One of my favourite places in London - can you guess where it is? 

New year, new (?) resolution - blog more!

I am not really one for New Year's resolutions but every time I stumble upon an exciting blog or website I've not seen before I get  really into it and keep trawling its past posts, often trying to figure out how it all began. And sometimes, just sometimes I get a little sad about not having been more dedicated to my own blog...
Today I shall make up for this by posting a bit of a backlog of photos that should have been on here a long time ago. 

Taking another path...

Right, after a rather long period of absolute silence I have decided to take you all on virtual trips with me, the journey will be documented by photographs and words straight out of my (mainly London) adventures.

I am currently absolutely obsessed with discovering new places in the metropolis. For too long have I given in to the ever present temptation of creating my very own comforting village within London. Don't get me wrong, I do love this village of mine but one needs to explore and and travel to expand one's mind. While traveling with the mind while reading one great book after the other curled up on my comfy reading chair is a completely respectable and enjoyable pastime, I feel that I need more right now, so London is my oyster this summer.

See below, some of my favourite images of my soothing London village/bubble.

Quotes quotes quotes, I'm all about quotes that I never remember but frequently look for and find again. The following ones being some of my favourites, they truly speak volumes about me...

“It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.” Mark Twain

"There are 13 billion people in the world and none of them is an extra. They’re all the lead in their own story." ?

"Too much consistency is bad for the mind as it is for the body. Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life." ?

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than the ones you did. So, throw off the bowlines & sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

Now listen to that tune, one of my absolute favourite tracks ever!

http://www.last.fm/music/Chromatics/_/Running+Up+That+Hill

Enjoy!

Yuka's contribution

This is a beautiful contribution by my dear friend Yuka, we used to work together here in London, unfortunately Yuka had to go back to Japan a few years ago, I love hearing and reading from her and she never fails to amaze me with her wise way of applying and expressing this wonderful emotional intelligence of hers.
Thank you Yuka. xxxx

I went to a post office in the city after work to mail christmas cards for friends.
i just went in there as usual, and was waiting in the queue. and my turn came.
it was a middle-aged lady who served me. she looked a bit slow at first, looked a bit unfamiliar with air mails and stuffs.
but once she found that my letters were all air mail, she started looking for some nice postal stamps with pictures of pretty japanese flowers.
and she was even trying to arrange the place to attach them and to make them look nice, as if they were her letters.
i was so touched by her kindness, and i couldn't stop myself saying how happy i was and i told her that it never happened before although i've done it many times in the past.
i expected just a usual machine-like service when i walked in there, but i was leaving there with a big smile.
it reassured me how such a little kindness can make someone happy. and now i hope that i can give that happiness to other people around me :)
it was like a trigger to remind me of something important but we tend to forget in our daily life, that we are living not on our own but interacting with other people including those who seem to be just strangers.

This happened a few weeks ago...

... but it was truly one of those moments (which are rare at the moment, hence less posts) that make me smile.

I was on a bus in North London when I spotted a young Asian mother with her two little kids, a boy probably about eight years old and a girl about five years old. The boy was busy showing his sister proper 'bad boy' gang greetings, you know the kind 'real men' do, fists touching, palms touching, knuckles touching, etc, you get the idea. It was so cute seeing this little girl in her long skirt learning from her big brother, and he seemed very proud of his skills, too.

An old gem (Feb 2007)

Whoever's been to Primark (especially the one in Hackney) will probably understand why its rating on my personal dream employer list comes to about the same as McDonald's.
Buuuuuuuuut, nothing better than cheapo vegan shoes. So that made me happy. But even better was the wisdom thrown in for free. I overheard a conversation between employees. She: "Are you okay? You look sad. Are you sad?" He: "Sad? Why would I be sad? Life's too short to be sad." Those few words made me smile. But also almost cry. Beautiful wisdom can hurt.
Oh btw, I made them refund the £1 they overcharged me. I'm against hidden charges for services I never asked for. ;) But grateful nonetheless.

Update: I don't buy cheap shoes anymore, it's all about comfort, I blame the age...

He made me smile.

I went to see my flatmate's friend's one month old baby boy today and it was so beautiful. He is such a cute and innocently perfect little thing. Apparently it was rather obvious how much I like kids... Uh-oh! 

Pete's photo August 29th

Proud Shopkeeper Restoring a Banksy

Essex Road, London

Pete's contribution from August 23rd

Here's a 'today I saw' for you; a 'today I heard', actually, as it's about wonderful use of language.

Hope you like it.

I was walking through Ridley Road market, in the narrow gap behind the stalls.

In front of me, a traders was pushing his barrow through the busy lane, and bumped straight into a curvy carribean girl. She winced in mock pain. "Ooh - me contour!"

