This week, everyday I am going to put up a picture of some of the most unusual shops from my area. The North Laine is alive because of its wide variety of unusual, independent shops. I hope this week’s series will give you a better idea of what it is like!

This store is for piercing and tattoo lovers: you find all kinds of weirdly shaped jewely in there. There is a section with a little note that says “if you don’t know where these go, don’t ask!”

Now I am not a piercing fan myself - I had my ears pierced when I was 15, but had to give up on wearing earrings after a couple of years because of irritations - so I am not about to pierce any other parts of my body! But I must admit that it is a fascinating sub-culture: just a look at the way “Wildcat” is written on that sign - it’s a beautiful design! It is just one of those things that I admire on other people, but no thanks for me

It is the second time that I am waking up with the snow falling (the first time was on Tuesday, when Aral came back from Australia) Such a nice feeling… However, once more, the snow was all melted from the roofs by the time I was ready to go out and snap away “Brighton in the snow.” The sun is not cooperating here! But the snow, even though it does not stay, is still very nice to see falling from the sky - and we have some very big snow flakes - so here is the only snow that I can show you!

I took this picture when coming back from a party yesterday evening. Gosh it is so hard to be out at night in this feezing whether! Clapham Junction, just outside of London, is the busiest station in England. Though it looks very ugly during the day - so many platforms with so many rails and so many trains on them - it has a very nice aesthetic during the night, with all the little lights leading the way to your warm, comfy home…

So much blue surrounding such a white bird. I wonder, I wonder, do the birds know how beautiful they are, how captivating, how important to the world’s beauty?

It is not every day that you get to see two grown men standing on your kitchen counter. So… what are we having for dinner?

I happened upon an article today, about new research showing that having smoking and non-smoking areas in restaurants and other public places is not enough to have a smoke-free environment. Here is a statistic that made me shudder:

“Dancing in a nightclub for four hours also exposes a person to the same amount of second-hand smoke as living with a smoker for a month, the researchers discovered.” You can read the full article in the Guardian.

Personnally I love dancing and it is true that I would probably go more often if there were 100% smoke free areas. Unfortunately I am forcefully banned from a whole bunch of places (comedy theatre, most pubs and many restaurants) because the smoking is just unbearable to me. I can’t wait for a law to prevent smoking in all public places!

I took this picture at 1:30 PM today of one of the many small streets off Eastern Road - I think this is Tilstone Street but I am not sure, as this was my first time in this part of the city. I just love all the colours from those terraced houses… It makes the city looks so alive and joyful - even on a gray, rainy/snowy day as it was today (not to mention it was freezing cold!)

This picture was taken earlier, on the 9th of February at 10 AM: it is Kemp Street, just a couple of streets off from where I live in the North Laine. Once again, lots of colours, a very happy street!

Of course not all residential streets are like these, but I wish they were. It shows how much people care for their house and its individuality, and it makes the whole city look so good!

Today Aral has finally come back from Australia! It was quite a shock for him, going from summer to snow (yes, indeed, it is snowing in Brighton… But not a whole lot so I don’t have a good picture of it - sorry!) Not to mention having to recover from the jetlag and the long, long trip.

Very very happy day for me!

This is the entrance to the New Venture Theatre, where I will be acting next month. I am rehearsing every monday evening, and tonight it was just starting to snow - it is freezing cold outside! The walk back at night after rehearsal is especially painful!

I took a long stroll by the sea today, hoping to reach Kemptown - a part of Brighton that I have heard a lot about but have not yet been to. However, after a long while walking, I was stopped by the beauty of this spot - to the West of the Brighton Pier. I decided to sit there and wait for the perfect moment. Here it is

After waiting a good half-hour for the perfect moment and using up all of the space on my two memory sticks, I was frozen to my bones and decided to go home for a good cup of tea. Kemptown will be for another day!

Sydney Street at mid-day - under a beautiful blue sky. I like this street a lot because it has so many interesting shops - including the comics shop that can be seen on this picture (I like graphic novels - in French: “BD"). I am also very found of the zebra patterns on the shop at the back of the street - that must be fun to re-paint!

Met my neighbor! Such as the Cat who Walks by Himself, he can very often be seen in our street even though his real owners live a few streets away… rumors have it that a lady in my street feeds it prawns - I don’t know if that is true, but if it is, I am not surprised that he spends more time in our street than at his home!

I thought I would give you a little update on the state of the bulbs I photographed a week ago. As you can see, the flowers are already showing their heads. Quite a lovely sight!

This is one of the 4 statues around Clock Tower on Queens Road (the main street, which goes from Brighton Station down to the beach). As you can see, statues too need a bit of warmth in the winter!

How lovely is this little alley? Very smart of this jewelry design shop, which would probably not get noticed as much if it wasn’t for the bright colour of the walls and the beautiful decorations. As to me, I definitely want to use this flower-web idea somewhere at home!

I would like to officially announce that I will be part of a theatre show next month called “Hot Shorts", at the New Venture Theatre in Brighton.

