Taking A Breath

Image above: My magnetic wall map from The Future Mapping Company finally installed in my bedroom.

After physically arriving back in London last Saturday, it’s only been until this weekend that I feel that I have mentally arrived back. Getting back to work on last Monday I got hit with a major project with a barely reasonable deadline for this week so I’ve been working flat out during the day and evenings to meet it. So I haven’t even had a chance to do anything with the photos except load them into my Mac so far or even blog.

And my luggage finally arrived back in London on Friday, a week later, and thankfully I could get back the birthday presents that I got from my travelling companions – phew! So been unpacking and doing a lot of washing but finally the apartment is thankfully no longer looking like bomb hit it.

So this weekend was spent taking just taking a breath both from work and  getting settled back from all the travelling. On Saturday morning, had to bid farewell to Chrissy who flew back home to Orange County and will, hopefully, get a decent English teaching contract in Japan.And in the evening I watched Woody Allen’s “Vicky Christina Barcelona” film at my favourite cinema – Curzon Soho. It was both amusing and though provoking. I really liked how it wasn’t full of Hollywood cliches and, at the same time, overly arty. And the questions that came out of the film fuelled the dinner conversation afterwards. Questions such as:

1. Can only unfulfilled love be romantic?
2. When you think that you know who and what you want,  is it really who and what you want?
3. Why is it more common to know what you don’t want than what you do want?
4. When does personal desire override duty and vice versa?
5. In not knowing what you want in a relationship, will you always be chronically dissatisfied and thus keep moving on to the next?

No right or wrong answers but all are thought provoking. So do check out the film when you have the opportunity.

On Sunday, I went back to Columbia Flower Market to pick the magnetic world map that Yeji helped me choose when I took her around London on her last day last month. I had been looking for a reasonably priced magnetic world map that looked decent and the one we picked out from The Future Mapping Company ticked all the boxes – especially with it being 50% off as it was ex-display though still in excellent condition. It’s like the physical version of the TripAdvisor Travel Map I maintain online.

Dan came over to help bang some nails into my wall and it’s the first item that’s gone on my walls. His Dad is doing some bespoke white gloss frames for my photos for me. So later I’ll be fill the blank white canvas of my walls with my images from around the world. Can’t wait – it’s going to really complete the look I want for this place.

So thank you Yeji for helping me choose the map – love how it looks in my bedroom. Already marked South Korea as one place to go to this year. ^__~