London1

So far, the UK has been an incredible experience. Without really planning the dates to be so, I happened to arrive the day the Open House London tours were happening. Apparently this well attended city-wide event happens annually in mid-September, one weekend after the country-wide version. A must do for any creative, especially if you are passionate about architecture, art or history (of which I am pretty much all). Most importantly I've met some lovely people around and about.

Highlights so far:
- The Tate Modern, seeing my idols Pollock, Rothko, Monet, Picasso, Giacometti, and various other artists that I have studied in the past.
- Tour of green roofs - gardens on the roof of buildings that have become a real amenity to communities
- A talk last night by Atelier Ten about their project in Singapore, like fantasy coming alive
- Having tea with Brits (they do this a lot, it's their thing) - then went to the Serpentine Pavilion by Peter Zunthor. Funnily enough I met an old lady who was on the same tour and she invited me to lunch with a friend of hers near the Serpentine River. Love these chance encounters!

Some stark downlights:
- Going to Leather Lane and finding nothing special there - it was supposed to be Ash Sakula doing something.
- Edinburgh train was hugely delayed, awful as I don't have many days in the city.

I've been travelling through many suburbs for these talks, and I really like how each has its own character. I went into Haxton yesterday evening, and it was really alternative, apparently Haxton is famous for creating a removable mohawk back in the days. What it means is brilliant little galleries, shops and a design shop where I could honestly say I would love to own every single piece (pretty much all the pieces were functional as well as quirky).