Thank you Pete! I love how such moments are always good for a giggle!

Old friends

Some friendships will always remain the same, no matter how little contact between friends. The next hug will feel as good as the last one. 

Davy's post

Hello there,

If you're tired of your loved ones defying basic good behaviour, show them this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9zFZ1L26aw

It works!!! They will soon wisen up.

I loved it.

-Davy

It might be advertising but I still think it's awesome!

Both of them in fact...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9beQh1yH5uU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EpG7D59rqchttp:/H

Clarified on FB...

I think there is some confusion about this, this is NOT a private facebook within Facebook, the idea is that people that aren't in touch as often as they would like to be to be able to "share" a few moments. For example when I do actually email of phone friends I don't get to see or talk to very often we tend to talk pretty much only about major events and changes in each other's lives. But I really miss taking part in their everyday existence. After all, little details or moments that make us smile or cry or simply evoke any sort of reaction are often just what we value about our friends, these determine what we have in common, what we can learn from each other and what fascinates us about them. And being far away means we might miss out on these moments and perhaps we'll even grow apart. 

You don't need to set up a Gmail account, all it takes is to either share your moments in the comments section below my posting, or simply email me on my Gmail account and I will post your contribution.

Thank you.

Love! 

Sarina x

The second one...

So damn cool! This made me smile today, courtesy of Jenka.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTSOjbp0Hs0

So easy!

You can either participate by leaving comments or, even better, share your smiles, tears, thoughts, photos, videos, links by sending them here: 

sailortoday13@gmail.com 

I created that account for blog entries only, and can't wait to see you using it! x

The first one

I actually did write this last night, so this truly is the first stone of a gallery of moments.

Today I saw... 

A bright, huge rainbow - walked to the middle of the road, took photos, crossed over, stared at the rainbow, mesmerized. Dropped shopping, chased my apple downhill - comical movie moment! Smiled and skipped through the rain with an old swing tune in my ears.

The plan...

I spent all night thinking about it, I have several ideas of smile-or-cry-moment-exchanges and might realize some of them on different levels, but this one is the easiest to access for most people.

Now, I am very slack at writing emails but many of my friends live far away in different countries, so how can I communicate without losing the ease of little chats had over a cup of tea or a glass of wine (rum for some)? Emails always scare me. A white sheet of paper used to do the same. As much as I love letters, I wouldn't send one if I just want to share the little things in life, a blank page demands to be filled, it won't be posted half written. Short messages are easier. I do miss actual tangible correspondence, post cards, letters, little surprise parcels, but I also love sms and messages on social networking sites. They can be brief but still show 'I think of you and care enough to let you know.' They can make me smile as well. But at the same time I'd still like to be part of my dearest ones' everyday lives, and I'd like to think they feel the same. So this site's purpose is to virtually recreate those little chats over a cup of tea or a glass of wine or some rum... It's an exchange of smiles or tears, meaning or banter, pure joy of being in each other's life.

The idea...

I fear too many small things that usually make me smile go unnoticed, or even worse, I might be too preoccupied to smile. We get too strung out over things we can't change, misfortune happens. It might add six minutes if we miss a bus or train, yet we let it ruin our entire morning. A few years ago I promised myself to embrace even the smallest good moment for at least as long as I'd moan about the unfortunate one. It's raining, I don't have an umbrella but the bus gets to the stop the second I get there. Yay! Smile baby! This actually happened, smiling transformed my ride home. It was one of those no-effort-made days, no makeup, messy hair, old clothes but I didn't miss the bus! I smiled! And hey! People smiled at me, random people, friendliness overdose! Ha! Lesson learned but soon forgotten... Luckily I keep returning to this moment. I want to make others smile. My blog aims to help friends far apart to share seemingly meaningless moments so profoundly important to their relationships. I might be far away but I care about the small things more than ever. I most likely won't send an epic email anytime soon but I want us to share our daily lives. Nothing's too trivial.

Last night on my way home from work I got off the bus as it started pouring down, I did have an umbrella this time but it didn't do much, the rain was just too heavy. So I hid in the shop and then started walking home as the rain got lighter, my walk home is downhill and it was just to beautiful, I had this amazingly bright rainbow right in front of me at the bottom of the hill, I went to take a photo from the middle of the street, it doesn't do it much justice but it's still a good enough reminder every time I look at it on my phone. And then I had one of those comical moments, I crossed the street, still mesmerized by the rainbow's beauty and somehow dropped my shopping bag and an apple rolled down the hill, there I was running after my apple still trying to get a glimpse of the rainbow. I love moments like these. Nothing special but I walked down the sidewalk with a skip in my step, smiling and some old swing tune on shuffle providing the perfect soundtrack. Who cares about wet feet?