Given the fact that I can't remember the first time I was on a plane, because surely i was in diapers, i guess it's only natural that home to me is the world. And no matter where i go , I am able to appreciate the limitless boundaries that encompass home, and feel so blessed for the multitude of opportunities I have been granted to explore this home and take in as much of it as I am possibly able to.
With 8 weeks left in London I am starting to come to the sad, yet thrilling realization that I will no longer be allowed to travel with the ease and light expenses as I have been able to while in London- it is the doorstep to Europe and i have made it my doorstep to the rest of the world... because- well why not?!
So it should come as no surprise that for the 7 weekends I have left I will enjoy the friends and comforts of London for two of those weekends and travel for the remaining five. I just got back from a weekend trip of Stratford Upon Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace which I have been wanting to visit since before i moved to London (the first time!) So... here is a snippet from something i wrote while there:
October 23rd-
finally made it to the one place in the UK I have always wanted to visit. Not even 2 hrs after arriving by train and bus- I have come to love this place. The town is exactly what I'd imagine but better. I am currently sitting in the White Swan, after running in to get away from the rain which (thankfully) put a stop to my nearly £80 spend spree at the antique market-Only happening Today! Ah- it's like Stratford knew I was coming! I found the perfect pieces that I've been craving mainly old jewelry of course but also a little tin to add to my small collection, as well as an amazing bottle of poison to be used as a flower vase :) and a miracle pin and miracle necklace from Scotland -(my favorite buys) as well as an adorable flower alphabet book I love, love antique shopping. There's something in knowing the item you are purchasing has existed for hundreds or many many years before you- carrying with it many memories of past lives.- jewelry touched by the hands of nervous women as their husbands went off to war.- A cigarette holder, probably some travelling businessman coming back and forth from England to India in the 1940's purchased in India as an exotic relic, brought back to England and forgotten only to end up in my hands. I truly believe pieces find you.- wherever I am vintage shopping I follow a feeling- an energy that calls me to a certain stall to pick up or spot a certain item-and that is the piece that is meant to be mine that 80-95% of the time I absolutely must acquire. So.... back tot eh pub. - The white Swan, as I've come to find out used to be Shakespeare's local pub and hang out spot. beside me is a framed glass box, which contains within it, a feather quill and wax with different crests and sayings- there are:
Louisa Charlotte, Lord Dungannon, Earl of Grosvenor, The Anti-Slavery League, Falcon & Initials, A letter softens the pain of absence (my favorite), We part to meet again, Commissioners for building new churches 1818, The Angel Gabriel, and a couple of unknown crests. Which take me back to a different time where things were simpler and truths about circumstances didn't allow for question or paranoia. - I've come to resent modern day technology for love.- for everything else i welcome it, but for love, technology is the worst thing to use- even the sound of the word is everything but love.- anyway I miss the days when it was all about letter writing I wish we could go back to Ink and quill...and to a time when waiting for a letter to arrive and receiving a letter in the mail was a feeling nobody could take away and the smell of the folded older paper unveils its presence of the sender, or gives you a sense of comfort and calm.-Now it's all so automatic.-
Then I stopped.. i think I was distracted by some people watching in the pub... but the book I'm currently reading is quite quotable.. which I will include in here all together once the book is finished. And as a final resolution I want to write in my journal in ink and quill and have decided to write to my friends in ink and quill and bringing it back for as long as i am not moving around with nothing but a cheap hotel pen in my purse :)
So as of now Stratford has been experienced... in a big way.. and next on the list is
Nov. 6-7: Amsterdam or Edinburgh (TBD)
Nov. 12-14: Beirut! To catch up with Tamara!
Nov. 20-21: London (to unwind, start packing, AND a Jamie Oliver cooking class with Dawn *includes wine drinking as we cook a yummy pork belly roast yumm)
Nov. 27th-28th: Barcelona- can't wait to see the beautiful buildings and feel this city
Dec. 4-5: Bath, UK for a girls trip to explore the infamous Christmas market
Dec. 10-13: Marrakesh, Morocco- going to try to make it to Fes a well for the original morocco.
Dec 19th: Is my final fly out date to SFO.. hoping Jess will come visit so we can go home together if not then have two sets of visitors coming in soon.
