Winter Activities

Despite some very cold weather, I've been out and about quite a lot this winter... a few selected highlights, in no particular order or anyfing:

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Mary Stuart at the Apollo in Shaftesbury Avenue (Piccadilly)

This Schiller play was getting rave reviews, so when Rachel phoned and asked if I wanted to go, of course I said yes... we booked for that same evening, and were truly up in the gods - we had to go up about five flights of stairs, and were in seats with such a steep gradient down to the stage that if we sat back in them we could see nothing at all... in the end I spent most of the evening sitting on the edge of my folded up seat, and leaning on the gallery railing in front, to see the action from above... a very powerful play, and well worth it.

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Piaggi at the Tate and a Wander Up Through Knightsbridge to Harrods

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One sullen Wednesday afternoon I met up with Anita, Eddie and Renata, who was visiting from Australia, at the V&A. We went to the members' advanced showing for the Anna Piaggi exhibition, then spent time in the caf (where that photo of me in a previous post was taken) and then walked up the Cromwell Road, through Knightsbridge and past Harrods... Renata had never been to Harrods before so we just had to show her its excesses.

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That's Renata and I over on the left! anyone notice?

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Sleeping Beauty at the Coliseum (Charing Cross)

I caught up with some friends in early January, and they invited me out to lunch and the ballet after; I had SUCH a lovely day. The ballet is a real Christmas favourite, but not seen as often as Nutcracker, so it was particularly special to see it.

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A Walk Around London

During the most recent half-term I had a lovely day out with Anita and Eddie, and some friends of theirs who were visiting from Australia - Rachel and Lily. We met at the Tate, and spent about an hour seeing some of the best of the collection - this has long been one of my favourites:

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Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by John Singer Sargent

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We then walked up along the river, past Westminster and up to Trafalgar Square,

stopping for lunch in the crypt in St Martin's-in-the-Fields,

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and then walking down through St James' Park, past Buckingham Palace and into Green Park for a perfect winter sunset. After making our way back up past Green Park tube station and the Ritz Hotel, we met up with Sharon in Fortnum and Mason, then the others left to walk back to Baker Street and Sharon and I went on for dinner in the Japan Centre. Sushi - nothing like it in this world...

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Seven Seconds of Love at the Oxford Street Metro

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Liz, who lives around the corner and with whom I went to work most mornings last year, invited me to this fantastic gig... her two boys started the band and she often goes to see them play. The Metro could probably be classified as a smoky dive, located under Oxford Street near the Tottenham Court Road, and there were a few bands on the line-up... none as good as these guys though. They're hilarious and absurd and SO much fun; I guess they could be described as punk meets ska meets Edward Lear.

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Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris (Tate Modern)

I'm a member of the Tate now, so ended up going to this exhibition twice - I didn't know much about Rousseau before, but liked it a lot. Great use of colours and shapes, and a fascinating and slightly dreamlike take on jungles, and a contrasting very prosaic view of urban Paris. Sharon came with me once, and the other time I went alone - wandered about the white boxes that time too.

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Portobello Road and Notting Hill

One Sunday Sharon and I met at Notting Hill Gate tube station, and spent a lovely day wandering down the Portobello Road... we chose one thing in every shop we went into, though we didn't spend any money, and ended up at a great place right down the end, drinking cocktails and eating lamb kebabs... we made it back up to the other end in time to go and see Brokeback Mountain in the Coronet; a great film in a wonderful space.

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China: The Three Emperors (Royal Academy of Arts)

I'm a member at the RA (I'm a member EVERYWHERE, man ;)), so this was another exhibition I went to more than once... three times in total, as it happens; once alone, once with Anita and Eddie (who LOVED the big quiet echoey spaces to shout in :D) and once with Sharon, before our sushi dinner... this is an absolutely incredible exhibition; paintings and artefacts and all sorts of amazing items. My favourites were a series of massive paintings on silk, six from a set of twelve, depicting the Emperor enjoying himself throughout the lunar year. The level of detail was extraordinary, and I could have spent an hour in front of each one and still found more to look at and enjoy.

