Hello! I'm not here!

I'm here instead.

My Mum and sister invited me to join them on their last minute booked holiday in North Devon, so I shall be away all week. I know maybe I should've let you know sooner, so you could put in your requests for postcards and fudge, but I didn't know myself until a few days ago. I'll catch up on you all when I get back!

Bank Holiday Saturday, Lyme Regis and it looks like a postcard

Bank Holiday Saturday, Lyme Regis and it looks like a postcard
Originally uploaded by crunchcandy.

On Saturday we joined the tourists making the pilgrimage to the seaside, and ended up here- in Lyme Regis. I love this photo because it looks like we landed slap bang in the middle of a photo advertising the joys of the English seaside. Whilst I was drifting out to sea I looked back at the land and wished I had a waterproof camera to capture the colours of the beach and the hill behind. I am going to have to try and hold that image inside me and pull it out sometime in the form of a painting maybe. I never before understood the allure of painting seaside scenes, or pictures of fish, but now I am feeling like I need to paint mackrel and ice creams and cute little beach huts all in a row.

On the ride home my friend said something along the line of 'why are all those people bothering to go to Spain for holidays when we have all this here?' And I totally agree with her- this little country is full of amazing places and I think that this summer of swimming in the sea and open air pools has just increased my love affair with the place I call home.

Tuesday in Berlin

tuesday in berlin
Originally uploaded by crunchcandy.

I've been stalling this post for so long as I try and create wonderfully well written, heavily illustrated posts with lots of links for you to explore. I think actually I will give up on that route and instead just copy this from my friend Kate, who I met up with on Tuesday morning in Berlin:

we met up successfully! Got offered Mongolian money! (no, really, but we turned it down). Found art galleries even though they were actually behind the address where they were supposed to be! Went to a revolving restaurant no less! Made plans to go to every other revolving restaurant in the world! Went to more art galleries! Found a shop selling Hello Kitty merchandise and bought a tiny mug with Hello Kitty playing drums on from a vending machine! Went to a shop with giant sequins on the outside! Successfully met up with Nicole! Went to the here shop of Berlin, a café with cherry soft drinks, and saw two metal men walking past with a KISS pram!! Went on a tram past lots of scary East German buildings! To an old style black and white photobooth! (except we didn’t have time to take photos because we had to get to the Nara Exhibition before it closed). Went to the Nara exhibition! Saw a man making a giant piggy bank out of ceramics in his studio! Went to the vegetarian burger bar and ate burgers! Went to drag queen bingo and tried our best to play aided by Nicole and her Austrian friend who could German numbers fast enough! Saw victors being insulted by the drag queens! All while bathed in glorious sunshine. Most. Eventful. Day. Ever. Thank you, Berlin!

I think Kate says it better than I ever could! We saw so much on that first day that when I read her post about it for the first time i'd forgotten that it had all happened on one day. If you click on the image it will take you to my flickr page where you can browse the rest of my photos from Berlin if you are so inclined. I will be back later with some more links and a bit about the rest of the week in Berlin, in the meantime I just have to go and finally track down all those fliers and postcards I picked up while I was there!