A Detour to London

Lets' leave Broadway for a moment, as a weekend trip to London will always lift up your mood with all its events and culture going on, and so I went on a trip late summer this year.

When in London, I always go for a trip round Covent Garden, mainly to check out which fun crafts are selling these days in the market and to get some new ideas and inspiration myself. I have to admit that I did not find much new there - it seems that the old crafts get repeated without much new stuff in between.

Neal's Street also used to have a few crafts store such as a great bead store, but these days the brand stores seem to have taken over - many shoes or beauty products brands. What a shame! 

I generally feel that London has improved a great deal since I lived there end of the eighties. From being a somewhat old-fashioned big city (albeit with its own charm), it has moved to be more modern. I could not help noticing the many pubs which have closed. I was not really fan of the last frantic drinking right before closing hours in the pubs, but I also find it a shame if the old pub culture totally disappears - they seem to all turn into gastro-pubs or regular restaurants.


During my visit this time, some performance artists surprised me. I was browsing in a shop based on a street corner behind Covent Garden and noticed someone re-decorating the shop windows - at least I thought so - until I saw the many people on the street was also looking at this "decorator" and at me! In fact, I had walked right into a window-street play! It was a very good performance (without myself in it, as I stepped out on the pavement to watch!). One dancer was playing a window mannequin being dressed and trying to escape from her mannequin status out to a real human life; the actors then moved on to other windows performing a slightly different story.  I love the creativity and inspirations some artists can get from a simple window shop exhibition.