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Tower of St Augustine Refurbishment (Hackney)

This was something I just got lucky with... I was walking through Hackney churchyard, on another errand entirely, and saw that the hoardings, which had been around the base of the tower for a few weeks, were open. I've wondered ever since I came to live here what's inside the tower, and it's not open to the public, so I wasn't going to lose such an opportunity, and I wandered over to have a sticky-nose. There were three workmen in there, doing some paving at the entrance, and they seemed quite happy to stop work for a little while and have a chat... it ended up with me being allowed inside, to see the nameless crypt, the clock workings, the rope that spiralled dizzily up into the tower, serving as a handrail for those fortunate enough to be climbing up there, and hearing tales about digging and bones and other discoveries... it was SO interesting, and I was so glad I'd gone across to have a look.

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Borough Market

Sharon and I went through Borough Market on the same day we went to see Rousseau... it was a freezing sunny day just before Christmas, and we had a wonderful time looking at all the Christmas fare; pheasants and rabbits hanging, mustards, pates and sauces, seafood, jams and chocolates and everything else you can think of... it was bustling, of course, but we found a place called S&M (Sausages & Mash), and had exactly that (superior versions, of course; venison and wild boar and similar). And it was outstanding.

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Tom Hunter: Living in Hell and Other Stories (National Gallery)

Something else I did with Sharon! And fairly recently... we met outside the National Gallery a couple of Sundays ago, and went in just to spend an hour so... and we stumbled upon this exhibition. Tom Hunter is a Hackney artist and photographer, and this is his first exhibition at the National Gallery, as far as I know. He uses the composition of classical paintings as inspiration for many of his photographs, which are in turn inspired by the often-lurid headlines of the Hackney Gazette.

Left: Woman Reading a Possession Order, by Tom Hunter

Right: Girl Reading a Letter By an Open Window, by Vermeer

Top: The Way Home, by Tom Hunter

Bottom: Ophelia, by John Everett Millais

Please note: very few of these photos were actually taken by me :(

Sorry :(

Thank you, however, to Anita, who always sends on the lovely photos she takes when we're out together :D xx

'ackney and the East End

Thought it might be interesting to show people a little bit of the local area... (remember you can click on any of these photos to see a much larger image; just click 'back' on your browser to return to the blog). I've been looking for a good map, but it's rather difficult to find one with any level of detail, so I'm going to try to link to one. Now, I've never inserted a link into my blog before, so bear with me... *five minutes later* gah; it all goes squirrelly, so what I'll do is this - see those links over to the right? I'll put a new one in at the bottom of the list, for a map of Hackney and London Fields and the local area round about, and you can go from there, ok?

So... find London Fields (not hard; it's right in the middle), and look down at the south-western edge... you'll see the word 'DRIVE' (part of the longer 'Lansdowne Drive'), and running off at a sort of right angle is Trederwen Road... where the two meet is a little circle, representing a roundabout, and we're right there, on the green side of the street. Buses go round that roundabout all the time and if I'm in my living room it can seem like they're going to come through the window... as apparently a car DID, back in the 70's. As Bron said, when I was moving in down here; 'one more reason to have your bedroom on the OTHER side of the house' ;)

All righty then, what else is interesting...? Broadway Market is right there too; you can see how close it is... pretty much the whole of its short length is used for the market on Saturday. There are some great restaurants there - our brilliant pub (more like a tavern), The Dove, which sells the only type of beer I enjoy (Belgian fruit beers) along with a damn fine menu, ranging from ostrich burgers through Thai dishes to a pint of chips (truly! they're served in a pint glass) to sticky toffee pudding; the Argentine restaurant, Buen Ayre, with the open grill which needed special approval from the fire department (Buen Ayre will be having its first birthday next month! that's gone so fast); Mediterranean Cilicia, with the beautiful gourds hung under the ceiling, all studded with coloured beads and glowing with gentle light... it's so beautiful in there... and of course don't forget F. Cooke, Live Eel Importer, trading from the same premises for almost a hundred years, and a classic example of an East End pie and mash shop, from the menu to the wooden benches and tables and the sawdust scattered daily on the floor... We walk down Broadway Market to get to Hackney Road and Columbia Road - if you use the green arrow at the bottom of the map to scroll down you'll see Goldsmith's Row (love that name), that links the two, and you can scroll westwards a little to see the rest of that area. You cross Regent's Canal at the end of Broadway Market - if you look to the north, you can see the fully-functioning lock gate, and if you go south-ish, and follow the tow path, you come round to Victoria Park.

