Restaurant outside the gardens

Red-bark tree

Mini waterfall

View over Worthing and the sea

Secret garden path

Flowers

trees at Highdown

With my wonderful Grandparents in the pub

Southwark Cathedral

Globe Theatre

Kaori at St. Paul's

Front of St. Paul's

Fleet Street Dragon

Royal Courts (we were wandering and came across them... a first for me!)

Borough Market

Inside the market

Bread

Truffles

Random guy with a parsley backpack

Our lunch... new potatoes and gherkins covered in freshly melted cheese... They had these special cheese heaters and would scape the melted part off the end of the block. So yum!

Berries

Carrots anyone?

A stall selling several different flavours of... salt...

Mozzarella!

Olive stall (mmmmmm!)

Rainy Days

Some places have monsoons, others have rainy seasons, but nowhere does your bog-standard rainy day quite like Britain.

Weirdly, rainy days were one of the things I really missed in Japan. Not because it didn't rain there (although on balance there was probably more snow than rain) in fact it probably had more to do with having a car and driving everywhere, and there not being many places to walk where I was.

It's not easy to represent - photos of it just look, well, damp, - it's more of a sense I have from having lived here so long before. It's something to do with the trees and how alive everything smells. The way it can not quite rain for hours if you're lugging an umbrella around, but the one time you forget it you get soaked to the skin. It can go on for whole days, or even several days in a row.

For me, rainy days mean potential, progress, peace. People walk about in the rain, but most of them are on their way to somewhere, they walk with purpose, they have things to do, places to be. Particularly because the last time I lived here I was at uni (note the weirdness of this being the first time I've had a "normal" life here - job, commute, weekends, etc) walking in the rain reminds me of trips from wet halls to wet libraries, and back again across wet courtyards to wet supervisions in old wet professors' rooms. Especially because these days are a symbol of Autumn, that time when you start afresh with a new notepad and a renewed determination to succeed, when studying is so much easier because your room or the library is cosy and you can look out on the dull wetness outside.

I have really missed days like this, and plan on making the most of them - might even invest in some funky wellies! - and you know the best thing?! It's only August!! Even though today seems like October, it's still 2 months till October, then there's November, and then rainy-days with Christmas lights... it only gets better from here...

There was a time I had nothing to give
I needed shelter from the storm I was in
And when it all got too heavy, you carried my weight
And I want to hold you, and I want to say
That you are all that I need
For you, I give my soul to keep
You see me, love me just the way I am
For you I am a better man
I said you are the reason for everything i do
I'd be lost, so lost without you

Under the stars, at the edge of the sea
There's no one around - no one but you and me
We'd talk for hours as time drifts away
I could stay here forever and hold you this way
Coz you are all that I need
For you, I give my soul to keep
You see me, love me just the way I am
For you I am a better man
I said you are the reason for everything I do
I'd be lost, so lost without you
I'd be lost, so lost without you


http://info.hmv.co.jp/p/t/1263/008.html

Night out with Rosie

I was blessed today with one of those rare moods of actually wanting to wander aimlessly around the city. Picked up some bits and pieces on Oxford Street before meeting Rosie for some window shopping. We had dinner in a modern kind of Indian place and wandered around Covent Garden, and then down to the Thames, for some great views of Westminster and St. Paul's all lit up.

I came home still smiling - we had a lot of fun tonight, and it made me realise that I live here now.

Rosie and me at dinner

outdoor reggae

Royal Opera House

Carousel in Covent Garden

Beefeater Kitty... weird...

Hello Kitty and Buzz-Lightyear-Pooh - I was slightly weirded out by this too

London Bears

One Cool Teddy

Ladder Room?

Moose lurking in the dark

Moon over Westminster

Rosie

Weird play thing outside the National Theatre

River skyline - you can just about see St Paul's and the gherkin. kinda.

St. Paul's

With Rosie on the bridge

The beach and pier

Huts

Looking back from the pier at Brighton

Brighton Pier

Brighton pier

The funfair on the pier

It was certainly a blustery day but I hadn't realised how grey it was until I got home and looked at the pictures!

Squinting moose on the beach

Monday 31st July - Brighton

Today I had the day off so I went down to Brighton for the afternoon - just to get some fresh air and see the sea. It was really windy but there were a lot of people on the beach and the pier. Photos to follow...

A brief pictorial summary of the goings-on at the wedding