Monday 18 February 2013

 Brighton on a bright day


This weekend I made a very important discovery ...





Basically, it is about how easy it IS 
actually to get out of London (and finally stop just talking about it)








The transition into being a big-city-person goes surprisingly quick ...








... I realized that by the amount of excitement flowing through my body whilst seeing cattle (!), coherent green and woods along the way ...





 
                 ... and of course, the final re-encounter with the sea was somewhat really special ...






Sunday 10 February 2013

Living sinuously - Welcoming the Chinese Year of the Snake 2013

Even though just being the fourth largest Asian section of London´s population, today around Leicester Square, Chinatown & Trafalgar Square one could get a different impression: 
The vast Chinese community was not deterred by the self-evident London rain from welcoming the Chinese New Year in a very lively, inviting and colourful fashion. This day of festivities, parades, decoration, dances and ceremonies is also known as the spring festival, being one of the most important Chinese celebrations where myths and superstition meet family reunion traditions and non-religious ceremonies. The celebrations in London keep on growing annually and are now the biggest outside Asia. 
The 12-year-cycle of the Chinese calendar reveals the year 2013 to be the year of the Snake 
- let s see what this means ...




















During my day I encountered several wildly-dancing snakes ...
 ... but could also witness a very interesting taming procedure:




















  
I am afraid life is about demystifying myths ...

This dragon here was particularly fascinating -

 if you have a very close look, its black African steering man creates a beautiful (colour) contrast. 

For me this picture in particular is about London´s unique cultural diversity ... 



 Regardless of the rain, 

Chinatown

                                                         




and Trafalgar Square 



were packed with 


people ... 




... Chinese lanterns ...
 
... and crazy (meat) offers. 

Live sinuously, in the name of the Snake.



Saturday 2 February 2013

Rain Room 2013






  This exhibition room by Random International is so, so fantastic ... 
I strongly recommend going there as long as it is still here in the Barbican - even though queues can be ridiculously long -

it is absolutely worth it!




These cameras here, plus some step-sensors on the ground, seem to be the reason for the miraculous feeling of being surrounded by rain, but not rained upon ...



 - if you do not move too fast though (-; 

Either I did that, or I am just light like a feather (wishful thinking) - who knows - 
but as you can see I got pretty wet 


and decided to put on my hood in the end 


to enjoy this water festival a bit more and longer ...






... might be that I stayed a bit too long - I felt pretty cool (in whichever sense) afterwards and was very excited to get out into the sun again ...

(-:





















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