Tag: London

Yelly Writes

Gray day, local colour – God’s Own Junkyard

Yelly

Today was a bit of a washout in terms of weather situations. I was hoping for better weather because I had my niece and nephew over to visit me. I wanted to take them around The Stow because I thought there were interesting things to see around where I live…also I wanted to cheer them up a little bit. But Mother Nature had other ideas.

We had a bit of a soggy walk to God’s Own Junkyard but I hoped it was interesting enough for them. I’ve been to GOJ several times now, it just being around the corner from me but I’m always so surprised at how close it really is.

@yellywelly

God’s Own Junkyard is a collection of new, used, salvaged, and reclaimed neon signs that would look so very comfortable in movie sets and fairgrounds. I do like having a bit of a wander because every time I go, there’s always something new to see. I always say it’s a welcome and gloriously riotous assault on the senses and I thoroughly recommend going and having a look at the lights. There’s a little bit of everyone for everyone – cute, staid, functional, sexy, pious, naughty, kinky an downright raunchy.

If anything, once you’re done, you can head to the lovely cafe and have a drink (tea, coffee, soda, cocktail or cocktail – the menu is quite good!) and a bite to eat if you fancy it.

It’s free to visit and I think it’s certainly worth a visit but note that because of the content and subject of some of the signs, parents are warned that there will be potentially awkward conversations with the little ones. Younger audiences will need a responsible adult to accompany them around. Also, pictures from mobile phones are encouraged but bigger cameras are very much discouraged. But visit! It’s an experience worth having!

God’s Own Junkyard is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and is at the Ravenswood Industrial Estate, Shernhall Street, London, E17 9H. Remember to check the GOJ website for information on open dates and special events as they can be closed when things are happening.

Yelly Writes

Booktalk

Yelly

I’ve been walking through Waterstones Piccadilly on my lunch breaks because I know that I need to get away from my desk and give my eyes a screen break. There are also days when I can’t figure out what to eat so thinking about food just gets frustrating. Instead of wandering aimlessly through food stalls at the market at St James Piccadilly or staring at the shelves at the nearby Pret, I just head to Waterstones and look at the books on offer.

There is an almost indecent pleasure in finding a book that you’ve been wanting to get your hands on for a while.

It’s that moment, after searching through the bookshop (possibly for days during your lunch breaks) and you finally catch sight of it on a bookshelf. Your heart skips a beat then it starts racing because it’s THE book and you just have to have it.

It’s the intoxicating new book smell of it, the weight of it in your hands, the textures of pages, the book cover and the raised feel of the print on your fingertips. It’s the heat that gets generated when you hold it in your hands for a little longer than usual because you can’t let it go.

It’s the giddiness and the I-can’t-stop-smiling-because-I’ve found it feeling as you take it to the till to pay for it so you can take it with you outside the bookshop.

You can’t get that feeling from an e-book or an audiobook (well okay, if you bought the CDs for it…but does anyone actually do that anymore?).

@yellywelly

Yelly Writes

C’mon now!

Yelly

Sometimes the distraction is welcome. Sometimes it’s even what you need. But really, if it starts with a “dis” is it ever really a positive thing?

Something to make you go hmmmm!

@yellywelly
Yelly Writes

The Crown

Yelly

I’m usually the first one to be excited about events involving pomp and circumstance because to me it’s being part of contemporary history, even if it is on the periphery. When the late Queen Elizabeth died, I was glued to the telly for days absorbing the news. I was also constantly looking out the window because Green Park and Buckingham Palace were quite near my office and there was a constant parade of flower tributes being brought to the Palace by members of the public (I nearly got brained by a massive bouquet of sunflowers because this guy was rushing and texting at the same time, not looking where he was going and he kept zigzagging and nearly walked into me with the gigantic yellow blooms – I’m only little!).

While there was (apparently) a build up of excitement for the big day in the country, I wasn’t quite feeling it. I know I’m going to watch the coronation ceremony on telly later, and I’m probably going to get teary-eyed. But I’m feeling very underwhelmed. Maybe because I don’t necessarily like Charles and Camilla (yep. I’m #TeamDiana, always have been). While I agree that everyone deserves happiness and to each his own, etc., etc., I’m still not feeling it (I was, in comparison, more excited for Harry and Meghan’s wedding!). I’m not a royalist, but I am also not a Republican. I believe the British Royal Family serve their purpose and they do bring in a certain amount of tourism and with tourism comes jobs…plus Prince Louis, God bless him!

I didn’t even really go out to take any pictures of the decorations around the capital until yesterday and only because I was near Regent Street. Let’s just say I had other things going on in my life.

But I do wish that Charles gets to do what he wants to do whilst he’s on the throne. He’s waited so very long to become the monarch and it would be such an anti-climax (to him personally, I suppose) if he isn’t able to do the things he wanted to do when he got to the throne. Everyone deserves the chance to fulfill their destiny.

Everyone. Even the King.

@yellywelly
Yelly Writes

Wide awake!

Yelly

This hasn’t happened in a while.

I am wide awake at 2.14 in the morning!

I’ve tried reading, listening to relaxing music, watching a documentary, meditating, and breathing. All these activities worked when my brain is restless. But not today. I think it’s my subconscious working overtime not letting me rest until I wrestle with something that it wants me to face and deal with. And I think I know what it is but it’s not something I want to think about just yet. Someone suggested physical activity but at the moment, I don’t think I can start dancing around the flat. Not at this late (or early) hour. I don’t really want to put my neighbours through the baby elephant stomping.

I might have to buy myself some yarn so I can start crocheting again. That always allowed me to clear my mind. It’s time to start crocheting poppies again anyway.

