May 2018 Archives

A couple of weeks ago, I visited Selfridges to visit their art exhibition "The Flipside", which was held in their hotel upstairs. After visiting the exhibition, I opted to have lunch at their rooftop gardens, which has changed to "alto by San Carlo" for the summer of 2018. Every season, Selfridges change the menu and change the restaurant. The new one, "alto by San Carlo" is an Italian restaurant.

Upon arrival, I walked through the hallway lined with orange blossoms to make it look like an orange grove. When I got into the main restaurant, white flowers hung from the ceiling and made a perfect Instagram moment. The restaurant is very airy and bright; unfortunately, the rooftop was not opened. I've actually never been lucky enough to have it open every time that I've visited.

I had a virgin cocktail to start, and this was a fruity berry drink which tasted sweet. I ordered the grilled spatchcock chicken, which was served with a tomato-based sauce and a couple of green chillis (despite the name, they were not hot at all and tasted just like a pepper but less sweet than a bell pepper). I also ordered the truffle fries.

The mains are not too filling, so I decided to order a dessert and choose the pistachio one. I cannot remember the name of this, and the menu online is not loading. This was actually divine and my favourite part of the meal. I am dreaming about this dessert. The texture was creamy like a thick mousse with blueberry and blackberry sauce to make it slightly tart. It had a thin biscuit base as well.

"alto by San Carlo" is the perfect place for a quick lunch or drinks and to enjoy the weather after having a break from shopping. I hope to return once more before the end of the summer in order to have the dessert again.

Delimann are a company that deliver afternoon tea, and they create special afternoon tea offerings for special events throughout the year. One of the events that they created a special afternoon tea for was the Royal Wedding last weekend. I'd previously ordered from them a few years ago (read about my afternoon tea delivery from Delimann here) and really enjoyed the quality of the items received. When I saw that they had a special Royal Wedding theme with a cute Union Jack tote (I love Union Jack flags) and cupcakes, I had to order again.

The Royal Wedding afternoon tea consisted of two plain scones with Devonshire clotted cream and strawberry jam, two small bottles of Luncetta Prosecco, Delimann blend tea, two vanilla cupcakes with Union Jack decoration, and a Union Jack canvas tote bag.

The only item not provided to finish off the afternoon tea is milk; I had to get some milk in for this as milk is an item that I don't actually keep at home as I don't use it. (I only have a drop of milk in tea and do like it quite strong.) Other than that, it's best to order the afternoon tea the day before you wish to use it to get the Prosecco chilled. The scones should be heated up prior to indulging in the tea, and the kettle needs to be put on, of course. Again, all of the products are good quality, though I am a little less keen on the tea blend. The vanilla cupcakes were delicious, and I wish they sold them individually. 

Last weekend was all about the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and American actress Maghan Markle. The weather was nice on Saturday, and many street parties were taking place with houses decorated with bunting and flags. While the event was not quite as large as Prince William and Katherine's wedding a few years ago, it was still a popular event with companies and people getting in on the excitement.

The Royal Horseguards is close to Embankment tube station and is located just off Whitehall. It was started as an area for politicians to socialise before becoming a hotel

First, we had champagne. 

The sandwiches included chicken, honey roast ham, smoked salmon, egg, and cucumber.

I had the Darjeeling tea, which is served loose-leaf.

The scones were a mixture of plain and fruit with plenty of clotted cream and strawberry jam.

The pastries were a selection of Royal Wedding-themed cakes with American flags, Union Jacks, crowns, and a portrait of the Queen. The one with the American flag is a pecan tart. The one with the Queen is a mint macaroon. The crown one is a miniature red velvet cake with marshmallow topping, and the final one was a chocolate sponge with a hint of salted caramel. (I think it is meant to be two rings.)

Overall, it was not the best afternoon tea experience in London. The service was slow and we had to wait awhile as they did not get part of the order correct. The pastries were okay but none of them really stood out as particularly delicious. So, while the pastries looked creative, there was a lack of detail in the presentation and some were presented broken. 

I recently visited Corfe Castle's castle in Dorset, England. The castle is a Norman one that was built from 1086 by William the Conqueror. The castle has been extended throughout the centuries before meeting its end during the Civil War in 1646. Before visiting the castle, I saw its smaller replica (which was constructed to appear as if it were the mid-1600s before it was ruined) during my visit to Corfe Castle Model Village. I've driven past the castle a number of times and have seen it in amazing view and sunsets as there are some beautiful views of the castle, but I had never stopped as I'd never had time to before.

