.

I ordered the garlic bread for starters. 

This was followed by chicken kiev.

Finally, I had the profiteroles for dessert.

Overall, the food was okay. I did enjoy the started and the dessert, but the chicken kiev was not my favourite. Being in this part of London certainly brought back those memories of the summer of 2010.

This year, I returned back to the United States to see my parents, brothers, and the rest of the family for a couple of weeks over the Easter break. Unfortunately, I did have to work, but I enjoyed visiting a few of my favourite places so far, colouring eggs, having some good food, and helping stuff sweets into plastic eggs and hide eggs for the Easter egg hunt with my nieces and nephews. We coloured the Easter eggs on Saturday before Easter Sunday.

Earlier in the week, I had a road trip to Circleville, Ohio - home of the great pumpkin festival. Circleville boasts one of the oldest chocolate shops, called Wittich's. They were selling all sorts of wonderful Easter chocolates, candies, and Easter baskets. The chocolate was also delicious. I got an Easter mint and a chocolate egg that was delicious and filled with soft carmel. I'm not normally a big lover of chocolate, but this was good.

I filled around 250 plastic eggs with different candies. There was an Easter egg hunt in the afternoon on Easter, after I returned from relative's house to have Easter lunch. 

After Easter lunch, we enjoyed an Easter-themed ice cream cake, which was delicious.

I hope everyone had a nice break and enjoyed the time off to celebrate with friends and family.

I was in Brussels earlier this month and visited Brussels Autoworld car museum. I went to visit on the day of the Love Bug Parade of 2024, which celebrates the popular Volkswagen car. I discovered many Volkswagen Beetle cars, some new Volkswagen models, and Volkswagen vans. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the cars and car club as I have always loved Volkswagens and I also participated in some events of another car club, Mini. The cars all started to arrive before noon and parked in front of the museum. I enjoyed watching the cars drive in and park up and the atmosphere of the cars. The event took place on Valentine's Day weekend, so it was called "Love Bug" in nod to the shape of the Volkswagen Beetle.

I loved that some of the cars were dressed up in theme. My favourite was the green Volkswagen Beetle pictured above, but I also had a soft spot for the rusty ones and the ones that looked like they were left forgotten for awhile.

With the exception of January, the year has so far flown by. I have still been in my busy project at work and not able to really enjoy much outside of work. I feel that it is very important to have a work-life balance and to enjoy life without being forced to work all of the time, and I need to make more time for myself. The weather has not turned great so far, but I am looking for some good times ahead. I took some photographs of some beautiful spring daffodils and tulips, which I enjoy at this time of year. Spring has only just arrived, and I am sure that it will go by just as quickly.

Happy spring and I hope you get to enjoy it.

Earlier this month, I visited Gooey Waffle in Uxbridge to indulge in some waffles. They sell waffles and ice cream, and visitors can customize their own waffle creation with different toppings and different flavours of ice cream. I had the berries waffle with pistachio sauce and two types of pistachio ice cream. I had the standard pistachio and the pistachio and saffron ice cream. It was topped with chocolate sauce and mixed blueberries and strawberries and a Bounty bar (coconut and chocolate). I was impressed with the quality and taste of the waffle.

Visitors can choose from a range of fruits, chocolates, and other toppings and so many different flavours of ice cream.

Street artist WRDSMITH is known for creating paste-ups with a stencil of a vintage typewriter along with a paste-up of text on a "page". The text can be witty or an observation, and they have been pasted across London for several years now. The artist, from Ohio, lives in California. I first noticed his work in early 2016, and he's visited London several times since then and leaves behind some art to locate. Below is a selection of works that I've seen but not yet posted. 

Previous posts about Wrdsmith on this blog can be seen here:

'Never be Afraid to Reinvtent Yourself' by Wrdsmith
Recent Street Art by Wrdsmith 2022
Street Art: WORDSMITH & C3
Recent Wrdsmith (Wordsmith) Street Art