I'm so excited!! Last night I had the pleasure of capturing the RIBA Summer Party at the Danish Embassy in London. Not only do I love working with RIBA because they're awesome, I always come away inspired and invigorated by the surroundings I capture or the nuggets of information I pick up. This was also in a crazy way really delightful for me because many many years ago I headed up a telemarketing campaign for the Royal Danish Embassy through a company I worked for in Hampshire.
It really brought a smile to my face as I approached the building and just remembered that time - so from 16 - 19 years old I was completely whipped out with Glandular Fever. Many people recover quickly from this and bounce back, alas it attacked my system ferociously and after struggling through my first year of College I had no choice but to take a year out to get better. When I should have been hanging out with my boyfriend at the time, I was struggling to walk down stairs to the sitting room, I was on medication to retrain my stomach to digest food and my digestive system to work and if I ever needed to spend a penny + go to the toilet I had to stop half way up our stairs (my parents don't have that many, their house is lovely but doesn't have a billowing staircase lol) rest, regain some strength and then move on, a literally 2 minute journey would take about half an hour. Taking a year out was heartbreaking because I loved the course I was doing and the friends I had made, however spending 9 weeks in bed one summer really put pay to any aspirations I had and so I made it my mission to get better.
That December, after months of rest and recuperation I started calling companies in the yellow pages to ask if I could do work experience. Luckily for me a company in Basingstoke took me on and I started tele marketing. I was actually pretty good for an 18 year old with only previous experience of answering my dad's business phone and taking messages and after my work experience was up they offered my a minuscule wage to stay. So I did and I was tasked with the job of enticing companies to invest in Denmark. So when I rocked up yesterday it made me smile and feel incredibly grateful for each opportunity. Remembering back to when I thought I would never have the energy to see my friends, go back to college or do regular things made me realise why I value the small things in my life so preciously and why my smile was so wide last night :-)
Danish Architect Arne Jacobsen designed the Embassy and after his death in 1971 it was completed by previous assistants of his in 1977. The spacious Ambassadors penthouse covers two floors and there is also staff quarters and a lovely outdoor courtyard too.
Fantastically during our visit, a danish design company had just finished presenting their work and so the soft pastel tones (above: pink table cloth with wine glasses) you see are a photo I captured from this. We also were given an escorted tour of some of the offices which showed the original interior (see light above). It was divine! Thank You RIBA, inspired again :-) xx
