I'm in Italy now, writing from my lovely dear old room and everything feels like back to usual. It seems like I've been away for years yet it feels like I never left home. Few things have changed and others are still the same. I still remember how to drive my car, which was something that quite scared me (I mean, wondering if I remembered how to drive) and now I'm trying to enjoy these two short weeks of italian summer, the kind of summer that I'm used to. I've been away for just six months, which actually it's quite a lot, and on my way back home I thought everything was going to be as I left but, to my disappoint, things have changed and not changed at all at the same time.

I was expecting to live as I used to live before I left: going out for dinner, for parties, fangirl, going to the beach, stay up late at night. But friends are working, I'm alone and I feel like I've been missing so many things.

I love to be home, though, I think everyone does. The thing is that I'm always eager to change, to escape, to try something different, something new, but then I get scared and I want to go back to my room, to my house, to my friends and family and stay in that same old routine that used to bore me.

I'm silly, so foolish and naive, but I don't care anymore.

SO, in my last blog post I wrote that I had plans about photography and I was obviously talking about the London Photo Meet-up with Brooke Shaden. She organized the whole thing in Green Park and it was quite funny and depressing at the same time. I arrived very early cause I had a day off and I was bored at home so I was in Green Park around 5pm. When I noticed nobody was there yet (even though few people said they would) I walked to Piccadilly Circus and went to eat at my favourite sushi place (Yoshino). As I finished it was about time to go and when I got back to Green Park I spotted a big group of people on the grass with cameras and tripods and I joined them. I met so many nice and lovely people and I was the third person who hugged Brooke. She is so small and pretty and cute.

The evening was nice, even if I was more a model than a photographer (with my small poor camera) not big shoots planned and everything was very random. I felt quite out of place at certain point because everyone seemed to have ideas and concepts and started to direct models for their shoots but me, I was just wandering and stealing shots of other people' ideas. I guess it's just not for me to have ready ideas to use anytime, anywhere. But still, considering I took about 50 photos I ended up with few good shots, and felt pretty satisfied with them. I guess it was just luck, nothing to do with talent or anything. I was just lucky.

And now, another gathering is hopefully in plan for the end of August, let's hope I will be able to go and enjoy some creativity which is something that I miss often, lately.

I will let you know.

Greenwich and picnic

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.