travel

It’s been two months since I’ve arrived in Norwegian shores and I’ve been meaning to write a little bit about the last few days and the adventure it was to get here.

The last few days before I left London I managed to fit in a lot of things – my stuff had already left, the cat and I had all the necessary documents so, all that was left to do was see friends and say goodbye to the city that was my home for so many years.

On this day I travelled for the last time in the tube (for a while at least) to go meet with my friend Chris at Tate Britain to see the Aubrey Beardsley exhibition. I wore one of the handmade masks my friend Marta sent me over from Coimbra. Lovely! It was a really nice time and to be honest, a much better experience than the last time that I visited the gallery – due to social distancing it was actually possible to see all of the artwork without having to queue, as it happened at the William Blake exhibition.

Many thanks to my friend Chris for taking the photo of my outfit:

Backpack – Town and Country (from TK Maxx)

Lime ‘Champion 96’ Slogan Print Short Sleeve T-Shirt – Femme Luxe (gifted)

Black Bubble Trousers – Primark

Sneakers – New Balance (via TK Maxx)

Cat  Socks- can’t remember the name of the brand but they were a gift from my boyfriend

The next day I went to the Brick Lane area and attended the opening of a friend’s new Asian streetwear store. It was a lot of fun and it was great to see Riri, for whom I designed a tattoo a couple of years back. If anyone is interested in visiting the shop, it’s called Xu London and is a multibrand store – the style reminds me a lot of the 90s.

I picked an outfit that also reminded me a lot of the 90s, so here’s the rundown:

Lilac Tie Dye Oversized T-Shirt – Femme Luxe (gifted)

Wide Leg Trousers – charity shop

Coral Furry Sliders – Primark

It was a fun end of the day, as I got to see my good friend Ross, and took one last trip to Monty’s Bar on Brick Lane where I was fed a steady diet of mojitos. What a hangover I had the next day, but totally worth it!

On my last day in London and despite the massive hangover, I dragged my butt out of the house and visited one of my favourite places, The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities at The LAst Tuesday Society. It’s based in Hackney on Mare Street and it’s a wonderful little place – the ground floor is a bar, where you can drink wonderful cocktails, mostly featuring absinthe, as well as a display of taxidermy and art. I had my birthday party there a while back, at the Austin Osman Spare room, surrounded by artwork by the latter. You can buy a ticket and access the basement, where you will find the Curiosity Museum, which is filled with a variety of objects, ranging from books with funny titles, more taxidermy, interesting objects and even the gilded skill of a rhino that belonged to Pablo Escobar. What a place! Definitely recommend a visit to anyone into the unusual.

Thanks to the staff member who took a photo of me in front of the facade

Facemask – from a set I ordered from Ali Express

Blue ‘California’ Graphic Print T-Shirt – Femme Luxe (gifted)

Black Bubble Trousers – Primark

Light Pink High Top Sneakers – Vans (not in the photo)

The next day Thomas and I got on an Uber to Victoria Station, where we met our friend John, who very graciously had agreed to lend me a hand on the train to Dover. Considering all the luggage I had with me, I called it “Operation Bag Lady”. Despite all the stress in anticipation, it went rather smoothly, thanks to the super nice staff at the station – including the baggie who drove all my stuff from one end of the station to the right track and even let me sit on his vehicle while he had a coffee I got him as a thank you for all his kindness. It was lucky that they weren’t too busy as people have been avoiding travelling due to Corona, but it did help make the last few hours in London a good memory, before leaving on a train to Dover.

For that day I decided to wear the Stay Home t-shirt, as I thought it was amusing, considering I was leaving home!

Pink ‘Stay Home’ Slogan Print T-Shirt – Femme Luxe (gifted)

Black Bubble Jeans – Primark

Trainers – New Balance (via TK Maxx)

This was the day that I was reunited with my partner, after we were separated since lockdown started. Although we lived in different countries before, this was the longest separation we had. We were both very happy to be reunited!

The next day the three of us embarked on the ferry in Dover, arriving at Dunkirk a few hours later. It was sad and emotional but I also felt happy to start a new chapter in my life. Thomas was a real champ as we drove across Europe for 3 days, until we finally got to the top edge of Denmark and got the ferry into Norway without a hitch.