The name 'corfe' means a gap in the hills, and this land was inhabited in the Bronze Age. The castle was modernised by Henry VII for his mother. It was a thriving and important community. It's now just a small village in Dorset. The castle was once very important and was where the crown jewels were stored for a time. It was also a stately home and a prison and was renovated a lot over the years before becoming neglected and then ruined. It contains a dungeon, although this cannot be seen today, and many important people and peasants were prisoned here and died here.

The castle has two ditches to cross via a bridge - one at the entrance and the other inside the castle walls. It contained the castle keep, which is perched on top of the hill. The palace is also on the hill, but not much remains of it. The castle was constructed with Purbeck stone, which is the local stone in the area here along the Jurassic Coast. This part of England is noted for its fossils. The stone here contains fossils. In fact, the polished Purbeck stone appears like marble. The castle was thought to have some of the exterior walls smoothed and polished to give it this shine, but over time, the water eats away at it and it becomes dull again. It must have really looked stunning.

A small hill near the castle was the site of St. Stephen's Seige Castle, which I believe was on the hill in front in the below photograph. This was constructed to help overthrow the castle, which is what happened in the Civil War when this castle was used to do just that.

There are wonderful views from the palace over the town. Additional facts about the castle are that this was one of the first stone keeps (instead of timber). The castle took 8-9 years to build, and the village outside the walls was created (and grew) from the workers who worked on the building. The walls are 3 metres thick. The outside of the keep was white-washed (as a lot of castles were). Sheep currently graze in the castle grounds to keep the grass short.

One of the boards at the castle had another interesting fact. In 2009, restoration work discovered some paint in the ruins of the palace. This paint probably dated from King John's time. The paint was arranged in checkerboard pattern in red, white, and black. Fascinating.

The palace, pictured above, would have been decorated elaborately. The stone carvings around the windows can still be seen today.

At the bottom of the hill inside the castle grounds were a couple of interactive areas that showed how the stonemasons worked and how to construct the windows. New windows are currently being constructed from the stones. It also showed samples of the rock.

I visited 'The Flipside' art installation exhibit located at the site of the former Selfridges Hotel above the shopping centre. The art exhibition is free to visitors and showcases the top names and brands in luxury with a goal to define and redefine luxury now and for the future. This did not make much sense to me before visiting either, but it will make sense when you continue reading. Overall, this art installation is a multi-sensory exhibition that allows visitors to use their different senses. 

The entrance into the exhibition is through a hole in the wall. Well, I was early for the first group of the day and walked down Orchard Street from Oxford Circus to see a closed door and people waiting outside and they suggested that was the entrance, but it ended up being the wrong one. The entrance is literally at the end of the building (far end) on Orchard Street.

First up was a walk down this tunnel, which led to a room with the Google Pixel group (which I had booked for as well) and then the iron staircase of the old hotel, which was impressive and lit up.

First up was the room of mirrors. The mirrors also had text on the back, but these were interactive and allowed visitors to take their photograph and look at the area through mirrors in the different angles.

The area of the installation was covered in a shiny material on the floor which had the appearance of the surface of water. It was dimly-lit inside, adding to the allure.

Loewe's art installation at 'The Flipside' featured several out-dated technological items piled up and encased on glass cabinets. This represents the future of technology with our mobile phones allowing us to replace these bigger machines with something that fits in our pocket) and also represents resources and environmental impact.

The next installation was designed by bartender Mr. Lyan and it took me into a room where three separate groups of objects were scattered. The idea was to choose a group of objects that appeals most, answer three questions, and then to be given a small taste of a cocktail. Apparently bartenders can ask questions to determine what type of drink the customer is in the mood for or which drinks are preferred. Companies currently have the marketing data but are limited to what they can and cannot use. The idea is for the future is to enable the bartender to make custom drinks for customers through marketing data and always provide what the customer is in the mood for. That sounds pretty amazing to me. And, although it was just a small taste of cocktail, the preference was spot on for me. Many times I've had cocktails that are too strong or simply just not enjoyable for me, so this one won me over.

Thom Browne's 'The Flipside' art consists of two obese women spinning around a glass case that lights up and then fades out. This is meant to mimic a music box. The note next to the exhibit said that the artwork is a tribute to fashion today.

