st pauls cathedral – One Chance to See the World

Early bird or night owl?

I have been following a lot of London photographers lately to get some inspiration. One thing I envy is just how empty the streets are in their photographs, they look abandoned!

Even in the height of lockdown, London’s streets were not totally empty, and getting up early seems to be the best way to get that abandoned vibe. The early bird catches the worm is very true in this case. The problem is I am not an early bird.

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But I am getting better. The earlier I wake the less busy tourists areas are, it really is rewarding and makes me excited to leave the house. And as I get older (cheese alert) I am appreciating everyday more and more, and realising how much time a sleep-in can waste. Too much.

Here are some shots not long before sunset at St Paul’s Cathedral. The ‘what‘ installation above is a part of a wider project around the city, with many other words dotted around nearby streets.

*Google’s what the actual full sentence is*

Thanks to Londonist for the answer, the full sentence reads ‘What are you going to meet if you turn this corner?‘

The Millennium Bridge perhaps?

Cute dogs on walkies?

The Shard perhaps, taken on a different, more cloudy day.

This street gave me a real Harry Potter vibe, and was a great way to see the Shard unobstructed from across the Thames. The new pictures I am uploading here and to Instagram are new ones I have taken in the past few weeks of lockdown, and edited using Lightroom. I will have at least one new shot a day for the next month or so, so plenty of London to see if you have five minutes spare to check them out!

But back to the question. Early bird or night owl? Have recent events changed your habits or have you stuck to your guns?

Let me know, and happy hump day!

Sam

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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Learning not to hate each other in lockdown

It seems we are all struggling to stay sane right now, who knew staying indoors would be so difficult. It is certainly more difficult when told to do something compared to when we have the choice.

I for one certainly took my walks for granted.

I have always loved walking, and always dreamed of walking down new streets in a new location. I guess I took being allowed to do so for granted, not seeing anything on the horizon that would take this right away so fast.

But before you know it something is on the horizon, and moves like a shockwave taking you out. We are all being hit by that shockwave right now. But attempts are being taken to reduce the effects such as staying indoors, although being stuck with each other in such a small area is having an effect too.

My mum, sister and I all live separately and we all enjoy video calling everyday. We aren’t constantly under each others feet and I think in the long term this will be beneficial. Not that I want to be in isolation for a long time and of course I miss my family a hell of a lot, but we can do each others heads in after a little while. We all have our habits and do things that grind each others gears, and this is normal. I hope.

So although I wish we were all together to get through this, I am feeling grateful for technology allowing us to chat anytime. A time that we all agree on and we can’t be pests at the times when we just want some alone time. The best of both worlds really. I have a flatmate that I don’t see too often and we chat on the odd occasion but that’s it. I worry if I moved in a little earlier and we were a little closer by now we would be much more prone to annoying each other. I am also working which breaks up the day and allows me a change of scenery, something that has kept me in a good state of mind for sure.

How are you finding isolation? Who are you living with and are you ripping each others hair out yet? I hope not, although this is perfectly normal for families!

Sending love to you all.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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The mystery is a motivator

Hey there, how’s it going? Great beard by the way. It is nice to see someone else outside, even if you can’t talk back.

Just kidding, as you can see above I wasn’t the only one outside. This was taken a month back, the two people in the background happy to just walk right by one another and not avoiding contact like, well, the plague.

The statue is a memorial to John Donne, a poet and priest, unveiled in 2012. He was born in 1572 and died in 1631 at the age of 59. I guess for his time he had a good innings. He was Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral and this is the location of his memorial.

I took this photo on a truly gorgeous day. I found a bench to sit on, took a moment and thought about what this cathedral has witnessed over it’s lifetime. This has been the site for St Paul’s Cathedral for over 1,400 years. And looking at St Paul’s Cathedrals website it states the cathedral has been rebuilt five times. This is the current building, over 300 years old and built after the previous one was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Sir Christopher Wren was the architect for the current building.

That is a heck of a lot of history, and the Great Fire of London was just one of the many ‘sh*t hits the fan’ moments this city has seen. The blitz being another, this building fortunately surviving when others around it crumbled.

