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Mark Ronson and The Business International at The Hackney Empire

Two nights ago I had an amazing night out at The Hackney Empire. After a dodgy dinner (with questionable service to boot), I walked in the rain through a crowded mixture of young trendies and media-types and ladies of a certain age, to the entrance. As the evening’s events were a surprise, I was even more excited when I realised what we were about to watch! Mark Ronson‘s new album ‘Record Collection‘ had arrived in the post a few days earlier so I had only listened to the whole album twice before the show. This did not matter one bit, as the songs are catchy in an un-obvious sort of way. They’re sort of off-beat and kooky but at the same time accessible and so reminiscent of the ’80s pop-synth records I grew up with (hence the ladies of a certain age!) 🙂

The band is joined onsatge by his idols and mine, Duran Duran

I find it amazing, watching musicians create their art in front of me, which is why I love gigs and concerts so much. It’s the idea that I’m watching people ‘in flow’, doing what they love and sharing it with others. It’s the ‘liveness’ of it all, and although it was utterly professional, I was able to see into the wings of the stage from where I was sitting, and got to see people milling about, out of character as it were. Whether or not you like the style of music or the bands, is of course a matter of personal taste. I think you can tell, I was blown away!

The band is joined onstage by Boy George

Mark Ronson onstage with Amanda WarnerWatching in awe, inside the Hackney Empire Original mosaic work in the entrance to The Hackney Empire

The entrance to The Hackney Empire, a beautiful intimate venue

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Highgate Cemetery – Weekend walks

I feel so privileged to live in such an amazing city. London night-life is varied and abundant, but it is easy to spend a small fortune on entertainment and so I have been trying to be more creative with my days and evenings out. Two weeks ago I visited Highgate Cemetery. It was my second visit and I still haven’t been on the tour of the West Cemetery, which I hope to go on next time. I found the East Cemetery peaceful, beautiful and very photogenic. It reminded me of the other Victorian cemetery I’ve been to, the Glasgow Necropolis.

 

There are many famous interments at the cemetery including Karl Marx and his family. This is a great afternoon outing, which will leave you with change from a fiver!

 The grave of Karl Marx, Highgate Cemetery

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Natwest… Helpful Banking :)

I received a large white envelope today from the bank. I opened it dubiously imagining what the contents might be, and to my surprise (and delight) it was actually something really helpful! It’s a personal annual statement from my bank in the form of a booklet (10 pages) which contains graphs showing how much money has gone in and out of my account over the year, a summary of my regular payments and direct debits and among other things, where I spend most of my money. It is actually very interesting and fabulous that my bank have bothered to do this for me! I have been trying to keep on top of my accounts for a while now, and this has really helped. So, from me and I am sure millions of other customers, Thank you Natwest!!

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Decluttering

I have been putting off various decluttering projects for most of the summer and as it is officially September (I can hardly believe it!) I have decided that today is the day… I am about to tackle my wardrobe. It is in need of some tender-loving-care. I intend to create more space for my clothes to be able to breathe and move more freely, and hopefully I won’t have to have a fight every morning to find something to wear!

To get me started, I looked at Zen Habits. Look here for more.

This picture is the ‘after’. 

 

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New Avenues

Hello and welcome to my journal.  I have been studying NLP for a while, and now I notice elements of NLP everywhere I go! NLP has been called ‘the study of human excellence’ (amongst many other labels it has attributed to it), and I thought this was a good way to share my ponderings with you. Even though there is such a wealth of information on this subject on the internet, I haven’t found a personal view of a student like me. I hope you will find some topics of interest here.

This journey really started back in 2006 when it was time to make changes in my life. After a period of stagnation it dawned on me that only I had the power to change the direction and quality of my life. Many of the issues I was struggling with, I wanted to deal with alone, although close friends and family were a constant support in the background. This realisation was the turning point. 

I am interested to know how other people have felt at similar points in their lives? How did they know when it was time to move on and change things? And why do others, who say they are unhappy, not change things?