Gareth Pugh's contribution to the event was an installation of two videos inside a dark room filled with sand. The videos were taken on England's northern coast and included seaside sounds and immersed the visitor with video into the location. With the crunchy sand underneath my shoes, I did feel like I was on a northern beach.

Louis Vuitton's art installation at 'The Flipside' consisted of several small gatherings of their goods (handbags, shoes, jewels) amongst earthy elements such as mushrooms, crystals, plants, and tree branches.

Byredo's installation was a tower of lit-up water jugs. The water jugs were all labelled with the water source (country) and the date. Clean drinking water is one of Earth's most precious resources, and it is in danger of pollution and other environmental impacts.

The last item was Selfridge's timepiece. There was a queue to interact with this, and it symbolises time as in a giant sundial. Visitors could stand in the centre and watch time disappear in seconds.

On the ground floor by the entrance and exit was the Google Pixel exhibit that allowed visitors to create luxury images of themselves. Visitors had to get into the middle of the rings and then select three images that they liked the best, and an image would be created based on their preferences. It was described as being a kaleidoscope effect, but it seemed to be a mash-up montage.

And, that draws the exhibition to a close. There were not too many exhibits, and it took me about thirty minutes to see and experience the different installations. It would have taken far less, but I got stuck in queues for the cocktail and the sundial and had to wait several minutes to get a decent photograph of one exhibit because people kept stopping in front of me and then deciding to get their own photograph. This event went on from 26 of April until 20 of May, 2018.

Street artist JimmyC has been a regular artist of London's streets and has created several high-profile artworks including pieces for the Olympics, Shakespeare, and the mural of David Bowie in Brixton, which became a tribute area after the singer passed away (covered here). A recent mural is now located at St. Christopher's Place in London just off Oxford Street in an area not really used to being associated with street art. The mural celebrated the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle. 

The Royal wedding, one of the most-talked about events happening this year, is tomorrow. Unlike the last time we had a Royal wedding (Prince William), the country is not getting a day off to celebrate. St. Christopher's Place is getting in on the wedding action by commissioning the street art with the hashtag #SCPRoyalWedding.

More artwork by JimmyC that I have posted about in this blog are:

Mick's Hands
'Open the Mind'
JimmyC Redchurch Street Heart
JimmyC Paints Shakespeare on South Bank
Street Artist JimmyC Paints Caledonian Road
RIP David Bowie & An Afternoon in Brixton
New Mural in Ever-Changing Shoreditch by JimmyC
New 'Spring Offering' Mural by Bailon and Sliks (JimmyC, Zadok Sonar Uno)
New JimmyC Mural on Joe's Kid (Cafe), Fashion Street
JimmyC Street Art - New Inn Yard, Brick Lane, Hackney Road
New Street Art by JimmyC
Street Art: JimmyC

I first read about the mosaic house by Carrie Reichardt on InspiringCity's blog. I currently work on Chiswick High Road, so I went to take a look during one sunny day when I had my camera with me. I had no idea this was here, unseemingly tucked away in a street not far from Chiswick Park station in a row of terraced houses. The mosaic completion actually took place at the end of March; I wasn't unable to visit it then because the weather was pretty rubbish and I've been quite busy with work. So I waited until a nice day in April.

I've covered Carrie's work on this blog before, such as at the Endangered13 Project in Bow. Another project before the house was the taxi, pictured above. This was to protest the judicial system for punishing Kenny Whitmore, whom she feels was wrongly accused.

The house mosaic project was completed by several mosaic artists from all over the world. Isidora Paz Lopez (Chile), Phillipe Vignal (France, who is known for creating the 'space bugs' that we often see in east London), ATM Street Art, Sian Wonnish, and Philly K Bhambi are a few of the contributors. 

The 'Tiki Love Truck' was also parked outside when I visited. It was at a V&A exhibition and commemorated Joe Amador who was sentenced to death in Texas. There are other tributes to prisoners who got the death penalty.

Tamara Froud contributed to the 'Alice in Wonderland' piece, and the 'space bugs' can be seen below. There are so many items that you cannot possibly see them all at once! New items will always be seen on a second visit.

This house can be seen on Fairlawn Grove, near Chiswick Park underground or near South Acton overground.