And it is still standing tall. It is a shame buildings can’t speak to talk of their stories, but we at least have the written records from the people of the time. And these records show us that life is full of unexpected, tragic events.

But these records also show us that humans persevere, and come out of them too. And everyday we are creating history to look back on, only time will tell what stories will be retold in classrooms a thousand years from now. Will this pandemic be remembered, or will this be a small blip not tracked on future’s radar? What is life changing for us could very well be too insignificant to be told if events ahead of us overshadow it. Yellowstone erupting for example. Not a scenario I want to imagine right now.

Who will be remembered? Will it be the ones we look up to today? Maybe not. Someone that makes wild predictions today might be the most relatable to future generations. Someone we would not expect at all. What musicians and artists, scientists and politicians. I wish I could know.

But this makes life fascinating. Not knowing what life has in store helps me to get out of bed everyday. Provided I have a certain level of optimism of course. Yes I could break my leg today but I could also win the lottery or find the love of my life. The mystery is a motivator.

And although this cathedral has seen many a cloudy day, a blue sky will always return. ‘This too shall pass’ is making the rounds on the internet right now and for good reason. It is great to be reminded that this metaphorical blue sky will return and we shouldn’t look back when we have so much to look forward to.

What are you looking forward to the most when life gets back to normal? Seeing family again, a coffee shop date, having friends round on the weekends? For me it is seeing family and friends again and it not being through a webcam. But I also cannot wait to get out there and practice photography more, hopefully in time for summer.

Have a good day and remember, we are one day closer to being back to normal!

St Paul’s Cathedral information obtained on their site, www.stpauls.co.uk

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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One positive to take from all of this

I have one bad habit every new year. Not the typical broken resolution but thinking ahead and forgetting to put the rose tinted glasses on first. Especially if everything in the past year or so has gone fairly well… I cannot help but to ask myself ‘what sh*t will go down next and when will it be?‘.

Where will it be?

You know how every December, TV stations will do an annual recap of the year? Major events that took place, new sports stars becoming household names, new political scandals. Some of these events come totally out of the blue and I find it fascinating that we cannot predict the next unpredictable event, but it’s inevitable.

I find it pretty scary in all honesty. I have always done this, and I remember in particular this being a very dark thought even as a kid. My earliest memory of this was whilst in the back seat of the car with my family, probably on the way back from my grandparents one evening. As a treat on the return journey (I would often get travel sick and they lived a good 40 minutes away) we would get a takeaway to enjoy on a Sunday evening before school the next day. I don’t know why I thought this then, or why I remember it, but we were outside of the fish and chip shop and I thought to myself ‘one day I am going to get very sick and it’s going to feel awful’ in whatever way my internal dialogue would have manifested at 10 or 11 years old. It is one of my earliest memories of self made anxiety and I tell you it hasn’t really ceased since. I like to obsess about the inevitability of something bad happening and the fear of not knowing when.

At the beginning of the year I did genuinely wonder what would be the next major catastrophe or world changing event. When would it be? Who would it affect? Is it natural or man made? Every year there is at least one huge news story. And knowing 2020 would be no different is frustrating as all we can do each and every time is get on with our lives in the hope that it stays at bay for as long as possible. Whatever it is. It is a monster that we know exists but we don’t know what to look out for.

2020 didn’t take long to become movie like. WW3 almost began as my New Years hangover was only just going away and that caused enough anxiety. For the first time in a while I had a reminder that life is fragile and realised that if something like that did kick off, there isn’t really anything we can do but experience it full on. Our individual lives are dictated by things much larger than ourselves and we have to hope that things just stay calm enough for us to live relatively stable lives. And this kind of stability that only some of us experience in the world today hasn’t always been the norm. This is the best time to have existed for so many of us. But it doesn’t mean this is how it will always be.

But WW3 didn’t happen and so far hasn’t. And as we were just calming down a virus decided to take over the world. Invasions don’t always come in the form of armies and is another reminder on top of the reminder that the ways in which our lives can be disrupted are endless. Ways we cannot predict or prepare well for. Ways that cripple businesses that have been around for hundreds of years. I swear if anyone told me that in 2020 a pandemic would spread and put the world on lock down I would be incredibly skeptical. McDonald’s would close its doors.

