Living and working in London

As part of my Occupational Therapy Degree I was given the opportunity to live and work in London! So far it has been a success and I have managed to live here with virtually no qualms. Thanks to my friend Katy's lovely parents I have been able to live in Bexley and commute into my placement in Blackheath- which takes roughly 30 minutes!

Many people say that living in London is awful, but I think its great!! Maybe I am biased.. I don't know!

Some of the things I love about living in London so far are:

1- How many people there are! Think of all of those lives running around, and doing there thing- and all of those people just going at a generally steady pace.. London isn't all hustle and bustle there are sooo many different types of people and virtually everywhere you go you will find a different type! The weird thing is that virtually every area has its own different type of style for example- Blackheath is YUMMY MUMMY central, where as over the river you can find Shoreditch and Hoxton centre of the creative hub of London and HIPSTERS can be found everywhere! Now if you want to see the TOURISTS go to Covent Garden, and Camden attracts music lovers and the punks! There is no such thing as a typical Londoner people- there are many kindsa people here!

2- The amounts of events on- Its the centre of sociability! The only problem is getting around to seeing it all!! If anything there is too much.. Pace is the key here.. you can't see it all in one day. Art, Culture, Food, Drink you name it London probably does it!!

3- Transport- If there is one things that isolates us on the south coast that is the transport. Its pretty easy to get anywhere in the country and cheaply, as well as having a brilliant network to get around the city quite reasonably- thats if you are not catching the Tube every day- which thankfully I don't have to do at the moment!

4- The Green Spaces- As a nature lover it can seem like there is no space in a city- and MANY cities are drastically under planned when it comes to green spaces. London has an abundance of Green if you are willing to look for it. Bexley where I am living has some great spots that I have been running and walking in recently as well as Greenwich just up the road which is a great place for a stroll!

... I could go on! But the main thing for me is the choice you get here. People can be who they want to be- they say life welcomes allsorts. London has definitely an abundance of allsorts. Allsorts of people, things to do and places to go! It has also surprised me in not being too stressful- I think its just a matter of finding the right borough for you

st. Ives

After a 9 hour trip I'm finally here in st. Ives. I'm here till Friday, when I go back to Brighton for a few days before I start my Uni again... its Lucky, my student loan has lasted the perfect amount of time... I'm just about out of money now.. and need more.

Ive been so busy in the last week. But as anyone who knows me well, I can never sit down long enough for dust to settle on my shoulders.

Since being back Ive hosted a English tea party for the Brighton couch surfing community, it was actually quite a success, most people came with something home made, lots of nice scones, salads, and of course good company.

Ive also managed to fit in some art of my own, its good to be back, I was really getting anxious to finish one piece of my work before I start college! I also went up to London and saw an amazing exhibit called Surreal house, at the Barbican art gallery check out the link below:

http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=10567
also worth a look is the slide show of pictures showing all the different pieces of art at the exhibit.

Highlights included seeing Salvador Dali paintings, Marcel Duchamp , Alberto Giacometti , René Magritte , Man Ray , and Joseph Cornell it really was a sight to behold. The exhibit was all about the home, and of course surrealism, we also got to see some kind of puppet/ shadow play from an artist who I thought was hilarious, as she spoke about her life, while also taking a mould of her vagina!! well, that's one way to shock an audience I suppose. I also thought it was brilliant how they included so much video and film into the exhibit! It truly was an inspiring event!!

I'm looking forward to going up to London soon though to see exhibits from both Muybridge, and Guguin, it seems there is soo much going on, almost too much to keep up with sometimes, living so close to London.

Anyway, I have a busy few days here, its the arts fair at the moment, so there is SO many people and artists here. I'm going to have loads of fun I can tell. But I will be sure to update you on my travels and things what Ive been doing,

ciao for now,
leave a comment if you like, be great to form a network of bloggers, and share blogs, I'm always looking for new things to read,

Luke