The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

When someone advises you to go and see a certain movie, the film is always going to be assoiciated with the person who you heard it from. Last year around this time I was advised to watch The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I watched the movie a year later by chance and the friend who told me to see it was the only one I wanted to discuss it with...

The movie is about a hard-core daydreamer who works in LIFE magazine whose life takes a turning point when he has to find the lost negative. It says that life starts when you stop daydreaming and begin doing whatever you were dreaming of. In case of walter mitty we observe how everything falls in its own places in his life the minute he takes actions instead of falling off lifw daydreaming. He goes places he didnt even imagine going one day, he does things that take a lot of courage and meet people who help him to get where life takes him. The movie is so colorful and with the message a lot of people actually know but need to hear it again in order to follow the sign. I was very impressed and inspired by it. Watch it next when you need some re-assurance before doing something courageous or you wanted to do for a long time and have never made up your mind. 

Shoe Heaven, Harrods.

I can't imagine any fashionista visiting London and NOT going to Harrods. Let's just accept it as a fact and never return to this matter. Because Harrods is one of the biggest and oldest department stores in Europe with history dating back to 19th century. It has a few distinguishing points like the building, first ever escalator, food hall, shoe heaven etc. that make Harrods to stand out among all other department stores. Lately they renovated shoe department and named it Shoe Heaven. That is  the story I want to tell.

It's been more than 6 months that I left London the last time and missed shopping there very much. That is why when I went to Knightsbridge (the part of London where Harrods is) the music playing in my head was the following song from famous TV series:

The reason is because you actually feel like a leading female character from a movie or TV show at the moment where she decides to go shopping and change her life :) So in this case background music is necessary. I was going to buy a bag, a pink bag to be precise. Apparently I hadn't had one  till then (can you imagine?). After browsing the ground floor AND the lower ground floor I found what I wanted but decided to look through shoe department before taking what I came for. Just in case asked a sales assistant which floor shoe department is on and got this answer: 'You mean Shoe Heaven? On the 5th'. I thought it was only words until I got there. They changed it completely that I couldn't even recognise. It actually was a shoe heaven for any woman that ever laid eyes on designer shoes. I was wandering in the Heaven and admiring the latest collections presented there. Departments got bigger, wider, brighter. Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik had these fake departments where you can see shoes and suppose that it is the boutique, but when you ask for your size they tell you to go further. You feel like you are being teased and invited to see more of these feet candy by trick. I headed straight to Manolo Blahnik and it was like finding a treasure among other gems. You reach the short stairs and they lead you to the attics with the world of Manolo. Then during your fitting process (everything happens so naturally that you have no idea how you ended up here) sales assistant tells you that 2 days ago the master himself was there and signed shoes... Couple minutes later you find yourself paying for the black satin jewelled Nadira pumps and trying to realise that pink bag is gone now... Long story short: after the Shoe Heaven I choose shoes to the bag I actually came for.

All the brands presented at Shoe Heaven

St. Dunstan-in-the-East

London is all about exploring. Every street, every maze, every garden, every lane, every square of it is worthy. You never know what may expect you when you turn around the corner. And sometimes google helps you to turn the right corner to find something amazing. 

A couple of years ago my cousin Nigar showed me a hidden place in The City of London that she found on the internet. For years we have shared with her our two big loves: London and New York. So exploring them over the wild web of worldwide is our hobby. So I was postponing visiting the oasis in the centre of a city where concrete jungle intertwine with historical Tower Hill, but my last visit to London made me to go there. 

Generally Tower Hill area of London is very interesting. On the one hand you see a historical castle with mesmerising view of Tower Bridge and on the other hand there is financial centre of the city with its modern architecture. And between these buildings surrounding Tower Hill, right on the north bank of Thames River you can find St. Dunstan Church in the East (don't mix it up with the one on the West, they are two different churches). Here is its brief history:

And now the Church itself... I was amazed to see this place exist in real life. It feels like you are on a set of a movie or in Wonderland itself. It's unbelievable how such a garden can be located in the middle of a megapolis. The place magically brings piece to you. These are winter views of the church that I took on December the 5th, now imagine its beauty in summer when everything is green.