McDonald’s!!!

Sporting events would halt. The Premier league here in England would be postponed and stadiums would be considered as temporary hospitals. Liverpool are well on their way to winning their first title in 30 years and I wouldn’t be surprised if the virus emerged from a Manchester lab. I’m just saying…

But as this spreads, and as much as it is a killer, we have to see the positives. Hopefully this will be a warning to us all that we have to have solid plans in place for lock-downs in future. The death rate is pretty low in general, obviously it is higher the older we get and for those with other illnesses, but if it was the same danger to everyone the NHS and services around the world would struggle even more. It is bad, but could be a hell of a lot worse too. A virus that truly hits us all and wipes us out completely. As much as this is disrupting our lives it is sobering to think we have still got it good in the grand scheme of things. I remember the White Island volcanic eruption in New Zealand in December, an eruption with power we simply cannot comprehend as humans. It killed over 20 people visiting the island and a sight the survivors will not forget in a lifetime. The eruption caused an ash plume to rise 12,000 feet into the air. I mention this event because it was considered ‘a throat clearing’ in terms of volcanic activity. And I guess this virus, as dangerous as it is, is probably the same thing.

We are very lucky to witness ‘throat clearing’ events, in the sense that they could be so much more. They aren’t enjoyable, they aren’t safe but they aren’t species ending. If I had to have something positive to take from 2020 so far it would be that. It hasn’t ended us. But I hope it fuels a bigger desire to come together and be aware of the more catastrophic events that are possible, and inevitable.

I hope this is a positive post? It doesn’t really feel it now I read it back, but I was trying.

Also for anyone in the UK, at 8pm (20 minutes time!) the population will be clapping out of their windows to thank NHS workers for working hard to fight the virus. I will be doing so. Thanks mum for letting me know.

Let’s let them know they are are appreciated!

I am going to start blogging everyday again

The more I see blue skies, the more I feel spring/summer is well on it’s way. St Paul’s Cathedral looks stunning with the suns glow, as does London in general. The wind is still strong (it doesn’t want to leave after the recent storms) however it would be tragic to waste a sunny day. A thick coat is all that’s needed.

I was thinking about my blog and the year ahead as I strolled. One thing that has always been the case with me is, the longer I stay away from something the harder it is to get back into it. And that has well and truly been the case with blogging. I thought about writing less, maybe 2-3 posts as week on my blog as I practice my photography and post daily photos on Instagram, but I feel I will struggle with that. I have been.

When I think about posting a couple times a week, I give myself less urgency to post. I have that same ‘you always have tomorrow’ excuse repeating in my head and giving myself an excuse to put it off a little. Before I know it, one, two, three days have passed without a post. Then a week. And then it’s almost a month and I’m like ‘where the hell has the time gone?!’. Basically I think I need that daily urgency, that immediate deadline, to help me focus and keep me on the ball. It isn’t the enjoyment I struggle with right now, more the urgency and motivation. I have always enjoyed blogging, but I think I enjoy it the most when doing it daily.

One of the reasons is because I actually get it done. I feel satisfied because I am constantly putting something out there, whether it is a lengthy post or just a couple of paragraphs. I am contributing something and everyday I do this I gain more motivation for the next day. It becomes habit. And I need this to get it done at all.

And with an absence from my blog, my travels have suffered too as I am not going to travel without making sure I take my decent camera and share with you all. So I really want to share some of the smaller things with you daily (like this cone stuck on a ground light near my apartment) as I enjoy sharing these moments as much as the bigger tourist adventures I go on. I always have and it gives an insight to a city that we don’t often see.

So I think I will give it another go. A challenge to keep me inspired and moving forward. Without a daily post I have been failing to remain consistent and present, and I am hoping it really kick-starts my travel posts as I have a ton of things to see.

I’ll start Friday 13th. I believe a lot of the time we create our own luck anyway.