Tag: London

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!

@yellywelly on Instagram
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?

Yelly Writes

Weekend blur!

Yelly

It was a busy 48 hours for me and Alan.

We went to London to visit friends and to see friends and catch some of the light installations that make up the Canary Wharf Winter Lights.

As always, all great plans can go by the wayside. Even though we planned to see light installations. Notice the “s”? Yep, denoting that we intended to see more than one light installations. We only saw Submergence by Squidsoup though. I’m not complaining though. It was great evening filled with laughter and lovely company and I even got to meet some people I follow on Instagram in real life!

If you’re in London and can get to Canary Wharf, the lights get switched on at 5PM and get switched off at 10PM. Winter Lights is running until this Saturday, 26 January.


We got home really late last night…or early this morning if you want to be specific. So I’m feeling a bit lazy this evening. I’ve got to get ready for work tomorrow so I guess I need to do a few things…aka housework! It’s been a really quick weekend and I’m having to play catch up! But hopefully this week will be kinder than I think it’s going to be!

I hope everyone has a good start the the week!

Yelly Writes

Published!

Yelly

So in 2016 I posted this photo on Instagram:

I loved the photo because it has one of my favourite London building icons, the Elizabeth Tower, aka Big Ben (which actually is the name of the bell that’s inside the tower).  I was quite pleased that the photo came out pretty well.  It probably didn’t have as many likes on Instagram as I would have wanted, but in the end, it’s not necessarily about the likes.  I was really proud of the photo.  It showed textbook depth of field and I was really pleased with how it turned out.  It was a perfect representation of how pretty springtime sunshine in London can be.  The Marketing girls of the firm I worked for loved it so much too that they used it on the firm’s website for springtime themed posts.

And two years later, my lovely little photograph of the Queen Elizabeth Tower and the daffodils in the gardens at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital has been featured in the Essex Chronicle business supplement in a two-page spread in the that my firm contributes to.  I am grateful to the Marketing department at my firm because they want to support and promote home-grown talent, as it were.

What’s even better is that I get credited for the photo!

I, of course, did what any self-respecting, modest person would do – I posted stories on Instagram about my photo in the paper and added the same videos on Facebook.  I’ve bought a couple of copies of the paper to send to my mum and sister in Manila, too!  Oh, and if you’re in Essex, it’s in this week’s print edition of the Essex Chronicle!  Of course, I would also recommend you reading the brilliant business articles that my colleagues at Rickard Luckin have written as they provide really good business insights!  I’ve tried to play it really calm, cool and collected but of course in true giddy-giggly Bridget Jones-esque fashion, I failed miserably.  I was far too pleased with myself!  It was quite the event in my life!

 

Yelly Snaps

Waiting…

Yelly

“Time was a funny and fickle thing. Sometimes there was never enough of it, and other times it stretched out endlessly.” ~ J. Lynn, Be with Me

 

It’s part of that list – the list of the iconic London structures that every tourist will want to see.  The Elizabeth Tower, the structure that houses Big Ben, the great bell that has marked the passing of each hour for 157 years, since it began service in 1859.  The Big Ben was silenced in August of this year for necessary restoration work that is meant to take about 4 years to repair the cracks and the Elizabeth Tower was slowly covered up with scaffolding to also undergo restoration work, along with other areas of Westminster Palace.  Although Ben was meant to be silent for 4 years, it did chime during Remembrance Sunday and Christmas Day.  It is also meant to chime in the New Year.

While I have always said that since I moved to the UK, time has rushed past me, waiting for Ben and his “braces” to be removed seems to be quite a long wait.  Sometimes waiting for Ben to be unbraced is unbearable.  I keep telling myself it’s for the best, because Ben will come back, stronger and restored.  So wait we must.  Patience is a virtue.  But oh my goodness!  1146 days (give or take a few days, as I can’t be completely accurate) is a lot of days!

I miss you Ben!

 

Yelly Snaps

A London sunset

Yelly

 

“Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgandy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

This photo was taken on Saturday.  I still can’t get over how beautiful the sunset was!