Dickens' London

The Soho walk

Foggy Sunday morning

Pillars of Hercules. Greek St, Soho. Mentioned in a Tale of Two Cities. Just off  Manette st.

Hazlitts. Dates back to 1718. Named after the essayist William Hazlitt who died in the house 1830.

On Frith St, Soho. W/ camera and guide book :)

Royalty House where Dickens managed, directed and acted in 'Every man and his Humour'. 

The Broad Street Pump with the John Snow pub in the background

Karl Marx lived in the apartments above this restaurant for a short amount of years.

Golden Square

St Anne's Church. Where Lucie Manette and Darney get married in A Tale of Two Cities :)

Seven Dials. In Dicken's time, the most notorious slums in London

A walk through Chelsea

Chelsea Bridge

Christopher Wren's Royal Chelsea Hospital

Chelsea Gallery

#12 happies

I have had an incredible year. It's been well fun. Wicked even.
The possibilities were endless and I lived life. I feel richer and happier. But I am ready to go home.
New Year's Eve saw me sitting in a friend's apartment in Pest, Budapest jotting down #12 highlights of the past year. I'll be honest, it quickly escalated to more.

My top #12 highlights of 2012.

• I fulfilled one of my biggest dreams. Since I was thirteen I have wanted to live and work in London, and that is what I did. The beginning of 2012 I moved to the largest city of the European Union

• I got a pixie haircut

• Worked in an English Bar/pub

• Went to the London Olympics

• First clubbing experience in Worcester

• Ice skated at London's National History Museum

• Performed at a christening service

• Pulled an 'All Nighter' in London 

• Completed a Makeup course at West Herts

• First Christmas away from home

• Sung Hosanna in Hungarian

• Celebrated New Year's Eve in Budapest

I don't do New Year's Resolutions. I am too lazy to keep to them and it only depresses and drives me to consume unhealthy amounts of chocolate as I wallow in self pity.

But I will say this to 2013:  Hello. You're looking hot and sexy!

#onmylonesome

My newest addiction to one of my favourite authors!!

My friends have all gone home for Christmas. Two are in France, two in Finland, one in Germany and the other; Spain. So there's no-one to hang out with or share a pub lunch.
I walked through the miserable drizzle of rain to finish my Christmas shopping yesterday. Everywhere has sales, and everywhere is swarming with "Bah Humbug" spirited people. So to make a little happiness I painted my nails green and went to the cinemas on my lonesome. I'm not an LOTR fan, mainly because orcs scare me...but the Hobbit was entertaining. I don't know if it was the excessive amount of humour that made it so appealing or the fact that Richard Armitage was the main dwarf. He's such a babe. If he and Martin Freeman weren't the leading characters, it would not have worked. So go see it people and be happy it's christmas!!

Christmas entry

Journaling on a cold winter's night.

Snow has been promised before the week is out and today as far as the eye could see, was a blanket of thick frost, that never melted. I'm in a dream for a white christmas, that might just come true...

Professor Green Gig

Just had dinner at Jamie Oliver's Restaurant, Notting Hill

Vodka and cranberry juice: happiness in a cup!

Iris and me

We made some friends on the dance floor.

5am #muchneededcoffee

I've had some pretty amazing times/experiences while in the UK. But nothing has topped the charts like last weekend! Oh my word! My amazing parents bought me an early christmas present:

YEAH! It's the 60th Anniversary for The Mousetrap. I went to the same theatre where the Queen Mother and the actual Queen attended years ago. Walking the red carpet with my little black dress on and red liptstick, I felt like royalty myself. The performance was incredible. I do love the theatre! I drew unnecessary attention to myself by laughing  out loud instead of chucking in my tummy like the rest of the audience. When the music became louder and a murder happened in the dark, there was a tremendous scream let out by the murdered actor. Before falling out of my seat from sheer fright, I cupped my hands over my ears and closed my eyes. I don't like loud noises, especially of the murdering type.

But all that aside, I felt tremendously posh walking out in to the crisp winter air after sitting in front of England's longest running theatrical play.

To show that I can be culturally diverse, I went from West End to Brixton to watch Professor Green, an adorable Rap artist. It was the coolest experience! I am not an avid clubber by nature, but being in front of the stage with a very famous singer inches away from your fingertips, it made the exception.
We were swamped in a crowd of dancers, and when the Professor said to jump, we jumped and when he said clap, clap, clap...we followed suit.
We danced from 10 till 4 in the morning. Oh my word! Not only did we stink, every muscle in our body ached.

London's underground doesn't operate till 7am on a Sunday morning, so we said goodbye to Tom and Adam and walked. And walked and walked. We talked about our families, past relationships, our favourite nail varnish. We stopped beside the road where an ethnic man was cooking hot dogs. You don't know how divine the warmth was of those crisp sausages wrapped in white bread splattered with tommy k. We ended up in Clapham and got a bus to Oxford Street. We lifted our hands in thanks on seeing a 24hr McDonalds. We curled up on sofas as far away from the door as possible. We were so cold, we had stopped talking because our mouths refused to do anything but chatter till our teeth ached.

That was the most amazing cappuccino I have ever held on to. We spent the first thirty minutes sitting on those sofas laughing at how stupid we were. Walking around in the wintery cold without proper clothing is a death wish...or close enough.

I've spent the last week recovering from a horrible cold. Iris is fine, but she's used to degrees dropping below 3.

But it was worth it.

And would I do it again you ask?

Yes.

Yes, I think I would.

Londance: the made-upness of a word

Londance.
Where London sparks romance.
Like on a Saturday night, you're stepping out of the theatre and in to the crisp midnight air. The rain has stopped its monotonous drizzle, leaving a shiny wetness around the Square. There's no need for a coat and I take my beige gloves off, the ones with a tiny leather bow at the wrist. Taxis whizz past, splashing cold drain water on to the sidewalk. Red double decker buses carry a small number of passengers, most of whom look out their windows wearing tired and withdrawn faces.

Trafalga Square is empty. And I stand leaning against the damp stone wall, snatching still pictures of the night sky. 

Smokey Eyes

With only two weeks remaining of college, here are some shots of my first attempt at Smokey Eyes. Using purple cream based eye shadows. I signed up for this course to gain some much needed experience in the department of 'painting  a mask' but mostly to get a taste of my life-long dream of training and qualifying as a Theatrical Makeup Artist. And so far I much prefer to transform someone else's face over my own. The discomfort of foundation and translucent powder, underneath bronzer and rouge are too much. I find myself stretching my face and constantly yawning, just to get some feeling back in to my skin...

A little bit of awesomeness for you makeup freaks out there, I've gone and bought myself a voucher for a three hour masterclass at MAC. My giddy aunt I am so excited!!!