InspiringCity have done a more thorough review of the house on the blog, so it's worth a visit to read about it and see more photographs in these two posts:

https://inspiringcity.com/2018/02/10/the-hidden-secrets-of-carrie-reichardts-mosaic-house/

https://inspiringcity.com/2017/03/20/carrie-reichardts-west-london-house-is-covered-from-head-to-foot-in-mosaic-by-artists-from-around-the-world/

Corfe Castle is a small village between Poole and Weymouth, Dorset in England. The village is known mostly for its castle, which is what gave Castle Corfe its name. The bloke and I made a trip to Bournemouth to see his family and to take his mother down to visit them, so this ended up being a family trip out to visit the village of Corfe Castle. I wanted to visit the castle as I have never been to it (despite living in Bournemouth) but I had driven past a few times. We also wanted to get some family photographs of the bloke's brother's baby who we visited a few weeks ago for the christening. I've previously visited a model village at Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds, and there are at least a couple more of these in the country.

The village of Corfe Castle itself is an attractive one made with stone, and a lot of these buildings are very old. There are quite a lot of interesting shops, cafes, pubs and a nice church here.

I was the only one that had not visited the actual castle at Corfe Castle, so we decided to go to Corfe Castle Model Village. The hours for the model village are not as long as the castle ones and it closes quite early at 4:00, so we went here first.

This village of Corfe Castle is known for its Purbeck stone and marble, and there are an abundance of fossils here. The Model Village has its own fossil corner. There's also a grave for a dog in the gardens here (Woffee Dog-Wagger, who died in 1934), and the dog lived to be 13 and 1/2, though I could not see anymore information about the beloved pet which has its own tombstone in the garden.

The upper part of the gardens has a croquet area and gardens with flowers as well as a little fairy garden with gnomes and faries scattered around.

The model village itself is located toward the end of the gardens. It was opened to the public in 1966, and it depicts the village and castle as it was in 1646 at the time of the English Civil War. Some of the buildings are modelled in the 1960s businesses. The model village was the idea of Eddie Holland, who had the idea in the 1950s and who wanted it to be near the castle. The village took two years to build. There is also a model of the Model Village (to infinity) inside the Model Village. The church has music playing from it as well, which I did not notice until I was about to leave.

Behind the castle are large-scale games to play, like "Connect 4" and checkers. There were many others as well, and this also led to a small 'wilderness' walk, which just looped back to the gardens and could be walked in a minute or two. Unfortunately, the castle was damaged earlier this year when the country had snow and ice. The castle collapsed due to the weight of the snow and ice, but the weather has not been good enough to start the repair work.

One of the houses was open, and it looks like a metal-worker's house.

After the visit to the Model Village, we went to the National Trust (who manage the castle) tea rooms next to the castle entrance and had cream tea - scones and tea. The weather was not the warmest, so this was a welcome treat.

Overall, it was a nice trip to Castle Corfe, and I will be posting more photographs of my visit to the castle itself, so do keep checking back. Have you ever visited Castle Corfe or the model village?

Glorius weather for the first Bank Holiday in early May in England is rare. Normally, the weather is overcast and rainy when it comes to Bank Holidays. Although I worked one of the days instead of taking it off, I decided to make the most of it on Saturday and ended up enjoying a walk to see the bluebells just down the road from Berkhamsted in Ashridge Estate. After the walk, a short drive was required to see Berkhamsted Castle and to find a nice pub for lunch. Berkhamsted Castle is located in Hertfordshire, England, just northwest of London.

Berkhamsted Castle was built by William the Conquerer after he landed in 1066 and went to attack London (avoiding crossing the Thames at its wider points) by going around to Wallingford where the river is narrow. The lady at the visitor centre of the castle gave me the brief history of the castle. The local people of the area and London later crowned him king.

This is a motte-and-bailey castle (with a moat and a mound of earth where the tower would have stood), and not much remains except for a few pieces of walls and two wells, one up at the tower and the other in the outer courtyard. This castle built of stone in the later 1100s replaced one built of timber, which was built in the mid-1000s. A three-storey tower stood on the earth mound. The unusual feature of this castle is the double-moat, and it would have been built using local stone mixed with earth to raise it up for defense.

In the middle ages, the castle became a hunting lodge. There was a deer park near here for the kings to hunt.

