On missing dogs, books & scarves

The thing about living in London and having it be everything I've ever wanted and more is that it doesn't leave a lot of room for blogging. Or making videos, for that matter, which I'm sure you've noticed. I feel like I wear myself out so much that when I do have free time, I'd rather spend it relaxing, skyping and watching television. Go figure.  My creativity levels are incredibly low while I'm here. Not just writing and video, but also photography and drawing. I just have not spent time creating and while that is not something you push, it also troubles me quite a lot when I sit down and think, "alright, so that next video..." However, I am planning on setting aside all morning tomorrow to go through footage from the Netherlands and try to piece it together, as well as film a sort of catch-up vlog where I just talk about some of the things I've seen or don't in the last few weeks. It's a mix of theatre and film reviews, a couple experiences and a story or two, perhaps. So if all goes well, those will be up this week or next.
However, I thought I'd start out this creative surge by writing up a blog post tonight. Also, Marion has been amazing about blogging over here, which has motivated me this evening. I talked to my family yesterday for the first real time since getting here. I am really, really close with my family. If you have been following this blog, you will have seem my worries about missing birthdays and all of the sort of thing. Well, last night was the party for my youngest cousins birthday and even though I was extraordinarily nervous to see if I would just sort of break down on skype, it was really nice. It felt like I was there, which is not something I can say I ever feel on skype with my friends. It's strange how that happens. However, the moment my dogs came on screen, I barely kept it together. I talked a long time ago about how insane it is that people even get pets. We grow so attached to them and they live such short lives, but for those few years, they give you such joy. It really is incredible. But yes, seeing my dogs was hard and it took a couple hours of recovery after that. Overall, I think it was something that had to happen, so that I could get it out of my system. I miss them and thinking about them for too long makes me tear up a bit, but they still know my voice, so it's alright.
Now yesterday, you may have seen me tweeting to ask about secondhand bookshops here in London. I haven't ever really been to too many over here, so I thought I'd remedy that since I had no plans today. For those of you who don't know, which is perhaps everyone, I collect editions of The Hobbit. Whenever I go to a used bookshop, it is the first thing I look for. So I just decided to go on a little journey to find one, since I almost always come across Tolkien's work in secondhand shops. But that was not the case. I walked all the way down Charing Cross Road (about 10 shops), a shop on Gloucester Road, a shop on Euston, a couple Oxfam's...I pretty much exhausted every twitter suggestion. No hobbit's to be found outside of a lovely copy of Return of the King, which I probably would have picked up if I hadn't been in the early hours of my hunt; eager to find what I was actually looking for. So. That was a bust. That coupled with the fact that on this quest, I lost the scarf I purchased this morning to keep warm, I'd say today was a bit of a failure.
In retrospect, I think the last two days have been necessary. This experience has been so good. Sometimes you need shit things to happen to even life out a bit. Other than those minor setbacks, everything is going well. I'll try and write a blog with the happy stories sometime soon, but I sort of want to save that for the video I'm making soon. Until then, though, I will leave you with this picture of my friend Khyan in the Netherlands. Because. Um. Because of reasons.

 

Flights taken this year: 20.