Photos of Tibet

Came across some photos taken by British invader John Claude White in 1904
This one is of some Tibetan nuns...

Mid- Autumn Festival

I walk through China town everyday on my way to and from work...

This week, I noticed they have put up loads of lanterns that look amazing, and after a bit of googling I found out it is for the mid- autumn festival, which falls on the autumnal equinox- when the moon is at its fullest.

There is a weird story associated with the festival about Houyi and Chang'e...

it goes a little like this...

Once there were 5 suns in the form of 5 three legged birds (so far, so strange) they one day clubbed together and started to burn the earth,

A prince ( Houyi) was commissioned to shoot down the suns with a bow and arrow, and he shot 4 of them leaving only one (our sun)

As a reward the king gave him a pill of immortality, but warned him to break the pill up and only take a small piece at a time, he took it home and hid it in a box.

One day his wife (Chang'e) came across the box containing the pill and decided to take it to see what it was (never a good idea)

Because she took the whole pill, she overdosed and floated high in to the sky until she reached the moon, as the pills effects wore off, she was stuck there.

So, now she is still stuck, and there is this rabbit on the moon (duh?) who is trying and trying to make a new pill so she can get back.

(pic above-The princess with the rabbit on the moon!)

How random eh?

Anyway, so people put up lanterns and eat mooncakes...

prime bournemouth real estate

These beach huts are all along the Bournemouth coast, we saw an advert for one that was £44,000!!!
They are lovely though, on our sunny day, people were sat outside their own hut on deck chairs, and we got a good peek in to them, some had a full on gas cooker, teas area etc, really lovely- if we lived around there we would love to have one!

I was obsessed with these blue to purple ones, but the blend of colours continued up the beach, red, orange yellow green etc....

Sunny Bournemouth

Bournemouth was really lovely.

We arrived to rain clouds, but it soon cleared up and we got some sand in our shoes.
We also went out a lot and there are some lovely places to have a mojito on the beach!!!

On Sunday we had a really suuny and warm day (yay!)
and we walked from Boscombe to Poole with our feet in the waves :)

These pictures are of Saturday night, we walk down the beach towards the pier before going out

the sunset was amazingly beautiful, the sky was an incredible red, blue and purple and was reflected on the water,


That night we went for a meal on the beach side, and had sea food and lots of red wine.

Afterwards they have a bar that you can sit outside and watch the waves,

It was pretty cold, so we were supprised when we saw a topless girl running toward the sea, and a fellow skinny dipping man followed a few minutes later,

We watched, totally cracking up as this (clearly wasted) chick fell over EVERY TIME a wave came in! The guy gave up picking her up every time, and wandered off back onto the beach- The girl managed to crawl out eventually and stumbled down the beach, I bet it seemed a good idea at the time eh?!


So, they say red sky at night, shepherds delight... well the next day we woke up to beautiful sunshine...

This was the day we did a really long walk on the beach, and by the afternoon the beach was full of people enjoying the last bit of summer,

We really enjoyed Bournemouth, and I finally proved that Britain has lovely beaches! (duh we are an island)

Hong Kong I want you...

Oh, Im so ready to leave now!

Me and JW are both back to work after Bournemouth (I'll do a post with pics later)

and being back and work is HARD!!!!

We had such a lovely time away... and getting up for work the next morning was painful....

and when I got to my desk....I realised with horror...I had that day booked off!!!

With all the fucking around with the dates, I had forgotten that I had (wisely) taken the day off, But had (unwisely) completely forgotten!

I took a half day (obv!) but it wasnt the same...

Anyway, now Im back properly and back to the limbo that is waiting for travelling.

I cant even bring myself to type about money (we spend a looooooooooot of it in Bournemouth) or Jason's forms (still in the bedside draw)

ugghhhhh

I cant wait toi be wondering around the streets of Hong Kong....

The right headspace...

You remember my friend who I was irrationally jealous of, for going travelling before me?

Well, the other day she called me and told me she's no longer going.
ok, so now I feel REALLY guily for being envious.

She told me that basically she didnt want to go because she is depressed and wasnt in the right 'headspace'.
She had apprently gone on holiday to Ibiza with her friend that she was meant to be going travelling with, and watched her and her friends (all with boyfriends) let sleazy and old italian men take body shots off them, She said she just felt like ‘this isn’t me’.

I really understand what she means, firstly, as I’ve said before the ‘get fucked up and hang around with English people all day’ thing is NOT my thing, and secondly I know the feeling of needing to be in the right ‘headspace’

I worry sometimes that I’m heaping way too much on to travelling to make me happy, when for a lot of the time I might be unhappy, stressed or bored...And the dreaded... homesick


Ive always told myself that im a traveller and I can handle being away from home (party cos Ive always felt that Ive never really had one place I consider my home town) but the truth is, Ill miss London and my parents and my friends,
and having my own space (although moving in with the rents has been good practice for this one) and Ill miss English food, and language and not worrying about money and visas and where im going to sleep next…

Im sure the good will outweigh the bad, but its something to think about…

Anyway, for my friend I think it’s the best decision for her, and ive told her to come and meet me when we are out there for a few weeks and all shots will stay firmly in the glass- until we drink them of course!

tubes, rain and monday...

I havent posted for a while,
things have been a bit weird lately.

My sister finally went back to Sheffield this weekend, which at least freed up a little of the tension in the house.
And, it was JWs birthday- as we had to move our trip to Bournemouth to next weekend because of JWs mean, mean work- we didnt do that much,
We did however have a lovely (but overpriced) dinner and cocktail session at the OXO tower.
The views were a slight anti- climax, but still pretty impressive at night and re-ignited my love of the southbank.
It reminded me of being a kid, and going up there with my friend GV smoking hash and trying to skateboard (we were both useless), and of being a student and walking up to Tate modern to sit and sketch, and being a grown up walking hand in hand to the BFI.

I do love London...sometimes...
speaking of not lloving London- the tube is striking and Im going to be taking the scenic route (a half an hour walk) to Waterloo for the next few says... ugh

Anyway, I bought JW a psp (secondhand) for his birthday, so that he could take it travelling to play on long bus/ train journeys... however the battery seems pretty shit and Ive spend more time on it (playing sega classics) than he has!
Im looking forward to Bournemouth next weekend (Third Friday off in a row- whoo!) but it will probably rain..

Today is a grumpy day...