A busy railway line is build next to the castle, and the building of the railway line meant that part of the moat and the barbican had to be demolished. The castle was lived in until the end of the 1400s, and it became an abandoned building afterwards. The grounds were used for hunting and Elizabeth I leased the land to Edward Carey, keeper of the queen's jewels. He also built a palace near here using some of the stones from the castle. The castle was also used as a prison in the 1600s-1700s, and then it was a romantic ruin in the 1700s. From the mid-1800s to the present day, the castle grounds are used for community events.

I walked up to the site of the old tower/keep to get the view of the grounds below and to see the other side where the double moat is.

After the castle visit, I tried to locate a nice pub that wasn't too busy and had a space to park. All of the central pubs in Berkhamsted did not have a place to park, and the nice weather meant that all of the pubs were busy. A bit further out of the centre was The Old Mill, a pub restaurant that is located on the canal and had space to park. 

I had free-range chicken with garlic butter and skinny chips (fries). Everything tasted wonderful. I am usually not a big fan of chips/fries at all, but these were delicious. The chicken also had flavour with the garlic and lemon and was juicy.

After having the garlic, a sweet and refreshing treat was in order. I had the raspberry sorbet, which was very refreshing.

And that concludes my visit to Berkhamsted Castle. I would love to go back to this village of Berkhamsted and explore it and check out the attractive-looking canal.

Today's post features some design and art inspiration. This week, I am featuring vintage letterpress card illustrations and designs in this post. First up is 1canoe2, a collaboration of artists who create letterpress work to sell over the world. Second is dodelinedesign, an illustrator from South Carolina who creates wedding and holiday stationary.

1canoe2 is a collaboration illustration and letterpress studio based in Columbia, Missouri. They create artwork, gifts, and stationary that is sold all around the world. Their Etsy shop can be seen here: http://www.etsy.com/people/1canoe2

A sunny and warm Bank Holiday (three day break with Monday off) is unusual in England, particularly with the unseasonably cold weather we had been having all year so far. Over the other breaks this year, I have not done anything except for work and recover from work. So, I really wanted to make the most of Saturday and planned to visit the Ashridge Estate in Hertfordshire, England (just north-west of London) to see the bluebells. The bluebells are only in season for a short time, and I have been monitoring the National Trust website's Ashridge Estate page to monitor the bluebell update. It turned out that Saturday was the perfect day to see them as they are just at their best and only expected to be at their best for a few more days. On top of that, we have had wonderful weather.

Ashridge Estate is one of the best places in England to see the bluebells. I've actually never seen many of them before except the odd plant or two but nothing like this carpet of bluebells in the forest that you can see in my photographs on this post, so this was spectacular. 

One of the attractions on Ashridge Estate is the Bridgewater Monument, which was 172 steps up to the top to a viewing platform. This tall column is dedicated to the Duke of Bridgewater who was responsible for building canals during the Industrial Revolution.

There are three short bluebells trails to follow, and the two main trails took about an hour to complete. The first trail went through the older part of the forest which was primarily older oak and beech trees. In England, bluebells are protected as they are a native species, and there is another species of Spanish bluebell which is invasive and should be avoided. The flowers themselves are fragile, and people should keep to the paths and not walk on the bluebells because it will kill the bulbs and hinder their ability to spread. Dockey Wood is one of the forests we walked through to see the bluebells, and this forest is very old. 

You can see the paths where animals and people walked (and should not have) through the bluebells. In this woods, we also saw many deer. I did not realise they were deer at first as there were quite a lot of people around, and unfortunately some people approached them and they ran before I could get a decent photograph.

The second trail is located on the other side of Bridgewater Monument and is a younger forest but has an abundance of beautiful bluebells. The photographs do not do it justice because the bluebells carpet the ground on both sides of the trail and go on as far as can be seen. They also let off a fragrance and flowery perfume throughout the forest. They smell like hyacinth.

Aren't they just beautiful?

This photograph was taken with the phone, which added a little more red into the photograph to make them appear purple, but they are really more blue.

Toward the end of the second trail, I came across this wonderful beech tree that appeared to be multiple trees growing form one base which merged at some point.

Moneybarrow Hill Burrow is also toward the end (or beginning) of this trail, and it is an old burial burrow. The area here was also known as "the Commons", which was land that the common people let their animals graze on, and this created a sloped ditch over time.

