Visiting the Fujifilm House of Photography in London
A dream place, not sure if it is for me…
The end of this year has been slightly dramatic. Because of work, I have been under a lot of pressure and have been travelling a lot. It was to the point that during part of my journey to the UK, my jetlag became insomnia. I went first to the UK on a work matter, then I returned to Monterrey for 5 days, and then I went back to the UK because of my family.
The last bit of the year was supposed to be a calm period of time, where we would travel around the south of England and enjoy a bit of the classic horizontal rain. But reality came, and my son got ill and passed his illness to everyone. Whatever it was, I spent 2 weeks in bed dealing with a really bad flu. I would like to consider it was only a Man Flu, but everyone got it and felt really bad.
We had three days before returning back to Mexico, and I felt really disappointed that I hadn’t done anything. I was curious to visit some photography shops in London, and then I found this magic place: “The Fujifilm House of Photography”. I checked the website, and I actually got excited because it is a shop that not only sells cameras, but also has workshops and photowalks in London. Obviously, because it was Christmas Days, all the activities were gone, but I was still curious about what this shop is about. However, I was surprised that it was located in a familiar area (Covent Garden), and I have never seen it.
I’m a Canon photographer, but I have been tempted to try some Fujifilm gear. So I decided to take my chances and attempt to visit the shop even though I have been in bed for many days. My journey started from Oxford, I took a train, and I was expecting to be at least in a comfortable seat, while I would drink lots of water to avoid a cough seizure… Got to the train station, and to my surprise, the waiting area on the platform where I was going to get my train was completely overcrowded. Getting into the train was a nightmare, almost like those videos from big cities that try to take public transport and they need to squish between each other to fit hundreds of people. Once I got into the train, it was no surprise that I had to stay standing for the complete journey.
I arrived in London, and I needed to take the underground all the way to Covent Garden by getting into the new Elizabeth line. I was excited about this, but my body was dying inside. Got into the coach, and when I sat, my mind just made me question my decisions. Fortunately, it was only a few stops, and I got out.
The next thing was to walk a few blocks and I was just there. I felt so strange with my thoughts, I was in London, I was in front of a fantastic shop, I was willing to even buy a camera to test the hype of the brand. I got into the shop and the experience was incredible. The staff was really friendly and helpful. They allowed me to test the cameras and helped me consider which would be the best camera for what I needed. They even told me they had the most desired camera… the X100VI.
I was basically feeling like the “take my money” meme. But suddenly the tiredness and illness hit me again. I started to feel so bad that I just wanted to be at home in a safe place, not in the middle of London with a very complicated commute to get back to where we were staying. I panic and walk away from the shop, get into the British walking pace towards the underground, and rush to get onto my train back to Oxford.
Once I was on the train, I collapsed… I had enough tissues, thankfully, but I was sure that the person next to me was slightly concerned because my cough got really bad. It was no surprise that something happened with the train and it got delayed by one hour before arriving at my destination. In the end, it was a bittersweet adventure, I wanted to get more from the experience at the shop, but my body could not deal with anything at that moment. In a way, it was probably destiny telling me not to spend my money, but now I will need to wait for a while for another trip to the UK to see if I could enjoy the experience.
Finally, I don’t regret from this tiny adventure, as at least I managed to do something during my trip to England. It is definitely a story to tell, and something I will laugh about in the future, about how my stubbornness made me have a quite overwhelming experience.