I'm a massive fan of Instagram, and have shamefully Insta'd almost 1000 pictures in my time. I've cut down a lot now, but still manage 2-3 a week, so I've decided to pick my best each week and share it with you, and the story behind it too!
So my second Insta of the week is going to be...
It had been a long and exhausting day at work (I was also pretty hungover from an adventure with Florentine the night before) and Oliver messaged me. It simply said to meet him at Old Spitalfields Market in Shoreditch at 7pm.
It excited me, but at the same time I felt a little crestfallen.
Oliver's spirit for adventure was the only I'd seen that mirrored my own, and one of the things which holds me so captivated by him, but the entire day I'd been either close to either falling asleep and my desk or throwing up at my desk, and I still had so much to do before work tomorrow, including finding the last-minute location for our street style photoshoot.
But I hadn't seen him in a week, and there was no way, despite how shitty I felt, that I was going to pass up an opportunity for adventure.
So just before 7pm, I took a deep breath, left Shoreditch High Street underground station, and there he was.
In bewildered curiosity, I tumbled with him through the streets trying to work out what we were going to be doing, and as he led me through to Old Spitalfield's market, approaching a large group of people standing around a goat statue, he couldn't stop smiling.
It turns out, completely oblivious to the fact that I'd been enlisted the task of finding shoot locations for the next day, he'd booked an alternative walking tour of the street art of East London, as he knew the passionate curiosity that ran through my veins, my new found fondness of graffiti and urban art, and the long-enduring obsession I harbor for the East. And then it was me who couldn't stop smiling.
The evening was beautiful.
I felt my hangover disappear almost instantly in his presence, and for two hours we walked across the city at sunset, holding hands, taking photos, pointing things out to one another, and becoming completely immersed in the incredible stories, legends and history of the City relayed to us by our incredible tour guide Keir.
Afterwards, both exhausted yet smiling, he took me to dinner at Pizza East in Shoreditch, overlooking the twinkling fairy lights of the BoxPark Pop-Up mall.
And the very next day, I was able to wow the girls at work as I took them to these incredible locations that I'd been shown just the night before, and was able to rattle of the stories behind each piece as though I'd been researching them for weeks.
I'm absolutely, fascinatingly in love with East London, and the street art is a major contributing factor.
There's something in the air there that is simply electric.
There is something going on around every single corner at all hours of the day, and often behind doors that you never would've expected. It's both secret and intimate, and in-your-face garish at the same time. It's almost as if there's a hushed secret vibrancy that runs like a current beneath the pavement, the kind that is known by all, but voiced by none.
I don't even slightly understand it myself yet I can feel it, and I find myself hypnotised trying to figure out the mystery of it all.
I guess I'm just extremely lucky that I get to surround myself in such an incredible place such as this on an almost daily basis, and I have someone as generous, thoughtful and in-tune with me as Oliver, to feed my curiosity and enthusiasm and give me a taste of his world.
And that's when I realise, this 'perfect future' I've always mused about... it's not a future any more.
It's a perfect right now.
Scarlet-Ophelia.
Follow me on Instagram for more pics like this: @Katie_Oldham
Also find me on Twitter: @KatieOldham
