Things I've Learned ...

I know of a good pub in Farnham, full of people who allow you that bar stool in the midst of their conversations and laughter.  And I found a walk I enjoyed while I was staying there.  I met Diana and Steve, and simply adored them. 

I've learned that I love thin bagels for breakfast, and that I Can live without my coffee machine.  In good news, for me, it seems I can sleep in any bed.  My back doesn't ache in mornings and I'm grateful for that.

I know where to buy the best slice of lemon & cream sponge roll in Southsea.  I found a coffee shop with good espresso con panna - for 'those'days.  I'm learning that I like to shop in Sainsburys because the staff there are unbelievably friendly.  I was introduced to the best fish & chips in the area.  And found a small space in Drift ... that bar that I like, down there in Portsmouth.

These days find me navigating the London Underground. I'm enjoying conversations with strangers.  And I almost understand that I'm living in London.  That one amuses me.  I've lived in, or visited, a few big cities, accidentally, never dreaming of going there. 

And I'm taking nothing forgranted.  I learned, in the first hour back in London, that you never ever cross against the lights because ... you might get run down.  It was only that a second car blocked the speeding car that would have hit me.

Oh, and in great news, I found that I have to pass by Carluccios almost everyday this week.  Today I discovered that their espresso is not only affordable, it's also superb.

Life ...

Feeling helpless and confused in the face of random, unpatterned events, we seek to order them and, in so doing, gain a sense of control over them.
Irvin D. Yalom

Thank You ...

Thanks to Abi, thanks to Simon, thanks to Will ... the 3 of them are responsible for me having my first professional photography shoot here in England. 

And thanks to Kim too.  I'm not sure it would have unfolded had she not stopped at that church, the one in the mist, gifting me time to remember the sheer joy I feel when I work with my camera.

Long story short ... a couple of days later I was asked if I was interested in photographing the food that Drift Bar serves.  Of course I was.  And then I couldn't resist trying to capture their spectacular smoking cocktails.

I took this photograph for Miss 11.  We have spent more than a year, lying on my bed in the evenings, reading right through the entire series of Harry Potter.  This scene seemed very Hogwarts.

So last night was a great night, full of food photographs, taken in those 3 seconds I had them - between kitchen and table -  good people and really fun photo opportunities.  It's so good to be back. 

London tomorrow.  Let's see how that goes.

A Rainy Day in Southsea, at Drift, in England

I was searching through photographs taken just before I left Belgium.  This caught my eye, taken in our end-of-summer Belgian garden.

Today, it's raining.  It's 4.32pm as I write this and already it's dark.  Winter is coming, at speed.

The good thing ... I found a bar/restaurant/night club/diner ... a true social hub.  Everyone comes to Drift.  All ages, all walks of life.  It seems that if I sit here by the entrance, I will surely see a cross-section of the Southsea community.

It's warm and I'm glad to be here, quietly eavesdropping on the people around me. 

Meanwhile, a little bit of summer ...

A Church in Surrey ... and other things too.

This was the sight that made me ask Kim if we could pull over for a few minutes.  The old English church, half-hidden by the mist, behind that exquisite stone wall. 

As an introduction, it was grand but it only got better after we stepped through the gate.

We're having a few days of mist and fog on this side of the world.  Although, today the rain set in, here in Southsea.  I'm sitting close to the open door at the Drift Bar, leaving for the library sooner or later but it's a great place to work.  I'm happy enough, perched on the edge of another world, watching the clientele come and go as I write here.  Breathing in that secondhand smoke that arrives through that open door and reminds me of my childhood spent down at Nana's.

Nana, it has to be noted, was horrified that I loved the smell of "beer and baccy" at her house.  Not that it was beer and baccy, (She actually enjoyed her G&T and Grandad was a a fairly measured whiskey drinker).  The smell of their place was more about the coalstone range, cigarette smoke and home-cooked food.

But back here, in England, they greet you if you look up as they come through the door.  I love that. 

I'm trying so hard not to ask about the possibility of a photograph exhibition here.  This desire wells up in me every time I find some hub ... a sense of a community, I want to talk to the people, photograph them, learn of their lives because I find the lives of others are often so interesting.

I had a photography exhibition in Antwerp, titled Public Self/Private Self.  This bar is one of those places ... a place where young and old gather, at different times.  A place where everyone knows each others name.  Those are the places that fascinate me.  The people, and their stories of living somewhere forever, or not.

But anyway, London soon.  And I'm looking forward to learning that world.

Tot straks.

Yesterday ... in Southsea, Portsmouth.

My desire to photograph all that I'm curious about is back.  Yesterday I wandered into the Drift Bar, here in Portsmouth, just needing to be around folk for a while but I ended up racing out for my camera. 

Simon, the handyman, was hanging an unusual set of lights.  Using ropes, pulleys, and fashioning a wire cage for the light bulb ... I wanted to hotograph them.

Unfortunately my packets (and packets) of AA batteries are back in London, waiting for me to return, and so I ended up grabbing my tripod and seeing what was possible.

Hopefully you get a sense of these rather extraordinary light fittings below.