London

[oxoniensis]

It was a little surreal, Monday in London. The only tiny hint of trouble I noticed was the National Theatre closing straight after the play in the evening, instead of staying open until 11. There were lists of closed stations on the tube, and a few more police officers than usual at the railway station, but it was barely noticeable

Comments

[muses_mistress]

Ah, peaceful England, I miss you so! It's a shame that people can't seem to think for themselves. They've even been lootings around here and I'm 65 miles north of London. :( It stucks beyond belief :(

[oxoniensis]

There are so many gorgeous, quiet spots in London.

There's been trouble in my area too. And I got up in the middle of the night to check up on my car when I heard a bunch of kids going by. But the worst hit places must be horrific - I can't understand the mentality of people who're just so happy to hurt other people's livelihoods and homes.

[muses_mistress]

I don't get it either - on 3 counties radio they were asking "Do they have the right to be angry" I wanted to phone up and say "YES THEY DO - everyone has the right to be angry for something, but that doesn't give them the right to cause mayhem and destruction. Now stop asking the wrong question!"

[oxoniensis]

It's funny - when I was writing this, I started writing about how many things in this country do need protesting, and how there are things we should be standing up against, and getting angry about. Except then I didn't want to start a political rant, so I deleted it and just posted pretty pictures instead!

[sandrine]

Oh, London! ♥

Those are amazing photos! What kind of camera do you use?

[oxoniensis]

I have to confess that they were all taken on my phone! But I have an iphone 4, so the quality is fairly decent. I do have a 'proper' camera, a decent Canon, but I haven't used it in ages - it's just nice not having to carry something extra around with me.

[sandrine]

Wow. Was there some extensive photoshopping involved or is the quality of the iPhone 4 camera really that good? (I have a 3G, and the camera is atrocious.)

[oxoniensis]

I did use photoshop, to crop the pictures down to size and brighten some of them up (the ones on sunny days were fine, but some were taken on gloomy days, so weren't so good). But the original quality is pretty good, I think, especially considering that I'm a crappy photographer! Here are a couple of original, untouched pictures: the Rose Garden in Greenwich Park, and a flower box on Cheyne Walk. My Canon camera has a lot more manual options on it, so is better in tricky conditions, but I think these turned out pretty well for a phone camera.

[elaiel]

Beautiful! I work in London, but never seem to get the time to actually just wander around a look at it.

[oxoniensis]

Probably the advantage of not actually living there - I pop into London fairly often, and usually make time to explore a bit. I just wish I'd taken more photographs - I wasn't planning on picspamming!

[scribblinlenore]

What a beautiful city! I hope peace has returned to stay.

[oxoniensis]

I haven't caught the news yet today, but when I was driving home just now, I was very aware of a couple of groups of teenagers I passed - the amount of vandalism seems to have escalated everywhere. :-(

But yes, London is beautiful. And has far more to offer than just the big tourist attractions.

[kahtyasofia]

When I finally get there, you are so going to be my tour guide.

To date, I have seen 1 thing in England. The inside on Gatwick airport during my stopover on my way to Copenhagen.

I'll get there someday.

[oxoniensis]

I'm always happy to provide a long list of suggestions! It's trying to stop me sharing them that's tricky!

Hmm, Gatwick airport isn't the most attractive part of England, by a long shot! Though at least it wasn't Luton airport - that's horrid!

[kahtyasofia]

No airport is truly attractive on the inside. I've seen many. Once I was done in the Duty Free shops, I pretty much just stretched out on the seats and dozed my way through my 5 hour stopover.

However, once I'm employed again and back on level ground, the first trip on our list is the British Isles. I'll get there eventually!