Office Lonesome.....

I am all alone in the office for the entire day. Time to:
A. Crank up some folk music and have ceilidh by myself around the printer.
B. Take off all my clothes and type naked, while listening to 80s pop music.
C. Introduce the Pigeons on the window ledge to the office as new pets.
D. Order a large cake from Patisserie Valerie and eat it off the floor with chopsticks.
E. Paint a poetic and deeply moving mural on the wall of the office showing the emotional journey of a graduate student.
F. Do my actual work.
Obviously I am going to go for option F, but I do fancy taking off my shoes and dancing over to the printer....

August Break Day 19: White

Yesterday's theme (yes, I finally caught up with myself!) was White. Not an easy theme in a grubby city like London!

August Break Day 18: Looking Down

The theme for Day 18 was Looking Down. Luckily, that day I was in a loft with a little balcony and so I took a sneaky shot from above...looking down!

August Break Day 17: Touch

One of our plants started inadvertently growing moss and it has a nice fuzzy texture to touch.

August Break Day 16: Floral

Sometimes you can find the inspiration for Floral in the most unusual of places....

August Break Day 15: Books

Hmmmmm....the theme of Books. Let's see....do I have a problem with not being able to find a book to photograph? The answer is no. Nope. Nada. Not a problem at all. I am literally (no pun intended) drowning in books....

And then.... a modern interpretation of a book:

August Break Day 14: Stillness

So Day 14 was Stillness....I found this quite a difficult theme since things are rarely still in my life! I am always busy and bustling about and I live in one of the largest most busy cities in the world, so being still is not much of an option sometimes.

But that is the challenge. To find a little bit of stillness, a little bit of peace among the chaos of over 8 million people in 659 square miles! And guess what?! You can find it. Even in Central London there is stillness as illustrated in the photos below:

And of course, everything feels rosy and still as the sun goes down. One of my favourite times of day....

August Break Day 13: Home

Wow! I seem to have taken a break from The August Break itself! I must confess that my blogging has become a bit sketchy of late. I spent the weekend cleaning our flat so as to prepare it for the first ever visit from my Father-in-law this week. Although I generally despise chores and cleaning (I am a pretty messy person who loves clutter), it did feel cathartic to get rid of loads of stuff and to scrub the bathtub.
Between scrubbing and wiping and washing and a rather traumatic dentist's appointment (he revealed that I will not need my wisdom tooth out, but rather a root-canal on another tooth instead. This is my 'new' dentist as I am so disgusted with the last one I went to, that I have decided never to darken his dentist's chair again), I did not have time to blog. So here are the last few entries:

The theme for Day 13 was Home. Rather than take a photo of a 'home,' I decided to photograph what 'home' means to me as a concept. So here it is! My husband's wedding band. Because 'home' is where he is and by sealing our love with a ring, he has given me my 'own home' with him forever.

It is very unlike me to be sentimental. But that's marriage for you. It makes you all mushy!

While I was out and about last week in Central London I came across another idea for the theme of 'home.' A whole crowd of several hundred Scottish men (and a few women) had descended on Trafalgar Square to take part in basically a giant piss up in honour of a friendly football match between Scotland and England that evening. I spoke to one man who had a sweet disposition, a tartan kilt, a rather large furry sporan and a can of beer in his hand. He told me he had travelled all the way from Glasgow and was 'far from home.' So of course that immediately put into my mind the idea of 'home'

Here they are. The Scottish sipping beer in London, far, but not too far, from home.

August Break Day 12: Far Away

Yesterday's theme was Far Away. I found this a difficult theme and I don't think my photos really work well with the idea, but hey I gave it a go. What do you think?

August Break Day 11: Play

Day 11 of the August Break was play. The last photo in this series was taken when I beat my husband at Monopoly. I was not expecting to be good at the game, but I bankrupted the poor fellow and left with more that £3,000 in my pocket!

August Break Day 10: Red

Day 10's theme was Red! Great theme in my opinion and I wasted no time finding lots of red things to photograph!

August Break Day 9: Taste

So I am a bit behind on posting my August Break Challenge photos! First up is the theme of Taste! I chose the Japanese taste of Umami. Umami, a savory taste, is one of the five basic tastes, (together with sweet, sour, bitter and salty). A loanword from the Japanese (うま味?), umami can be translated "pleasant savory taste." So what better way to illustrate this than with some Japanese food!