The idea of sun seeking in London esp. in the winter sounds as mad as a hatter. Whenever I travel abroad and tell people that I live in London, they usually would grin and say something as follows: “Nice city but miserable weather” or “Is it foggy and rainy all the time?”. No matter how much I try to convince them otherwise, they would still look skeptical and doubtful as if I am taking them for a ride!

Since my words fail to convince the skeptics, I hope these photos taken within the last few weeks would do London/ London’s weather some justice! It is true that we would frequently experience grey and wet weather, but there are also days when the sky is blue, the air is crisp and the sun is shining bright.

Like most Londoners or Brits, I also love to moan about the weather occasionally because that is our habit or an effective ice breaker as conversation starter. We simply cannot help it because our weather seems to play a key role in our lives for some bizarre reason. Yet despite our complaints, admittedly, I am rather fond of the English weather. I like the fact that it is unpredictable, relatively mild and it has four distinctive seasons. And I think many Brits would share my paradoxical view towards our weather.

I honestly believe that I would be bored of seeing the sun everyday if I were to live in somewhere like S.E.Asia when the weather is so predictable and lacks seasonal transitions. And when compared to other countries in the northern hemisphere, we are lucky that we rarely experience extreme conditions in summers and winters. Our heatwaves are usually temporary, and snow is a seldom seen sight in the south eastern and south western part of the UK. There are no significant earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and hurricanes; though storms, droughts and floods are becoming more frequent due to climate change.

The joy of having unpredictable weather is that we would cherish the sun more after several gloomy and wet days. We would appreciate the rain after a few weeks of heatwave as it would clear the mucky and humid air. Perhaps it also enables us to be more receptive to changes, and accept that we can’t predict or control external factors… in weather and in life.

I am unashamed to admit that I am a London sun seeker esp. during the winter. To witness the wonders of sunsets is always an awe-inspiring moment for me. The winter sunset time in London is usually between 3-4pm, and remarkably I have witnessed many stunning sunsets against the backdrop of urban landscape or tree silhouette this winter. These evanescent moments not only enable me to appreciate the beauty of nature, but I also feel grateful to be alive to observe a natural phenomenon that we often take for granted. And for a change, being a ‘sun seeker’ or ‘sun worshiper’ is no longer an embarrassing term when it is used in this context.