When my best friend was still here, her brother took us to Greenwich. Of course the weather was shit again,what would you expect.

I didn't even take that many photos 'cause there was no point.  BUT, I will go back and I will post loads of photos.

Then there are few photos from the day that me and my friend went to Regent's Park and few others from last week when I went with my friend to St. James' Park for a picnic. It was supposed to be an international picnic, with four of us and dishes from our countries. But eventually it was just me and Sylwia with a sort of polish apple pie and crepes with cheese. AND CREAM. Don't forget the cream.

It was nice though, at one point it even started to rain. Unusual, huh?

I will write another blog post soon 'cause I might have nice plans for tonight, which involve photography. Stay tuned.

Brighton

I don't know how, but my laptop might be back to normality since now I've been using it for three days and still nothing happened. But you never know so let's write blog posts as soon as I can. 

About three weeks ago my best friend came to visit me in London and one day we decided to go to Brighton. We were planning it for weeks but unfortuately the weather was shit. I mean, why everytime someone come to visit me and I have to go around London all day, it always has to rain? It was freaking cold, rainy and windy. Thanks weather, you really love me. 

Anyway maybe it was the cold weather or the short time we had to visit all the town, but I feel like I didn't really enjoy it. It felt so nostalgic and sad. The funfair on the Brighton Pier was lovely though. But that's it.

Nothing really special, maybe I should go back with a good weather for few days so I will be able to live the town properly, don't you think?

Oh anyway, at least I had my camera.

Kew Gardens

I told you I was planning to visit the Kew Gardens, so I did; I went the day after I wrote the last blog post, on thursday, which was my day off. I went there late, like around 3-4pm so I had very little time to visit it all because the closing time is 6pm. But however, I saw half of it and really enjoyed it. 

First of all it was a beautiful day, sunny and very very hot. The Glasshouse was the first thing I visited and as soon as I walked inside I was nearly dying because of the hot temperature. It was almost impossible to breathe, but still it was amazing. Not that I'm interested in gardening or plants or whatever but I liked the atmosphere there. As you can see I took a lot of photos and that kept me too busy to actually pay attention to what kind of plant I was capturing, there were too many anyway, I would have spent all afternoon reading the captions under the plants. Crazy.

But let's go on with the tour: one of the best parts of my little trip at Kew Gardens (if not the best) was when I walked outside of the Glasshouse and found myself in a garden full of roses. It kind of reminded me of Alice in Wonderland and the smell of the roses was so strong that was overwhelming. I think at one point I was seriously trying not to cry because I was feeling way too emotional. It's stupid, I know, that's the way I am. Crying for roses, hah! But sometimes the beauty of certain things really makes me emotional, I was just born this way. Yeah, I'm stupid.

Then I went to the Kew Palace but it was nothing special, and also the Royal Kitchens and after that I bought a delicious carrot cake. (I really can't stop myself from buying cakes.)

Now I can't wait to go back to see the rest because I loved it and I loved that I spent my day off visiting something new, I should really do this more often. And you should too.

Now, my best friend is coming next month and we are planning to go to Brighton and I really can't wait. 

Family trip around London

My family came to visit me last week after three months of me staying away from home (quite too much for them) so we did a little trip all around London. My mum had already been here with me few years ago, but it was the first time for my brother and my grandma, so I took them to the most famous places. You will see nothing new or unseen but you can still enjoy.

That week the weather was awful, rain and cold all days except the last one which was kinda fine. It was still winter, like I was going around with my coat and my boots and now I'm wearing summer dresses and sandals; and it was just one week and a half ago. So you can imagine why people keep complaining about London's weather. One day it's winter and the next is summer. Nice. 

However, I did few things for the first time as well since I came here in London (guess what!) like  visiting the London Eye and cruising on the Thames. I also went to see the Tower Bridge which I had never seen before. Despite the weather was really hateful, I had fun and it felt like home to stay with my family. I really like London, but nothing feels like home, not yet at least and even it feels like ages since I moved here. It's just three months though, can you believe it? Time fucking flies. Tomorrow it will be already one year, it's so scary and exciting at the same time. Yeah, maybe I won't be even be here in London in one year, who knows? Hopefully I will still be somewhere.

