In transition – UK & London

It’s been a full week now since I got back from the brutal Shanghai humidity and pace of China, and the transition to UK has been pretty interesting…a little overwhelming…in part silencing…awe inspiring…completely architecturally blinding…and well…reassuringly familiar. After recovering from a cold-flu bug that I swear was brought on by long-haul travel (completely inevitable), I spent a few days in London for a couple of project meetings but mainly to catch up with some very important friends, all of whom are creatives actually, from photography to museum interpretation, to performance art and cultural translation. Here are a few photographs from those few days marking my transition from a Shanghai to UK state of mind…from Staffordshire on the train to London, to Tate Modern views, to the serenity of inside St Paul’s Cathedral, Covent Garden pub drinks, Southwark apartment views of The Shard, Ai Weiwei’s Serpentine Pavilion (that I’ll write about another time) and fresh mint tea, the men’s Wimbledon final at The Old Dairy accompanied by Pimm’s O’Clock (who serves Pimm’s in pints?!), leaving at Waterloo and the Olympic Lane for London 2012…and a final photograph of post-industrial neglect from a day in Sheffield. After looking through these photos, everything looks quintessentially British to me, so English that I could be negotiating a film set…certainly a world away from China and sometimes difficult to get my head around. One other thing I’ve realised is I think I’m actually in love with the UK’s sky and clouds. For those of you in the UK just look at it right now. To a lot of you it might not seem worth noting…but when you hardly ever get to see clear skies as it is hidden behind the haze of pollution, it stops you in your tracks when you do see it, and see it so emotionally and spiritually charged with shards of sunlight and clear blue sky pushing through…beautiful.