Barbican, EC2, London

Sorry, no pictures yet of Madrid. We got home relatively late last night and I just wanted to crawl into my bed. So instead, here's a few old pictures of the Barbican. One of my favourite spaces in London - it is an art, dance, theatre, culture and conference building just off the 'City'. It also has residences and business space mingled in.

In the spring, they hosted an incredible art exhibit on birds and their relationship with music. In a big open room (with a few nooks and crannies), little white birds had free rein to fly around and, by chance, make music by perching on the cymbals or guitars (all wired to speakers). The best part was that birds had started to nest in the guitars and had water in the cymbals.

Images via Liam and I.

Friday highlights

The bank holiday approaches and Liam and I are off to Madrid. Goals are to see Guernica, eat a large number of tapas and soak in the 35 degree sunshine. It's currently about 12 degrees and pouring rain in England (apparently autumn arrived early).

• Forget the guitar, where can I get that dress?...
• This makes me want to learn to knit....
• I've been taking some personality tests this week. And not a surprise, I'm a judgemental introverted thinker. What are you?...
• Cowgirl, if my tent was that big I'd definitely give camping another shot...
• I love Danny Boyle but can James Franco really handle an entire film on his own? I've always thought of him as a supporting character...

Have a lovely weekend.

Image via

london fog

Wow Christina Hendricks never fails to impress me. The recent campaign for London Fog makes me actually want to switch my desire for Burberry trench coat to a London Fog one instead. I think that's the aim of an ad campaign non?

Side note: I had recently grown out my hair colouring to get it chopped and styled in my originial colour. As I wanted fringe (bangs), I went someplace expensive so they properly worked on my hair. They got it so wrong that I cried (for the first time in my life) at the hairdresser. I asked for Hendricks, I got a hatch job. Now my hair is permanently in a ponytail with an incredible amount of pins. I'm still hoping it will grow out to her beautiful style.

autumn style for london

I'm loving the Michael Kors Fall 2010 collection as my inspiration for autumn in London. The beautiful colours, the 70s re-imagined and a bike - exactly the type of Londoner I'd like to be. The heeled boots are also an essential September buy item. Though I am a little worried that biking in them will destroy them immediately.

Images via.

istanbul, turkey

Liam and I went to Istanbul for Easter this weekend. It resulted in my first mosque visit, delicious stuffed mussels and amazing scenery. Of course, there was also a considerable amount of air pollution and no-one is swimming in that river. But that paled in comparison to the beautiful decor, the grand bazaar and the best boat ride I've ever been on!

edinburgh, scotland

At the beginning of May 2010, I took L2 to Scotland. It involved long walks, castle adventures and visiting an entirely underground city. Edinburgh was, in short, amazing. Key thing to do - read One Day by David Nicholls while visiting the city. If that doesn't inspire you to climb Arthur's Seat, I dub you officially insane.

isle of man, uk

Rain is a necessary evil in the Isle of Man. While you have to bring your wellies and raincoat - it's one of those places that is incredibly lush and amazingly vivid colours. An easy location to shoot.

It's been on the top three places I've wanted to visit since I was a child. Last year, Liam took me for my birthday and despite the mixed weather, or perhaps because of, it was everything that I thought it would look like.

stockholm, sweden

At the end of May, I broke my Sweden ban to visit an old friend in the city. Needless to say, I felt quite silly about my ban after hours and hours of sunshine, colour coordinated museum exhibits (that haven't even started yet) and the super friendly people. Scandinavia never disappoints in its beauty.

back

Not a lot has changed, but I miss blogging. So I'm back and we'll see for how long. Apologies in advance for long-winded, self-absorbed posts about nothing. But I do hope that you like my new camera's pictures!