I think tonight, I’ll just have to wait it out and wait until exhaustion claims me. That or try the breathing again. 1. 2.3.4. Hold the breath, 2, 3, 4. Exhale, 2. 3, 4. Breathe in, 2, 3, 4. Hold the breath, 2, 3, 4. Exhale, 2, 3, 4…

@yellywelly
Yelly Writes

Happy Easter!

Yelly
@yellywelly

Spotted: a massive Lindt bunny in the Hampton Court Palace grounds.

Did you see it too?

“Have we ever considered that God is so enraptured with beginnings that He permits the pain of endings so that we can experience the exhilaration of beginnings?”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

Yelly Writes

Speaking butterflies

Yelly
@yellywelly on Instagram

You can’t talk butterfly language to caterpillar people. – Unknown

I saw that quote today on Instagram and it resonated. I thought it was the perfect caption to the photo I took whilst walking down Bricklane on Saturday.

I’ve seen the work of this artist before, on another wall on Bricklane. This was newly installed when I saw it though because the paper that the butterflies were cut out from still littered on the pavement, still crisp and still pristine. You’ve got to love how ever-changing the street art in Bricklane is. It’s always evolving, always moving forward, never standing still. There’s definitely something to learn there, don’t you think?

I’d booked tickets to the Klimt experience for an earlier date in July. But since I couldn’t go for the reason I’d originally booked the tickets for, the organisers of the exhibition allowed me to use the amount of money I paid for the tickets to use it on another date. So I went. On my own.

It felt strangely new doing things on my own. Like I didn’t know how to be. But it was nice too. Because I was doing something on my own. It was strangely empowering.

Of course, what I didn’t mention was that before I even got to the exhibition, I tripped on the uneven pavement and grazed my right elbow, further injuring my already poorly right shoulder (it was an old rotator cuff injury that has reared its ugly head, but that’s another story!). But I took care of myself. I cleaned up my wound, found a large enough bandaid to cover the double graze (how I managed to graze my elbow in two different places, I will never know!) and went on the exhibition…even though to be completely honest, I just wanted to go home and curl up in bed and feel sorry for my clumsy, klutzy self.

I guess, sometimes, when you’re on your own, you just have to choose to be brave and move forward.

Yelly Writes

Solo photo walk surprises

Yelly
@yellywelly on Instagram

I don’t remember taking this photo. But I remember the day I went out on a walk because I needed to stop staying indoors and crying my eyes out. I thought I’d take my camera with me and try to get into photography again. It wasn’t the best of ideas because taking photographs brought back a lot of memories of a life I once thought I was going to live forever. But it gave me something to do that day. It allowed me to focus on something else. It allowed me to look at what was right in front of me, to be in the moment, to focus on what was happening at that very moment.

Funnily enough, I can remember the wind blowing that day, and how refreshing it was, compared to the heat beating down on that lovely sunny day. It was a good day, hot, but the wind blowing was a welcome relief! It was nowhere near as punishingly hot as the heat we went through a few days ago! Now that was a different kind of hot!

I like this photo though! I can never properly set up my camera so that I have sunbursts but sometimes I remember and I do it sort of right. It’s either that, or I get lucky! Ha! I love how the sun gets filtered through the tree branches and the leaves.

I need to review the notes I wrote about camera settings a long time ago. I need to start taking this photography malarkey seriously again. I have all this gear sitting in the bottom tray of my stationery trolley not doing anything. It’s not like it’s fancy gear, mind you. But I do have an amazing camera and a few nifty camera gadgets. Waste not, want not, eh?

Yelly Writes

Just writing

Yelly

I probably have things to say, thoughts to share and interesting opinions to express. But right now, I’m completely devoid of the will to be smart, sassy, and loquacious. Have you ever had a day like that?

I know it’s the day and age of saying what’s on your mind and expressing yourself. But I’ve had a lot of repeat bouts of foot-in-mouth disease and allowing my verbal diarrhea to run riot (possibly not the best choice of words!) has never ended well for me. In fact, I think, the situation I find myself in currently is a result of that – me expressing myself as honestly as possible. Funnily enough, I was asked to be honest, and when I was, it blew up in my face! Go figure, eh? You give people what they want and they still hate it and you. You can’t actually win!

I’ve started watching Emily in Paris on Netflix. Yes, VERY late to that party! But I guess at the time, I would’ve probably not found it as entertaining as I do now.

I do disagree with Emily though, I think London is the most exciting city in the world. London with its quirks and its idiosyncracies. And now that I live in the city suburbs (yes, such an American term, eh), I’m looking forward to understanding this contrary city a little better (if that’s even possible!).

So just putting this out there…a picture I took of Carnaby Street yesterday!

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Yelly Snaps

Read a good book lately?

Yelly

I went to the V&A last week.

It was the Easter bank holiday and I was at loose ends. I went to visit John Gibson’s Pandora (which was a thing I did whenever I was at the V&A because she was a character I could relate to…but reflections on that is probably another blog entry all together!).

I missed going to the V&A and just exploring. If my hip hadn’t started hurting, I’d have explored some more. I couldn’t move my left leg without feeling pain. So I thought I’d take myself off to pick up provisions before I couldn’t actually walk anywhere. I probably need some physio on my hip.

One of the things I “rediscovered” was a reading room at the top of one of the stairs near the Cast Gallery. It’s the National Art Library. It has one of the best collections of public reference materials on art and design. I do want to be able to sit at one of the desks just to be in the space. It’s meant to be open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in May and the V & A hope to open more days in the summer. It’s on my list to visit!

The photo below was taken from the doorway, through one of the window panes. If this is what it looks like through the door, how amazing would it be to sit at one of those desks and just absorb the gorgeousness?