Great day in London town

There are two Londons to me: the dreary, rainy, unfriendly version AND the quirky, colourful, inspiring. Today I was blessed to get the latter. It started by having the day off from work, which helps. Then I went to Kensington and got my birthday facial at Dermalogica, which helps too. (Thanks for the tip off Amy - not sure how long I can keep up this expensive habit) Then, I started on my latest mission, which is to explore the city's best coffeeshops. I'd read about Cafe Oporto so thought since I was close to Ladbroke Grove, I'd hop on a bus and check it out. It's off Portobello Road and near the Fat Badger pub, where we'd celebrated SuperBadger's first birthday last year.

The coffee in this Portuguese coffeeshop was good enough, and I can now check it off my list, but what I really enjoyed was the atmosphere on the street. Tons of street vendors, Morrocan shops selling those cone pot things, and that gritty feel of ethnic London, which I love.


I was also happy because I started listening to a new Japanese language podcast! It was bi-lingual and helps me not completely forget that language I've devoted an amount of time to that is increasingly disproportionate to my current speaking prowess.

Finally, I'm enjoying feeling like I'm getting my creativity back. I've been reading The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and it's fantastic. In fact, I'm thinking of taking an illustration course to nurture my inner artist. The above illustration by London based illustrator JaniceJ inspired me today.

Hope you have inspiring weekends too.