Also I was thinking that I used to spend all my days off travelling and visiting London and now it's been a while since I did the tourist so I decided I want to start road tripping around London and the whole England whenever I have the chance and the money to do it. It's such  beautiful country and I really can't wait to see all of it. During these last few months I fell in love with every garden and park I went to. They have like something, not sure what, but they still have something magical or surreal. I went to Hyde Park one day and I felt like I was in a painting, and for someone like me who loves paintings and art and stuffs like that, it's just amazing.

Tomorrow I'm planning to go to the Kew Gardens and maybe I will write a blog post about it. Wish me luck!

Tate Gallery

  After looong, long time I finally decided to post about my trip at the Tate Modern Gallery. You know, when I was home (back in Italy) I barely went out, especially by my own, but here in London it's almost impossible to stay home: so many things to see and do. So on one of my days off I went to the Tate Modern. 

I have to say I'm not a fan of galleries, museums or exhibitions unless it's something involved with photography, but I really liked it. It was nice to see some of the things I've studied in High School and recognize almost every artist. However, the best part of the gallery was the shop. After few hours of visiting every room I ended up in the shop of the Tate: BIG MISTAKE. One of the main things I have to remember now is to save, save, save. And when I went to the shop all I wanted to do was buy, buy, buy. A lot of magazines, books, gadgets, I wanted to buy everything. I think I've spent more hours inside that shop than visiting the gallery. But luckily I didn't buy anything. 

Lately I've been spending days working, eating and sleeping, mainly because the weather has been awful. Cold and rain while in Italy everybody went to beach, nice. I'm still wearing my winter coat and waiting for the summer to arrive so I won't be spending so much time thinking about what I should wear. I love summer only because it's so easy to dress up. Dresses, shorts, tops and you're done. When I wasn't tired enough to go out I went to Waterstone and spent few hours in the Photography and Fashion department reading and exploring some books, or visiting some charity shops and shopping here and there. I miss taking photos, I barely do it lately, but since my family is coming to visit in few weeks maybe I'll be start again. London deserves to be captured.

Yesterday I didn't want to go home after work so I went to Victoria and Pimlico to search some charity shops and I ended up finding an absolutely amazing photography shop. A lot of vintage goods, polaroids and so many lenses. I was dying and the prices weren't even high. I found a Rolleiflex for 169£ which I guess is not much, is it? When I'll be able to spend some money on photography that's where I'll go. 

Let's hope the next blog post won't be next month. 

Highgate Cemetery (East side)

 

It's April now and one day it feels like spring while the day after it's winter again. This weather's back and forth is annoyng, really, I wish I could get to know what's the secret. I guess I just need to wait and see.

However...

The other day we went to Highgate Cemetery, since my roommate is apparently a fan of witches, ghosts and haunted places. Luckily for us it was a hot and sunny day, so we enjoyed our little trip in this very non-creepy cemetery. We actually only visited the East side because we found out that to visit the West side you have to book online. It was nice though, we eventually discovered there was also Karl Max's grave. Then we went to the nearest park and took a few photos there too, I ate a very good banana and then we went home.

And to tell you another funny story, just few hours ago we've been locked out, I mean, we forgot both of our keys into our bedroom. I know it was just about time because it happened a few times before that we were about to close the door when, somehow we remembered we had the keys inside. We were going crazy when one of our housemates came downstairs and saw us laughing hysterically and told us "try from the windows" but they were closed, like locked, and then he said "use force then" and I looked at my roomie and she started laughing again, but then went straight to the door pushing it with the shoulders and she did open it. I swear that moment was epic. We started laughing again and wouldn't stop for a while. Haha. I don't know if I'm more relieved that we managed to open the door or worried that anyone can actually push our door open without keys. 

For now I'm just happy I'm sitting on my bed with my laptop, listening to music and getting bored as usual. I need friends, a boyfriend, a job, whatever, anyone?

Busy days but still the best days

I know I am not the kind of person who has a lot of friends to hang out with, and I used to feel like shit for that. But even if I didn't go out every saturday night (and still I don't) I am grateful to have friends that I love so much and I know I can trust. We've always been there for each other, at the end of the day.  

Since I'm leaving on tuesday we're spending a lot of time together lately and finally decided to take a decent picture (quite more than one). So we basically set up the tripod then acted like ourselves in the most stupid/fangirling possible way. I can't tell how fun that was, we had a great time.