Then there's Hackney Central, to the north east of London Fields - I usually walk from home if I'm going over there, but if I want to catch a bus I walk out along Westgate Street to Mare Street - buses to Bethnal Green tube station go south from there, so I have to cross the road, and buses into Hackney Central or beyond to Clapton or wherever go north up Mare Street. But walking is so much nicer - I cross the park, coming out on Martello Street in the north-eastern corner, and then go along the footpaths parallel to the main road, to the library (in Reading Lane, appropriately enough), past the town hall and the 'Ackney Empire (a WONDERFUL old music hall, in the old tradition; I've only been inside it once, but it was just amazing, with boxes and velvet and ornate plasterwork over the stage and so on)

and in to the shops... the main supermarket, Tesco, is on Morning Lane (along with a GREAT noodle restaurant where I can get a huge plate of the yummiest Singapore noodles EVER, and a drink, for a fiver), and then there's Woolworths and similar in the middle there, right at Hackney Central. Where Mare Street turns white on the map it becomes a pedestrian and bus road (interesting combination, I know), with more shops (the Pound Shop! source of many bargains), and the lovely 12th century church tower, right in amongst all the buildings... there's a lovely old graveyard there too, in off the street, and when I was over there in spring there was a gorgeous cheeky squirrel who came out and posed for the camera; he was very sweet. I walk right up that part of Mare Street on my way to church... (for those interested in finishing the journey - I'm looking at you, dad - I then turn right onto Lower Clapton Road, go left when it does, and the church is right there on the corner of Lower Clapton Road and Powerscroft Road).

Beautiful Autumn Days

I've been having SUCH a great time this half-term; I'm too busy doing things to write about them. :)


But I've spent quite a bit of time in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens this week; on Monday, when it was cool and overcast and raining, on and off...

...and today, which was the most gorgeous and perfect cloudless and golden autumn day anyone could ever imagine or devise.

Enjoy these pics for now. And I'll be back soon with tales of Herefordshire and barn dances and 12th century ruined castles and apples eaten straight off the tree and market towns and Sussex and 16th century coach houses and Chichester cathedral and venison stew and open fireplaces and the future dalai lama and windswept reed beds and Roman palaces and more...
Intrigued yet?

A misty morning

Autumn is on its way... we've had some cold days, but it's really remained quite mild so far, and all the plants in the garden are still growing - some are still flowering! But this morning we woke up to the beautiful mist enveloping everything, including the park, and it was the first time it LOOKED like autumn.

(NB The above photo is in colour ;) )

Of course, picking up seven or eight buckets of leaves out of the garden yesterday looked like autumn too... and that was after clearing it completely - about six buckets full - just on Saturday! Thankfully the council delivered our brown bin for garden waste about a month ago, so there is actually a place to put them all.

The park is always beautiful, but especially so in mist, and late afternoon sunlight.

London Fields

I'm still getting the hang of inserting photos; it seems to place them all at the beginning of the text which is slightly annoying... in any case, here's a shot, taken in the snow last January, of the lovely house in London Fields (well, on the edge) where I have been living for almost a year. It belongs to my cousins, who live in the two storeys visible in the photo; since February (when we made it liveable) I have been in the basement apartment below street level... 'basement' is a bit of a misnomer however, as it has lovely large windows and isn't dank or dark in any way. The whole house is in the process of being renovated; the basement is almost completely finished, as is the top floor; the middle section is in the last stages so we hope to be almost done by Christmas.
More photos soon! (when I learn more about displaying them).