Overall, this was a lovely day out and a fantastic area not too far from where I live in west London. Seeing the bluebells on such a beautiful day and smelling their perfume was a highlight of the weekend. I have been tired of London and the city, so getting out into the country and away from buildings was a much-needed break for me.

I've previously covered the work of London-based street artist Woskerski on this blog in the post Street Art: Woskerski, and he has been painting since 1997. His work has a different perspective and highlights the features in his portraits, and these are really eye-catching and tend to jump off the wall. Woskerski has recently been painting off Brick Lane a lot with a wall near the community gardens becoming a favourite of the artist and continuosuly refreshed time and time again. The latest artwork features the bloke below with turquoise glasses. It's a fun piece in black and white with the yellow and turquoise providing the colour.

His subjects are always pulling a funny pose or expression. To see more of his work, please visit:

Street Art: Woskerski

My first visit to Edinburgh was at the end of November in 2005, but I have since been to Edinburgh two additional times. The most recent was with my parents at the beginning of December. My first ever visit in 2005 was only for about three nights, and it was a good visit blessed with nice sunny weather (although chilly) at the end of November. My second visit was only for a night, and it poured with rain on both days. The most recent visit with my parents had mixed weather. It was cold but relatively dry. This post focuses on the castle at Edinburgh, which is a prominent feature of the city and makes an impression on the city's skyline as it sits high on the hill.

These photographs of the castle are a mix from my first and most recent trip to Edinburgh. Visitors to the castle will notice that it is high on a hill, and the only entrance is via the Royal Mile, which goes from the castle to Holyrood House, the palace of the queen in Edinburgh. The Royal Mile is the Scottish mile, which is approximately 1.2 miles long.

The castle has a large courtyard in front, and the grounds are entered through the gate.

My visit to Edinburgh Castle was in 2005, so I do not remember a lot of it. I do not have many photographs of the interior of the castle, which means that we would not have been allowed to take photographs. I would have gone to the Great Hall, chapel, and other buildings on the tour, but I do not remember them at all. I do have a slight memory of visiting the military museum on site. What I do remember the most, however, is the views. The views are beautiful, particularly over the New Town.

A lake used to be here, where the New Town is and where the Princes Gardens today are. Below are photographs from the castle in 2005. The view would have had some changes.

Edinburgh Castle site was occupied at least since the Iron Age. The castle itself dates to the 12th century, and it was used as a residence until the mid-1600s. After this, it was used for military purposes. The castle itself has seen many sieges and has seen the most conflict in Britain.

This is the first of this type of post for me, but I was feeling a little bit nostalgic and wanted to look back to five years ago to see how aspects of my life have changed. Five years ago was the year 2013, and it was a year of change for me. It was a year that started out poorly but ended up being a pretty good year by the end. In fact, it actually does not seem like that long ago! It was a year after the Olympic Games visited London, and everyone was excited about the games. I actually cannot describe 2013 without a background of 2012 as it affected some key decisions and was a big year in the United Kingdom.

Many people will say that 2012 is a hard year to beat. Because of all of the Olympic-related events and games taking place the year before, I am sure that 2013 felt like a downer to many people. I do remember people saying that they had nothing to look forward to in 2013, so I think generally people felt that their lives were missing something. However, 2012 was a dismal year for me. It was the year I was stuck in the UK waiting for my visa, and this made me miss my brother's wedding in December. I started a new role at the end of March that turned out to be not the right fit for me. While 2012 was not all bad, the majority of it was except for a two-week trip to Croatia/Bosnia and an afternoon at the Olympic Park.

In March of 2012, I started a new job outside of London for a shorter commute (which ended up not being a shorter commute) and was promised my ideal role. After six months, the role did not materialising, and I started to question it. Over those months, I did meet some wonderful people there and produced some great work. In October, I nearly handed my notice, but I decided to "sleep on it" and to try to make it work. In retrospect, I should have left because there was nothing that I could do. Sometimes, it just isn't "right", and there isn't anything that can be done. It is a risk, and the risk did not work out that time. By the end of the year, I decided that I needed to take action. So, that leaves me with the beginning of 2013.

