STAY TUNED: This week I'm off to Oxford, Newcastle, Leeds and Hartlepool for work so I'll be taking pics of whatever captures my fancy (or the little bits of place I get to see between meetings). On the next installment...Snippets of England!
28 January 2008
Capturing
There are things in this world that never cease to inspire awe. For me those things are sunsets, the ocean, the moon, a skyline, little kids...I could go on and on. The Tower Bridge is another of those things. I never walk, run or drive past without smiling. It captures my full attention and makes me want to photograph it again and again. Tonight I did Just that. On a leisurely (and cold!) walk on the Southbank I came upon it, with no one around, all immense and aglow. Feeling it necessary, I whipped out my snazzy new phone (yup...still excited) and took yet another picture of that bridge. The funny thing is that though I've seen it and photographed it before, each time feels new somehow. It's like capturing that expression of joy on a child's face when they make a new discovery and are glowing from the inside out with pride and exhilarating newness. I wish I could remember these moments in the regular bits of my day. But I guess I'll have to do with them intermittently. Lucky for me things like that are all over London. It's one of the things that makes this such an incredible city. So...it's likely I will continue to photograph this bridge over and over again when that same feeling of wanting to capture joy washes over me. Hope you're okay with that :)
STAY TUNED: This week I'm off to Oxford, Newcastle, Leeds and Hartlepool for work so I'll be taking pics of whatever captures my fancy (or the little bits of place I get to see between meetings). On the next installment...Snippets of England!
STAY TUNED: This week I'm off to Oxford, Newcastle, Leeds and Hartlepool for work so I'll be taking pics of whatever captures my fancy (or the little bits of place I get to see between meetings). On the next installment...Snippets of England!
21 January 2008
The Universe Knows
Today...my horoscope was eerily on point. I regularly read my horoscope on MSN, not so much as a predictor of my day, but just to keep me aware of the bigger picture...the multiple influences. On a regular day I can often find a vague connection, but nothing like today. It wasn't a big deal really...it said I would be antsy waiting for a phone call and to just get on with my day because the call would come in the late afternoon. I was indeed antsy for not one, but two calls today...and I took it's advice and just charged ahead with my regular day and wouldn't you know it...around 4:30pm I received both the calls I'd been waiting for...one about the gym and the other to say my phone was fixed. Huzzah! Things were falling into place today! It's about time too...because both of those issues had to do with the CRAP customer service in this land we call England. All I wanted to do was change my membership from one club to another and they've been giving me the run around between clubs for 2 weeks! And the phone..I tried to keep my number and for the first week...I couldn't get calls from anyone because only half of the transfer went through. But...my perseverance paid off and they pulled through. Now if I can only convince the gym that I deserve a discount for all my troubles...hmmm....
Oooh...there were two other eerie little connections today too. I made a call to a colleague who was just picking up the phone to call me. Then...just as I was going to send her an email, one arrived from her. And just 30 minutes later, as I was writing to another colleague...she was emailing me at the same time too! I must have connected to some cosmic flow!
As for the rest of my day...mentally working on my powers of persuasion and the evil eye...you know...in case they fight me :)
Oooh...there were two other eerie little connections today too. I made a call to a colleague who was just picking up the phone to call me. Then...just as I was going to send her an email, one arrived from her. And just 30 minutes later, as I was writing to another colleague...she was emailing me at the same time too! I must have connected to some cosmic flow!
As for the rest of my day...mentally working on my powers of persuasion and the evil eye...you know...in case they fight me :)
20 January 2008
New Year....New Start
This year my list of resolutions was long. So many things I want to change, upgrade, delete... My whole world has been in transition for the last year and half, I suppose the list of resolutions is simply me trying to put the pieces together to make a new whole. The tricky part is knowing whether those resolutions will put me back as I was and not as what I'm meant to be. And perhaps...I'm thinking too much about this in the usual Heather style.
And so...I share with you one of my top, and most achievable resolutions...to reconnect. That's what this blog started out as after all. A means of connecting with everyone back in the states. It's something I've neglected for quite some time, partially because I've reached that length of time where you realise this is where you live...it's not just an experience. Though...if I could, I'd keep myself in that place where I'm aware that London is an experience. London isn't just this normal place I live...it's extraordinary. I wish I could remain aware that at any moment, this experience could be gone.
Often times my awareness of this experience comes when I get homesick and think about going back to the states. And as much as I think I would love that, a little part of me cringes because there is still so much I want to do over here. Daytrips...more european holidays...finally visiting the British Museum! As hard as it is to be so far away from everyone I love, I know that London is where I need to be. So to make the distance easier...I need to reconnect by sharing this experience with everyone. It's not a me here and you there kind of thing...I can be in both places by simply sharing my life. Even if it is via the world wide web!
