Niki With All Her Belongings

'Niki With All Her Belongings' is part of a photo series by Sannah Kvist, a Scandinavian artist.

It really makes you think about what you own, and what it says about your personality. Even without the girl Niki in the photo, the portrait would still clearly show what kind of person lives in that space. What you own is in some way a reflection of who you are, like it or not.

Resources for moving to London: blogs

There are plenty of tourist guides around like Lonely Planet, but these just don't cut it when it comes to actually living somewhere.  I know when I was planning to move to London, it was quite difficult to find resources that tell you what living here was actually like.

Being a bit of a blog nerd, I was in search of a good London blog that would tell me exactly what the city was like, and what I needed to do to prepare. And I really found myself struggling to find some good resources (part of the motivation for writing this blog, in fact).

So, if you're thinking of moving to London, or have just arrived, here are some great blogs to keep you going:

Video of the Week: Glowing Tea

Here's a video of the week for you that's a bit different. Artist Wonsik Chae has filled a "tea bag" with fluorescent molecules that react with a chemical in the teacup creating a mesmerising effect. It reminds me a bit of being a kid and dropping food colouring in hot and cold water to compare the effects. Enjoy:


Lighting Bag by Wonsik Chae from Takashi Yamada on Vimeo.

Now...who's in the mood for a nice hot cuppa?

Niche Social Networks You Should Try

Sorry about the silence last week - no internet access at home made blogging pretty difficult! Not to mention requiring a massive lifestyle change for me - no internet! So much spare time!

After my  time away from the internet, this post is dedicated to Pinterest and Goodreads -  the social networks that I love, but are a bit more niche than your Facebook, Twitter, and long-abandoned Google+ account.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a social network that's been around in the USA for a little while, but just gained its legs in December. According to Mashable, it now drives more traffic to retail sites than either Facebook or Twitter - phew!

Essentially, all you do is share beautiful or interesting images on 'pin boards'. You can then search by keyword or follow friends to see what they pin. All enveloped in a beautifully simple user interface, it's really irresistible. You'll suddenly find yourself whiling away the hours perusing beautiful art, photos, and fashion. 

Video of the Week: Adele

Adele is features in your video of the week - an incredible performance, as usual. Seeing Adele perform always makes me think of Amy Winehouse. They both rose to fame at similar times out of the London scene, but ended up reacting to fame so differently. Here you have Adele who's flourished and become stronger out of her fame, compared to Amy Winehouse who reacted in almost the exact opposite way.



Adele's performing here in the Royal Albert Hall in central London -right next door to the Science Museum. This is also where Rhys and I went to see Circ De Soleil a few weeks ago.  I think the round hall makes it feel a bit smaller (and is perfect for 360-degree circus acts like in Circ De Soleil). When we were there, we sat on the 3rd tier above the stage, but didn't feel far away from the action at all. Now if only Adele would come back I would consider invest in some tickets...

'Snowpocalypse' in London

It snowed last night! My street has been transformed into a quiet, snow-blanketed world. I was up at 8AM this morning tromping around in the snow.  I couldn't sleep with excitement - it's the first snow of the year!

Yet I was a bit sad to find out that I wasn't one of the first people up and about. Even this area of London is so packed with people you're unlikely to find untouched snow at 8AM. Although it's much quieter  at the moment than it will be later today.

However, the people I did meet where exceptionally friendly and greeted me as we passed by. This is wildly uncharacteristic for London where people studiously avoid eye contact on the tube, and rush by each other on pathways. This is a by-product of living in a dense population, but the upside means when someone does wish you good morning, you really appreciate it.

Video of the Week: Gotye

I may be a little late to the game (this video has topped 52 million hits), but here's a song/video combination that I highly recommend:



It looks like it's using stop-animation on the body paint, but surely it's easier to fake the effect with animation rather than taking thousands of shots?