I was due a holiday at the beginning of 2013 because I was very unhappy and did not take any time off since May the previous year. I had just missed my brother's January wedding and still did not have my passport. As I had just joined a new company and had so much work to do (I actually put in a lot of overtime that I never got paid for), I also declined to take time off except for the time that I'd booked in May. The office that I was working in shut down over the Christmas break, so I did take a break then. At the beginning of January, I spent a few days in Cornwall (Days Out: Polperro, Cornwall, St. Michael's Mount, Land's End and St. Ives). I had been to Cornwall before but just needed to get away. At Christmas, I had also been given a voucher for a hotel in Derbyshire, so I decided to spend a couple of days in the Peak District before my other plans started. The visit to the Peak District was in deep snow, which did look pretty (Snowy Peak District Part 1, 2, 3 and Bolsover Castle).

Changes happened very quickly, and I'm still reaping the benefits of those changes today. I became a contractor in January of 2013 and started working at a wonderful company and worked with many great colleagues. I loved the team and loved the project. I actually worked there for just over two years and have fond memories of my time there. The company was located on Brick Lane, so I explored and documented the street art during my lunch breaks. The commuting was terrible and social life suffered, but I loved the work and team. Besides the harsh commute, everything fell into place.

At the end of April, I finally received my visa and had my passport returned. The whole process took ten months. 

In the spring of 2013, I enjoyed seeing the Big Egg Hunt in Covent Garden, which was really fun. This was an art sculpture trail that coincided with Easter and it ended up being two consecutive years in London. Over Easter itself, I visited Chester, Frodsham, Nantwich and the Anderson Boat Lift, and Beeston Castle. I would also visit the area and north Wales again in the summer for a long weekend and visit Chester Zoo. I lost most of those awesome photographs, though, when my hard drive failed.

I also visited a couple of different sand sculpture displays. The first one was in Weston-super-Mare (focused on films), and I saw some friends that I used to work with. The second one was in Weymouth (focused on science fiction), and I saw some friends who live near there too.

I also attended one of the most memorable street art events that I have been to in Dulwich, London. Several street artists took over a house and decorated the walls. This was wonderful, and there has not been anything else like it at all. I had a couple of posts about it because there was so much material: 1, 2. Street art was a huge part of my focus in 2013. I even met some of the street artists while seeing them paint around the area during my lunch and breaks at work. This made my day.

And, 2013 kept getting better with a long weekend May holiday to the Orkney Islands in Scotland to see stone circles and prehistoric structures and beautiful scenery (Kirkwall and Italian Chapel, Bursay, Brodgar, etc, Rousay, Skara Brae, and Hoy. This concluded with a visit to Castle Mey and a stop at cairns. 

To top things off, one of my good friends from the states came to visit in June. We spent a few days enjoying the city and taking time out to do the things that I have wanted to do and see without the crowds. I had so much fun and enjoyed showing off the city as it was the first visit for my friend. We did so many fun things that I could easily turn this into a list, but I won't.

July had some fantastic weather, and one of my highlights this year was the first Gromit Unleashed! sculpture trail in Bristol. This meant that I got the chance to go back to Bristol, a city that I worked near a few years previously. I also got to create my own Gromit figure under guidance from one of the Aardman figure-creators. (Part 1, Part 2) I happened to visit during Harbour Festival, and this was an added bonus. In addition to Gromit Unleashed!, I also went on other sculpture trails such as one for rhino in Southampton and also gorillas in Norwich, and that was my first visit to Norwich and a city that I enjoyed as well as enjoying seeing the sculptures.

I also enjoyed trips to Scotney Castle and Hever Castle during a glorious early August day. I did visit a lot of castles and other places this year, despite my long commute.

One of the last memorable events for me was a long weekend visit to Dublin, Ireland. The first day was the visit to the jail, which was the most interesting tour of the trip. I also enjoyed seeing the market and botanical gardens as well as the tour on the immigration boat.

The year also ended on the perfect note as I visited my parents at Christmas and we went to Michigan to Frankenmuth and the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. We also went on the (Ohio) Amish Country Cookie Tour of Inns, which was lovely and Christmassy, though I had a very bad allergic reaction to hair dye and had to go to the hospital as my head swelled up.

I will say that 2013 has been the best year for me in quite possibly my whole adult life so far with the exception of 2011, which was another good year for me. The year 2013 was a great year with a great balance between work and several short and weekend trips and a longer visit to the states to see my family and friends. I don't think any of the years have quite added up to 2013, which started on a difficult and unknown note but left on a high. I wish that I was able to get the work-life balance in every year. So far, the last three years for me have been greatly skewed with work so it would be nice to get a break soon.