As long as this post is...I'm going to share with you the things that made me giggle today so stick with me. I'm usually pretty good at waking up and heading to the gym on the weekends, but this morning I realised what I needed more, was spiritual exercise. I needed time to think, and walk...something I was really good at when I was a student, but not so much now that I have a full time job. So instead of the gym, I woke up and headed out to Hyde park. On the train, I sat down next to an empty seat with a book on it. Someone had just left it there so I picked it up since I hadn't brought my own reading material. When I started flipping through it I found a label inside and discovered that this was no ordinary book. It's a traveling book. It wasn't just left there, it was passed on. As the label said...It's serendipity in action! Someone somewhere set up a website called Bookcrossing and it's brilliant! You register a book on the website, and then you set it loose. in this case, someone set it loose on the tube...I found it...read a few stories and tomorrow, I'll release it again. It'll be neat to see where it gets to and I can't wait to release my own book out into the world and see where it goes.
After the serendipitous book finding, I got off the tube and began my wander through Hyde park. It was a gray day today, but quite warm considering. On the serpentine I usually love seeing the swans and there were all kinds of swans in their in-betweens stage. They still have that brownish gray fuzzy down on them, and their beaks are still gray. Teenage swans in that space between ugly duckling and graceful swan. I took this picture (with my fancy new phone) and couldn't help knowing how they felt being in the awkward in between stage.
Later, wandering through the park, there was an adorable family with two little girls blowing ENORMOUS bubbles in the park. It was hilarious to watch the joggers try and dodge the massive bubbles to keep them in the air as the little girls screamed and ran after them. Now THAT is the way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The other bits of my day just added to all the things I love about being in London...my friends...Whole Foods London (a magical place)...yummy sushi...the view of the London Eye from my kitchen window. All in all...life is good.
So...in probably more words than necessary, that was my day and this was my first step toward keeping my resolution for 2008.
And so...I share with you one of my top, and most achievable resolutions...to reconnect. That's what this blog started out as after all. A means of connecting with everyone back in the states. It's something I've neglected for quite some time, partially because I've reached that length of time where you realise this is where you live...it's not just an experience. Though...if I could, I'd keep myself in that place where I'm aware that London is an experience. London isn't just this normal place I live...it's extraordinary. I wish I could remain aware that at any moment, this experience could be gone.
Often times my awareness of this experience comes when I get homesick and think about going back to the states. And as much as I think I would love that, a little part of me cringes because there is still so much I want to do over here. Daytrips...more european holidays...finally visiting the British Museum! As hard as it is to be so far away from everyone I love, I know that London is where I need to be. So to make the distance easier...I need to reconnect by sharing this experience with everyone. It's not a me here and you there kind of thing...I can be in both places by simply sharing my life. Even if it is via the world wide web!
As long as this post is...I'm going to share with you the things that made me giggle today so stick with me. I'm usually pretty good at waking up and heading to the gym on the weekends, but this morning I realised what I needed more, was spiritual exercise. I needed time to think, and walk...something I was really good at when I was a student, but not so much now that I have a full time job. So instead of the gym, I woke up and headed out to Hyde park. On the train, I sat down next to an empty seat with a book on it. Someone had just left it there so I picked it up since I hadn't brought my own reading material. When I started flipping through it I found a label inside and discovered that this was no ordinary book. It's a traveling book. It wasn't just left there, it was passed on. As the label said...It's serendipity in action! Someone somewhere set up a website called Bookcrossing and it's brilliant! You register a book on the website, and then you set it loose. in this case, someone set it loose on the tube...I found it...read a few stories and tomorrow, I'll release it again. It'll be neat to see where it gets to and I can't wait to release my own book out into the world and see where it goes.
After the serendipitous book finding, I got off the tube and began my wander through Hyde park. It was a gray day today, but quite warm considering. On the serpentine I usually love seeing the swans and there were all kinds of swans in their in-betweens stage. They still have that brownish gray fuzzy down on them, and their beaks are still gray. Teenage swans in that space between ugly duckling and graceful swan. I took this picture (with my fancy new phone) and couldn't help knowing how they felt being in the awkward in between stage.
Later, wandering through the park, there was an adorable family with two little girls blowing ENORMOUS bubbles in the park. It was hilarious to watch the joggers try and dodge the massive bubbles to keep them in the air as the little girls screamed and ran after them. Now THAT is the way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The other bits of my day just added to all the things I love about being in London...my friends...Whole Foods London (a magical place)...yummy sushi...the view of the London Eye from my kitchen window. All in all...life is good.
So...in probably more words than necessary, that was my day and this was my first step toward keeping my resolution for 2008.
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