Turn and face the strange

I meant to post about this sooner, but I went to the antiques center last week! I last went in December 2019, and I always love taking photos and seeing how much it's changed every time I go. I used to come out of these places with armfuls of things, but I'm definitely more chill nowadays and I just really like looking at quirky old stuff and seeing how things have changed over time (or not!) and thinking about the kinds of people who maybe owned it before. Especially as these places always get me thinking about consumerism and how much old stuff exists and how much new stuff is constantly being made, and how all of these lovely old things often end up in garbage dumps or left to rot in attics and how unsustainable it all is. Which really bums me out so I try to only buy stuff that I want to give a forever home.

I'm really into bears lately, and I love old carved stuff like this that looks handmade.

I've been admiring this painting for years! It used to be at another antiques place locally, now it's moved to here, and I swear I've been looking at it for about 6 years so it always makes me really happy to try and spot where they've hung it up this time.

I love old packaging design, and this iron was tiny. I did think about getting it as it would literally be perfect for travel, but it was super heavy which isn't airline friendly.

I've never seen canisters specifically for different types of sugar before.

We'll make it beautiful

I went down to London yesterday to go to the theater and I can't believe how long it's been since I've been able to type that!! It all felt a bit weird and surreal all day as I haven't been to London since coming back from Japan. I haven't been much of anywhere really and I did feel anxious and a bit of reverse culture shock because I've become so used to navigating Tokyo and Japanese etiquette and customs that things kept taking me by surprise and I found myself unsure of what to do. I posted about it on my Instagram stories and I had a couple of my friends from Japan messaging me to say they've felt the same since returning home so at least it's not just me!

I went to see Heathers which is a show I've wanted to see for years as I really love the cast recording. To be honest I'm not often drawn to musicals based on movies, there's been a lot of them lately which is kind of it's own gripe. I think Heathers works better as a musical though as it's such heightened reality anyway, although to be fair I've never much liked the movie so it's not hard for it to be an improvement. The issue I often have with musicals I've only ever listened to and not actually seen is because I'm such a visual person I kind of make up my own version of it in my head because I don't know how it's staged (I don't like bootlegs personally, watching something through someone's shaky phone camera where they're constantly zooming in and out is not a fun time for me). So sometimes actually seeing the show can be a bit of a letdown compared to what I pictured, but I really enjoyed it! And I'm so glad it opened as restrictions have been so up in the air lately which has affected the theater and arts industries the most, so it just felt so important to be back.

There was so much I wanted to do in London before the show that I kind of didn't know what to do. I wanted to go to a museum or art gallery, but I also wanted to check out a few stores I can't get to locally. I was still deciding on the Tube when I suddenly decided to jump off at Tottenham Court Road and spent most of the day in various book shops, so I guess I'll go to the museum in a few weeks. I also stopped by the Japan Centre, which I've been going to for years but it really hit different this time as I recognized absolutely everything on the shelves from when I lived there. Especially as I'd been having that reverse culture shock anxiety all day too, it was comforting!