“Hot Shorts” will feature a series of short plays, mostly written by students of the New Venture Theatre writting class. The actors and directors on these plays are also mostly amateurs, some of whom - like me! - have not been on stage for years. However we are all aiming for professional quality in this show.

The play I will be acting in is called “The Interview,” written by Julia Ziewe, and lasts about 15 minutes. It is a beautifully written play, and I am looking forward to working more on it in the next few weeks.

There will be 3 representations, on the 17th, 18th and 19th of March. The show starts at 7:45 pm.

I hope to see many of you there!

Today is Valentine’s day, and all my thoughts are flying to the other side of the world, where the love of my life is probably sleeping at the moment (11 hours difference from London to Sydney!)

Best of luck recovering from the jetlag Aral, I hope you have a fantastic time!

I am also happy to announce that I am going to add an “About me” section to this web site today: check the links area, on the right!

A lot of people say that Brighton wouldn’t be Brighton without the Royal Pavillion. My feeling about the Pavillion is a bit different: everytime I pass the huge gates and step into the park, I feel like I have left Brighton and England, and that I have landed somewhere in the Middle East. This is not only due to the beautiful park and architecture of the Pavillion, but also to this flutist who seems to be always there - even on such a cold day! - and whose music brings you back to the time of legends of the Arabian Nights.

Today my Aral left for Australia (snif… 10 days without him). So I came with him to say bye at the Brighton Station. Here you can see him about to embark on the train:

As I left the station, I realized that it was the most beautiful weather we have had in days. The sun was out, it was cold but not so bad, and above all else, what made me run towards the sea was the amount of seagulls and other birds screaming and flying above my head. Did I tell you how much I love seagulls? So I walked to the sea front, and it turned out that I was not the only one who had heard the call of the seagulls:

Can you see all the little black dots above the Brighton Pier? Each of them is a bird - there were probably hundreds of them flying in flocks… It is such an amazing sight - such an amazing feeling to see them fly so close to your head, change direction in no time, or even manage to stay stationary in one spot simply by turning against the wind…

So I kept snapping and snapping away, and the sun started to go down, until we had this amazing sky to admire…

Such a beautiful day today!

Here is one of the pubs in my area (the North Laine.) I just love the name! Can you imagine the phone conversation:
“Where are you honey?
- At the office.
- Yeah, right, I can hear people around you, don’t lie to me!
- But honey, I’m not lying! I am at the office!”

Self-portrait. I am enjoying a warm hot chocolate in a cafe and while contemplating the weather outside (cold, windy and rainy, which makes it so much better to be inside with a hot chocolate!)

Winter will not last forever - this is what these sprouts say to me everyday when I pass them by in my street

I am happy to announce that I have finally managed to figure out how to change the template on WordPress! (I know it’s very basic - but I’m a complete beginner, so please let me be proud of myself!) I hope you like the new look, a lot more plain so as to allow viewers to focus more on the photos. Thanks to Gary Rogers who wrote the template. I am applying only minor modifications to it at the moment.

I’m planning to make a few more changes in the upcoming days, so don’t worry if you happen to check the site at a time when I have completely messed it up.

After a full day of work, I popped out to get some more tea and other goodies. This is my local grocery shop, and not just any store: it is full of amazingly wonderful organic, natural, fair trade products, each of which tastes better than the next. In fact, the first few times I went shopping there, I was smiling all the way from the moment I entered to the moment I left (and kept smiling until all that wonderful food was eaten!) Not exactly the kind of experience I would get when going to the supermarket in London. Of course the supermarkets do have some organic and fair trade products but they are usually very limited; here you have much more choice, and so many more of the products are sourced locally.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who are responsible for the running of this shop, as well as the production of all the amazing products that are sold here. Not only they taste a hundred times better than the big brands, but in addition they contribute to a better environment (especially the organic products) and to fighting poverty and inequality in the world (for fair trade products). What more could you ask?

There is something to be said about living by the sea. It is so amazing to be able to gaze as far as the eye can see on such a vast, blue, wild landscape that is the sea. Today was a beautiful, sunny winter day, and Aral and I came out to record a little video (check it out on FlashAnt). We had a lot of fun doing it!

The air is cold. Further down the street, a man is sitting on the ground, playing a harmonica and singing with a very rough voice. I just love how the city feels in the evening, with those lights.

Welcome to EmilieWood.com!

This web site will, hopefully soon, look much better than it does right now. Just bear with me while I figure out how the whole thing works

I will, regularly (daily when possible,) post photos of my daily existence in Brighton, UK. Brighton is a town I have moved into only a few months ago, and that I love. I have found my true home there, after having move around the world all my life.

Why photos?

Photography is this wonderful medium that makes us stop and think about the beauty of things. At least, that’s what it is to me, and I am hoping to share the poetry that everyday can bring with all of my friends and family members, wherever they may be.

Thanks for taking the time to check my web site out!