I am a lonely painter, I live in a box of paints

I was determined do something a bit different in London yesterday, as I've fallen into the habit of visiting the same haunts every time I go which is getting a bit predictable. I felt like going to a gallery and picked the Tate Britain, which I didn't have very high hopes for as I found the National Gallery so incredibly dull the last time I was there, but the Tate was incredible! I loved it! They had so many famous paintings that I was really excited to see in real life, like Ophelia, and my favorite painting The Doctor which I first saw in a gallery but could never remember which to see it again. And now I know it was this one!

I've been struggling so much with my illustration work this past year and it just felt really special to feel so excited by art again, and I got some books I'm really excited about in the gift shop too. One is general advice for artists, the other is about sketchbook practice, both are no doubt full of stuff I already know but need reminding of just the same. They felt really special in my hands too, like I was supposed to find them and I'm excited about what I might learn from them.

I also saw Frozen, and it's the most I've enjoyed a show in a long time, I just felt really engaged with it. I love this show and have seen it several times now (including on Broadway), and I love it just as much if not more every time. It was the same cast as usual, with the exception of Hans who was played by the cover who was wonderful!! My biggest and really only complaint with the musical is how Hans is made out to be this plotting villain throughout, whereas this actor played him much more earnestly like he is in the movie, so I was thrilled with that (Hans is my favorite character, and I have a whole essay explaining why) His timing in the reveal scene was also so much better - he actually paused between leaning in to kiss Anna and dropping the "if only there was someone who loved you" and let that sit for a moment instead of just rushing through his lines as fast as he can 🙃 Definitely the best Hans!

Vampires will never hurt you

I think Whitby might be one of my very favorite places in the whole world. It's so beautiful and just has a vibe unlike any place I've ever been, although I admit I don't know how much of that is the Dracula stuff because I love vampires. It's a really old seaside town in Yorkshire, England, and was mostly known for it's fishing. Then Bram Stoker came along and decided that the crumbling Abbey on top of the cliff would be a great setting for a little vampire book he was writing, and ever since the town has been associated with Dracula. And I don't know if it is just the rich history of the place, but somehow it manages to do it with class instead of going the tacky route and it gives it a real atmosphere. It's easy to imagine vampires wandering the cobbled streets among the tourists.

Whitby is also famous for it's jet gemstones, which is black and only adds to the town's goth vibes. My parents used to own a gemstone shop when I was a teenager and I'd work there on weekends, and ever since then I've always been inexplicably drawn to jet. It's really a very boring stone to look at compared to the magnificence of something like opal or even bright shards of amethyst, but there's just something about it that calls me. It washes up on the beach here (although it's kind of hard to find because everyone is out treasure hunting) and the streets are full of little locally owned jewelers selling their hand crafted designs. This was my third time I've ever been to Whitby, and I buy myself a little something each time I come. I have a celtic design necklace, a ring, and this time I decided to go big and treated myself to a pendant that I felt really symbolizes the town.

Before Dracula Whitby was known for it's fishing heritage. You can see St Mary's Church on top of the cliff in the background, and the beach where Dracula's ship washed ashore.






Climbing the 199 steps up to the church and Abbey





I'd never been inside the Abbey before, and it was a lot bigger than I was expecting! It's a hundreds of years old ruin so obviously there's not much, but it's still really impressive to look around. It was founded in 657 AD, until it was raided by Danish invaders in 867 AD and left to ruin for 200 years. It was rebuilt as a Benedictine Abbey in the 1220s, until it was destroyed in 1540 due to the Protestant reforms under Henry VIII. It then sustained further damage due to German shell attacks during WWI.

The gift shop is predominantly Dracula related, and I struggled not to buy a few of those beautiful books! I couldn't resist a few bits though.


Time to look at every single black stone on the beach just in case. I did manage to find a few chunks of jet though!

Sunshine, ragtime, blowing in the breeze

I went to the antiques store yesterday which is one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon. I always like to take photos while I'm there as I go for the curiosity factor rather than to actually buy stuff. I started taking pictures of things I liked after reading this quote by Snufkin from Comet in Moominland which felt revolutionary: "That's how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now I just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are always free, because I don't have to carry a suitcase."

So - what's the most swankified place in town?

I saw Wicked yesterday, which was actually my second time this month. I always feel like I want to write about it every time I go, but when I'm just seeing my favorite show over and over there's only so much I can say about it? I do really, really love this cast though! They've had a complete cast change recently, and it really is like new life has been breathed into it and it's so exciting! Although Wicked is my comfort show, I haven't really gotten properly excited about it in a while so it makes me so happy to feel so emotionally connected to it again. I think a lot of it has to do with the chemistry of the cast which is incredible. Elphaba, Glinda, and Fiyero genuinely light up around each other and it makes it all feel so much more believable. I'm really happy that Fiyero is currently being played by a black actor too, Fiyero is finally canonically accurate! 🎉 In the original book Fiyero's an indigenous brown tattooed prince of a backwater tribe that he's trying desperately to support in the modern age, and it's such a huge part of his character and his connection to Elphaba that even though he's my favorite I still think it's such a shame the musical turned him into essentially a frat boy.

Otherwise I kind of went here, there, and everywhere around London as I was looking for specific things to buy. I started at Trafalger Square and was blown away at how empty it was, it's usually heaving with people and you can barely get near the fountains or statues. I figured going to a large, central bookstore would be my best bet for what I wanted, but it turned out not so! So I walked to Picadilly Circus, then on to Covent Garden where I stopped in the art store and Moomin shop. I really wanted a 5 year journal I'd seen in the Moomin shop a few months ago but they didn't have it, and just as I was about to order it from Finland on my phone I remembered there's another Moomin shop in Camden so I hauled myself over there. I really, really recommend this store over the Covent Garden one, it's so much bigger and better spaced out, and every time I've gone it's always almost empty so you're not climbing over people to look at stuff. And they had my journal, I got the last one! I'm inspired to give this a try as I feel like so much has changed in the past 5 years already that I love the idea of keeping track and seeing what I was doing or feeling on that exact day the year before, or the year before that. Afterwards I grabbed some food, before taking a slow mosey over to the theater. I always prefer to walk than take the tube if I can as I like getting to actually see the city instead of just snippets of it.