In which I became Sera

I havent really blogged in 2016 but in many ways it's been one of the best years of my life. (For me personally, not so much for the world) And that's partly why I didn't blog. I was doing so many things that I didnt want to spend the time writing about them. And the same with the fashion outfit pictures. I realised that part of the motivation was me taking photos of myself to feel better about myself, to see myself looking good and get validation from the quality of the pictures, and the nice comments. It was also about self-discovery, I was playing with styles, being inspired by others and choosing what to wear so very thoughtfully. I think that I've reached a place of having a lot more body confidence, and so counter-intuitievly I take less pictures of myself.

For a while. I mean, there's always selfies. 
That being said, I realised today that actually, I just miss it. I miss the diary aspect of it, having that record, just for myself, to see on what I did every year. I also miss photography. It's been months since I went somewhere with my camera (although I also developed a back problem so it's harder to carry than it used to be - that's a different story). I also looked back through my old photos and was inspired by my past-self, and  I want to keep giving myself that chance.

So I'm going to dip my toes back into blogging. I'm not going to set myself any goals of once or twice a week like before. But if there's one thing that's a real highlight it was MCM ComicCon 2016.

 I've blogged about this year after year. But this year was definitely the best ever. I went as Sera from Dragon Age: Inquisition, along with my husband and two talented good friends, also as characters from the same franchise.

 My girl.

Here's the set of my crew, in our classic comparison shots.

Andy as Hawke

Nic as Cassandra

Tom as Alistair

Don't we make an amazing set?  One thing that made this year so good was all being in a theme together. We all looked so good, spot on for our characters. I felt proud of everyone.

One of the things that made this year so good, was that we spent hours hanging out with other Dragon Age cosplayers, and taking so many photos with them. Here's Andy as Hawke, with a whole group of adorable Merrils.

 And me with a group of other Seras, running around and throwing bees.

 And this Dorian wasn't with us, but he is just so spot on for the character it's incredible.

I love my Sera costume, even more than my Erza one, and I desperately want to wear it again some time. I am so proud of the jacket that I made. It's all sewn together, no glue. It fastens on the front with the little clasps and fits properly. I have it hanging up in my home office waiting for another convention, or costume party. And if I get invited to a Halloween event, I'm being Sera all night long again. It's so wonderfully freeing to be her.

I didn't take a lot of work-in-progress shots this year. Not like when I decided to blog the entire process of being Erza! But I do have a little bit of progress shown on making the dress, and even cutting the wig:



 

 

Oh, and I think even the weird haircut kind of suits me! I keep thinking... should I get this done for real? But then I remember that the point of Sera is she looks a mess.

I even fletched my own arrow.

Best Comic Con Ever.

In which there are just enough dinosaurs

I didn't actually set out for dinosaurs, they just ended up happening really. But then I always believe in wholeheartedly embracing dinosaurs where they occur.

So Andy and I actually went to the Natural History Museum in London to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the weekend. It's simply one of my favourite things. I've been to it many times (well, somewhat annually), and I never fail to be amazed and inspired. I mentioned a while back getting the book of 50 years of the award, with the best of the best. And so now I have the first collection book, since that book. Anyway, it's just incredible photography. I don't have photos of it, because you don't really take photos of photos. You can see all the winners on the site though, but there were even more than this to admire:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/wpy/gallery/2014/adult.html

I always find it so relaxing to look at, and my personal winner was a photography of a mountain circled by the Northern Lights with a waterfall in the forground. It said he'd taken it as a long exposure using several different lightings during the shot to make it all glow.

There was also a photo of some bright greenish yellow parakeets flying through a cemetry in London which was really inspiring. Andy and I kept thinking that we'd seen parrots in our local nature reserve, but then were convinced we were mad. Parrots? In Britain? But then this photo explained that lots of South African parakeets had migrated to South England. This means I might have some great photography material just down the road! So then, with that exhibition done we had classic scones and cream in the cafe, and then went to look at skeletons. And spent a couple of hours taking pictures of back-lit bones. Just a perfect British day really.

I got that pearly necklace in Spain and have hardly taken it off since. I swear it goes with everything and I love it to bits.

Wonder Woman bag is the best.

Claws!

Jaws!

Breathtaking architecture.

Charles Darwin has had enough of your sass.

Fear the animatronic dinosaurs!

Home time

In which London is beguiling

On Friday night Andy and I had planned to play table tennis in the park, but the free racquets were gone (read:stolen) It's one of those things where you can do free sports outdoors, which I love, but it's a wee bit unreliable.  With our plans cancelled suddenly we didn't really want to go home on a perfect sunny night so we decided to go back to our wandering ways and see what we could find.

We ended up walking along the canal side, and I was like a child high on sugar, if there were children who were all 'ooooooh' about architecture. The flats by the canal side all the way were so gorgeous and interesting. Lots of different kinds of re-purposed factories, with balconies and people bbqing in the sun. We passed a canal boat bookshop, interesting graffiti and people doing a pottery class outdoors.

 

 

If you follow my blog with some serious dedication you may have seen a blog I wrote some time ago about Hamstead Heath, and then more recently I wrote about visiting Fryent Park - another spot of nature in amongst the metropolis of London. Then, all this. And I've finally realised that I love London.

There. I said it.

It felt scary to admit it after spending so long being all 'I'm a country girl' and 'Ugh, cities' and 'I only live in London because it's where the jobs are'. Please don't hate me for the hypocrisy! London has won me over with its sneaking bewitching ways. I think it was partly going to Japan that did it. You see, when I was in Japan everything was interesting - as you've seen from the blog posts - it was all new. The vending machines, the crossings, the trains, the way the food is served. Ordinary banalities of life were cool, because they were new. And then I thought about how we had barely scratched the surface of all the things to see in Japan in under 3 weeks - so how would you do Britain, and how interesting would Britain be? It's got dales and mountains, Edinburgh and Durham and Cornwall and the Lake District and London. I considered all the interesting things I see just between the train station and my Japanese class. A 15 minute walk that goes past the London Eye, HMS President all painted up cubist style, London Bridge, this weird half finished building with only a front and no floors, this huge grand structure with pillars all the way round, and along the Thames. London just seems so much more fascinating when I really look at it. So I'm going to just keep on exploring.

I love all the glam city workers drinking on the roof next to this unfinished thing. It' just a beautiful contrast.

Starting off the canal side walk it looked more like a sci-fi setting at first.

 

Found a Venezuelan restaurant by the canal.

 

I haven't been carrying my DSLR every day (shock!) but in the last week I've been discovering the joy of taking random snaps of stuff with my phone. I hear this is a thing other people do too? :D  So these are all camera phone pictures, hence the dubious quality.