Summer in the city

Oh London, you really are the loveliest city when the sun is shining. This year I finally understood why Londoners endure so many months of the cold and the wet and the grey. For the few times it is sunny the whole atmosphere changes. Every day is Pimm's day, you go picnic on the Heath with chilled wine and meze, you go to music concerts in abandoned chapels, you laze about in one of the many public parks, you wander along the Camden locks, you giggle at how quickly Londoners are willing to take off their clothes when the sun is shining, you pop into a pub with Wimbledon on and coo at cute overheated bulldogs instead of watching the match, you visit some the many hidden gardens dotted around the city, you spot a pelican or two (whaaa?) at Buckingham Palace, and if you are bored with all that you pop onto a train and go to a beach instead. You get free bikram yoga on the central line, you go on walking tours the City of London organises every year over summer, you see protesters and policemen hugging during the annual Gay Pride parade, you find art beneath your feet, and a bench to sit on and soak up the sunshine. Thank you Summer for popping by, it's been swell. Same time next year then? xx

Living in East London

A favourite East London pastime of mine is cycling along the canals in the area. It's a great way to avoid traffic and to spot some birdlife along the way. On a saturday morning, you start off by the Olympic Park in Stratford and follow the canals past local breweries, imposing gas work structures, cosy barges selling cups of tea and books, smiling poochers, pass the daffodils in Victoria Park, and then get to Broadway market just in time for some Vietnamese coffee and a pastry for breakfast. There you will find purple carrots, a french girl with an accordion singing for her supper, and something so symptomatic of East London. Streetart. Oh so much of it. On a sunday, you get yourself to Columbia Flower market close to Shoreditch and find nothing prettier in the whole city. An entire road closed off and filled with flowers for sale. If you get there just before 2pm, you can even haggle for them at a next-to-nothing price. Shoreditch itself is just eye-achingly crammed with streetart. Some famous artists, and some lesser known ones. You pass the infamous beigel shop that is ALWAYS busy, see sneakers in the sky, pass tattoo parlours and vintage clothing shops, and leave thinking about just how many lovely, gritty, messy and creative things there are to see in this part of the city.

Wondering, wandering

London can be quite a daunting place to visit, so many choices, so many places, so many tube stops to choose from. Which one is worth visiting? Do I wander around until I find something or do I have to know where I am going before I set off? Since I am virtually incapable of decision-making, the latter more planned approach seldom ever happens, and what I stumble across usually is just the case. Stumbled upon.

Whether it be amazing street art that pops out of nowhere along Regent's Canal, Dalston or Shoreditch (you can tell since I have been living in the East),all-of-a-sudden sun glares inside the Tate, Harrods' festive lights in June, a boutique JUST for umbrellas, kissing budgies, Barbican dark alleys, old clippings of the Queen in an underground wine bar, wonderfully empty streets in central early in the morning, a spraypainted christmas tree, looking up to see a car wrecked by a sculpture, a confrontational blue pigeon, a coffee shop offering coffee grounds for compost, or a walk on the Thames at low tide. Always exploring, and still so much to see.

Canals, cheese and cycles

And a kak load of that I got with the Christmas visit to Amsterdam and the surrounds recently. Such much of cheese. And canals. And bicycles. Every. Where. You. Look. My lovely friend Little Miss Gerbil was sweet enough to loan out her flat in the lovely Spaarndammer area of the dam, with yummy Moroccan bakeries and veggie/vegan restaurants in the area (one being Zaal 100). She left us 2 trusty bicycles to explore with (this is usual apparently for Hollanders to have more than one bike..!), and off we went. The dam pretty much looks as it was since my last visit many moons ago, with streetart, millions of bicycles, Rembrandt masterpieces still as breathtaking as ever, with a few new additions of romantic couples dancing to street buskers, pesto cheese, even more design studios, and a lovely light show across the city added to it over Christmas.

Cycling away from the city is super easy (once you manage to find your way out of Amsterdam that is). The Dutch are amazing that way, they have clearly marked out cycle routes linking their cities together, so really, you could explore the whole country on a bicycle. So off we went towards Marken, a little island to the north east of Amsterdam, as well as Monnickendam,Volendam and Edam (because I have an obsession with cheese and it felt fitting to go there). Like so many of Holland's lovely towns, Edam has authentic 17th century architecture, gables, squares, bridges and monuments, old streets and quiet canals, one can easily imagine what it was like centuries ago. Big on shipbuilding there too. I'd recommend stopping off at the local pubs and having a chat with locals. Dutch people are nice that way.We met a man warming up on gluwein, who just caught a fish for his supper.

A 15 minute train ride to the left of Amsterdam is Haarlem, tulip bulb-growing district for centuries bearing the nickname Bloemenstad (flower city) and owner of De Adriaan, one of the many windmills we were to see! Yes we even went to Zaanse Schans, the somewhat Disneyland of windmills. Some of them are still in working order too, the ultimate environmentally-friendly factory, some still saw wood and press oil. We met one of the workers of the mill at a little granny's place along the windmill stretch, selling gluwein for €1, the best bargain we had found to date. He mentioned that the moment the mills 'retire' they rot, so it's best to keep them working.

And to top it all off, we were invited to a Christmas lunch by a pair of little Miss Gerbil's friends, where I met the prettiest snow leopard named Lux. Yes, total strangers invited us over for Christmas. That's how awesome Dutch people are.

Belgian type porn

Not that I am a fan of grey and rain on any given day (I get my fill from living in London), but visiting Brussels and Antwerp on a rainy November weekend with Mr Handsome had its fair share of visual treats. Namely typography. Lots and lots of sexy retro typography. Who would have thunk that chip/frituur shops could look that classy?

You can travel around these bite-size cities easily on a bike (Antwerp has city-run bike schemes similar to Boris's Barcleys Bikes), I would ask the hotel to stay at to rent one out for you, much cheaper than going through a private bike company. Unless it rains. Then you dash into a coffeeshop and order a hot chocolate which you make yourself (yes, they give you blocks of Belgian chocolate and a steaming cup of milk and off you go!). Albeit the weather wasn't the best, but the buildings are old and lovely (and skew), Belgian beer is sublime, the streets are cobbled and echo, and if you are lucky, you can wander into the main square with a lone flutist playing up from one of the windows to passersby. Just for the hell of it.

G(rainy) London

Wowie, I've forgotten how amazing photographing with film is. I picked up a dinky Kodak Prontor 500 for a couple of quid, nothing fancy, from a second-hand store a while back, snapped away over the Olympics and then colour-processed the film. Some didn't come out, as film does, while some did. Grainy smog, with bursts of light. Now for the black and white prints to arrive!