Meli and gang will be coming in this week we are going to watch the 49ers game in London- what?! AND Lorena's Halloween, birthday, housewarming partay :) Then thanksgiving have Heather and Jose visiting from the big apple for the week which should be nice as well and will give me a chance to do some Londoney things before heading out...it seems time is something I always manage to intertwine myself in and somehow the time spent here while busy and full seems to pass by as slowly as the passing tide on a full moon.
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Sun in the Wintertime
Can be a very misleading thing in a London day. For starters it looks beautiful outside, almost sunglasses wearing weather, and the minute you step outside your toes freeze and your nose is as red as a cherry- or maybe that's just me.
London's fall has come and gone in a matter of a day or half an evening...which is too bad because it's my favorite season of the year, but alas I will have to wait another year to experience the fall of the leaves for long enough to appreciate them without some blasted wind carrying them away into the abyss. In the time the leaves have come, I've settled back into my tiny room, finally unpacking my suitcases, and actually living in the room as opposed to staying there. My Tibetan decorations (acquired in Rome by a dear Tibetan monk) are hanging from my windows and walls, and the tiny antiques I've been able to carry with me decorate my sill bringing me a sense of ease and calm on the tired nights home. The time I've allotted for my London stay have unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the day, become shorter- I am now forced to go home December 19th making my last day at work December 17th... to be home. Oh to be home, to be with family, to be there for family, to feel the changes and to put up with the duty of being the strength for a change. It's hard to hear about family news being so far away and feeling the uselessness of not being able to do anything when so much doing is needed. I have been forced to determine the powerlessness that has come with the title of a nomadic traveller- the detached importance of my position in my family are vague when felt from so far away, and I can say with all my being that I have never been happier to be with family. As most people know, the words that are synonymous with Conneely are: close, together, strong, big, giving, there for each other at all times. The latter I'm afraid I have become less and less a definition of. It's almost easier to forget about the immediacy of situations when being away, and the effect of impacting changes becomes less grave- which is something I never wanted to feel... and am unfortunately guilty of feeling. However I know that come 2 months from now I will be front and center in the middle of it all forced to take it all in again, but this time from a first hand perspective. I know that at times we are called to do certain things with our life, to work, to travel, to learn, to teach, to experience, to witness, to love, to laugh, to cry, to feel, most of those I tend to do pretty well, however to be there for family when you are most needed- this is something I have not done for a bit now, and something I look forward to doing with all of my heart and all of my being.
On a non familial note- I have taken my original bucket list which I first formed when I was meant to be in London for 6 months and scratched most but one of the items realizing that ultimately a bucket list becomes all the things you most want from the time you are given. And for me, it comes as no surprise, that the things I most want (still) are to experience new cultures, and see new visions of wonder around the world. What I still desire in my very soul is to be surrounded by different smells, sights, and emotions cause by a surrounding that is in its entirety completely different than anywhere I have been before. So what am I on about??...
I have finally (after 2 years since moving to London) purchased my train ticket to Stratford Upon Avon- the place I've been thinking and wondering about since moving- the place I used to tell myself I'd " hang out" in... however that place is a little more than 2 hours away and as it turns out leaving London for anywhere within the UK has proven a lot harder than i thought. So.. i will be visiting Shakespeare's birthplace, the home he wrote many masterpieces in, and the grave he was laid to rest within. I will also get away from London City for a bit which is always nice to remind ourselves that we live surrounded by so much more than buildings and noise.. I have tried to maintain a personal rule or goal if you will- to travel every other week before I move back.. or something close. So For the moment i am planning on visiting Stratford upon Avon this weekend, Amsterdam for Halloween weekend, Lisbon (work permitting), Beirut to visit with Tamara for a weekend (yay!) Bath with some of the close friends I've made in London, and ultimately (and this is the one I'm most looking forward to as I've been wanting to land within this country for years..) Morocco.. I'm aiming to make it out to Fes for a day after landing in Marrakesh.. And then a week later- I take off for the golden gate bridge! It's still surreal to think about and very scary at the same time. But nothing has ever felt so right, and so necessary in my life than moving back home. It's now truly time, my time, to shine, my time to feed my soul with something more than just travel..as hard as that may be- it's time to buy a bed, to make friends who I will celebrate more than one birthday with, and to allow myself to follow my dreams and finally put in place the tools I need to start my own non profit within the arts, theater, and film. I can't wait to begin the path I have dreamt about for so many years. And I can't think of a better place to begin, than where that dream started- the good ol' city by the bay.