More chapters to come, when I manage to make more time for blogging. It has been a real whirlwind of things to do, between creating artwork for a solo show opportunity, a radio show interview in Oslo, a giant paste-up for a festival in Germany and generally unpacking my belongings and decorating our apartment. Phew! All hard work but totally worth it!

What a strange time to be alive! I’ve been meaning to do this post for weeks now, but for some reason, it just didn’t feel right. Maybe it was the shock of being in lockdown and isolation, who knows. But what has to be done must be done eventually and I actually felt like revisiting the photos taken on our trip to Hamburg.

I was invited by Bona Berlin to participate in the “Femmes Vandales” art show at the UrbanShit Gallery in Hamburg, alongside many other super talented female artists, as a celebration of Women’s Day. It seemed like a great excuse to go back to Hamburg and have a nice weekend away. This was an action-packed weekend and I was exhausted by the time I got back to London but it was well worth it. It very lucky that we managed to do it as things started getting a bit worrying regarding coronavirus by the time we were flying back. The next day I went into self-isolation and later an actual lockdown was announced by the British Government. Sadly the exhibition had to close early due to the lockdown in Germany but keeping everyone safe is the most important thing.

As for the clothes packed for the trip, I timed it so I could wear the new pieces I eas gifted from Femme Luxe, and put together versatile outfits, reusing some of the pieces (like the hoodie and the boots, for example) every day as we travelled with cabin luggage only.

It was a great vernissage and opening night on Friday, seeing old friends and meeting other people I only knew by name on Instagram.

The show was full, with new people coming in all the time, I would class it as a great success!

Some of my pieces, all pizza-themed, under Caro Pepe’s portraits. I also showed the skateboard I made for the show in Cologne back in November, as it was still in Germany.

Some of the art on show, featuring artists from all over the world.

What I wore to the vernissage:

Brown Hoodie -Primark (bought on sale)

Gold Glitter Sparkly Shift Mini Dress – Femme Luxe (gifted)

Pink Boots  – Dr Martens

Bunny Bag – Local shop

The weather was very cold and the rest of the weekend was extremely busy, meeting people, making art and generally having an awesome time. Saturday was time to head to the area around Mathildenstrasse, to meet with other artists and put up some art. We did a pit stop at Marambola’s workshop, to do a collab with China Girl Tile and plan our outing. If you visit the Karolinenviertel area you will be able to find some of my art, as well as a few pieces I brought from some of my artist friends in London. Huge thanks to Marambolage for letting me borrow her pens and put up some paste-ups on her workshop’s facade!

Some of Marambolage’s pieces and two tiles by China Girl Tile, one of which I customised and gave it the skull and rainbow treatment.

As I knew it was cold and we would be running around with friends, we took the outfit photo at the room we rented for the weekend:

Pink Lace Puff Sleeves High Neck Top – Femme Luxe (gifted)

Bunny Bag – local shop

Nude SLip – Primark

Red Scalloped Skirt – Roman Road Market in East London

Pink Boots – Dr Martens

Sunday was no less busy, I headed out to do a lot of pasting with a few more artists from the art show, and we ended up having the opportunity to collaboratively decorate a trailer at Anderswelt, an all-day sort of club. This was organised by Bona Berlin and it was a great time!

Happy dorky smile, haha.

The completed bit – I wasn’t too happy with the skull, as I am not used to drawing at that scale, but it was fun to do a few drips, as I hadn’t done any dripping for quite some time.

I planned on wearing something practical for that day and it worked out quite well.

Black Oversized Sweater Mini Dress – Femme Luxe (gifted)

Black Knee High Socks – Can’t remember! They’re pretty generic.

Pink Boots – (You guessed it) Dr Martens

It was super fun to spend more time with the other artists and do something a little bit different.

The next day we still saw my friend Michel before he got his train to Berlin and we had a few hours to go around and see a bit of the city (even though we had to take many breaks, as I was pretty exhausted by this point). Later on, we headed to the airport and that’s when we started hearing news about the virus spreading in Europe.

This is what I wore on that day:

Black Polka Dot Organza Mesh Top – Femme Luxe (gifted)

Nude Slip – Primark

Black Pleather Trousers – H&M (on sale)

Pink Boots – Dr Martens

It was a wonderful weekend, had a great time with my boyfriend, my friends and making new friends. I can’t wait for things to regain some normality, so events like this can happen again. Until then, stay safe and wash your hands!