Category Archives: London

London visit

By Alice | Published: January 15, 2010

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I was in London for work. I had a late lunch at Mrs Marengo’s which is in a handy spot in W1 near Oxford Circus, Liberty, Mac store, Carnaby St etc. It’s a vegetarian place that is mainly geared towards take out (it is the take out branch of Mildreds) but can seat about 12 on bar stools. I had the chargrilled aubergine, goats cheese, harissa, and spinach burger and got a cupcake to take away to share with Simon at home later. Satisfying and a good price for that location.

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Earlier that day I had needed to be at Olympia and to get there from Paddington Station (the station for Oxford) meant a walk through Holland Park. The park itself was rather gloomy and deserted, I was not sorry when I was safely out the far side, but these trees in the streets looked interesting.

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There was time to pop into the Holland Park Road branch of Daunt Books. I like Daunt because the main arrangement of the shelves is by country. I am planning a few trips so I wanted to see what fiction and history books might be good background reading. They also have nice fabric bags that they give you for your shopping.

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Simon’s sisters and their families had given me some Liberty gift coins for my birthday – so kind! So before I headed back to Oxford I spent an absolute AGE looking at everything in and trying to decide what to get. I wanted to get something that would last and was special to Liberty. I was this {} close to getting a Rob Ryan mug but finally I went for some of this Liberty fabric that I really love. It’s so happy! I will make cushion covers as we are in need of some new ones. With the change left over I also bought a few bars of fancy chocolate, Charbonnel and Walker Pink Marc de Champagne, and Sir Hans Sloane of London milk and dark. I will store those away for a treat some time :)

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Digital Harinezumi

By Alice | Published: September 20, 2009

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This was my first try with the Digital Harinezumi (or ‘Digi Hari’ or ‘Zumi’ as some people say). It is made by Superheadz who are the people behind several cameras including the popular Blackbird Fly.

From the site: “This tiny movie camera will inspire filmmakers from around the world, with its melancholic image quality. It also is the successor to the toy camera analog feel. The Digital Harinezumi is the camera that brings pleasure back to digital photography.”

It is a small and very light little digital camera, the picture quality is meant to be similar to that of an old film toy camera. As well as taking stills it also can capture video, the style of which is meant to be like old 8mm, the video has no audio.

When I first heard of this camera I was cynical, so many filters, apps, and Photoshop tutorials promise to get that ‘analog feel’ and yet rarely does it have that particular magic. However after seeing some of the results of the Digi Hari on Flickr, Vimeo, YouTube, and Photojojo I was very curious.

How the pictures compare to analog film cameras I will leave up to you to decide.

More information after the jump.

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a London visit

By Alice | Published: September 20, 2009

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I headed into London yesterday. The initial idea of the visit was to go and look at the SANAA pavilion at The Serpentine before it was taken down, however things did not align and I would have been a day late. So instead I had changed my plan to head over to The Photographers’ Gallery, a place I had been meaning to visit for a while.

As I knew that I would be getting the train and that it was walkable to the gallery I had a look at what else was on the way. I didn’t want to go shopping really as I am keeping most of my pennies for the Japan trip but I am completely out of proper tea at work so I was very happy to find that Postcard Teas was on my way. I first heard about Postcard Teas from my father who is very much a fan of fine teas and I have ordered many by post. Looking at the site I can see I have had Wazuka Sencha, Yunnan Red Cloud, Aoki Green, Mountain Grey, but thinking of the number of tins on my desk at work I am sure that there are a couple I am forgetting. It was very nice to be able to visit the shop itself, it’s very cute (see above), and the young fellow who helped me was nice and seemed to know what he was talking about. After some discussion about Taiwanese teas he went out the back to make me up a parcel of Yi Mu Oolong, a new tea they have in that they have apparently called ‘Yi Mu’ because it comes from 1 acre.

I knew I was going to have to eat so before I left I consulted Tommy’s really wonderful Lo-Fi London guide. Following the advice I went to The Natural Kitchen on my walk in for breakfast, I had a very nice yoghurt and a cappuccino at the tables in the front rather than at the cafe at the back because it was such a nice day. For lunch I went to the Nordic Bakery, a place also in the guide and that quite a few people have mentioned. The cinnamon bun was killer! I couldn’t eat half, next time I must come with someone who can eat the other half.

I also popped in to Liberty just because I just really like it there. The shop always smells great and I love looking at the homewares and fabrics on the top couple of floors, ah the fabrics, what a dream. I got to see the Carnaby Street side of Liberty too which they have covered with the floral pattern.

The Photographers’ Gallery is just around the corner from Liberty, it’s free to get in, there were two exhibitions André Kertész: On Reading and When You’re a Boy: Men’s Fashion Styled by Simon Foxton both of which were interesting. They have a great shop full of lomo goodness, books, and gadgets. I averted my eyes as so I didn’t get tempted. However I did buy the one thing I had intended… a Digital Harinezumi!! So excited to own one. The gallery is the only stockist in the UK at the moment. It is a bit of an indulgence as really I should be saving for new lenses rather than trying out little gizmos but I was so very curious.

I am going to pause showing photography in this post as from the Nordic Bakery onwards I took pictures with the Digi Hari and I will put them together in the next post so we can judge how they came out :) I will explain a bit more about it then too.

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Oh yes, in case anyone is curious about the locations of the different places this is the Google map that I printed and took with me so I would know the rough route, the line shows vaguely the way I went.

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ships

By Alice | Published: August 21, 2009

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Isn’t having a mini collection of ship paintings such an awesome idea! I am going to keep my eye out from now on. These live in Wimbledon at the house of a friend of mine. I was staying over on an old school (yet very comfortable) fold-out bed. I wonder if they still make beds like this?

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Walking In My Mind

By Alice | Published: July 19, 2009

We headed up to London on a really quick visit to see my aunt and to go to Walking In My Mind which is on at the Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre. I had earmarked this exhibition as one to go to because it had installation works by Yoshimoto Nara and Yayoi Kusama but the whole thing was interesting. Well worth going to if you like installation art. Part of the Kusama installation was that the trees along the riverbank were wrapped in this dotted fabric. I love how it looks.