London's fall has come and gone in a matter of a day or half an evening...which is too bad because it's my favorite season of the year, but alas I will have to wait another year to experience the fall of the leaves for long enough to appreciate them without some blasted wind carrying them away into the abyss. In the time the leaves have come, I've settled back into my tiny room, finally unpacking my suitcases, and actually living in the room as opposed to staying there. My Tibetan decorations (acquired in Rome by a dear Tibetan monk) are hanging from my windows and walls, and the tiny antiques I've been able to carry with me decorate my sill bringing me a sense of ease and calm on the tired nights home. The time I've allotted for my London stay have unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the day, become shorter- I am now forced to go home December 19th making my last day at work December 17th... to be home. Oh to be home, to be with family, to be there for family, to feel the changes and to put up with the duty of being the strength for a change. It's hard to hear about family news being so far away and feeling the uselessness of not being able to do anything when so much doing is needed. I have been forced to determine the powerlessness that has come with the title of a nomadic traveller- the detached importance of my position in my family are vague when felt from so far away, and I can say with all my being that I have never been happier to be with family. As most people know, the words that are synonymous with Conneely are: close, together, strong, big, giving, there for each other at all times. The latter I'm afraid I have become less and less a definition of. It's almost easier to forget about the immediacy of situations when being away, and the effect of impacting changes becomes less grave- which is something I never wanted to feel... and am unfortunately guilty of feeling. However I know that come 2 months from now I will be front and center in the middle of it all forced to take it all in again, but this time from a first hand perspective. I know that at times we are called to do certain things with our life, to work, to travel, to learn, to teach, to experience, to witness, to love, to laugh, to cry, to feel, most of those I tend to do pretty well, however to be there for family when you are most needed- this is something I have not done for a bit now, and something I look forward to doing with all of my heart and all of my being.
On a non familial note- I have taken my original bucket list which I first formed when I was meant to be in London for 6 months and scratched most but one of the items realizing that ultimately a bucket list becomes all the things you most want from the time you are given. And for me, it comes as no surprise, that the things I most want (still) are to experience new cultures, and see new visions of wonder around the world. What I still desire in my very soul is to be surrounded by different smells, sights, and emotions cause by a surrounding that is in its entirety completely different than anywhere I have been before. So what am I on about??...
I have finally (after 2 years since moving to London) purchased my train ticket to Stratford Upon Avon- the place I've been thinking and wondering about since moving- the place I used to tell myself I'd " hang out" in... however that place is a little more than 2 hours away and as it turns out leaving London for anywhere within the UK has proven a lot harder than i thought. So.. i will be visiting Shakespeare's birthplace, the home he wrote many masterpieces in, and the grave he was laid to rest within. I will also get away from London City for a bit which is always nice to remind ourselves that we live surrounded by so much more than buildings and noise.. I have tried to maintain a personal rule or goal if you will- to travel every other week before I move back.. or something close. So For the moment i am planning on visiting Stratford upon Avon this weekend, Amsterdam for Halloween weekend, Lisbon (work permitting), Beirut to visit with Tamara for a weekend (yay!) Bath with some of the close friends I've made in London, and ultimately (and this is the one I'm most looking forward to as I've been wanting to land within this country for years..) Morocco.. I'm aiming to make it out to Fes for a day after landing in Marrakesh.. And then a week later- I take off for the golden gate bridge! It's still surreal to think about and very scary at the same time. But nothing has ever felt so right, and so necessary in my life than moving back home. It's now truly time, my time, to shine, my time to feed my soul with something more than just travel..as hard as that may be- it's time to buy a bed, to make friends who I will celebrate more than one birthday with, and to allow myself to follow my dreams and finally put in place the tools I need to start my own non profit within the arts, theater, and film. I can't wait to begin the path I have dreamt about for so many years. And I can't think of a better place to begin, than where that dream started- the good ol' city by the bay.
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