I love being myself so much, you know, being with people who make you feel in the right place, it's just something you can't do with everyone. I have friends I really care about, but I still have to act in a certain way because we don't have the same approach.  

It took me years to realize that it's better to have few good friends than a lot random ones. You never have to be alone, you can always count on someone, even if that person lives ages away or whatever. When I was planning to move to London I thought I wouldn't miss my friends that much except for two or three of them, but now that I had to spend so much amazing time with them it makes me so sad it brings me to tears. 

And now (I need to stop crying) enjoy!!

The lasts

So here we go with all the last meetings, last hangouts, last dinners, last parties, last everything. Basically I'm scared as hell, I mean, I live in two weeks, for good. 

You spend like your whole teenage dreaming about one-way tickets and then you get one and, I don't know it's just freaking me out. 

I'm sad, and happy, and scared, and eager, and worried, and sad, and happy.

I didn't even realized the whole thing because I'm really calm right now but if I try to think about it....

We'll see how it goes.

5/52 BTS and Park adventures

Today I finally shot the 5/52 "Hats" theme with my best friend, we went to the park and took so many photos. You can see the final photo here.

Then, we visited the places we used to go when we were, like, 12-13 years old and it was like traveling back in time. So many memories: our old school, our old friend's house, the field where we went to take photos and then found ourselves covered by some sort of caterpillars, after which we had to change all of our clothes. 

I miss being this young and carefree, everything was so easy and beautiful and exciting, I was happy. I still am, but I miss those times. All the girls nights, the gossips and just being stupid and having fun. I'll miss these places, these people, everything.

Last days of my senior year

I'm not really crazy about my school days but I was talking with my friend about this amazing house (above here), and decided to post some of the photos I took then.

This was our last dinner as class-mates and my Art's teacher, who's the owner of the house, invited us all to enjoy some time together. It was incredible, I think, one of the best (school-related) dinner I've ever had. There was a lot of good food, an amazing view and it was all kind of romantic. I regret that I didn't take more photos of the house, especially the indoors because they were so beautiful and original. Everything was, I don't know, just stunning. I remember thinking about all the possible photos I could've taken and how the light must have been beautiful in the morning. Instead, I spent my one and only roll taking photos of my class-mates (stupid!)

Seriously, at that time I thought I had to collect every moment of my last year because I was going to miss it once it was over, but the truth is I don't. I actually miss the place and the atmosphere more. However,  as it became dark it grew more and more magic. There were fireflies literally everywhere, it was like having christmas lights all around. I finished my roll before that so I tried to capture that beauty using my friend's camera, but with no tripod it was nearly impossible. I remember taking few good shots but my friend never sent them to me so I'm not sure how they turned out.

If I will ever visit that place again I'll surely take my DSLR and tripod and everything. I want to capture that magic!!!

3/52 BTS

I joined a project called Let's Get Creative 2014 which is a 52 weeks project open to everyone with a theme for each week of the year. 

Since the day I fell in love with photography I struggled with myself about starting a 365 project (where you have to take one photo everyday for a year), but with school and everything I had neither time nor will to actually start one. 

When I saw this project I thought that maybe a 52 weeks project was easier and the fact that a lot of photographers are joining made me want to join it as well. It's a very cool project because you get to see lots of differents ideas and concepts of one single theme and it's very inspiring.

Anyway...

This was week three and the theme was "books". Thanks to my friend who helped me, I felt less awkward  with her than if I had to shoot it by myself. However, the shoot went well and then we decided to make some Pavesini. 

I really really suggest this project, it's quite funny and I hope to improve the way I didn't in the last six years.

Going off topic...

Today I finally (after three long months) booked my flight to London, me and my friend are moving there. It was exciting until it became scaring and now I'm trying not to think about it because I'll loose my mind if I do. Wish me luck and cross your fingers for me, it's going to be...hopefully a great adventure.

A day with Harry Styles' beanie

Just so you know I'm not a fan of One Direction but apparently I ended up using a Harry Styles photo on my phone. Anyway I took some photos of my best friend yesterday, enjoy!

ps: I also went to see Catching Fire and damn it was so good!!! Can't wait to see the next one. 

Random Days

It's 1 a.m and me and my friend Lisa are back with "Late Night Editing with Lisa Rowe and Francie Idette". To be honest we didn't late-night-edited that much this summer so we're trying to fix this up and here we are.  These are random photos took in random days. The girl in the photo it's me.